Online Classes Are Difficult

This is the opinion of a high school student who has much to do but decided to take an online class.

Hannah Garcia, Staff Writer|September 26, 2018

A student is working on their homework.

Simple. Easy. Efficient. That’s what most people believe when they think about online classes. You’re probably thinking “then why is the title saying online classes are difficult?”. Sadly so, it’s because it is the simple truth. Here’s why online classes are difficult.

1. Time Management

I’m pretty sure most of you procrastinate as often as you can. If you don’t, well good for you. In an online class, you have to turn in your assignments on time. Preferably, before the day it is due. Why is that? Well, if you’re taking a foreign language, say Latin or even Chinese, you’d want to familiarize yourself with the grammar and vocabulary. People tend to underestimate the time they need for an assignment. You don’t want to rush your work because then you receive a terrible grade. You have to balance your online classes with your traditional classes as well as your social life and any extracurricular activities you participate in. Late work is not accepted in online classes, unlike in some traditional classrooms. The only time late work is accepted is when you’re sick and even then, your parent is the person that has to email the teacher. So, you can’t necessarily lie to your teacher.

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It’s easy because you can do it on your own time but the thing is that you have to do the work on time

— Lillian Ku

2. Work Load

Some people believe that there’ll be less work when entering an online class. However, it is about the same amount of work you receive in a traditional classroom, sometimes even more. They require the same amount of reading, writing (typing, really), and solving as you do in a traditional classroom– if not more because the lack of face-to-face contact. The work is entirely independent unless stated otherwise by your teacher. When your teacher states otherwise, the people you work with are the classmates you have in the online class. Group projects are not excluded from these classes. So, if you believed group projects don’t exist in online classes, well, that’s false.

3. Communication

You have to communicate with your teacher if you don’t understand something. This is extremely crucial to some teachers because like your traditional classroom teacher, they want to see you succeed. Some teachers will provide you all their information; their phone number, Skype, email, etc. They’ll even sometimes ask you to sign up for their Remind. Also, they provide you their office hours so you know when to contact them best. However, you can always ask questions whenever because they’ll end up responding. The teacher do understand that students are always reaching out to them so they make sure they can be answer every student’s answers. However, students should have to remember that there are others in different parts of the universe taking the course as well.

4. Self-Motivation

You have to motivate yourself to actually do the work and turn it in on time. The success of your online course relies solely on you. Nobody is going to sit beside you and watch you do your work. It’s not like in traditional classrooms where they advise you to do their work and not slack off. It’s harder for people who needs others to motivate them to do their work because they don’t physically have a teacher. It can also be hard for students who like hands-on learning because the online classes are, well, online.

5. Technological Issues

There are times where your laptop can have technical issues as technology is not 100% reliable. A program could crash or the internet connection is weak. This is why teachers sometimes require you to have a back-up plan for when you have technological issues.

Deciding whether you prefer online classes more than traditional classes and vice versa depends on whether you are responsible enough to work on your own. If you know you like to learn online better than in a traditional setting, I would suggest taking online classes. However, if you know you’re going to have difficulties with one of the challenges above, you could either take at least one online class to see how it works out for you or take all traditional classes.

Sources:

https://www.bestcollegesonline.com/faqs/are-online-classes-easier-than-campus-classes/

http://www.educationonline.com/are-online-classes-hard.aspx