Interesting article. I am currently working on my MBA at Univ of Texas - Dallas and live in Dallas. I find the online program much more convenient and actually more conducive to learning than the on-campus courses. I can learn a lot more in 3 hours of study at home than I can in 3 hours of sitting in a classroom listen to a professor drone on about a subject.
I wouldn't want to return to on-campus classes after tasting the convenience of online classes. The time saved in travelling to and from classes is one factor; the option to listen to recorded lectures at a time that suits my schedule is another; the option to fast-forward a boring lecture is another great relief. Anyone who believes that online classes are easier, then that relates only to the ease of attending. But the motivation to attend and to do the required study still has to come from within and is not magically bestowed upon the student. Online courses are a fantastic, time efficient and cost-effective mode of learning. And because each class has its own online community, just like DI, it is no longer a lonely experience, the way the old correspondence courses would have been. I love it.
Personally I have not found online classes to be easier at all. Right now I am taking 2 classes at a time in 6 week semesters. I feel like I'm running a marathon while trying to play the national anthem on a flute. Possible, but difficult....I get tired. It takes me about 10 to 15 hours a week of reading and work. It amounts to 18 hours a semester and still my 45-50hr a wk job.
While working on my MPA I took some online classes and some on campus. If the school would have offered all of the courses I wanted to take online I would have taken them all. I preferred the convenience of the online format to rigid class schedules. I also liked interacting with students from all over the country and world as opposed to people from the immediate area in the classroom format. This is definitely the wave of the future. I'm considering a Phd but I think I'm going to wait a few more years to see what the offerings become from public universities in the distance learning format. As techonology improves I think the distance learning programs will improve with it.
Ladies and gentlemen distance learning is the wave of the future and I could not be happier about it. The learning opportunities that DL offerers is almost limitless and the method is not lacking in rigor or learning. If you ever meet anyone that thinks online classes are easier, than I'm pretty sure your talking to someone who has never taken one. I believe this revolution in education has just started, so sit back and enjoy the ride .
Interesting article. When I was in undergrad, I took alot of night classes (pre-DL days), for the same reasons. I worked alot during the day and my schedule worked better with a 1 night a week course. If only we would have had computer processors faster than 7mhz!
I expect this is really common. At Keiser and now at Southeastern, I see on campus students taking courses online either for their own convenience or because that's how the course was available in the term the student wanted to take it. -=Steve=-
I'm gonna save that article especially for this part. So good to see it in print... and with a traditional on campus student agreeing.