Drawbacks to Online Education

When I decided to dedicate this blog to my experience in the IPT WELPS Certificate program, I committed myself to being open and honest in the events that occurred and what I learned about the subject matter for each course.

I knew this wasn’t going to be easy attempting to take a graduate level course online while balancing career and family. Over the last couple weeks, things have come to a head and I’m beginning to regret my choice of taking a course for the Spring semester.

My personal challenges this year are really not all that worthy of illustrating here in this forum.  Let’s be serious, do you really want to hear them?  Personal challenges aside, this semester’s class has a different feel to it.  Unlike the other courses I have taken in this certificate program, the pace at which the discussions have been moving has been staggering.  It’s very difficult to keep up and more often than not, it is nearly impossible to “jump in” to the discussion if you have been away from it for a couple days.

I have other work to do and other obligations to meet.  I don’t live on the class discussion forum, and yet I feel my classmates do.  Nothing against them, but what I’m observing is the biggest drawback to online education in general.  In most courses, the only way for the instructor to measure your contribution to the course is through the number of posts you make to the discussion board.  This is your attendance.  However, I think many people taking these courses mistake quantity over quality even though the instructor clearly states that they are looking for substantive discussion.

It’s too late to drop the course now and even if I did, I would feel as though I failed it.  I have to remember that done is better than perfect in this scenario.  I already have the degree and all I’m doing is working for a certificate of completion to add to it.  Nothing more.

Frustrating… to say the least.

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