Are online college courses successful?

Question

I am a freshman at UH (University of Houston) and I was thinking about switching to an online college after my spring semester. Is that a bad idea? Is it more expensive? Can I still get financial aid for online colleges? Can I train to be a nurse? What is the best online college to register for?

Answer 1

I am taking my pre reqs for nursing school online right now. I really like them but not all of them are offered like microbiology and such. Nursing school also is not offered online at my school but there are some that let you do all the work at home and go to a predetermined teaching hospital for your clinicals its a accelerated program. I like them because I can work on my own time and not have to be somewhere at a certain day and time but you have to be very diligent about it or you will fail. Good Luck

Answer 2

An online course is only as successful as you make it. You have to be comfortable with technology, motivated to learn, and disciplined. You should already be well acquainted with higher education and the rigors it takes to succeed in a college-level class.

Some colleges charge more for their online classes, while others do not. Whether the college is public or private will play a part in determining how much you will pay for your classes. Financial aid should be available.

If you decide to pursue online education, be sure that you are enrolling in a college that is properly accredited (this usually means a regional accreditation, such as the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the Southern Association, the Northeast Association, etc). With a professional program such as nursing, you will also want to make sure it is recognized by the Board of Nursing. Online programs are offered in nursing; I believe one is offered by collaboration in the University of Wisconsin system).

By the way: Online learning came about as a response to public demand and need. It is not a "make money for less work" scheme, as someone implied (the type of work required of the college and its faculty is different, but it does not decrease. In some ways, it's even more difficult). The average age of college students is getting higher, which means that our students typically have family and work commitments that prevent them from attending regularly scheduled campus meetings. Online learning allows students to take classes when they otherwise cannot.

Answer 3

Online programs, like any college program, depends on the individual school, how well it is set up, and how self-disciplined the student is to keep up with studies while not in a formal classroom.

There are many expensive online programs. Before pursuing them, check with your state universities. Many of them now offer online programs of study and will be much less expensive than those private college programs.

Presently, I am working on a double major for an MBA and and MSE (two master's degrees concurrently!) Online through a local state university.

There are pros and cons to doing it online. As an undergraduate student, I recommend you sit in a classroom. You are a freshman and just beginning to get the feel of what is expected in a college course. My daughter is a sophmore and she feels that being in the classroom provides things that online programs do not. Actual lectures for example, which provide opportunities to ask questions about the material with the instructor right there. Online programs, in contrast, require you to study and learn from the text alone, write papers, and take exams. There are no lectures for discussion.

Online programs do often have discussion board to try to compensate for that lack, but it is not the same.

Overall, Online programs can be very good for some people, but they are not for everyone. There are ads for expensive, private school programs, but you can often do just as well with a state university program, so look there first. Both programs will offer the same financial aid programs from the government, such as PELL Grants and Student Loans. Take the grants, but avoid the loans if you can. You don't want to graduate with a huge debt over your head.

Some people already posted that you do not get the indepth learning that a classroom offers. That does depend on how well the program is set up. Online education is not a fad or wave. The courses I take are very difficult and comprehensive. Unlike many classroom courses I've taken, everyone of these has covered every chapter of the text. I've written extensive papers, such as my paper for Global Entrepreneurship, which was on U.S. businesses doing business in China in ligh of the human rights violations. It was a 30 page paper requiring a minumum of 20 cited references.

There's the rub with trying to do this as a college Freshman: Until you've written enough papers with an instructor available to look at what you've done, make corrections, let you rewrite it.... you do NOT want to do that online. We have one chance. We write the paper, turn it in, and get a grade. My undergraduate experience in the classroom prepared me for that. By the way, I did get an A on the paper. :o)

Good Luck to you!

Sue

Answer 4

In answer to your questions:
Is that a bad idea?
NO
Is it more expensive?
Not necessarily. May even be much less expensive
Can I still get financial aid for online colleges?
Depends on the college
Can I train to be a nurse?
Possibly, but you would probably need to take the lab classes on campus
What is the best online college to register for?
One that is accredited. More more info on accredited online colleges, try:
http://www.distancelearningdegree.com/

Answer 5

Online college (or any correspondence course) is like reading Cliff's Notes instead of the classic. You'll get the same idea, but it's just not the same experience. You'd be robbing yourself of the depth and enjoyment of real learning.
Especially if you're training to be a nurse - no book or website can show you what a vein *really* looks like, how to calm an irate patient, the feel of the tumor beneath your patient's skin.

Take pride in your education and your work, go for the best. Use online courses to supplement, not replace, your learning.

Answer 6

You can still get financial aid.. It costs the same amount at 99% of colleges.. I do mine online through a local college.. I started off taking classes in person there.. Then switched to online.. So i can do it whatever I want.. and its a lot easier to take tests.. with the book infront of ya.. lol.. However you can't train to be a nurse online.. you have to do some parts in person.. You can do about anything else..

Answer 7

I think online college courses are just easier in general... my friend went on home hospital for a year, and in order to get credit to graduate (high school), she had to do online classes with a tutor (that sucked) and came like once a week to "help" her out. I would think the same concept applies to college classes. Online classes are less diverse/creative (since there's no teacher to help you understand through lectures, experiments, activities, examples, etc.), so it's probably based on memorization and learning textbook-style, which is MUCH easier in my opinion than critically thinking (that teachers make you do in class). And probably they can cheat since they're at home with privacy, and not in front of a teacher.

Answer 8

I believe STRONGLY that the online courses are a new wave going on right now but it is all geared to getting MORE money and doing less. I strongly feel that he courses are 90% worthless and I did take one one time but NEVER again