Community College Online Experiences?

[sue]

We are thinking of community college online as an option as we aren't ready to send our dd to the campus quite yet. Any experiences with online community college classes?

[LoriM]

My daughter took a few online (hybrid) classes. Without exception, she hated them. GRIN. The quality of students slid downhill as the semester progressed (in one class, only 2 students participated for the entire course), and the work was boring. She made very easy A's in the courses she took online, but felt like they were a waste of time and effort. She could homeschool much more efficiently, and learn far more. In fact, she *did* homeschool a lot of additional material to balance the boredom in a couple of the classes. Anyway, it depends on your purpose for the online coursework, and what the "actual work" of the class will be.

 

I think the challenge with our local CC is that the instructors treat the online courses as either "self-directed" or they have no idea how to assess and involve an online community yet. For the American Literature courses, the teacher just defaulted to "Read the story. Write a paper. Answer one question on the chat board, and respond to two classmates' posts on the chat board." each week. My daughter can churn out a 3 page MLA formatted paper in an hour (LOL) so she longed for an opportunity to really *talk* about the material.

 

I think the only time I'd use an online course at the CC for my younger dd would be if she had a required course that simply would not fit in her schedule elsewhere. Even so, my younger dd has had bad luck remembering the online component of her Spanish course this semester, and her grade has suffered accordingly...so she says she'll *never* take an online course. :)

[Jane in NC]

I want to follow up on some of Lori's comments.

 

A definition first: our CC denotes a hybrid course as one which has one classroom meeting per week with the rest of the work being online. Online courses are precisely that, just online. Students may participate in online discussions, but that is not something that all instructors require. In some cases, the work is completely self-directed. In other cases, group projects among the online students can still be assigned.

 

My son's Expository Writing class recently had a discussion on the problems associated with online courses. At our CC, these courses have higher failure rates than among the traditional courses. (I do not know where the hybrids fall.) In some cases, it may have to do with a lack of discipline. There can be broad deadlines given for the work as opposed to the regular class meetings with assignments.

 

After years of independent work at home, my son has really enjoyed much of the classroom experience. Mind you, not all! He worships at the feet of his history instructor with his traditional pedagogical style. While much of the homework in chemistry last semester and microbiology this semester is performed online, there is still collegialty among the students in their discussions of the assignments before class. Labs are times of great exchange of information as variation in experiments is noted. This might be missed online.

 

You might want to ask around for opinions on specific courses offered online and how the instructor runs the course. I know an economics instructor who teaches both traditional and online courses. He told me that he puts more work into the online courses in order to facilitate instruction. But this seems rare from what I have heard.

 

The exchange that happens not only with classmates but with other friends made on campus has been beneficial to my son. He has heard about their jobs, perceptions of unfair grading, favorite professors, cool science experiments. It really would be a shame to remove that aspect of the experience.

 

Like Lori, I would hesitate to enroll my son in an online course, although he is taking a hybrid this semester. This was the only way that Western Civ II was being offered. Coming on the heels of a traditional Western Civ I with the same instructor, we felt that the hybrid would not be a problem. My son already understood the instructor's expectations--one of the key's to success.

 

By the way, our CC has a mixed bag agewise. There is an early college high school on campus so some of the more mature students take college courses. But whether they do or not, the campus is now their campus as well. Some of the fourteen and fifteen year old high schoolers are loud. They have altered the nature of the quad, much to the annoyance of the real college students.

 

Good luck,

Jane

[LoriM]

I want to follow up on some of Lori's comments.

 

A definition first: our CC denotes a hybrid course as one which has one classroom meeting per week with the rest of the work being online.

 

My daughter's hybrid courses met the first weekend of the 8-week cycle (one Friday night/one Saturday morning), and then were online for the rest of the time, including the final.

 

 

After years of independent work at home, my son has really enjoyed much of the classroom experience. Mind you, not all! He worships at the feet of his history instructor with his traditional pedagogical style. While much of the homework in chemistry last semester and microbiology this semester is performed online, there is still collegialty among the students in their discussions of the assignments before class. Labs are times of great exchange of information as variation in experiments is noted. This might be missed online.

 

My dd found the same thing to be true. She found the traditional classroom experience "freeing" from some of the hard work she'd done as an independent student at home. She especially enjoyed participating in discussions, and found some comfort in conquering hard material alongside people who were struggling equally hard. :)

 

You might want to ask around for opinions on specific courses offered online and how the instructor runs the course. I know an economics instructor who teaches both traditional and online courses. He told me that he puts more work into the online courses in order to facilitate instruction. But this seems rare from what I have heard.

