The future of online uni study! your opinions????????????

[appianway]

I don't see how it can work for science. How can you have lab classes online? How can you have research experience in experiments without being physically there?

[Eriny]

I wouldn't recommend it for someone who has just finished school who lives in a major city where there are universities around. It's better for people who have to juggle multiple commitments, disability or illness, travel, or for those who live in an isolated regional area. Online learning hasn't yet been able to mimic the irl university environment and I really do think that face-to-face learning is more effective, and in some sense more 'real' and is taken more seriously. Maybe in the future this will change though.

[golden]

But I've also heard that in a lot of cases uni isn't actually very social place at all. You can go to uni in and out of lectures without really talking to anyone or meeting people. In uni it is quite common now for students in many situations to mostly talk to one another during practicals or perhaps in tutorials only. Some courses don't have practicals and are mainly just a series of tutorials/lectures.
You can get the same social experience by joining uni clubs which you can still do as an off-campus student. Furthermore, what if you are attending a non-GO8 uni? You wouldn't be able to network as much with the other students. Going on campus can be a drag and a waste of time, especially if you don't use the time you have wisely/effectively and if you live really far away from campus.

What are some other major pros/cons for studying online?

Thanks!

My main point was regarding practical classes. Although some courses don't have them, when 'practical classes' are specified it bears reference to the courses that do have them. As you have mentioned, they are commonly a method across which socialising takes place. Online study would be very inefficient when in the realm of this. Unless of course you propose a booking for a lab or something at some place, which can potentially help with the issue.

You can get the same social experience by joining uni clubs which you can still do as an off-campus student. Going on campus can be a drag and a waste of time, especially if you don't use the time you have wisely/effectively and if you live really far away from campus.

If you're studying at home for instance and want to attend these clubs it may or may not also entail going far away to participate in this socialising. When studying on campus, it may be that you're already there so you can save time by already being there, hence not travelling only for one purpose.

Furthermore, what if you are attending a non-GO8 uni? You wouldn't be able to network as much with the other students. Going on campus can be a drag and a waste of time, especially if you don't use the time you have wisely/effectively and if you live really far away from campus.

Suppose you were based at home for the education with online study. How would you go about networking with other anonymous students online? Meet up specifically for the purposes?

The university atmosphere makes the whole process so good. Despite not always super socialising with people specifically during the lectures because it can annoy others and it would be in a sense defeat the purpose of coming into the lecture, the whole experience of being there makes the information ingrain well and overall, it just feels better. Being there gives you access to all of the lecturers/tutors/professors but the main point is that there is real life interaction with which features are not there when for example communicating through email or Skype etc. Watching a video online or reading a textbook is nothing like watching a lecturer do their magic, or working on a problem with your tutor together face to face.

Of course there are benefits of studying online, as you have mentioned. Hence in essence I believe that online university education is here to stay, as it facilitates the various contexts which particular students may find more advantageous, but I do not see it making a whole revolution.

[slothpomba]

I think if you had the choice (eg. no other circumstances preventing you from doing it) you really should study on campus.

A lot of those who haven't been to uni are saying they'll go for the social atmosphere, it's true but i dont think it's true in the way they think it.

In first year everyone joins a tonne of clubs and things like that but very few people actually end up going to them. The vast majority of clubs out there (excluding sporting clubs) don't really do things on a weekly basis. Only a handful of people are constantly partying throughout the week, every week too.

But I've also heard that in a lot of cases uni isn't actually very social place at all. You can go to uni in and out of lectures without really talking to anyone or meeting people. In uni it is quite common now for students in many situations to mostly talk to one another during practicals or perhaps in tutorials only.

The social aspect that a lot of people come to realise is just simply meeting new people or talking to people you've never talked to before. You obviously won't become super-best buddies with everyone you meet, probably most people you meet (depending on the course but you do end up having to interact with a fair few people). It's  more just talking to a lot of people.

I can't speak for other courses but science is real great for that. You pretty much *have* to talk to your lab partner and depending on the experiment, there's a lot of downtime over the 3 hour labs, end up yakking a fair bit. You also end up talking to everyone else on your lab bench too.

No one really talks during lectures (for obvious reasons) anyway.

