December 8, 2006
Volume 42, Issue 11
Online classes give students options Web based classes are recommended for self-motivated students
Web and hybrid classes offer “another means of taking courses that meets (student) schedules, their time, and their distance from the college,” according to Distance Learning Program specialist Cat Vogt. For over 10 years, MHCC has been offering both web and hybrid classes. Web classes allow students to take a class in the comfort of their own homes. No longer is it necessary for students to sit and stare at their instructor hours each week. Instead, the instructor is swapped with a computer screen. “The students interact with their instructor and their peers and do their class work via secure web site,” Vogt said. Online courses offered at MHCC in winter 2007 are labeled on pages 54 and 55 in the course manual. Here, you’ll find more information on web-based classes and learn about the requirements. If any of the courses strike your fancy, be sure to register as soon as possible. “They’ve been very successful (in the past),” said Vogt. “They’re always full and they always have wait lists.” The same pages reveal the list of hybrid classes in winter ’07 as well. Hybrid courses are a fusion of meeting face to face and online instruction. If hesitant about working solely on computers, hybrid courses could act as a stepping stone before the web classes. This is “the first year we’ve been able to put something in the schedule for them,” Vogt said. Both web and hybrid classes are similar to face-to-face classes in terms of registering. For online courses you have until the first day of instruction to register. Vogt said, “If you haven’t signed up by then, you have to get a signature add from the instructor,” even if the class isn’t full yet. If you want to take a web course this upcoming winter term, a few things are necessary. “To take an online course, you definitely have to be up on some computer skills and you also have to be pretty self-motivated,” said Vogt. “They’re not self-paced classes. They’re structured just like face-to -face courses and a lot of students come into them thinking they’re going to operate a lot like a self-paced course. They don’t realize they are going to have work due the very first week of class,” she said. Some students cringe at the thought of finals week and the endless studying that goes into it. In the case of online courses, the final tests are all done on computers and sometimes in-home which may let some stress off of students. However, sometimes an instructor can have a test proctored. “The test will still be online, but the student has to come into an approved testing center to take the test,” Vogt said. When instructors choose to proctor tests, it is occasionally done for surveillance. The students bring ID “to show that they’re really the correct student taking the test and that they don’t have any materials on them that they shouldn’t have,” she said. The online courses at MHCC are a good option if “you’re very self- motivated and you don’t always have to have the instructor right there” by your side, Vogt said. If all of the above applies to you, he said, “it’s a fantastic way to go.”
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