Online college courses, any good experiences?

Parents Forum
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<p>The push is on to have online courses replace or supplement classrooms for overcrowded courses on UC campuses. Governor Brown has made it one of the bargaining chips for increased funding and the Regents are responding:
UC</a> regents pledge to expand online education in next few years - latimes.com</p>

<p>My D took several online courses offered through her high school, and they were less than satisfactory. I certainly can't see how taking online courses at UC is a higher quality education than taking the same course in a classroom at a community college. I suppose the option will be welcomed by some, especially non traditional students who have trouble scheduling lectures around work and family commitments. I just worry about the trend, and the emphasis on cost savings at the expense of educating students rather than targeting the bloated administrative structure. </p>

<p>I would be interested to hear of anyone's experience with online college courses.</p>

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<p>I completed my Masters using a distance learning option at our state flagship. I was satisfied especially since I had started my degree as an on-campus student. I felt like I was tied into the program more as a DE participant in the 2nd program.</p>

<p>Things that made a difference: it was a synchronous program, meaning that we had a live class at a particular time each week, with the professor logged in & teaching, with interaction from the class (both in the classroom & online; I had a number of combo classes where some students were in the class with the prof. & others joined using the class software;) there was an effort for the DE students to meet with other local DE students in regional cohort meetings; we were treated as equal members of the program by faculty & staff. </p>

<p>I am not good at asynchronous classes (i.e. they’re taped & you log in within a certain span of time and watch it.) I need to know that I HAVE to go to class at a certain time or else I keep putting it off, and never end up doing it. That’s what happened when I signed up for a MOOC.</p>

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<p>I took Accounting I & II online from our local community college and was more than satisfied with the experience. It was an asynchronous program, but not self-paced. It gave me the background I needed to understand our finance department’s requests and help them use our ERP to meet their needs.</p>

<p>Without online courses, I wouldn’t have been able to take the classes due to work time demands.</p>

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<p>A friend’s son took a computer programming course online and it was HORRIBLE. The course advisor was in Europe, would take days to answer questions, and assigned programming projects that were way beyond the normal scope of an Introduction to C class. The adviser was not a programmer so was of little use. There was no consideration given when the servers crashed and half the class could not turn in their assignments.</p>

<p>On one project, he had 3 MS CS programmers trying to solve it and they could not get it to work. The entire class failed that assignment. He ended up with a B- mostly because of all the help he got.</p>

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<p>I’ve never taken any online courses for credit, but I am currently going through this open-courseware O Chem class for fun. I took it about 40 years ago and found it very tough (of course I was probably inebriated and unmotivated a good deal of the time).
But the fellow teaching this is very, very good IMO.</p>

<p>[Chem51A:</a> Organic Chemistry](<a href=“http://learn.uci.edu/ocw/courses/Chem51A/Chem51A_UCI_OCW_Organic_Chemistry_Video_Course.php]Chem51A:”>http://learn.uci.edu/ocw/courses/Chem51A/Chem51A_UCI_OCW_Organic_Chemistry_Video_Course.php)</p>

<p>It’s from UC Irvine.</p>

<p>Give a look at the second lecture (I skipped the first because of all the syllabus stuff). Very understandable after a few googles and wikis to refresh gen chem knowledge.</p>

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<p>I’m in an online grad school program through a brick and mortar college. There are definitely pros and cons to it. As you noted, for non-trad students like me, it is ideal. What night of the week can a single mom of teenagers be available to go to classes regularly? None! It’s great that I can do it on my time, not on a schedule. There are additional assignments they give weekly to make up for not sitting in class. These are usually in the form of required discussion board posts weekly. We are given a specific topic to address and, in most cases, have to write a lengthy, well researched, initial post and then respond to two other students’ posts. </p>

<p>As with any class, I find that it really depends on how engaged the instructor is. Some are great: accessible, helpful, get into the discussion board themselves. Others are disengaged and relatively absent. </p>

<p>There is a bit more self teaching and it works best if students are self motivated. The most difficult time is when an instructor assigns a group project. They are bad enough when you can approach others in the classroom. Sometimes people just don’t communicate at all and you are stuck because there’s no way to contact them! Frustrating!</p>

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<p>bovertine, I’m glad to hear about your experience with your online UC course. I’d like to take some just-for-fun courses, but of course, anymore even the CSUs don’t have room for non-matriculators. I’m going to check it out!</p>

