<p>My d is considering taking an online course during her long winter break. The County community college offers a number of courses that will transfer over to her state University. Do any of you have any experience in this type of learning?</p>
<p>I see the downside as having to do lots of reading and writing in a condensed amount of time, the upside, not worrying about driving to community college if weather gets bad. </p>
<p>Any thoughts!
Thanks</p>
<p>Since I have to take 150 hours every five years to keep my teaching certificate in this state--and I like to keep my schedule flexible, I've taken a lot of online/distance learning courses. You're limited in how often you can turn in assignments, in some of them--you have to wait until you get the previous one back--so she might not be able to go as fast as she'd like. </p>
<p>The good news/bad news part about distance learning is that you do the entire course no matter what, because there's no chance for the professor to get behind... So my geology course covered the ENTIRE textbook (yes, it had labs, rock kit, the whole bit, it was fun), as did the weather and oceanography courses. Accounting, thank heavens, did not. We read 6 novels in British Lit!</p>
<p>Right now I'm seriously contemplating an online course in programming for the web.</p>
<p>Just make sure that the work being submitted online is getting graded. Sounds like a no-brainer, but . . . my son took Contemporary Living on-line through his high school. This is a senior-year, required, semester-length class. Like a lot of kids taking a heavy academic course-load, he didn't have room for it in his schedule without skipping an AP class, so they set up this online option. He did the work, submitted it online, and kept not getting graded. His inquiring emails to the teacher went unanswered. My inquiring email to the teacher went unanswered. Finally, as the year was drawing to a close, I sent an email jointly to the counselor, principal, and teacher. The teacher's response was that she couldn't access the online work due to some computer issue so she couldn't grade it. To make a long story short, the principal ended up giving him (and a lot of other kids!) a waiver for the class, and I think the teacher got a bit of a talking to.</p>
<p>So, make sure your online work is getting graded!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.utexas.edu/cee/dec%5B/url%5D">www.utexas.edu/cee/dec</a></p>
<p>Both distance high school and college courses. High points for price, and being able to work at your own pace. Start whenever you want, work as fast/slow as you want (with minor limits), and no waiting for the last assignment before going on to the next one. Low points for instruction (you basically have to be able to teach yourself out of the book). Quality and timeliness of the feedback on assignments varies by teacher.</p>
<p>I've had experience on both sides of this. I have taken several online courses and also teach one for a university. I have found that the course is as good as the person running it. This is also true of in-person classes. I was very hesitant to take an online course but one required class for my graduate degree was only taught in that format. I was pleasantly surprised. It was very well run and I gained a lot of information. However, I have had a bad experience...but that can happen in an in-person format as well. I think that self-directed learners do best with these type classes, particularly those with good self-discipline skills.</p>