I've taken some great online classes.

Online classes are great, and not really comparable to a driving class. I've taken quite a few and I enjoy them. There's generally an interactive message board, kinda like the KT, where someone posts a topic and everyone participates. Assignments are done the same way as a regular school. Professors hold regular office hours to provide help.

You'll find that even traditional, in-person school classes have a large online component. Assignments are often emailed or uploaded, and tests can be taken online.

To be fair, the classes I took were not difficult at all, and I think higher caliber academics has challenges when done fully online. For instance, all our tests were open book because there was no way to enforce anything else. More rigorous high schools and universities generally don't have open book tests. Though maybe there's some sort of online proctor service they can use. I know that's available for professional certification tests.

I don’t have much experience with this. My daughter took her High School PE class online ( a real one didn’t fit in her schedule and she didn’t want to drop a class she actually wanted to take) I thought it was kind of silly. She did have to take some videos doing push ups and such and go take the final at a high school (nothing physical in that). My sister in law recently did some online college courses for landscape design, master gardener and some others. I don’t think this works well online. Identifying plants you so often have to touch and smell.

For the first time, I took an online class last semester and hated it. I really missed the personal interaction and face-to-face communication. There were so many nuances that I took for granted that were lacking. Also, the online class was not held in "real time", rather we had assignments with specific due dates. I realize that my experience may not be typical and there are advantages to these courses.

I think age and technology comfort level can be a big component as well. Kids in school right now have not experienced life without the internet. Anyone 25+ is going to have very different memories of school work than kids today. Having online experience from early childhood likely makes it much more natural to move to online classes.

Iris, PE online?! That's a new one, lol. I definitely couldn't do that!

Before the college level, I don't think solitary study is as effective as group dynamics and social interaction. Even at the college level and grad school, I have my doubts about how effective it is with many subjects.

I've had this discussion with my own kids who have been through doctoral professional schools in the health sciences. They've all said that sitting in lectures when a large volume of material is presented is time-inefficient, that many can learn better and more quickly with downloads of Powerpower slides and lecture notes (which most professional schools make available). In other contexts, like B-school, interaction and team projects are important.

I'm not convinced. It's more cost effective for the schools, but especially at the community college level. In my area where most do such a poor job of getting their students to continue on to higher levels with their educations, coming up with ways for kids to NOT come to class may not be such a good idea.

Online learning generally does not work well for the type of writing classes which really end up being writing workshops. Personal interaction and specific feedback need to be ongoing in that context. I did a presentation a couple years ago on the flipped classroom concept. Lectures are online which opens up class time for discussion and creative group work. I see the flipped classroom in what I teach as students doing what would be homework in class. They receive the benefits of both peer and instructor coaching.

My late husband took nearly all the classes he had to take to get teacher certification, online. But of course, he'd been teaching in independent schools for over 25 years and had a master's degree. It was a time and cost effective way to do this.

One of the prerequisites many years ago for entering my nursing school was sociology, so I took it from a college online.

Easiest A I ever made, I viewed less than half the lectures. So, how helpful or rigorous an online course is may very well vary by college and professor. In my case I felt that it was just credit for sale by the college.

Very interesting. Other than driving, ive never taken an online course. Don’t think I could endure it.

once I had a discussion with a young man who was fabulous at photoshop. I’ve heard it is hard. He told me he took it as an online course in college. It consisted of 1) reading basic principles 2) completing a project using these principles and being graded on final product. My first thought was that rather than paying the school to teach me, I’d be paying the school to teach myself. Didn’t seem right. But I guess the argument in favor is ‘learning at your own pace’.

my subdiv has about 50% of kids being homeschooled. My concern was lack of social skills as mentioned above but interestingly ALL continued to college and transitioned quite well. My SS went to public school and fell thru cracks, we had to spend $$$in private schools and tutors. These days I wonder if home schooling might have not been better suited for him.

I think much depends on the subject. Some things requiring hands on may be better suited to a class environment. Personally, I have taken several on line courses that I found extremely beneficial, not only content, but convenience. One is able to work at one's own pace while not giving up prior commitments. Sometimes it's near impossible to further one's studies while holding down a full time job and so on.

Dh & I still joke about an algebra class I took via VHS. I watched a lengthy problem being worked, he had a different answer than I had. I watched intently...then he said "oops, that's not right." The video is turned off and on, the right answer is now on the board. :0) His answer still didn't match mine and no explanation.

My friends daughter is taking online courses for her 1st year of college. She can't stick with it. She's never doing what she's supposed to be doing. She was a straight A student.

I think it would be a VERY beneficial way to learn. Just thought my previous examples were "entertaining" fails.

I think the subject matter makes a big difference in how effective an online course may or may not be. I was on the advisory board for a local horticultural college for many years and this discussion came up for review several times. We wound up offering a few hybrid courses that were conducted mostly online, but things like plant ID, plant diseases and landscape design really require inperson presence and participation. And of course any practicums were hands-on........you really cannot learn how to prune or plant or run heavy landscape equipment properly online!

I think whether classes are online or in person -- its still up to the student whether they learn anything or not. Plenty of students present in person and not learning.

In some schools (K-12) an "upside down" method is employed -- students can watch video of the teacher explaining/teaching a concept, and then when they go to class, the teacher works with them to execute the concept. The idea behind that is that students can watch the explanation as many times as needed (and some students would not ask an instructor to repeat themselves when in the classroom), and then go to the physical classroom and get hands-on help (like doing the homework in the classroom). I think it works better in some situations than others.

Also K-12, some schools are expanding their capability to hold online segments of classes, to cover snow days, or to allow sick students to participate via facetime type setups and even robots that can roll from room to room (usually students facing long-term illness situations).

Given how many things can be learned online, sometimes it might even work better -- for example, I google actions in Photoshop when they are needed, and think sometimes that tiny lesson "sticks" even better because I learned it when it was truly needed.

So to your original question -- yes I think it can be effective, but as with most schooling it depends what the student brings to it as well. And no, I don't think it would be effective in all situations. (Although its pretty amazing what can be learned online now!)

My grandson, did online prep for the PSAT. It was free, and he could do it when it was convenient for him. The prep courses were very expensive and times inconvenient. He got a 1480 so I guess it worked quite well!

I'm not sure at what ages online wouldn't rob a student of social -- including competitive -- aspects.

It is very disturbing to learn that 'homeschooling' has provided 'cover' for abusive/possessive parents.

On-line classes can be effective. Much depends on the tutorial package and the home discipline to stick with. Many home schooled children use on-line courses.

There are remote locations in the west with low population. Some of these locations can be stranded for days after a snow storm and land line internet connection is poor of too slow for graphics. I have seen these locations use a large dish antenna with satellite to beam in class instruction.