Thoughts on online school?

[lera_elizabeth]

I'm one of those people who left high school and enrolled in an online high school. I ended up graduating a year early, and now (at the age of 18) I am working on my bachelors of business degree also with an online school. I'm curious as to what everyone thinks about traditional school vs. virtual school.

[TrishaAnn92]

I think it really all depends on the person. I am fine with both. I loved going to school both high school and college. I am planning on going back to school but with kids I think I will try online college when I am ready.

That's great by the way that you graduated early and are now working on your bachelors!

[GBPhoenix17]

I am taking a few online classes right now and I love them compared to normal lecture classes. I can plan my schooling around my life instead of the other way around. As long as you are willing to put in work when no one is telling you to everyday I think online classes can be very beneficial. But then you also loose the college experience and the social life that goes with it. I am not a very social person myself, but I still enjoy the social aspects of college.

[lera_elizabeth]

@TrishaAnn92 Thanks! Its hard work haha

@GBPheonix17 Yeah I agree totally, with doing online school, you miss out on the social experiences. It can get hard at times. But I think in the long run online school is more beneficial. In my case at least, ill have my degree at the age of 19. And its cheaper. What classes are you taking?

[GBPhoenix17]

My online classes right now are:
-English Comp
-Business Stats &
-Business & It's Environment

[lera_elizabeth]

Sounds interesting! I'm working on my fundamentals of accounting now

[CourtneyRac1]

I think Online School can be really easy. I was in a public school my whole life until my junior year of highschool. For the last two years of my highschool career, I was homeschooled. It was definitely a different experience for me. Especially since I'm a huge into being social. After a year of just being at home and not going out anywhere due to money being tight, it was hard because I didn't have any friends and the people that I made "friends" with in highschool didn't seem to contact me anymore just because I wasn't physically going to school with them. However in my senior year, I moved away to a brand new area, got a job, and made some long life friends that didn't judge me for being homeschooled like my fellow colleagues did. Which is very nice. I definitely don't regret making the choice I made being homeschooled.

[lera_elizabeth]

@CourtneyRac1 the same exact thing happens to me! It is easy but the being at home part is probably the toughest thing, also losing your friends.

[crazyreader12]

As an instructor of online college courses I can say it takes time management and focus to do online classes. Not to mentiong good grammar and writing. It depends on your lifestyle, work, and social obligations.

[readerromance2003]

I went to college online and received my Bachelor's degree in Paralegal and Law Enforcement and I highly recommend it. I found that the experience was much better for me because I tend to learn quicker on my own when I can go at my own pace. I also found that I interacted more with my fellow students because a requirement of the courses I was taking was that I had to post one main post in each topic and up to 3-4 responses to fellow classmates posts each day.

[lera_elizabeth]

That's awesome! Good for you! How long did it take you to complete the whole program? And did you ever have a hard time finding the motivation for it? Because that's what I'm struggling with at the moment, the motivation to sit down and study.

[anomalocaris]

I think online high school is a great option, because you're only learning basic skills. What I've seen of online colleges, however, doesn't have me convinced that a person can go that route and still meet the same standards as a traditional school.

[readerromance2003]

That's awesome! Good for you! How long did it take you to complete the whole program? And did you ever have a hard time finding the motivation for it? Because that's what I'm struggling with at the moment, the motivation to sit down and study.

It took me about 2 years but I already had my associates from CCORI and I was taking four classes at a time except for one semester when I was moving from Rhode Island to El Paso and I only could handle two classes. As I mentioned before I have always learned better by reading and researching topics on my own so online college worked well for me in this aspect. For motivation, I kept reminding myself that it would all be worth it in the end and I will not lie sometimes I wanted to slack off but with online classes it can be real easy to fall behind.
I also found that breaking the assignments up into parts was the easiest. For example, let's say in one class the assignments are divided by 2 weeks for each section. Here's what I would do:
1. Read what the assignments are and what is expected of you. Make sure you know how much the teacher expects you to reply to other students posts, when your main posts need to be in by, if a team assignment is required for that week and what it is and who will be team leader, if you have any quiz you need to take, is there any homework assignments, and what reading you should do for the 2 weeks.
2. By the third day of the section I would have all my individual work done and posted to the question section and teamwork section as well as the reading done.
3. On day four, I would start reading and posting at least 2-3 responses to other classmates responses. I would do this at least every other day if not everyday to show I was participating.
4. Day six, seven, and eight I would also work on any homework assignment and make sure I had it in by day nine.
5. Day ten or eleven I would take the quiz and continue responding to fellow classmates in each section.
6. Day twelve after double checking everything is done rest and then start the whole process again.
This was how I handled it but you need to create a method that works best for you. Just don't get to the point where you feel so overwhelmed that you want to just wait till the last minute because believe me that is when it really becomes stressful.
One other helpful tip is if your classes require teamwork assignments, make sure that you and your teammates come to an agreement in the beginning of who is responsible for what in each up coming unit! If you don't, some team members may try to leave you and one or two other team members to do all the work and then they claim they helped. If this occurs bring it to the attention of your teacher because with online classes you already have enough responsibility for the work that you need to do and having someone else take credit for the work you and a few other team members did together is wrong.