Online classes aren't easy A's

For most students, the idea of not having to go to class may sound just about as sweet as it can get.

If you're considering taking online classes next semester, you might already be dreaming of how much more free time you're going to have. According to Banner, Buffalo State offers 68 online courses this semester, leaving plenty of options for students to knock off a couple gen eds or even a major class, while improving their schedule.

This semester, thanks to half my courses being online, I'm in class for less than eight hours a week. True, my schedule almost tops the four-day weekends of my first semester. But I'm finding online classes are harder to keep up with than traditional ones.

First, it's easy to forget entirely about your assignments. Without the professor telling you in class that an assignment is due the following session, you have to take the initiative to keep track of deadlines on your own.

The first time you forget about an assignment and rush to complete it by midnight, you may kick into gear and start planning in advance in the future. Unfortunately, if you don't do that, completing work for your online class may continue to be a stressful operation.

Though online classes can be less demanding than a traditional class, that's not always the case. They're supposed to be the equivalent of a normal, 3-credit class. That means if you wait until the last minute to listen to your lectures, you may find you need more time to get through them. The first lecture I listened to for EXE100 was about an hour and a half long — not what I expected at all. And my professor doesn't put all the information in the PowerPoints, so it's really to one's advantage to actually do the work.

Usually in class, we find at least one person to stay in touch with to help each other through. Unless you already know someone in the class, it's a lot harder to find a study buddy with an online class. From what I've found, people will try to organize study groups, but it's hard to get a lot of people together so it's likely that you'll find yourself preparing on your own.

Because you may not even meet with your professor, you'll probably get a whole host of email and ANGEL messages. You're expected to check them often, and some professors ask that you check them every day. If you get lazy with this, you may miss important announcements. Also, because you have likely received a lot of notices about upcoming deadlines, it will likely be a lot harder to get a professor to forgive the "I forgot" excuse—and some will flat-out refuse to accept anything past the due date.

So when you're planning your Spring 2012 schedule in the upcoming weeks, avoid signing up for an online class under the guise that it will be "easier." You may find dragging yourself out of bed and fighting for a coveted parking spot is a better option for you.

Julia Merulla can be reached by email at merulla.record@live.com.