The landscape of college is quickly changing. With technology virtually changing every aspect of our lives (pun not intended) we must learn to evaluate how we let it be implemented in our lives. Regarding education, online courses and schools have exploded in popularity and use in the past decade. There are benefits which exist for these classes, mainly for non-traditional students, but for the students on campus every day taking classes, taking courses online can be awful.

1. They make you feel isolated

College courses often require a higher level of thinking, and are inherently tougher than what most students have attempted before. When taking an online class, there is a computer screen. No professor at the front of the class, no classmates beside you, just the emptiness of an operating system. There is interaction between a professor and the students, but it feels far less sincere than a face-to-face conversation. Also, the notion of having classmates confer together to help each other or to better grasp the subject matter is removed because in reality, students will rarely meet anyone in their online class, missing out on learning opportunities and connections between real people. Not a keyboard.

2. They always require a textbook

It is feasible to survive some courses without the "required" textbook. Whether the class be a lecture-focus or an absent minded professor forgets to use it, or (best of all) the class uses material that can be pulled from the internet instead, careful intelligence gathering of a professors habits before school begins, can save you a large amount of precious money. Sometimes you do have to cough it up and pay the exorbitant fees for a textbook. But you can be satisfied you save money from not buying all of your books (a mistake freshman commonly make). With online courses? You better pay up, sucker. There's no avoiding it. The textbook is absolutely essential. You might want to go ahead and apologize to your wallet.

3. Online course cost more than traditional classes.

There are a lot of variables in this one. But for the most part, online courses often have a higher price tag attached to them compared to their lecture based counterparts. Why? Logically, it would make sense that an operating system and a professor teaching multiple courses would be more cost effective than paying for multiple professors to teach a course on a campus. However that is not the case. For whatever reason, they usually cost more (depending on what type of class you are taking) and to the financially starved college student, every dollar, every cent that we can save is essential to our survival.

4. You forget about them.

Deadlines are important. You miss one, and you can risk passing a class, or making your GPA weep silently in the corner condemning you for your poor choices. People find it easier to remember a deadline with a professor either blatantly reminding you of an important date or carefully dropping subtle hints during class. Either way, it is easy to lose track of what needs to get done in an online course when comparing it to real world problems. Organization is key in college and life, add an online class to the mix and you better have your trapper keeper ready because you cannot afford to "forget."

5. Cheating is tempting, and rampant.

Like a forbidden doughnut, it is all too tempting. Yes. there are safeguards in place to prevent cheating. But with an online class, EVERYTHING is ultimately online. Quizzes, tests, midterms, and the final exam are all online. And to the savvy student (dare I say mastermind) it is easy to step around the measures put up to prevent the unethical practice. Whether it be Googling the answers on your cellphone, covering up your webcam, gathering and taking the test with other students, using the textbook when you are barred from doing so, there could be another listicle dedicated to how to cheat in an online course. Which you should not do. BAD STUDENT. It is WRONG.

6. You don't feel like you have learned as much as you could have.

With no other students around you. The lack of a classroom setting which you have been used to your entire life, and the temptation of cheating (and if you do it) there is a feeling that you experience where you felt like had you taken the alternative, you could have learned more and possibly be more successful. Now in some of the general education courses that we are all forced to take, I'll admit, this could be a pro. But in classes that directly relate to and correlate with our majors and minors, we are missing out on valuable opportunities that could affect us in our future careers. No professor to get close with who could be a valuable reference, or no classmate who could be a friend in your field in the future. There is a legitimate sense that one is missing out when taking an online course, and if you are in college, is it not the goal to learn as much as you can?

7. At first, it can require a computer science degree to understand the OS.

We all know that "any" is literally any random key on the keyboard (poor Homer) but for some of us, our computer literacy ends there. Eventually the quirks and frustrations of the software can be understood, but in the beginning there is often a steep learning curve with online classes. That is valuable time that can be channeled and used in other more valuable practices. Also, when a student is having difficulty in using the system, it could negatively impact their class performance, which is a highly unfortunate situation that we, collectively as students, would like to avoid. And it is better to avoid feeling frustrated and insignificant by your laptop. Personally, I would rather feel the same level of incompetence standing before a professor, whom I know has far more real world experience than the circuit boards sitting on my desk.

8. No Blackboards? Let's use Discussion Boards.

With the lack of a classroom environment, our usual habitat as students, discussion boards are often implemented to create the idea that everyone is interacting and learning through an online community. It is a huge load of bologna. Discussion boards are relatively simple. A concept, an idea, is presented, and all students are expected to elaborate, comment, make a statement, or critique on the professor's post. In essence they are encouraged to create a discussion, and then usually comment on some other students posts. A sound idea. But in practice it just leads to a bunch of filler paragraphs from students who hastily put down anything they know will appease the professor and gain them points. As suggested above, we could all be a bunch of monkeys and no one would know the difference. Where in a classroom, this would be much more difficult to pull off. People are more engaged when speaking, and many learn better this way. Rather than typing a bunch of sentences at 11:53 while eyeing the clock as it gets closer to the 11:59 due date.

9. The professor. Who are they?

There might be a short bio describing the professor, there will always be a form of contact information, but usually that's it. Some of the best interactions I have had on campus have been with my professors. Taking away that element is a huge loss, and it feels weird to be communicating with a profile picture (if one exists). The communication between professor and student is fundamental in college. The back-and-forth emails and instant messages lose sincerity and identity. It is despairing, but less likely to occur if they are in front of a real classroom than cyberspace. Professors are people too. It is important that you get to know and understand them on a human level and not to be separated by a veil 0's and 1's.

10. The FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) effect and Online Courses

College. We all have so many stories to share. A part of that is the random factor of human nature. Combined with the new liberties and freedoms there is some strange things that are seen on a campus. The students wearing costumes or pajamas to class, the impromptu musical sessions, people sneaking odd things into class (food, alcohol, puppies, I've seen it all) there is so much that happens on a campus. Why miss out? When taking online courses you are committing yourself to be away from it all. A college campus is a delightfully weird and wonderful place full of learning. It is not only occurring in the classroom, but in the surrounding campus, dorms, clubs, and communities that form a college. I would rather be thrust into this world than sit at home in my pajamas all day. Wouldn't you?