Which is better: signing up for a required class that meets at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or taking the class online, conveniently located inside your computer?
ASU online course offerings keep expanding, and in some ways, it makes sense. Web-based classes are cheaper for the University to operate, and for those with hectic schedules, they are easier to squeeze in.
Sitting in your bed writing random discussion posts that marginally summarize the readings you “did” can certainly be much easier than rolling out of bed at the crack of dawn and sitting in an uncomfortable classroom — but is the result the same?
As a basic rule of learning, students can only get out of a class what they put in.
But in the case of online classes, students are only able to get out of a class what their professor puts into it. And in our minds, a 6-year-old lecture video and a “turn it in, get a 100 percent” mentality doesn’t exactly constitute an “A” for effort.
And students are really good about picking up on the exact threshold of effort needed to pass a standard college class.
Let’s be honest: If you’re in an online class with a friend, what is the likelihood you’ll participate in “collaborative learning” (aka taking tests together)?
It’s probably pretty high, and if you’re able to resist that temptation, it can put you at a disadvantage compared to your classmates.
At least when you’re going over the material with another person, you’re engaging with the topic more than you can with a computer screen — discuss the topic as much as you want, it will never make up for an actual classroom discussion.
Online classes can be a cakewalk — usually the biggest stress involved is remembering when assignments are due. And adding more busywork to the syllabus doesn’t improve the course — it just forces students to improve the way they get around that work.
Think about it this way: Are you actually learning if you’re assigned to read three chapters on the Westphalia Treaty and then take a quiz on it?
As soon as you take the quiz, doesn’t most of the information slowly seep out of your brain? And how hard is it to forego the reading and look everything up on Wikipedia?
While we’re not encouraging a lazy academic approach, we understand that we live in a Google age where we can look up anything, anytime. With no actual human interaction, what does an online class offer that the Internet itself does not? Do we just pay for online classes to get an easy “A” and to get credit for our major, and if so, why even bother with an institution of higher learning?
Without a doubt the approach to online classes has to be reevaluated if these classes are part of a University curriculum. Attending class in our pajamas is a pretty sweet deal — but we’d also appreciate learning something with our tuition dollars, too.
