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More students taking online classes than ever
(Comtex Business Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)OXFORD, Miss., Feb 22, 2006 (Daily Mississippian, U-WIRE via COMTEX) --Today, the most mundane tasks can be completed online. Consumers can rent movies, pay bills and even buy postage stamps on the Internet. Increasingly, students are now able to take classes online.
There are 3,900 students enrolled in online classes at Ole Miss, said Kathy Palan, coordinator of Continuing Education. Palan said this number grows every semester, so 3,900 is the largest number so far.
While Ole Miss does not keep track of the number of non-traditional students, Palan said Ole Miss assists non-traditional students interested in online courses with admissions and other requirements. Non-traditional students are generally adult students who may be married and have children.
Ole Miss Online, as part of Ole Miss Outreach and Independent Study, offers 72 classes online with 87 sections for the Spring 2006 semester, according to Ole Miss Online's Web site. The classes cover a range of subjects from accounting to criminal justice to English. English and criminal justice offer the most online classes with 15 and 13 classes, respectively.
No specific class time or location is a time-saving benefit for many students, Palan said. Online classes at Ole Miss are treated like any other traditional class, providing the same credit hours as a regular class, she said.
Online classes also provide students with a full course load the opportunity to take more classes, Palan said.
One misgiving many may have about online instruction is the lack of personal communication with the instructor. ANGEL, the system used by Ole Miss Online to administer classes, has a built-in e-mail program, chat rooms and community message boards. According to Palan, there is a lot of communication with the instructor in online classes.
Some auditory learners may worry about being able to understand the material without the benefit of a lecture. Some instructors have found ways to still give lectures. Professor John Duke, for example, posts Quicktime videos of a lecture for each of his lessons in his section of History 106.
The English department has the highest number of online classes. Joseph Urgo, chair of the department, said this may be due in part to English being the largest major on campus.
Urgo said the bulk of the online offerings are writing classes and 200-level literature classes.
"Writing classes are very amenable to online learning," Urgo said.
The English department looks very carefully at every request to put a class online, Urgo said.
Online classes benefit those students with demanding personal, class and work schedules and also allow students from other disciplines to take creative writing classes, Urgo said. However, Urgo expressed concern about online classes' effects on certain parts of the educational experience. Community interactions as well as class debates are not activities that would translate well to an online class.
"Too much of anything is not a good thing," Urgo said.
Jeremy Roberts, a senior English major from Terry, has taken an online class, but said he has no plans to take another one. He cited lack of interaction with teachers and classmates as one of the main reasons.
"It's better for me to have a teacher standing in front of me dictating what to do," Roberts said.
Urgo said the department faculty's opinions about online classes run the full spectrum. Some use online components a lot, while others use them rarely. The broad consensus, however, is online learning has its place.
Urgo has never taught an online class and said he probably wouldn't.
"I love the classroom," Urgo said.
The department with the second highest number of online courses available is legal studies with 13 available courses.
David McElreath, chair of the department of legal studies, said the department has offered online and weekend courses for three semesters and is enthusiastic about the program.
"We try to look at providing high-quality academic opportunities to our students on a multitude of formats," McElreath said.
Web-based classes afford the department the opportunity to bring in expertise that may not be readily available, McElreath said. Web classes also provide an opportunity for individuals who cannot relocate to teach classes.
Some classes don't lend themselves to Web-based instruction, McElreath said. Jeff Johnson, Outreach coordinator for legal studies, has taught many Web-based classes, as has McElreath.
Some students don't adapt themselves as well to Web-based classes. Web classes put additional pressure on students to practice self-discipline, McElreath said. For students with a focus on the material and preparedness for the work involved, Web classes are a good option, he said.
Brian Watkins, a senior philosophy and finance major from Chicago, Ill., has taken three online classes and would do so again.
"For students who don't need someone to hold their hand through the doorway, it's fine," Watkins said.
McElreath, like Urgo, said he saw very little difference in grades between students in online classes and students in traditional classes.
McElreath said students' grades will reflect their commitment to the class.
Jamie Arrexi, a junior journalism major from Amory, has never taken an online class and doesn't plan to.
"The honest truth is I would forget about it," Arrexi said.
Urgo also said many students take online courses because of the perception that they are supposed to be easier. However, because they do not meet like a normal class, many online instructors expect much more out of their students.
The students themselves have mixed feelings about online classes. A recent poll at the Daily Mississippian Web site, http://www.thedmonline.com, showed that 44 percent of participants did not feel that online classes were easier than traditional courses.
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