It has been almost a year since the world went online. I am in my second semester of online classes. Here is what I think about it.
Pros
- The biggest benefit to online school is how time efficient it is, I feel I have much more time. First, having no commute gives me two more hours each day. Next I watch all my classes at two times speed. Six classes is 15 hours of lecture a week, meaning two time speed saves me seven and a half hours a week. I also batch things to reduce context switching. I will often watch a week’s worth of lectures from one class back to back so there is no time wasted in switching between classes. When things are in person, a lot of time is wasted in between classes and labs when you can’t do anything productive. I would estimate this amounts to an hour of day of “in between” time when on campus. All together these things save me about 22.5 hours of time. Which means I essentially add an extra day to my week with online classes.
- Next, you can live wherever you want to. I have been extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to live in Kelowna and Canmore while things have been online. I have taken advantage of the extra 22.5 hours/week by spending time climbing, skiing and biking in these awesome places. Get out in nature people!
- This leads me to my next benefit, which is that you have flexibility in your schedule to do things like that. If the weather is nice you are able to spend the day skiing and the evening doing school. Or if you prefer to work in the morning/evening you have the ability to choose a time when you work best. I have definitely been able to do more things during this time as I have more flexibility in my schedule.
- These things are all great but really the best thing is that you don’t have to make your lunch.
Cons
- By far the worst part of online school is not having the interactions with your peers. The online lectures I don’t mind, but I do miss the hours spent sitting in the library with your peers collectively struggling on assignments or just having some banter. There is where I have learnt the most and also what I will remember about my university experience. Many of the conversations I had during this time will stick with me much longer than the heat equation will. I would say not having this peer interaction greatly reduces the value of university.
- I am much less motivated and invested in school when it is online. It doesn’t feel like I am in school but rather just this thing I have to do, a nuisance. Not being physically present is a part of this, but again I think it comes down to not having peer interaction. Essentially, I am just doing online modules by myself. There isn’t any fun in it, it is just the work side of school.
Overall, online school is worse than in person school but it allows you much more freedom to do other things.
– Mitch