Distance Education - Online Courses

[puros_bran]

Anyone have any experience with distance education?

Pros? Cons? Did you complete your course of study?

 

[HistoryMajor]

Probably not the same thing as what you're looking at, but I took French in Grade 10 in that way. It was a ton of work, and I found it really, really difficult to get motivated. I did end up finishing the course, but it was quite grueling. I think you would have much better luck if you took something that really interests you.

 

[Wide Awake]

Ive taken classes at Sinclair Community College in dayton Ohio that were full online. Anything with math sucks because your basically self teaching yourself, if you can not figure it out the prof can take their time answering your question. Basically they boil down to this format, read a lesson, write a paper or take a quiz on it. Its not that bad but remember your on your own in learning the material much more so than a traditional classroom class. Another thing to realize that many of the profs are adjucts who are just learning how to teach college classes so their teaching ability varies greatly as they just dont have alot of it under their belt. That said the best classes i have had are traditional with online parts, I have experainced this in both of my Master's programs. In my opinion they are useful for those that have scheduling or other conflicts, but you have to be careful on what you select for classes as it can snowball very easily.

 

[Wet Dottle]

I have taught graduate level engineering courses that way. The students were professionals that enrolled in the course, not university students.

The con was the limited personal contact, which stifles enthusiasm and excitement for the subject. The pro was the ability to go at a more appropriate pace, specially for those that do a lot of work related travel. Never had a single drop out, but that may have been because the people taking the courses had significant professional need for them. My experience is from the point of view of the instructor, and I must say that I much prefer human contact.

I hope my comments are useful to you.

 

[puros_bran]

Yes, I thank you all for your input.

I'm considering 'returning' to school. I have been studying intensely for the past year or so.. It was suggested that I actually spend the dough to get the credit for it.

I have narrowed the field to three accredited Colleges that specialize in my field of study. They all offer online courses, two of them even offer an Associates Degree using online courses.

Its a very tempting idea.

 

[Anonymous]

Go for it dude!

I think I would have to go to a B&M classroom, I don't know if I could concentrate sitting at home on the computer, too many distractions for me.

 

[LL]

... my field of study.

Hmmm... It would have to be one that combines firearms & marksmanship, heavy machinery, tropical vacations, and Tequila.

Ah! Operating an earth mover in the Congo's diamond mines! (You'd have to bring your own Tequila, though.)

 

[Doc Manhattan]

Hmmm... It would have to be one that combines firearms & marksmanship, heavy machinery, tropical vacations, and Tequila.

Ah! Operating an earth mover in the Congo's diamond mines! (You'd have to bring your own Tequila, though.)

With that skill set, maybe PB can take over a small banana republic somewhere.

I, for one, welcome him as Dictator for Life, and am looking forward to enjoying tax-free tobacco on one the island's many sunny beaches.

 

[Carlos]

I did a number of courses online at the local community college. You need to keep up and stay with the program. Check in on the online help times weekly etc. You may have to attend a pre-course meeting and do the midterm or finals at the campus. I even did college Algebra online. For that one I picked up the current book they were using in the on campus courses to help me along. I also made use of purplemath.com. We used a program called Mathematica to display our work when we did it and turned it in.

It's probably a bit harder online to keep that 4.0 grade average. But you gain time at home and not have to be on the road driving to and from school.

 

[puros_bran]

Actually the end goal is a Masters of Divinity.

Oh and just so yall know, I already know how to be a dictator of a Banana Republic. Only thing holding me back is I don't have Colonel Insignia for my utilities.

 

[dougc905]

I did an online addition qualification course to enable me to teach high school physics. Basically, I sat on the couch for a month-and-a-half and did nothing but research & type. I wrote more for that course than I had for any course in the previous 25 years! All this for either a fail, pass, or honours pass. Being type A I went for the honours pass. Got it. All the while, other people did the minimum for a pass. In the end, the honours pass meant nothing professionally.

Given the choice again, I would sit in a classroom and interact with others. That's the key though - is the course available locally or would you have to drive hellish distances or even relocate.

 

[sstodvictory]

What subjects would you want to study remotely? Some of us may work in those fields and could perhaps comment on that basis. I have not taken an online course, but there are some subjects I think it could work well for, based on my professional experience. It could work well for computer programing, for instance. In that field much of one's practical learning, problems you need to work through when developing code, is effectively accomplished online.

Steve

Eeek! Should have finished reading the thread. Divinity...don't know about that.

.

 

[puros_bran]

Doug I truck for a living. The more I could finish before needing to come off the road the better off I would be.

 

[dougc905]

The more I could finish before needing to come off the road the better off I would be.

Then the choice is clear. Your next step may be to investigate which of these institutions will provide you with extra support beyond a keyboard. So if you get stuck or just want to clarify or even need a pep talk, you will be able to get the support. After all, for the price of a course, you'd expect more than just a computer interface.

 

[Slow Puffs]

I would go for it, PB. You show an enormous amount of knowledge in my discussions with you. The advantage of a class room is that there is interaction with other students who may or may not challenge you. I don't think you need the classroom setting.

The greatest classroom is the world, for challenges in your area of calling. I've always thought that "mature" students have "been in the world" and what I sense you need or are wondering is this:

"Will this assist me in my ministry?"

Pray about it and He will guide you. I have no experience with Distance Education but I think it might be for you, but I'm not the Big Guy... ask him.

 

[Centurian 803]

PB, I haven't had any experience with on-line courses but I did take the previous incarnation of those courses - correspondence. I took some classes from the Berean School of the Bible and found them quite worthwhile. I'm sure the on-line version would be just as good if not better. God bless.

 

[Anonymous]

I completed my master's in IT from a University of Texas system distance learning program.

 

[Hunter5117]

Back in the mid-90's I did my MBA through what was the first online class for the University of Guelph (Canada) venture into distance learning. UofG is a primarily agriculture school and we were all there for an MBA Ag. It was a heavy course schedule (as much as 40 hrs/week) and all group collaberation based projects. We literally had classmates around the world. We did have a 1 week mandantory on-campus session that was more or less our final exam other than our individual projects.

All in all it was a very rewarding experience. However. Other than giving me access to resources I could not get locally (the dept head was very well connected so we got guest lectures from world experts) it was probably more work than attending a local university content education program.

I am sure the state of the art has evolved considerably (we used lotus notes as our primary interactive environment). I would definitely do it again but maybe not quite as heavy a committment hours wise.

 

[Muddler]

Distance education was all that was available to me. I picked up a Bachelors degree in Economics & a Masters in Business. It was tough but worthwhile.

 

[phillpsych]

One thing to consider is on-site requirements. Some programs require that you be physically present in a classroom for a specified period... a class, a day, a week... depending on the program. I would check that, for sure.
Otherwise, good luck... sounds good to me. Lot's of good advice on this from previous replies.