Carter Droz
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While online courses can be difficult for some, I have been able to manage my time well enough to keep up with my classes, while working at my own steady pace. This flexibility has been greatly appreciated over the course of the school year so far.
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– Carter Droz
I originally began my college courses during my Junior year of high school because it was a great opportunity to try college courses out. At the time, classes were mostly in person, although I did take one hybrid class and really enjoyed the flexibility of it. This hybrid English class only required that we meet two days a week which allowed me to have more personal time to do work. This was also helpful because I was not constantly going to the school, and I could work and attend my high school classes quite well with my schedule. But even though we only met twice a week, it was enough for me to get help from the teacher when I needed it. In addition to a hybrid class, this whole 2020–2021 school year, my classes have been completely online. Currently, this Winter Quarter, I am taking an art class, which has plenty of instruction in the videos posted to help me in my drawing. One of the key things that has been especially helpful are the discussions in which everyone posts their drawings, and we critique each other. I believe this is where most growth is made in this type of hands-on class. While online courses can be difficult for some, I have been able to manage my time well enough to keep up with my classes, while working at my own steady pace. This flexibility has been greatly appreciated over the course of the school year so far.
Although I have done well in my classes so far, the subject is especially important. One class I took in the Fall Quarter, Physics, was horribly difficult to take online. Physics can be very mind boggling, so it is nice to have it in person, but that was not an option at the time. Prior to this course, I was enrolled in a high school physics class and had a lot of fun in it, while learning a lot through demonstrations and labs. It is hard to do all of this in an online class which I believe made things quite difficult at times, but I did still learn a lot and the instructor did compensate for it when grading. Although the virtual labs we went through were awkward, and difficult to use at times, I still came out of the course with more knowledge than I went in with. I even began to look at things in my own life differently after learning how physics work in the world we live in!
The benefits of online courses certainly outweigh the negative aspects. While there are some classes that do not benefit from their online structure, I think it has opened many doors for students in the classes that are more fit for it. Not to mention, there are plenty of resources available such as drop-in zoom meetings where we can get help in math or whatever is needed. There are even laptops that can be rented from the school! Overall, there was most definitely a learning curve when switching to online courses, but because of how flexible they are with my schedule, I can do so much more while maintaining my job, and getting the most out of the class on my own time!