This semester marks my enrollment in the most online classes I have ever been in at once. This semester has also cemented my dislike for online classes, especially when they are literature classes. A literature college class is based almost completely in discussion. You read a book. You come into class. You discuss the reading with your peers, as guided by the professor.

Yes, this is doable in an online setting, but it is not nearly as genuine or constructive as an in person discussion. It's hard to see online discussion as actual discussion, at least for me. I have a hard time visualizing people as actual people in forums. Instead, it just feels like I am doing an assignment or writing a paper. Online discussion is too constrained for my liking.

For me, online classes seem like a never-ending to do list to stress about and check off. I don’t learn as much as I believe I would in an in-person class. My main concern is to get everything done, and that is my focus is — getting things done, not learning or growing from them. I question why I have to watch three lecture videos, go through a PowerPoint and watch a YouTube video in one week.

This is not including the assignment workload, including the ever-present online discussion I cannot stand. When I am actually going to class, I don't feel this way. I understand that that is class time, and I am ready for learning. Online classes bring me resentment because I feel like it is my time, not class time, that I am having to use.

In short, I wish I didn’t have to take as many, or any, online classes. I appreciate that they are offered, and that some people may love them or have no other choice. I myself am not one of these people.