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<p>I love online courses, but agree that it can depend on the engagement of the instructor. I am finishing a last year of a BA with both online and on campus classes. Online classes involve a lot more writing and participation in general. Some classes online can include videos and other multi-media components. This can be fun. All kinds of readings can be posted. I just wish this option had been available while I was raising kids: I would have finished 25 years ago! They do involve self-teaching and you get out of the course what you put in.</p>

<p>So far, I have taken online classes on world music, history of American popular culture, and short fiction. I’ve really enjoyed all of them, and would say that overall, two out of the three were more challenging than on-campus classes, particularly in terms of numbers of papers and the kinds of written discussion required.</p>

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<p>I’ve taken probably a dozen or so online courses during my undergrad. I love them. They are so convenient and the ones that I have taken have been incredibly well organized. It also requires discussion so those of us who are shy can open up more. </p>

<p>But it really depends on your learning style. I’m much more productive at night than during the day so I like being able to do things when I want, by the deadline of course.</p>

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<p>My DD took a number at UMass. Her thoughts were that the professors were the same people who would teach similiar courses at UMass Amherst, all responded quickly to questions and assessments. One of the kids in one online course told her that he had more contact with the professor than he did in his bricks and mortar class (of course, this may be because he didn’t bother going to office hours, but felt comfortable emailing). </p>

<p>As an employer, I like to hear that an applicant has taken at least one on-line course. The on-line courses do not spoon feed, and require the student to take more ownership of the process (IMO). I do not feel comfortable with an applicant having an entire on-line degree, unless he/she has a bricks and mortar UG or G I am OK with.</p>

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<p>I’m looking into online mba programs</p>

<p>Sent from my DROID BIONIC using CC</p>

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<p>I took an online English class which was very easy as long as you kept up with the weekly assignments (papers, quizzes, and readings). I really don’t think online courses are bad as long as you can manage your time and keep up</p>

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<p>I am taking an online masters program through a leading university. It works great for me (and my classmates who are around the world). I can take a class online one semester and one in-person the next. Interchangeable.</p>

<p>As far as undergrad, my DD, who is at an OOS public university, took an online class last semester and I was skeptical. It was a gen ed requirement that she had to take in a subject area that she is not interested in. She’s mostly conscientious, so it worked out fine (and she’s a junior, so she already has a track record of staying on top of things at school). She was able to do the work and tests with classmates.</p>

<p>My neighbor visited another public OOS (much larger) with his DS and found that it was pretty standard for classes to be taken online. They did not like the idea at all (and didn’t apply).</p>

<p>Newsday had an article this week about the SUNYs offering online degrees. They made a good point that it is a viable option in these economic times. If you want me to post the article, let me know. (Newsday has this ridiculous policy that you can’t see web content unless you subscribe to the paper.)</p>

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<p>LINY, my company looks very carefully about online degrees. Our undestanding is that SUNY only requires accounting courses to have monitored final exams (don’t know how they picked that but whatever). I would suggest students be very careful about online degrees, and how employers or grad schools will view. As to online courses, they have to see that their bricks and mortar school accepts them.</p>

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<p>Ok, Here’s the article. It ran on 1/15. Kayf, I agree that it is important to see how employers look at these; I have a feeling the perception may change in the coming years. Not that I advocate it for undergrad, unless there are financial issues.</p>

<p>SUNY offers Web classes, 3-year degree</p>

<p>The State University of New York in three years will be the nation’s largest public provider of online higher education, Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher announced Tuesday. </p>

<p>The initiative, called Open SUNY, will begin next year and offer 10 online bachelor’s degree programs, with an enrollment goal of 100,000 students in three years.</p>

<p>“No institution in America – not even the for-profits – will be able to match the number of offerings and the quality of instruction SUNY can offer,” Zimpher said in her third annual State of the University address. “And not only are we going to do it best – we’re going to do it big.”</p>

<p>With 64 campuses – including Stony Brook University, Farmingdale State College and the College at Old Westbury – SUNY is among the largest public university systems in the nation.</p>

<p>Students will be able to take online courses offered at any of the campuses, regardless of which one they attend, Zimpher said. </p>

<p>The online bachelor’s degrees to be offered beginning in 2014 will be in fields of high demand, such as engineering and health care, SUNY officials said.</p>

<p>Lectures by SUNY’s top professors also will be offered online, Zimpher said, joining a movement begun by professors at elite private schools who make available free Web classes called massive open online courses, or MOOCs, which have drawn millions of viewers around the world.</p>

<p>The move will result in cost savings for the state, although the exact figures are unclear because the program is in its initial stages, SUNY officials said.</p>

<p>The online courses will help students complete a bachelor’s degree in three years, a plan Zimpher said will decrease students’ debt by helping them graduate faster than the average of 4.5 years. </p>

