Hello, I am currently a junior in a international school in South Korea. When I say online course, I am not talking about online course for credit or school course but just free online course with certificates. I am thinking of majoring biology when I get into college. To pursue my interest, I am thinking take an Advance Biology. Do you think this would be helpful extracurricular activity?
Not really. If it is something that has value academically, it will be on a transcript and be part of an academic record. And not an EC. I could sort of see it if you took a class and essentially self taught yourself a skill for an EC that you are involved with. Like you do amaetur paleontology or amaetur astromony (two areas amaeturs can and do contribute to science) and you supplemented your knowledge that way, or you like games and took online course in game dev. and programming to make your own.
@BrownParent So like I am thinking of taking advance biology online course to supplement my science club. I am not like trying to right the course itself as an ec. Would this be helpful? Thank You!~
It is fine to take if it interests you. I just don’t see those online classes as that impactful. It isn’t a graded class with a transcript. You don’t have a lab to go to. So do it for your own interest sure. But you ask if this is helpful and my own opinion is that it is fine but I don’t really consider it an extracurricular of impact. But I don’t know everything, maybe someone else has an opinion.
I do. 
It’s not an EC, IMO. Or certainly not one that will matter to colleges. Certainly feel free to take the course if you want it to quench your thirst for knowledge, though.
ECs provide important “beyond the classroom” learning in crucial areas such as leadership, organizational skills, teamwork, self-discipline and self-sacrifice. management, and so forth. This online course offers NONE of these important attributes. I wouldn’t consider it to be an EC, nor would I grant any academic benefit for it (it’s not transcript included or graded and there’s no way to verify to verify that you even took the course).