How many of you have taken advantage of all the online learning available today? I'm just curious to hear if our generation has jumped on the band wagon.

I love taking classes online. In some ways it's easier than attending a class - don't have to sit through boring lectures or put up with all the petty distractions. On the other hand, it can be more difficult - being self-disciplined enough to study and complete the assignments.

Some don't like online classes because they thrive on the idea-exchange that goes on in class. Online classes compensate for that by having chat rooms or forums like this one.

I have taken online classes and am getting ready to do a Master's online. I will also be teaching online classes, which I'm a little nervous about yet excited about at the same time. All my teaching so far has been in person, so this will be a new adventure!

Hi, Yonuh: Could you please give me a link on any of the online classes where I could view some form of prospectuus?? I am just keen to know what the structure of instructions, syllabus etc. are like. My son's girlfriend is pursuing a course through the Open University (distance learning) but some learning aids are broadcast by the BBC very late in the evening and I would like to compare it to that. I was also a law tutor in the past and plan to do the same albeit limited to pre-exam review classes. This might be a way for me to conduct a review class without having to deal with considerable paper trail. Do the courses provide the hardware? Many thanks.

Hi Lola. There are several colleges and universities in the US that offer online degrees. There are also several places to take non-credit classes. So the best thing is to do a search online for distance learning. The best place to start would be at: http://www.adec.edu/ (the American Distance Education Consortium.) On their web page you will find links on the left hand side. Scroll down to virtual universities and go from there.

I won't start on my programs until Aug/Sept so nothing is set up yet.

Hope this helps.

Many thanks, Yonuh.

Yonuh, what will you be teaching? Sounds like fun.

Thanks for that link. I've never coome across that before. In a couple days when this post dies down I will make it the forum topic so others can learn about it too.

I will be teaching 'Critical Thinking,' English Composition and World Societies. I'm excited and apprehensive 'cause all my teaching has been face-to-face, so this will be new. And I so love to teach.

Hello I am new to this site and I must say I have enjoyed reading all of your posts. What a lovely group of women you have here on your forum! I live in Ontario Canada and have been taking online distance ed. courses for two years. I have always wanted to get a university degree but being a single mom it just proved to be too difficult. Anyway, when my kids started going to university I signed up at the ripe of old age of 49. Now at 51 I am half way through. I really like this way of learning because I can do my work on my time, usually on the weekends. Good luck to all of you that have the courage to go back to school.

Welcome, Janis. I found great joy with my mature students when I was teaching. They were much more responsible with their course and because they chose to pursue a law degree at the age that they did, they had greater depth and better grasp of the various aspects of their course, academic and otherwise, across the board, owing to various learning curves in their adult life. A few of them would utter that they had wished to have attended university much earlier in life. I have often told them that the attitude towards the work required would perhaps be different.

How often do you go for tutorials? I took my Masters in Criminal Justice 10 years ago through distance learning as well because work and home obligations made lecture halls and classroom-based seminars/tutorial attendance impossible. The alternative was DI which allowed me to pursue it in my own pace and time. I am once again entering university halls as a student in September for a Mandarin course. At 50, I only hope I can pick up learning a foreign language as easily as I did when I was much younger...millions of moons ago! Good luck with your course.

I nearly took an online course..until I found a job. I was in between jobs. Now as a mature adult , I enjoy the buzz of learning in the classroom. I enjoy discussing and hearing discussion amongst other students with the instructor. I'm sure online mimics that but the immediacy is not exactly there, not even when you are participating in a Webex learning session where you are watching a presentation online with instructor driving the screen frames.

Reading lots for me is fine, but it seems now (compared to 25 years ago when I was at university), I am a different learner now. I learn best by seeing, hearing, doing and writing it down, plus talking about it. Just reading and memorizing doesn't do it for me.

If I was considering an online course, it would be credit course with an accredited university and program. My time after work is so limited now.

And there are some courses I do need a real in-person instructor to show/prod me along.