<p>Are online classes less demanding, just as demanding, or more demanding than in-person/traditional classes of comparable subject matter? </p>
<p>The ones I took were much less demanding. But the quality of education for those classes was also worse, so I always preferred face to face classes. It might depend on the school though, that’s just my experience with them.</p>
<p>It really depends on the class. I’ve taken two online classes. One was Intro to American Government and Politics. This was a total BLOWOFF class. This was how the class was structured: We had a textbook, and had to do the reading out of it. There was a 25 question multiple choice quiz online for each chapter. The quizzes were open book and open notes (if for some strange reason you chose to take notes), so they were incredibly simple. At the end of each chapter there was a “What Would You Do?” question that basically posed a hypothetical bill that was relevant to the chapter. We had to choose to vote for or against it, and post a brief paragraph or two on the discussion forum explaining our choice. We then had to reply to at least one other post per chapter. </p>
<p>That was it. No exams. No midterm. No final. Just that. </p>
<p>The other one was Western Civilization II. This class was not such a cake walk. We had our main textbook, plus two other books…and the reading was required. For each of the two supplemental books, there was a list of reading questions. We had to answer each question in about 4-5 sentences, and there were around 25 questions for each of the two books. One of them was a graphic novel called ‘Maus: A Survivor’s Tale’ about the holocaust ( a truly fascinating read; I recommend it), and the other was more of an anthropological account of some events in Western Civilization. </p>
<p>There were also 4 essays throughout the semester based on additional readings. The readings were anywhere from .5 to 4 pages long, and the essays had the be 2-3 pages long. </p>
<p>We had discussion points within our main textbook. We had to write a couple paragraphs about our impressions and post them on the discussion board, and had to reply to at least three other posts per discussion section. There was one discussion point per chapter. </p>
<p>We also had very large midterms and finals that each covered roughly half of the course material. There was an identification section where we were given a list of people/places/events that we had to define in a few sentences. There was also an essay that had a minimum length of 2 pages. The tests had to be proctored in the campus testing center. He gave us a rough idea of what would be on the test, but not much. He gave us a list of 30 identification terms, and said that he was going to pick 10 of them at random for the exam. He gave us a list of 12 different essay topics and told us that he’d pick one at random. </p>
<p>This class was definitely a bit rougher than the American Government class. I still finished it with a 96%, but I definitely had to put the work in. </p>
<p>It’s also worth pointing out that I learned very little in the American Government class. I did the reading and I did get something to take away from it, but not much. In the Western Civilization class? I genuinely LEARNED that stuff, and developed a real interest in the subject matter. </p>