Five Reasons Why Online Classes Are Pretty Awesome

I first started teaching online over 10 years ago, and at the time I was still pretty new to online learning. But I was intrigued by all the possibilities. As a Gen Xer, I didn’t exactly grow up with a cell phone in my hand like my Gen Z daughter. But I am a proud child of MySpace, Yahoo Instant Messenger, and the America Online disc that came in the mail. Remember Tom with that goofy photo, decorating your MySpace page, and the chat rooms?…*sigh* Memories! Those were the days.

I still remember how thrilling it was to download music from Napster. Of course it took like an hour to download one song, but so what? It was FREE! And I’m old enough to remember the melodic sound of Internet dial up and the booming voice announcing “You’ve got mail!” Of course it was only one email, but it was a score!

So the idea of taking classes online is something I’ve always embraced because I love thinking that anyone can have access to an education, whether they live in rural middle America or an urban, concrete jungle in the city; whether they were born into a wealthy family with a trust fund or they are a single mom hoping to have enough money for the light bill, groceries and Pampers on pay day.

Online education defies time and space. Textbooks can be optional. A babysitter is optional. Gas money is unnecessary. All you need is a will to succeed, access to a computer and a quiet space to think. The only background noise is the sound of your fingers clicking on the keyboard of your computer.

Here are five reasons why I think online classes are pretty awesome:

1.      You can develop meaningful communities of discourse and thought with your instructor and classmates. As an online instructor, I’ve found that as long as you engage early and often with students you can develop trusting and open relationships with them. Students often email me asking for mentoring advice and post insightful discussion responses using very personal experiences to create dynamic and engaging online discussions. I've had students initiate text or phone conversations, where I’ve been able to coach and mentor them to an extent that I can’t say I’ve experienced in the face-to-face classroom.

When naysayers are skeptical about the power of online discussions, I point them to the heated debates I’ve seen develop on Twitter, FaceBook and even *gasp* LinkedIn. I reference the friendships many of us have developed IRL (In Real Life) with people we’ve met through social media or even the love many of us have found from “swiping right.” I met my husband of five years, who is my soulmate and my all-around best friend, on a dating app. And we couldn’t be more different! He’s a fast-talking, slick, Italian barber from Queens, New York. I’m a Black British free spirit, wanna be hippie, with something to prove. It definitely wasn’t a traditional pairing, but the Internet removes those types of barriers. And guess what? The same thing happens in the online classroom!

2.      Online learning increases accessibility. I typically teach nontraditional students. Many of them would find attending classes on campus weekly almost impossible. Some have been in the military reserves or salespeople with irregular schedules where they had to travel frequently out of town. Many have been parents with a lack of resources for childcare. A few worked more than one job and would not have been able to travel to campus in the evenings, losing the additional income they needed to support their families.

Online education removes those obstacles, giving students the ability to develop training, skills, and knowledge they would not otherwise have access to.

3.      For schools that have invested in the utilization of Open Educational Resources (OER), students are able to save a considerable amount of money over face-to-face classes where textbooks are usually required. According to Bloomberg, prices of college textbooks are up 135% since 2001. Schools with online programs committed to OER give students access to high quality information from long-standing initiatives such as MERLOT, OpenStax, and Lumen Learning without the additional exorbitant cost. That's one less bill and one more barrier to access eliminated for a cash-strapped potential student!

4.      Students have multiple touchpoints with their instructor. Online learning often gets a bad rap for instructors not engaging with students. That criticism can be warranted, and accrediting bodies monitoring the quality of online learning at institutions are paying attention. It is becoming more commonplace that online instructors are provided training and are coached on online teaching pedagogy. They are typically mentored by an experienced faculty member on how to engage and provide substantive feedback to learners on a weekly basis, to improve this essential contributor to student success. This comes in the form of weekly announcements, multiple posts in the discussion forum engaging students and posing questions, posting videos. To improve the potential for student success faculty also need to provide detailed feedback on discussion forum responses and assignment submissions and reach out by email, phone, and text to students who are struggling.

The days of students taking an online class as a solo endeavor in a “correspondence-style” environment, while the instructor offers minimal support are definitely a thing of the past. The lack of faculty awareness about the role they play in retention and graduation will continue to be addressed more effectively, as accreditors strive to improve outcomes in online classes and institutions put programs in place to ensure they are able to meet the accreditor’s guidelines

5.      Online classes prepare students for an evolving workplace, where technology will be central to their day-to-day activities and responsibilities. Online classes nurture a collaborative environment IF they are done right. Students are forced to practice the skills potential employers are looking for, such as communication, adaptability, and creativity. In the online classroom environment they are using email, video conferencing, and discussion forums in preparing themselves for a workplace where expertise with these technologies is a definite competitive advantage.

With all of the change in the world and developments over the past few weeks, I can’t say for sure what the future of online learning will be. But I can say it will continue to be a viable and essential modality to increase access to education for students of all backgrounds, demographics, and income levels. And that’s definitely a step in the right direction.