Today’s college student is not always the typical 18 year old that is still dependent on Mom and Dad. Many college students must juggle full-time jobs and families while taking classes. You may be considering taking some online courses in an effort to improve your work/life balance. There are certain courses that are excellent options for an online classroom. Some good subjects that lend themselves to online education include:
General Education Courses—although a general education course may be a challenging option for online education, you can make it work for you. If you are not an education major and are just taking the class for credit, check to see if the class is available as a pass/fail option. If it is, you can work towards passing the class online and getting it out of the way. If you just need to take the class to meet a credit requirement this would be a great option because it would take a lot less time and effort that sitting through a classroom lecture.
Sociology—an excellent subject to study online as it requires a lot of reading about human society and nature. There will also be a lot of case studies to read. The downside of an online sociology course is that if you are taking a self-paced course you will miss out on the discussions. It would be best if you took an online course that actually had online discussion of the sociology topics. Other than that sociology is definitely a great candidate for online study.
Psychology—another great candidate for online study because they typically cover statistics and how to report those statistics and reading about studies that were done previously. Learning to write more concise reports is a skill that you can learn on your own with practice at your own pace.
Basic History—an introductory history course is perfect for online studying because it consists primarily of putting facts, dates and places to memory. Since you do not have to be in a classroom to do this, taking a history class online is pretty much the same online or offline.
Health Education—a very basic health education or physical education course is usually a requirement for graduation at most colleges. It’s a good idea to take these classes online because they usually do not require much effort on your part and the time that you save can be used to study for classes that pertain to your major.
There are several other issues that you need to take into consideration when choosing an online class. These include:
Class Size—although you are taking a virtual class you still want to have one-on-one interaction with your instructor. It’s a good practice to select online classes that have limited enrollment. Finding out ahead of time how many students are admitted to the online class is a great way to help you decide which online class is best for you.
Technical Requirements—make sure that you are aware of the technical requirements to participate in the course. The requirements should be listed on the school’s website along with the course information, if not, contact the support department.
Class Interaction—for certain coursework classroom interaction is very helpful. There should be some type of message board where classmates can ask questions and discuss pertinent information about the class.
Technical Support—ensure that the technical support is adequate by testing it out before signing up for the class.
Transferrable Credits—unless you are taking your online course at the same school where you do your other coursework, make sure that the classes are being offered for college credit and that they are transferrable to your school of choice.
Referrals—ask other students who are taking online courses for feedback about their classes. Specifically, you want to know about the quality of the instructor and the level of difficulty of the class as well as their likes and dislikes.
Online education offers a great opportunity for students who may otherwise not be able to advance their education. You should thoroughly research the many options available and select the class or school that will best meets your needs.