Online Classrooms?

Technology offers many useful ways to augment a classroom setting. It provides a convenience for college students who would rather submit a paper online from the comfort of their home than trek across campus to turn in a paper on a blistery cold day. This process also saves paper, which consequently helps save resources and money. While it is clear that the internet offers conveniences and supplements curriculum by offering easy and quick access to a variety of resources, the benefits of completely replacing a classroom remain to be proven.

Under certain circumstances, for instance, when a student cannot attend public school for health or transportation reasons, then taking an online course is appropriate. Particularly with video-video interaction with a professor or teacher, a student can benefit from this medium of education. However, when the course is designed without any face-to-face or verbal communication, an online course cannot offer a student an experience anywhere close to an actual classroom.

I am currently taking an online/correspondence economics course. I find myself frustrated by the lack of interactions with a professor and classmates as I go through the content. While I am not overly challenged by the content, I am aware my experience is lacking by an absence of class discussion on the material. Even though I love economics and am naturally interested by the material, it does not come alive to me the way content does in a lecture or classroom instead of by correspondence.