When I first attended college, I selected a traditional campus university with well over 25,000 students. At the time, I had no idea what I was walking into – boy was I in for a shock. Campus life was awesome! There were lots of activities, fraternities and sororities all over, a wide variety of cultures not to mention the mixture of languages that could be heard for blocks. Grad school, I decided to change it up and attend an online university – again, I had no clue of what to expect. I had to learn to manage my time, study on my own an actually read the assigned chapters.
You see, when selecting a college, you need to consider your personal needs, style of learning and your educational goals.
Here are a few pro’s and con’s to attending an online vs classroom style university:
Online
Pro: Location, Location, Location
- You may be in an area of the country where a particular subject may not be offered at your local university – online is the way to go
Con: Did you get what was being taught?
- The difficulty with online education is knowing if the information has been clearly comprehended by the student. While you may pass the tests, did you understand the material? In this case, teachers have a more difficult time assessing the effectiveness of their teaching methods.
Classroom
Pro: Communication
- This form of learning promotes communication and interaction between the students. It also helps in enhancing the students oral communications as they are put into an environment that will not only foster that type of communication, but also enhance styles and methods of articulating thoughts and ideas
Con:
- Shy/introverted students may be less likely to participate in classroom discussion – where online they may be more vocal through the chatting and online group discussions
So, when you are considering to attend college (because you will), consider your learning style, personal like style and what you want out of the experience.
Images: hg2s.com, coffeedrunk.com, america.edu