Breant

I know this thread is over a year old, but I'd thought I'd post my opinion anyway in case anyone is still reading. I went to college the "traditional way" when I first got out of high school 20 years ago. I cannot begin to describe how much I HATED it! I ended up dropping out after 3 semesters because I couldn't stand the thought of going through another 2.5 years.

I felt the lectures were a complete waste of time as most instructors did nothing more than yabber on with material taken straight from the textbook. I know how to read! Plus, my learning style is such that I learn much more when I can read and absorb things on my own rather than have someone explain them to me. Another thing that really irritated me is that in every class it seemed as if there was at least one student who didn't understand the material and had to keep having it explained over and over again much to the boredom of the rest of the class. There also always seemed to be at least one student who liked to monopolize class time speaking just to impress everyone with their intelligence. I eventually stopped going to class except on testing days. I did fine in many classes by just showing up for tests, but there were many more were my grades suffered because of missed pop quizzes or attendance points.

When I first started thinking about completing my degree a few years ago, I registered for a couple of traditional classes just to see if things had changed. They hadn't! I ended up dropping those classes halfway through the semester. Then I started attending "online" classes full-time through a local community college. I finally found what worked for me! The flexibility was so great that I was able to work full-time (40 to 50 hours per week) and still average 18 units per semester. The classes weren't any easier, just way more flexible and no wasted time commuting, finding parking, or sitting through boring and useless lectures. I finished my lower division coursework and transferred to an accredited "online" university (Franklin University) and completed my degree in computer science in only 2.5 years total.

I had way more class interaction in my online classes than I ever did in the traditional ones. I am extremely shy and I was much too intimidated to ever participate in class discussions or group projects in the traditional classroom. I went through 3.5 semesters of traditional college without hardly speaking a word to anyone. However, the anonymity of the online class gave me the courage to participate fully in class discussions and, overtime, built my confidence as I started to see that I could hold my own in these discussions (which sometimes would become quite heated). At the community college level, all the class discussions were conducted on message boards, but once I transferred to the 4-year school, more advanced techniques such as video and teleconferencing were used and group projects were a required part of every class. This further built my confidence and, today, I am comfortable speaking up in any environment whether virtual or face-to-face.

I now work for HP and I have found that my online education has actually given me an advantage over my traditionally-educated coworkers. At HP, meetings are often conducted with people located around the world through video and teleconferencing. When I was first hired many of my fellow recruits seemed very uncomfortable with this mode of communication, but it was nothing new to me! In the global economy of the 21st century, these kinds of "virtual" meetings are becoming more and more commonplace, making the experience of "online learning" even more relevant to the workplace.

I think it all comes down to personal preference. If you are looking for the "full college experience" than you will definitely want to stick to the traditional colleges. However, if you are like me and just want the education necessary to get a good job, online college might be right for you.