Cobalt_60

I registered for some classes today at my local community college. One course I signed up for has only two classes. One is on Thursdays for three hours and the other one is a distance learning class offered over the internet. The course itself is called Information and Project Management MBGT 1309. It's required for the degree I'm going for. I've never attended college before so I'm not sure whether it would be best to take the course in class or over the internet. I'm just curious of other peoples experience with distance learning or college classes offered over the internet. Below is a description of the class that I'm debating on right now. Any help is appreciated.

BMGT 1309 : Information and Project Management
INFORMATION AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
3 Credit Hours 3 hrs. lec.

Information and project management including task determination, time management, scheduling management, status reports, budget management, customer service, professional attitude, and project supervision. This course is oriented to the information technology field and provides management skills to complement technical expertise

Grancey

It's hard to say on this. It really depends on what type of student you are. Do you work well on your own? Do you need the motivation provided by classroom discussion and one-on-one interaction with your professors and peers? In my opinion, if you have never taken a college class I think you should take the course in the class and wait to take online courses sometime down the road. Online courses require a great deal of maturity, experience and self-motivation, qualities which you may have. But unless you have experienced the college learning environment, you really don't know what you're getting into yet and how you will handle it.

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k925

From my experience, you're more likely to meet people who you might want to form a study group with in the actual classroom class. But then, like what Grancy said, if you're better off working alone, go for the internet course.

They might offer a online discussion forum for the internet class, but from my experience, few people actually use it and when they do it's time consuming and inefficient when dealing with many ideas (in comparison with actually speaking to people).

My vote is for the classroom class. After all, it's only one night a week.

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Suave

I tried taking a highschool class over the internet, and ended up with a 55% in a class that I could easily have gotten 80% in. Why? Because I didn't want to do the work, and had no motivation to do so in a home setting. Then again, I like to think that adults have better work ethic than teenagers; while such is not always the case, I'm sure it is here.

albazeroex

i would choose going to class over internet;; im lazy enuf for walking to class but if im in my room getting a lecture off the internet;; i would easily be sidetracked;; just my 2 cents

Roark

I've taken quite a few web classes & I'd say go intenet. Alot of them are real flexible and if you are so motivated you could actually just knock it out and get it over with. Other classes (for me anyway namely math) i'd rather goto class. Anything other than a Math or Science related course i'd take on the internet.

ARTelevision

As a college teacher and an Internet developer, I'd never advise anyone to take a class online if an actual real-life class was also available. My partner, sus, is also a college teacher and she does offer an online course. The results are disproportionately disastrous when compared to assessment and evaluation results from real-life classes.

Some things are not worth moving to the Internet. If by some small chance you are one of the very few students who may possibly be able to actually benefit from an online course, I suppose that is some reason for them to exist. But we tend to flatter ourselves as to our educability, so caution is advisable.

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*Nikki*

I have taken over 20 credit hours online and have all A's and B's.

I think it is the most wonderful thing to ever happen to higher learning.

There are people out there who really want to learn but for some reason or another cannot learn in a traditional classroom setting.

kollege_gal2000

I've taken both in and online classes. It wasn't until my junior year of college that I thought I could handle online classes (in otherwords, I wasn't disciplined until then). For the class that you are talking about, it sounds like a similar class that I have taken. If it is, I think it has a lot to do on what kind of student you are, and what kind of professor you have.

If this class has alot of graphs and diagrams, which mine did, then it might be better if you took it in class, but if you believe that you are disciplined enough to keep up with the work outside of class, then by all means take it online.

I think online classes are great. They take the burden off of attendence, and allow students to work when they are best ready for the subject, however, online classes also do not offer the inclass professor help.

In the end, it will solely depend on what kind of student you are.

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cartmen34

I've done both. The online class took a big ass chunk out of my GPA. why? same reason as Suave. It requires you to do all this extra work per week that you'd never have to do in-class. My online class required me spend at least 4 hours per week in the chat rooms and message boards discussing the topics of the week! I was all like, WTF?

So I rarely contributed in those ways, but I turned in each and every assignment and project. On all my assignments and projects I got around 95% and I ace'd the final and mid-terms. (It was an uubber easy class.) My final grade? C. Because I didn't spend all night in a chat room once a week. (Didn't have time to because of 4 other classes to take care of!!)

Only take online courses as a last resort. If the class is offered in a classroom, take it in the classroom!

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Stompy

If it's something trival and easy to do on your own (like History or some ridiculously easy computer requirement), go for it. It's simple and saves you from wasting time having to go in.

If it's something that you might actually need a lot of examples to do, like math or physics, I'd say pass (unless you think you can grasp it all just by reading the text, which isn't very common).

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KMA-628

I hit my peak professionally and had to go back to school to advance any further.

All classes, all online, full load (1 1/2 years now) = 4.0 and honors society

It can be done and it can be done well, but you have to be able to "teach" yourself (i.e. no lectures) and you have to have the discipline to sit down and do the work. I have found that the teachers are mostly there to grade, I don't get too much from them. I do the work/research on my own and turn it in.

/stay-at-home dad now, operating a small company virtually....so online is pretty much my only option.

NorCal_DC4

About a year ago, I enrolled in ENGL 151 online at my college - it's a fairly advanced composition class. I was supremely disappointed in the online instruction site, the "depth" of the class and so I dropped it fairly quickly. The next semester I took the same class with the same instructor - but in the actual classroom.

The improvement was incredible - The teacher was approachable, insightful and the campus class was far more enriching than the online course. All because of the face-to-face interaction.

While a student obviously needs to be responsible and motivated in either setting, I think the answer ultimately depends on the curriculum. Objective courses like economics would probably do well online, where subjective courses like Essay Composition suffer from the limitations of online forums.

My 2¥.

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ARTelevision

I'm glad to hear of all the successes above. I'd like to reassess my view on this and some of the comments above are encouraging.

Thanks.

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Cader

I think all the replies lend backing to the comment about it being dependent on the person. Online courses can be great, but they require a much higher degree of committment and personal motivation. For a driven person who likes to learn on their own, they are just awesome. You have the freedom to move at your own pace and do things on your own terms. I can recall several classes that just killed me because they moved so slow and I just lost interest.

For someone who is just starting out their college experience, I would personally suggest going to class however. I found that you are never as prepared as you may think in the realm of study skills and just the level of many college courses. It might be best to stick with a traditional style since you have to with your other courses and get yourself properly settled in to school.

Grantes there are some online courses that are so ridiculously easy that it makes most all of this moot.

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Cobalt_60

Thanks for all the replies. I thought about it and decided to drop the distance learning class and register for the course taught in class. I'm glad it was easy to drop and add the class using computers up at the school. Just point and click and then walk to Admissions for another print out of my classes.

Paq

some people can do online courses, no sweat...others can't. it's just a matter of what type person you are. I have never enjoyed online courses as i prefer open, face to face communication in a class...that and my memory is mostly aural or situational, so i remember things i hear/see over things i read for some reason...

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