It wasn't until the spring semester of my freshman year of college that I realized how hard online classes actually are. I have found out that I am the type of student who prefers sitting through a lecture, rather than taking an online course where I have to teach myself the material.
During my spring semester, I had to take some courses that were only offered online and it was quite the challenge. At first, I assumed that online classes would be easy because I would not have to focus on them every single day; just as long as I submitted my assignments each week on time. However, I found that some of my online classes were more challenging compared to classes I had to attend in person.
Personally, I found out that taking an online class requires a lot of self-motivation and self-dedication. The student has to be dedicated in order to teach themselves the material and meet the due dates without having to wait until the last minute to do a lot of work. There were some times where I found myself in the situation of doing a never-ending checklist of work that was due 2 hours before the submission deadline. Talk about stressful times. I quickly found out that you really have to plan out your time accordingly to ensure that everything gets completed in just enough time.
Online classes are designed to leave you to decide whether or not you want to spend an hour each day working on it (which I highly advise), or do it all last minute. Online classes require the student to take a great deal of initiative and really invest time in learning since their learning is entirely up to them. I learned a very valuable lesson that it is important to treat online classes as a lecture with mandatory attendance requirements.
All in all, I learned that taking an online class can actually be a lot harder than taking a class in person. However, I also learned that is all about self-motivation and self-dedication, and thank God for Starbucks to help get through the due dates of the assignments.
