How does your student manage time? What course structure do they prefer? Do they enjoy the traditional landscape of a classroom environment, or the coziness of home?
I have had to grapple with many interesting similar questions concerning my own classes before, and maybe you have had these same exact questions too. The truth is that the answers to these questions can help determine whether online or in-person classes are best for your student.
However, to answer each of these questions, it is important for us to answer the big one: What are the advantages and disadvantages of each class structure?
Let’s start with online classes. One of the key benefits of your student taking online courses is flexibility. With online classes, your student can complete coursework at any time before the due date instead of having to do it in class or structured around specific times. This has been the case for me personally. Having online classes allows me to create my own schedules. And that’s really important – it helps me manage multiple classes at once during one semester.
Another advantage of online classes comes to videos and lectures. In in-person classes, it can be frustrating if your student misses a class, and with it, all the info contained in a lecture or presentation. With online classes, however, it is much easier to pause, repeat, and rewatch videos recorded by instructors. In my own classes, I have found this to be really beneficial. I can’t count how many times I have paused or repeated a video in order to catch something I didn’t hear the first time. Even though I can take notes in an in-person class, it is never as effective as being able to listen to a video or lecture in an online class.
A final advantage of online classes is exams. In online courses, it can be much less anxiety-inducing and much more comfortable to take exams at home than taking the exams in-person (even when the exam is not an open-book one). I have also experienced this myself: I often feel, even if only a tiny bit, more uncomfortable taking an in-person exam than an online one. It might be much better for your student to take exams in an online class if they have that sort of anxiety.
That said, online courses are not perfect – there are also drawbacks.
This is where many of the advantages of in-person classes come into play for your student. In online classes, even with discussion assignments, there is not a lot of interaction with other students. In-person classes, however, have a lot more interaction with other students, which can be very beneficial in sharing experiences, creating memories, and having collaborative problem-solving. But it is also important to remember that it might be a bit awkward. I myself remember feeling a bit awkward as the youngest person in my first in-person class alongside students who are much older than me. While that can be a learning opportunity for your student, it might also be strange and feel that way to them.
One other advantage of your student taking in-person classes is being able to interact with professors more easily. In online courses, it often takes a long time to get responses from professors regarding questions I have, even when they use messaging apps for quicker communication. But your student may find it much easier to be able to communicate with the professor face-to-face and get answers right away. I have often found that to be a benefit of in-person classes.
Lastly, one really big benefit of in-person classes is the workload. In in-person classes, a lot of the work is finished inside the class, which means that there is less of a workload outside of class. While that means in-person classes are far less flexible, it also means your student doesn’t need to do as much work at home.
So what should your student choose? The answer to that question is subjective, and it depends on your student’s character, personality, preferences, commitment and time management. That said, the answer to that question should never be binary: It is okay and even common to take some online and some in-person classes. For example, I started out taking only online classes. Now, I still take mostly online classes, but also one in-person class per semester. It is perfectly reasonable for your student to take different types of classes, and it can sometimes be a far more rewarding and informative experience than just taking one type of class all the time.
