Hi ~ I'm a freshman and some classes I wanna take only have online sections. what's the difference between normal lecture and distance education? Is iy hard? Thxxx guys :)
normal lecture classes are the standard type, where u spend 3-4 hours per week in class/lecture listening to the prof and interacting with students
distance ed courses are done by correspondance, meaning you never see the prof or any other students. you pick up your books and course materials at the beginning of the semester and the only time you come on campus is to hand in assignments and write the final exams
basically it's more self motivated and it can be bad if your lazy or procrastinate a lot! But if your up to date on things then it won't be that bad at all.
Took STAT201 distance last year (only DE was offered...i had no option)
0 help from prof --> didn't even show up on the midterm (or he did but under invisible cloak) ==>after 13 weeks no one know how the prof looks like (maybe except the TA)
minimum help from TA/MA ---> 1 TA served 180 students...no in-person office hour available "as it's unfair for students live in remote regions"...u ask question on WebCT, wait 24~48 hrs during WEEKDAYS -->if you have more question or still not clear with your TA's answer...please wait another 24~48 hrs ==>Conclusion: it's faster and more efficient to ask on Yahoo Answer
Course material, useless and expensive ---> you will have to buy a coursematerial, it's mandatory. It costs 40 freaking dollars, only 19 pages-->if u do the math, it's like $2/page --->worth it? -->NO-->the coursematerial is almost like a paraphrased version of the summery section on the textbook...
Exams--> HARD-->You don't get ANY HELP!--->there is no practice midterm/final for you--->in fact, they discourage you to find practice midterms--->this course used to be taught by another prof who is now retired but he still has some practice midterms/finals on his website--->some students found this website and posted the link on webct to share--->SFU blocked that website the next day ---> More, I read every single page of the assigned readings, did all homework by myself (avg 90% on assignment) ---> On the final exam, there were 3 questions I didn't even know what the questions were asking (they provided an equation, however, that equation has some weird symbols I can't recognize, like I have never taken this class before) ---> So I guess i should just pick a random answer since it's 100% multiple choice? WRONG WRONG WRONG---> if you picked a wrong answer, you get penalized! (each question worth 3 marks, correct=3, blank=0, wrong= -1)
GPA--> I end up with a B in this course-->but I had 2 solid As in Calculus1 & 2, first year GPA 3.7-->I would say effort I spent on STAT201 distance is at least TWICE more than what I spent on calculus.
Final conclusion-->AVOID STAT DISTANCE AT ALL COST!!!
(I heard STAT distance is horrible before I enrolled--> I thought that I can handle it because I am hard-working and smart--->it was my arrogant drag me into this---> so it's now up to you to decide)
Don't ever take distance education. If you have an employer (part-time,etc) be lucky if your employer respects and allows you to take the de courses especially after the drop date. And yes, your TA/TMs will call you lazy etc if work provides conflict during the semester. They don't like giving extensions for anything that isn't doctor note or death certificate related. And no, asking distance education staff for help won't do anything because they can't control or influence TA/TMs and your lucky if your prof even responds to emails or Web CT messages. Also if there are any conflicts during the semester they will just encourage you to seek WEs, which just overwhelms and Increases workload for SFU admin.
Like regular courses, It all depends on who the professor/TA/TM is and whether he/she is good at communicating ie. answer emails in time, set clear guidelines for assignments exams etc. Some of the online version of courses are actually easier or have fewer assignments than their regular counterpart
Comments
distance ed courses are done by correspondance, meaning you never see the prof or any other students. you pick up your books and course materials at the beginning of the semester and the only time you come on campus is to hand in assignments and write the final exams
0 help from prof --> didn't even show up on the midterm (or he did but under invisible cloak) ==>after 13 weeks no one know how the prof looks like (maybe except the TA)
minimum help from TA/MA ---> 1 TA served 180 students...no in-person office hour available "as it's unfair for students live in remote regions"...u ask question on WebCT, wait 24~48 hrs during WEEKDAYS -->if you have more question or still not clear with your TA's answer...please wait another 24~48 hrs ==>Conclusion: it's faster and more efficient to ask on Yahoo Answer
Course material, useless and expensive ---> you will have to buy a coursematerial, it's mandatory. It costs 40 freaking dollars, only 19 pages-->if u do the math, it's like $2/page --->worth it? -->NO-->the coursematerial is almost like a paraphrased version of the summery section on the textbook...
Exams--> HARD-->You don't get ANY HELP!--->there is no practice midterm/final for you--->in fact, they discourage you to find practice midterms--->this course used to be taught by another prof who is now retired but he still has some practice midterms/finals on his website--->some students found this website and posted the link on webct to share--->SFU blocked that website the next day ---> More, I read every single page of the assigned readings, did all homework by myself (avg 90% on assignment) ---> On the final exam, there were 3 questions I didn't even know what the questions were asking (they provided an equation, however, that equation has some weird symbols I can't recognize, like I have never taken this class before) ---> So I guess i should just pick a random answer since it's 100% multiple choice? WRONG WRONG WRONG---> if you picked a wrong answer, you get penalized! (each question worth 3 marks, correct=3, blank=0, wrong= -1)
GPA--> I end up with a B in this course-->but I had 2 solid As in Calculus1 & 2, first year GPA 3.7-->I would say effort I spent on STAT201 distance is at least TWICE more than what I spent on calculus.
Final conclusion-->AVOID STAT DISTANCE AT ALL COST!!!
(I heard STAT distance is horrible before I enrolled--> I thought that I can handle it because I am hard-working and smart--->it was my arrogant drag me into this---> so it's now up to you to decide)