For those of you that don't already know--but let's be honest here, all of you do--I've been taking online classes for the past five weeks now. Things have improved significantly well since the start of it all, thank God! I've a new and better professor for Earth Science, I'm all caught up in my Spanish course and even a little ahead. But even though things are starting to improve, there are still a few things that have me stumped, not just for these classes, but online education itself. Here are a few of my gripes on the matter.
1. If it's online, and we're supposed to be working independently, why are there still assignments out there that require partners?
Seriously, though! It's an ONLINE course for crying out loud. Part of the reason we took it in the first place was so we WOULDN'T have to deal with other people. Not only that, but group projects, in general, are counterproductive, mostly because it means having to depend on someone else for a grade. I mean, what are we going to do if that person never shows up, or contributes? Are we supposed to just accept the bad grade, or what?
2. Why do assignments seem HARDER online than they do in an actual class setting?
I'm sure there's a good answer for this somewhere, but until I find it, I'm sticking to this. When you're in a classroom, you have your professor, surrounding students and then you have a lecture. For an online student, however, two thirds of that is taken off the table, leaving you with just the lecture. And you'd think that'd be fine, right? You have the lecture, so all is well. Wrong! Turns out, in addition to watching this thirty to forty-five minute long lecture, you also have to read through two incredibly obscure and lengthy chapters of your textbook, and then do two quizzes on what you've read and heard--wait for it--WITHOUT using your book or notes as a reference. What kind of sense does that even make?
3. Why do the professors of online courses seem less willing to help their students excel?
This one is mostly based around personal bias (yes, I'm still salty over what that one professor did) but it just seems like that's the case for a lot of the professors. Instead of thoroughly educating their students on a subject and then encouraging them to excel, these guys seem to only get MAD when you ask for help and give you crap whenever you decide to work asynchronously...I mean ahead. What's up with that? Does NOT seeing the students somehow make these professors lazy? If one of you figures this out, please let me know!
4. Why do I feel like falling asleep every time I have to listen to a lecture?
This one shouldn't be a secret to anyone. If you thought professorial lectures were boring in person, it's a whole other thing with online ones! There's no emotion whatsoever in the tone of the professor's voice. It's almost like you're listening to a corpse for half an hour. It's especially irritating when you actually like the subject at first, then you hear the lecture and suddenly you'd rather be doing anything else!
5. Why do professors insist on making us wait for certain assignments?
If all of the other sections have already been posted on the site, and a student wants to get ahead, why on Earth would professors leave an entire section out until later? This one has never made sense to me. It's like there was actually some merit to my "asynchronously" comment. What is it about fully completing assignments ahead of time that has these guys on edge? Does grading early scare them that much?
I don't know, guys. I really don't. For me, online classes are a mixed bag. They can be useful if you need an easy A for a Gen-Ed, but aside from that, they're pretty annoying. But as I said before, that's just me. If online is more your speed, then you do you. Just don't go for an eight week. Those will straight up kill you!