<p>SUNY graduates of four-year programs have an average debt of $22,575, below the national average of $26,600, Zimpher said.</p>

<p>Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley said he supports the online education initiative and an accelerated degree for some students, particularly those who might want to complete a combined bachelor’s / master’s program in four years. </p>

<p>“I’m really glad to see SUNY taking the lead on it,” he said.</p>

<p>Stony Brook professors already teach an upper-level biology class to students at the Binghamton and New Paltz campuses, where the class isn’t offered, Stanley said.
Content and cost-sharing arrangements need to be reached, Stanley said, but he is optimistic that the individual college presidents will support the collaboration.</p>

<p>Rachel Fishman, a policy analyst researching online education at public universities for the nonpartisan New America Foundation, which has offices in New York City and Washington, D.C., said online degree programs are “common sense for state-supported institutions.”</p>

<p>“A lot of systems are starting to realize that it’s better if you join together,” she said.
Other state university systems, including those in California, Florida, Tennessee and Wisconsin, plan to ramp up online education.</p>

<p>California Gov. Jerry Brown has said he wants to improve graduation rates and operational efficiencies, in part by creating “virtual campuses” in his state’s public college system.</p>

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<p>Son took four online math courses dual-enrollment. Two at the university he eventually matriculated to and two at UIUC in their NetMath program. The first course at his uni had 180 students, most local but some from around the world. The course was very well done with good technical support and pretty good turnaround time on homework and exams. The professor was very diligent and is known to run his in-person courses well.</p>

<p>The second course was a disaster. The professor has a specialty research area and he made the course more about his research area than what the course was supposed to cover. His materials translated poorly online, he wasn’t responsive to questions and the rate of withdrawals was amazing. Son withdrew from this course and took it in-person many years later with another professor - that covered the correct material. The lesson here is that a good professor can make for a great online course just as a bad professor can make for a horrible online course. Same as for in-person courses.</p>

<p>His NetMath courses at UIUC were great. The course is actually using Mathematica-based commercial courseware and you can just buy the courseware and learn the material on your own. The UIUC NetMath program just gives you college credit and assistance with it. The courseware actually covers far more material than a typical undergraduate course would cover so you can go far beyond if you want to. The student has to be willing to learn how to program in Mathematica to do the assignments. Support was peer tutors via email. Response turnaround wasn’t the best but acceptable. Cost was about the same as a state university course. They required proctored exams so that may be an extra expense. We used our local library for proctoring services.</p>

<p>Suffolk University offers the same thing except you get a professor that oversees the course. Suffolk’s version cost twice what UIUC charges.</p>

<p>I think that online courses can work if the technology is good and the professor does a good job teaching and managing the technology. I don’t think that the online education market is anywhere near a consistent and high-quality product yet. There’s a lot of potential but I’d basically investigate before using an online course. I also don’t think that online courses necessarily decrease enrollment costs.</p>

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<p>Zimpher has not impressed me. She seems to want SUNY lto be run ike a business (I am in business, doubt she could succeed in business). Until she starts requiring monitored finals, use of turnitin, etc, employers will not trust these degrees. Lab courses seem problematic too. I dont think she cares about quality.</p>

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<p>It’s encouraging to hear the success stories, hopefully the administration will implement the strategies that have been shown to work. One of the courses my D took in high school was AP Calculus. The “class” was a proprietary program, “My math lab” or something like that. The teacher didn’t seem to understand the material herself, and just administered tests provided by the program. Since it wasn’t possible to show work, answers were either right or wrong- no partial credit for getting 99% of the equations and calculations correct. Worst was that she never responded to my daughter’s emails, I had to send an occasional “nastygram” to evoke some response. What is the recourse if an online instructor doesn’t respond to questions, especially when thousands of kids are enrolled? It seems capping class size and perhaps maintaining discussion sections would help preserve quality.</p>

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<p>I took The Art of Problem Solving’s calculus class. It’s mostly for high school students, but anyone can take it, so I did. And it was lots of fun.</p>

<p>I took a music theory class, an econ class and a statistics class from my local community college. The music theory class and the stats class were OK. The econ class was poor, but the professor was an idiot, and was reportedly equally idiotic if you took his class in person, so I was probably better off taking the class online.</p>

<p>I’ve taken five free MOOC classes, all of them excellent, and I’m doing three more right now. I recommend both Coursera and Udacity. The one MOOC from CalTech, Learning from Data, is also excellent, for those who happen to be interested in machine learning.</p>

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<p>Kayf–Totally agree with you.</p>