Wtf is that like? Does the professor e-mail you everyday or something? Do you take the tests online too?
It's a great idea, but good luck finding one that works.
You'll likely be asked to buy a book or books, read them, do assignments based off of said book or books (such as essays, etc.) and occasionally do some weird out-there assignments. I had to cobble together a ruins diagram using MSPaint for an online archaeology class, in fact.
Beware, though, it's a lot of work in very little time. You'll typically be asked to read 200+ page books in the span of a day.
Be prepared to do more work though. Heavy reading assignments are the norm and many will give more work to offset the fact that you're not in class. If you're already living on campus or you live close by, it is often easier to just go in person.
quote:
nem-x had this to say about Duck Tales:
Required discussion board postings GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHGRHHHHHHHHHH
And on WebCT no less. I hated that fucking POS software.
And yeah, there's often more reading to do, though theyre may or may not be more assignments -- it is dependent on the professor. Most of the assignments will, however, be in essay form. I'm taking two online classes this semester and we have 2 3-5 page essays in one along with fun required discussion board postings. The other has four 3-5 page essays for it. I never got it as bad as Parcelan, though -- never had to read anything near a 200 page book. Course, my online classes have been full 16-week deals. We get the normal 50-100ish pages a week of reading + assignments.
The classes suck if you're the type that leans more from writing what you go over in class since, well, there's no lecture in the traditional sense.
But yeah, the worst part is the discussion board postings, more ofthen than not. I lucked out this semester -- most of the time, you're required to reply to shit like "Yeah, I agree". Seriously. That's IT.
Online courses are much more the type of course where you get out what you put into it. In-person classes are like that, but only to a lesser degree. Falaanla Marr fucked around with this message on 03-13-2007 at 10:12 PM.
So far I've had one class where there were required discussion postings (which I didn't mind as there were a few intelligent people in that course) and the rest have been emails to the professors/quizzes.
The biggest thing with online courses is to stay motivated and keep on top of your work. Since there's generally no required times for courses apart from due dates it's very easy to procrastinate until the final day. Tegadil fucked around with this message on 03-13-2007 at 10:26 PM.
My literary masterpieces course has reading, 2 750+ word essays, self-assessment tests that are open note/open book, regular discussion board postings of 250 words minimum and a midterm and final that are open note/open book, but our midterm was mostly essays or short answer asking us to describe the relationship of these characters or to reveal the context of this quote, etc. We also have PowerPoint lectures that are pre-done to tie up everything that we're assigned to read.
Everyone's right in that you will get a *lot* to read because it's an online course. My online courses have seemed to go in bigger chunks, but the flip side is the teacher realizes a lot of folks doing online (at least at my school) probably work full time and can't make the usual class hours. So they're lenient in giving extensions if you just explain why, or not so nazi with due dates as they would be if you were actually in the class.
Lyinar Ka`Bael, Piney Fresh Druidess - Luclin
