Online classes have genuinely been the saving grace of my college career. I always thought I wouldn’t be able to stay motivated enough to take online classes, but I have proved myself wrong. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, I was in 8th grade. I vividly remember missing a few classes because I overslept, or I just didn’t have it in me to log on. The repetitiveness of the online schedule just sucked all of the motivation out of me to want to do school. I think because our whole lives shifted to revolving solely around Zoom meetings and submitting online video assignments, I thought that was what online classes in college would feel like because that’s the experience I had with it. To my surprise, this is just the opposite of what online classes are.
Condensed Online Classes
Online classes in college have allowed me to cut off an entire year of my college degree. I came to college with six transfer credits from dual enrollment in high school. Since then, I have taken multiple online classes over summer and winter sessions, to rack up enough credits to graduate in three years instead of four. Those online summer and winter session classes were condensed five week long courses for three credits each. I really liked these classes because they were completely asynchronous, meaning we had no Zoom meetings at all. During the summer and winter, I work at my old high school job. I work as much as I can, averaging 20-40 hours a week over breaks. The online condensed classes are surprisingly easy to keep up with even with work and taking the occasional trips and vacations. Most of the classes I took, the professors posted work either one week in advance or posted all of the work for the five weeks upfront. This allows you to work on things at your own pace, but you do still have to abide by weekly assignment deadlines. These classes were so beneficial to getting my general education credits out of the way, and most of those classes were perfectly fine to be taken in five weeks. I felt like if I had taken some of them in the fifteen week format, I would have been bored out of my mind.Â
Semester-Long Online Classes
This semester, I decided to add an online course to my schedule. This class does have weekly Zoom meetings, but it’s really not that bad. Sometimes, I do feel unmotivated to join just because it’s different than actually going and sitting in class. The professor taking attendance does really help to incentivize attendance though. I really like the aspect of it where I can go anywhere to join the Zoom. In the beginning of the semester, I was sitting in the hallway of a class building and joining, but as the semester went on I decided to just sit in my dorm room and log on. The best thing about the mobility of this is, now that the weather is becoming nicer, I have been able to go sit outside and log on. This is such a great way to get outside, and I can still be productive and in class. We also only have Zoom meetings on two of our scheduled three days out of the week, which makes it a lot less demanding. What I also find beneficial about having this online class is that it breaks up my schedule. It has allowed me to take six classes this semester, and my other five are all in-person. Having this one online class gives me a break from in-person, and it’s not overwhelming where I am not motivated because it feels like the pandemic again.Â
Overall Benefits
The biggest benefit of these online classes for me has been that I won’t have to pay for another full year of housing here in West Chester. You do have to pay for the tuition of the classes over summer and winter sessions, but in the long run that cost will be way less expensive than another year of housing and rent if I wasn’t graduating a year early. Another general benefit is that I have more flexibility to work and go home to spend time with family. This semester, I was able to configure a schedule where I don’t have classes on Fridays. My online class was part of what made this possible, as the one day we don’t meet over Zoom is on Fridays. I am able to go home on Thursdays, and work through the weekend and see my family. I also really enjoy the more self-paced learning layout of these classes, and the flexibility of location. It was so nice and refreshing to go sit outside in the sun when I was in class this week. I highly recommend if any of this sounds appealing to you, that you try taking an online class and see if it fits into your schedule and your needs!