 

:iagree:

 

 

Like Lori, I would hesitate to enroll my son in an online course, although he is taking a hybrid this semester. This was the only way that Western Civ II was being offered. Coming on the heels of a traditional Western Civ I with the same instructor, we felt that the hybrid would not be a problem. My son already understood the instructor's expectations--one of the key's to success.

 

The only reason my dd took American Lit I/II in the hybrid format was that she had the same English professor she'd had for English 111. She felt she knew her writing requirements and her grading style, and that her instructor would trust her and treat her work with respect. Even so, it grew tiresome to only have two students participating for a grade toward the end of the course.

 

While our CC experience was outstanding overall, the online aspects were my probably my least-favorite. OTOH, my dd did carefully choose to take Sociology online because she decided she couldn't bear the "waste of time" in a classroom setting. (LOL! I loved Sociology when I was in school.) And ironically, she's taking Sociology of Marriage and Family this summer...coupled with Modern Algebra. Yikes.

 

Lori

[Alyce]

My dd and ds have taken on-line courses. Mostly because they fit into the schedule better. They hated it. There was very little involvement of the teachers and even less from the mandatory "discussion boards" The student are supposed to discuss a certain topic but most students would wait till some one posted something and they'd all respond back that they agreed no discussion. My kids liked the face to face experiences better. They can ask the instructor questions and get a better "read" on them. They feel more involved and for the most part their instructors do seem to pay more attention to a lecture course over the on-line courses. We will still probably have to do at least one on-line course over the next 2 semesters but we're trying to only have to come to campus twice a week so getting everything in two days back to back is almost impossible.

[Pamela H in Texas]

Hi Sue...

 

My daughter, this year, has taken classes both on campus and online. In the past, I've also done telecourses and online as well as on campus. PLUS, this year, I enrolled in an online university (so all the work is online except for certain proctored tests).

 

My daughter has had a mixed bag in terms of reactions to classes. She likes the short classes on campus. She really dislikes the once a week classes (because they are SO long). She also has very little patience for the ____ (looking for right word) of other students. She felt they should know better, know more, go back to a previous class, watch the news, whatever. She did like classes in general, but she was also annoyed. She didn't particularly care for the online classes, but did them. However, she has watched me do the online university and has thought it was fine. Maybe the difference in an online university vs certain cc online classes? She's joining the same university for a different degree program. Doing classes online will allow her to meet other goals she has. Maybe there are some programs that would be better in some ways, but she is a whole person so academics aren't the only consideration. And she can always make a different choice later if she feels it a good idea.

 

When I did online classes at the community college several years ago, I did notice they were more difficult than in-class options. First, you don't know the teacher very well which makes catering to what she/he wants more difficult. Also, the tests tended to be more difficult. In several cases, the coursework was more difficult also. For example, for the on-campus philosophy course, only western philosophy was considered while the online philosophy had both eastern and western.

 

For the university I use now, there are pluses and minuses. I am finding it pretty easy for the most part. Also, it's all self-paced which means acceleration is possible (I had 17 credits fall semester and will have finished 21 credits as of this Thursday). There are some classes heavier on the essays and projects which is pretty normal for online programs. Other classes have assigned work and a BIG test for pass/fail.

 

Anyway, I think there are good points and bad. You really have to look at all the information you have. It's not just about academics or ideal class environment. There may be several other considerations for your individual student. Don't dismiss those.

 

One more consideration....what does she want to do after school? There are some degrees (and classes those degrees require) that are better to do on campus, and many times at a university. Could she stay working from home but go to the community college or university locally if that would be better for her needs?

Edited April 28, 2009 by 2J5M9K
one more thing.

[Jenn in CA]

For us the pros have outweighed the cons. I think it's highly dependent on the instructor... ask around or check ratemyprofessor.com. For background, my 16yo has taken 2 programming classes and freshman English comp online (and got A's in them all but I digress). He's also taken 1 class on campus.

 

Pros:

* I have access to all learning material, syllabi, deadlines, etc. so I can oversee my kid's work better. THis is huge. I am able to help, make sure they understand, etc. etc. without facing "What did you learn today?" "I don't know." This was what happened in my son's first campus class. He continues to need a lot of help organizing his time & study materials. So online classes have enabled me to help him w/that.

* Extremely convenient for scheduling.

* A good online teacher is very available via email, and has course material well-organized online... easy access, no worries that you can't make his office hours. (this was his English teacher.)

* My son tends to struggle w/face-to-face communication so this was a way for him to write his thoughts (on online forums) without the pressure of piping up in class.

 

Cons

* Yes, there are bad teachers who don't answer emails and don't grade in a timely manner. (My son had one of those.)

* No face-to-face if your student wants that.

* Your child could end up being too dependent on your help.

 

Again, I strongly recommend getting teacher recs for your best experience. And, if this is your child's first class, I recommend choosing a somewhat easy class in a field he/she's really interested in.