By Lindsay Sax
Each semester, about 5000 students at the college are enrolled in distance learning classes for various reasons. Some students use the ability to work from home as a comfort to help with their learning.
“I’ve had some of my students tell me that, ‘You didn’t know that I was deaf, you didn’t know that I was blind, or that I had a learning disability,’” said Dr. Ed Lovitt, director, Distance Learning. “‘That I’m not competing with other individuals who have their hands up. We’re all equal and that discussions and assignments allow us at our own pace to participate.’”
In the fall 2012 semester, 25 percent of students at the college took at least one distance learning class, and of those, 34 percent took classes online exclusively.
Ashley Nielsen, student, takes distance learning classes exclusively to work around her full-time work schedule. She says distance learning classes have benefits to any anxieties she may have.
“I have testing anxiety so it’s nice to be in my own environment when testing,” Nielsen said. “As far as social anxieties, I think that it would be beneficial for those people to be in a class environment to work towards overcoming those fears.”
According to the fall 2012 semester distance learning report, English, business and biology were the top three classes students enrolled in. There was little variation in withdrawal rates between distance learning and on site classes. On site withdraw rates were 11.6 percent, while distance learning classes were 10.3 percent.
Lovitt says that distance learning classes are not for all people, but there are some traits distance learning students need to posses including time management, technical skills of using a browser, word processor and how to answer discussion questions online.
“They probably should not be intimidated by technology,” Lovitt said. “And they should not be afraid to ask questions either.”
Jacob Everest, student, says he knows someone who has taken public speaking online, while he is enrolled in the on site class now, and that you learn more in the classroom versus online. He also says that he is not interested in taking distance learning classes.
“I don’t think so, because I really hate computers,” Everest said. “That’s what it really boils down to.”
Lovitt says that distance learning can have its drawbacks including immediate feedback from professors and problems with computers and the internet. There are also benefits besides the convenience including flexibility, support from family, and the ability to do work while traveling.
“And if anxiety is part of being in a face to face class and I’m not going to raise my hand or I hope they don’t pick on me or choose me for a question, online allows [students] to kind of sit in the back, but yet we hope that they engage, ask questions and participate,” Lovitt said.
Contact Lindsay Sax, copy editor, at lsax@jccc.edu.