31 July 2014

Online Classes, Not For Me

What's that you hear?  Oh, that's just me celebrating passing my classes, officially.  That's right, today I found out what I already knew, that I passed the two summer classes I took! What am I doing? Throwing invisible confetti in the air, that's what.

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I wanted to make this post a few weeks ago, but I didn't.  I didn't because what if I had a change in heart and I suddenly liked online classes? Unlikely, yes, but I thought I needed to wait until my semester was over before I started proclaiming why online classes aren't are for me.  But really, it's something that anyone who knows me would already have figured out by now.

First off, let's just briefly discuss my technology issues.  Beside our internet connection being oh so unreliable, I have a hard time operating my laptop on most days.  But seriously, the main problem with my technology issues is the fact that the only thing reliable about our internet connect is that it's gonna be terrible.  Whenever I have a deadline for anything, I can always count on my internet to suddenly disappear!

I've found after taking my first online class through my school this past spring that there were some glitches and random site shutdowns.  I gave the whole thing the benefit of the doubt, because come on, I was a newb and I didn't know any better.  After this eight week semester of site issues I'm calling it, it's not just me, it's also the site.  Believe me, I'm already frustrated with at least one assignment, don't add onto the load by giving me a glitch prone site to deal with too.  A lot of times that I was stressed out and pushing to meet deadlines was because I had put off doing the assignments because I didn't want to deal with the site that would probably glitch five times in one setting.  It makes for a very unhappy student.

The biggest thing: I forget.  I have a poor memory thanks to my Hashimoto's medicine, but when I'm not forced to get dressed, drive at least twenty five minutes and sit in class, in person I will undoubtedly forget that I was supposed to discussion posts on Thursdays. Or that I have ten assignments for one class on top of that exam due on Monday.  I've tried various tactics.  Agenda, writing all that shit down. It worked, for a while. Sticky noting all that shit all over my room, the refrigerator, the bathroom mirror, even my car.  Again, it only worked for a little bit.  There for a while, the only thing keeping me on top of assignments was my friend Maycie nonchalantly reminding me about school.

In the end, I just didn't like taking these classes online.  Maybe it's because I like being able to talk to people in face when we're having a discussion.  Or maybe it's because if I stay in my pajamas too long I inevitably end up back in bed.  For me, online classes are a thing of the past.  I'm going to avoid them if I can.

What about you? Have you taken online classes? Do you like them compared to normal in person classes?


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