<p>I am a freshmen in college. I am trying to plan ahead, and I am considering taking two online courses. The two courses are Art history and Environmental Science with lab. The classes last from 05/27 through 06/27. Do you think the course load will be too heavy? I have never taken an online course, so I do not know what to expect. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>It really depends on how motivated YOU are, as a student. I took an online course this summer and I was so unmotivated to do any of the work in advance, it really affected my overall grade. </p>
<p>Also, look into the professors’ Rate My Professor pages, if they have any. These are usually good indicators of how hard/good/bad etc. professors are. It’s still early but maybe see if the required textbooks list is available?</p>
<p>I don’t think these courses will be TOO time consuming, if you don’t have a job. But a lot of factors can affect this. For example, an Art History at my school is considered to be incredibly difficult because of the professor. But it varies, of course. So do your research and look at your summer schedule and only you can know yourself and how dedicated you will be.</p>
<p>Also, do you need to get these out of the way now? If not, consider taking only 1 if you’re worried about the course load. I hate science so even though summer courses are compacted into a short time period, I’d want to get that one out of the way fast.</p>
<p>I am currently working. I am scheduled to work 24 hrs a week…so I work almost every other day. I hate science also…I also feel like art is a waste of time. That is way I wanted to get these two subjects over with. These would be considered to be my last general courses to fufill.</p>
<p>Well, I had an 8-week, in-person literature class this past summer and it was really time-consuming. It wasn’t so much that the material was hard; it was that we had all that material to cover in just 8 weeks. I worked full-time during that session (around 50 hours/wk), but it was doable (I got my 4.0, but I cried a few nights because I was really stressed and tired). </p>
<p>However, your term will only be 4 weeks, so that’s like 3 times faster than a regular 16-week term. Take your workload right now and multiply it by 3. It’ll seriously be a lot to handle, and that’s what would concern me. </p>
<p>If you’ve never had an online course or a summer course, I’d only take one. Is there a possibility that you could take one of the courses in July or August? That might spread it out better and be easier to handle.</p>
<p>Definitely check out RMP. I took two online courses last summer as well and worked 40+ hours a week (I had two jobs at this time) and the online course worked well with me. The thing with online courses is that it is very self-paced. I’ve taken several online courses and most of them usually have like a deadline at the end of the week for all assignments, and when you decide to do it is up to you. So it works very well for people who are self-starters IMHO but it is also easy to lose track of time and forget the assignments as well. I prefer online classes over summer since I leave the city, work a lot, etc. but ymmv because many of my classmates failed because they forgot to turn in assignments on time.</p>