When I first entered my ED 205 class, I was soon overwhelmed, because our professor told us that most of the class (or all if you chose too) will be online. I had never taken an online class before, so I had no idea what to expect from it and myself. I did not know how I was going to make it through. What would I do if I started falling behind? Falling behind is easy to do with an online class…forgetting about the deadlines, because you’re wrapped up in completing other work that doesn’t require online activities. Not only did we have to have the labs complete by a certain day at a specific time, but there were also online readings, the chapter of the text, and surveys that needed to also be completed. I started freaking out, because I am the type of learner that requires a hard copy on paper of reading assignments and doing assignments by hand and not online or with the use of a computer.
As time went on, I grew to like the online class. I could now set my own pace for completing the work. Online learning has advantages where you can save your work on the computer and come back to it later to complete. To me, online learning and activities also seem to be able to be completed with less of a time requirement…meaning it doesn’t take as long to complete. In online learning you also don’t have to worry about losing your paper assignment, becasue with the click of the mouse, your homework assignment is sent to the professor the moment it is completed. However, I also think losing that one on one instruction time with a professor is a disadvantage.
I can see more classes becoming online classes in the future, because it will benefit both students and teachers. In order for an online class to be successful, the professor/instructor needs to keep in contact with the students to find out for sure where they fall. This interaction will make future classes better as the instructor can figure out what works best and what might remain a little bit confusing for the students.