I'm writing this as my first online only class is coming to an end for the semester. Coincidentally the course itself focuses on technology as an instructional platform and wouldn't make sense any other way. It is like taking a Spanish class by going to Spain--complete immersion. While I've not had much experience using computers and hypermedia technologies in my experience as a student through secondary school, I was fairly internet-literate before enrolling in this class. Even so, most of all our projects (or modules) were new to me. In some cases I had never even heard of the topic in question (i.e. Wikispaces). I found the course to be refreshing in that I could carve out my own time and pace myself to complete projects. Some sped by; others seemed to take forever and required a lot of research.
On the other hand, I was simultaneously enrolled in a "hybrid" course, where most of the assignments were completed online, and the class met face-to-face only four times in four months. While this particular class had little to nothing to do with "technology," it, too, was a great opportunity for me to pace myself and complete tasks on my own schedule.
Regarding online schooling, (aside from my initial trepidation,) I experienced no hiccups along the way--everything went smoothly and communication from my professors was reliable.
I still think I prefer the advantage to and accountability of a traditional, face-to-face class; but this semester really opened my eyes to the advantages of hybrid and online-only courses.
Like you, this was my first online course ever and I was very nervous about it. I agree that I still feel more comfortable with traditional classes, but I learned a lot more about technology with the course being set up in this manner. I loved your comment about being totally "immersed" in technology for this course. I hadn't really thought of it that way. Thanks for the insight and good luck in the future!
ReplyDeleteI was pretty nervous about doing online classes for the first time as well, so far I have really enjoyed it. I worried most about the pacing for myself, if I would be diligent enough to get the work done on time, but I found that the pace and working on my own schedule were very convenient and worked out well for me. I agree that face-to-face has it's advantages but like you everything went very smoothly in my experience as well.
ReplyDelete