Online College

I have been a college student for exactly 7 weeks now. As an "expert" on virtual schooling, I thought I'd start commenting on the college level as well.

A little bit of history: Many years ago (1995?) someone came up with the brilliant idea of using this new phenomenon (the internet) to help educate computer nerds. The online curriculum was begun. Within a very few years, many companies began to try to sell computer based training. These mainly focused on A+ certification (how to fix a computer) networking and proprietary software (Oracle, Microsoft, Red Hat etc) Some of these programs were very very good, some were scams to separate the unsuspecting person from their money. Years past and the programs offered grew exponentially. By 2001 there were full colleges online and just about any technical training could be found there. But, because of the wild west attitudes that pervaded the industry in the early years, skepticism of the media abounded. (the is why to this very day, the US Armed Services does not recognize virtual schooling in any form)

There are many programs now available for online college classes. Kaplan and University of Phoenix are two biggies. These programs have a long history (well, in context it's long.... maybe ten years) of decent course ware taught by decent instructors. I have no direct experience with either program. I do know, as a former human resources employee, the sight of these two on a resume was neither a big plus or a big minus. It will get your toe into the door - but it won't cause the door to open. But, these companies, and many others, made a LOT of money in the early 2000's. And, struggling Universities saw that this was a way to increase revenue. MIT began putting ALL of it's course ware online in 2004. (You only get credit if you pay for the class) Stanford began offering online high school classes (more on this topic another time) Big names gave credibility to the idea of college online.

Today, you can take classes from the University of Wisconsin and it is entirely online. It has the same name that goes on the resume, same impact for human resources. But, it has the convenience (and difficulties) of being entirely online. They only offer an associates degree, but they will guarantee that all credits received will be transferable within the UW system.

I have been a UW Colleges student for 7 weeks now. I am taking my midterms this week. (wish me luck) Some of the coursework has been pretty good. My psychology class is very effective. The teacher is readily available. There is a focus on making students participate in class discussions. The course takes advantage of the myriad of material online that is available to enrich the learning. My math class is not so good. The material is written by someone who apparently understood math, but not English. There are lots of practice problems that a person can do, but unless you buy both the student and the teachers text, you don't have all of the answers. The teachers (there are two of them, they swap in and out throughout the semester) are not the fastest at answering questions. (48 hours or so)

I have four courses that I am taking. Two are really quite good, two are not. That seems to be the downfall of all virtual schooling. Some people just don't get it. They know how traditional classrooms function. They know how to teach one on one or in a large lecture hall. But, they don't understand the differences and subtleties of online schools.