Online Classes Aren’t Necessarily Difficult, But The Format Requires Self Responsibility

Going into high school, I knew that I wanted to dual enroll classes. The biggest issue on my mind was transportation, as both my parents work and I was not yet old enough to drive. When I started enrolling for classes, the online format was brought to my attention.

My stereotypical impression of online schooling was thinking of the commercials you see for the Goddard School as an alternative home schooling method. At the time I didn't think too highly of home schooling and thought that in-person schooling was better.

The first thing I heard about the issue from my counselor was that I should not take online classes. Not knowing much about the issue itself, I agreed and went on with my schedule of three courses in person at Chattahoochee Tech.

After last summer, fall scheduling rolled around, and I found that taking more college courses would conflict with my high school schedule. This wouldn't have been such a problem, but I'm in my local Magnet program and my band requires me to dedicate a quarter of my school day plus most of my free time. This is when I thought I would resort to online courses.

I started off with only two online courses. I kept my load light because I thought that taking online courses on top of my typical school day would be difficult as it was. Six courses (four blocks at high school and two semester courses at college) in the space of the normal four should have been hard. I found, however, that online classes wereideal for me because of my drive.

With online courses, there's no teacher pestering you to turn in assignments or reminding you of due dates. Ever since elementary school, we have been told that the next grade up wouldn't coddle us. With online courses, it actually happens because of the distance learning.

While there's no physical teacher reminders, the due dates and assignments are often posted well ahead of time. This means it's upon the student to get it done, but this also means that you can do it in your own time.

I also like online courses because there's more independence and less group work. I have relatives who have taken online courses with group projects, but in my current experience of having taken several online courses I still have yet to have online group work.

I've moved from being wary of online courses to starting a semester of only online classes and one physical band class. Coming out of my experience, I say that taking the leap can cause you to realize a revolution for the better as well. Online courses aren't any more difficult than their in-person counterparts, but because of its physical limitations it takes someone with drive and self motivation to succeed.