Online learning can be good, but it can also be absolutely detrimental to education.
I just graduated from high school in a relatively rural community where online classes were extremely popular among students. You got time in the computer lab, and had an "adviser" for each of your online classes. There were notes, assignments, tests, and quizzes. Sounds great right? Except students quickly discovered their "adviser" cared a lot less about online classes than the real counterparts, so notes and assignments quickly vanished from the curriculum. Computer lab time wasn't regulated by any means, so many students "helped" (read: cheated) each other on their quizzes and tests no one cared, even after several incidents were reported.
I even took two online classes my senior year. Each course was supposed to be a semester long, yet I got both of them done in less than a month. Sure, I was an honors/AP/gifted student, but a semester course shouldn't be that easy to complete in such a short amount of time. I took "Online Intro to Creative Writing," and none, NONE, of the writing assignments were required by my adviser. There was no context for the lessons; no discussions to solidify concepts.
Sure, my one experience is probably relatively isolated, but I have heard similar stories from other students in the state. Online learning, imho, isn't helping the problem, it's making it worse.
I just graduated from high school in a relatively rural community where online classes were extremely popular among students. You got time in the computer lab, and had an "adviser" for each of your online classes. There were notes, assignments, tests, and quizzes. Sounds great right? Except students quickly discovered their "adviser" cared a lot less about online classes than the real counterparts, so notes and assignments quickly vanished from the curriculum. Computer lab time wasn't regulated by any means, so many students "helped" (read: cheated) each other on their quizzes and tests no one cared, even after several incidents were reported.
I even took two online classes my senior year. Each course was supposed to be a semester long, yet I got both of them done in less than a month. Sure, I was an honors/AP/gifted student, but a semester course shouldn't be that easy to complete in such a short amount of time. I took "Online Intro to Creative Writing," and none, NONE, of the writing assignments were required by my adviser. There was no context for the lessons; no discussions to solidify concepts.
Sure, my one experience is probably relatively isolated, but I have heard similar stories from other students in the state. Online learning, imho, isn't helping the problem, it's making it worse.