Online Classes – Effects of Mismanagement

Jorge Prieto

Prof. Javier Duenas

ENC1101

23 February 2016

Online Classes – Effects of Mismanagement

Online classes are both a boon and a curse to both students and professors. To many international students, like myself, it’s easier for us to manage our time, as it allows us to learn at a slower, but more controlled pace. Furthermore, we can take advantage of this and use it to get a lay of the land; as many of us have not been in Miami for too long, it becomes increasingly apparent that not knowing what to do, where to do it, or how to do it, is a dangerous situation for any student to be in.

With that in mind, however, there are disadvantages to having an online-only class, which could cause a negative impact on a college student’s life, as well as their academic development. A student’s lack of understanding this could lead to difficulties throughout their academic development, leading to highly-negative consequences that could affect both their social lives as well as their college studies.

There are many simple advantages of having online classes to walk-in courses. Simply put, there’s a much lower cost to going online, than there is to going offline, leading to greater flexibility and comfort in the learning environment (Open Education Database). For students who’ve gone to study abroad, these advantages are very favorable, as they allow them to become more accustomed to their new environment and its customs. With the variety of papers available online, this means that a student wouldn’t skip a beat while studying online; they’d have the same advantages of walk-in students, while also having advantages that the latter doesn’t.

Despite their advantages though, I’ve discovered the hard way that online courses can have a negative impact on the students that use them. Online courses usually require more reading and an intense level of self-discipline, which most college students don’t always have (Hickey). This isn’t necessarily always the case; there could be some times when students are simply caught up in their personal items that they completely ignore their due dates, or (based on personal experience), misread due dates for assignments.