TV is fine, books are great and I'll play a game every now and then, but it seems like everything we do in this day and age is on the Internet. If it's not checking social media or the news, it's mindlessly surfing the net while trying to waste time, but then there's the times where Internet access is absolutely crucial, case in point: modern college classes.
We all know that our laptops are essential for college, but now that the Internet is so much more important, it makes the laptop just a portal to access the Internet. At first it was ANGEL.MSU.EDU, now its predominantly Desire2Learn or D2L as learning gateways for classes here at MSU. Some students might use other portals for engineering or math classes, but in the end it boils down to one statement: pick your poison. Almost every class has an online component to it now and some classes are completely online, which can be equally convenient and frustrating at the same time.Â
While it's nice that some professors will update their online portion of the class so that information is readily available at all times, sometimes it becomes too heavily relied upon. This becomes an even larger issue when the online portal is ridiculously confusing and hard to understand. Assuming that every college kid can access the Internet, the amount of material poorly organized online just doesn't work for all 45,000 students, which brings me to my next point.Â
A large assumption done by online classes is that the students can reliably access the Internet, which is, sadly, not as easy as it once was. More and more people going to school leads to more and more people requiring Internet access, which means slower access for everyone. This is especially apparent during times of heavy traffic such as the evening and/or finals week.
Because it's sometimes hard to access the Internet, it makes accessing these classes a nightmare. And if just accessing them wasn't enough, trying to take an exam for one of  these online courses. It's about as difficult as not binge-watching the new season of "House of Cards" as soon as it comes out. With connection dropping out at random times, it makes taking a timed exam frustratingly difficult to the extent that it makes the class even harder than it should normally be.
Online courses may have problems in their setup, functionality and overall dependence, but I'm ultimately more happy that they're around. If they weren't, it would mean binders full of assignments and presentations instead of a laptop full of them, which I am incredibly thankful for.