It really is what you make of it and what your expectations are. If you join tonnes of clubs and stuff, it'll be a bit different from never going ever.

The few arts unit's i've done were a real downer (compared to labs) for socialising though. Either no one said anything during the tutes, even for questions or they were all busy working and never really said much.

I don't see how it can work for science. How can you have lab classes online? How can you have research experience in experiments without being physically there?

Monash chemistry sent out chemicals and things like that.

Not sure about any other course.

Honestly though, we're social animals.

If you're studying online and dont otherwise have a job/whatever other commitments you'd just sit around at home all day.

I don't know if sitting around in a constant enviroment like that is very healthy.

I mean you could go all day without hearing someone else voice or something insane like that.

[JiMMi]

I'm definitely thinking about online study this year. Just the commute into my nearest uni is 2 hours, so the online course would save heaps of time.

I think the course would be much better face to face, but I think the flexibility and time save is worth it.

[slothpomba]

I'm definitely thinking about online study this year. Just the commute into my nearest uni is 2 hours, so the online course would save heaps of time.

I think the course would be much better face to face, but I think the flexibility and time save is worth it.

I travel two hours each way, while it sucks, i definitely don't regret it at all.

You meet all kinds of new and interesting people from backgrounds (rich, poor, black, white, all kinds of religions) and places all over the world. That and i reckon if i wasn't an on campus student and did full time uni i'd just sit in the house all day, you only live once and no good memory started with sitting in your room i reckon.

If you're able to, despite the travel, i reckon you should still do it.

[bully3000]

I travel two hours each way, while it sucks, i definitely don't regret it at all.

You meet all kinds of new and interesting people from backgrounds (rich, poor, black, white, all kinds of religions) and places all over the world. That and i reckon if i wasn't an on campus student and did full time uni i'd just sit in the house all day, you only live once and no good memory started with sitting in your room i reckon.

If you're able to, despite the travel, i reckon you should still do it.

what about if your attending a non-GO8 uni? or one that is not considered so 'prestigious'?

[Planck's constant]

Social interaction is every bit as important as education.
On campus study gives you a reason to get up in the morning, have a shower, get dressed, GET OUT OF THE HOUSE, and get amongst people.
Would anyone seriously consider 12 years of home schooling as an alternative to going to primary/secondary school ?

[slothpomba]

what about if your attending a non-GO8 uni? or one that is not considered so 'prestigious'?

My main focus was on the fact that there are people around to interact with. I'm sure the non-GO8 or prestigious uni's still have their fair share of diversity, especially from within Australia anyway. Some of this was related to me going to a catholic school i guess and catholics are obviously of a certain belief and tend to be of certain ethnicities. Regardless, uni's are probably a much more big melting pot than your school was, that was more the point i was trying to make. I'm also sure you'll get plenty of people from overseas at all the uni's.

I have plenty of friends and everything but once uni comes, unless they;'re in the same uni (and probably not even then) you don't see them every day, it would probably real hard to do so. So you might catch up with your friends every few weeks or talk on skype or something but the rest of the time you'll be sitting at home by yourself if you do off-campus. It seems like a very lonely thing to do. Uni can  be hard to meet friends and keep them, especially in larger courses but even with those difficulties that could crop up, its still better and more interaction than sitting at home, which is essentially 0.

I know it sounds obvious for all of us in uni but year 12 kids sometimes dont realise these things.

So, again, i absolutely highly recommend doing it on-campus unless you have some kind of serious reason that makes you very unable to handle it (need to work to stop your family from starving, serious medical condition that would be dangerous somehow if you were at uni, etc).

[MJRomeo81]

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a paradigm shift in the next ten years in terms of online education. Universities are essentially operating like big business corporations. University administrations are now taking into their own hands the right to decide what is, and what is not, useful research, and are in effect claiming the right to fire at will those who do not fit the requirements that they lay down. Cutting subjects, restructured degrees, online courses...all for what? So that the VC has a larger pay packet?

I predict that it won't be long before many universities recognize the financial benefits of mass online courses, in many cases with their eyes tightly focused on fertile recruiting grounds such as India and China. Obviously, it takes far fewer faculty to run and maintain an online course than a conventional course, and there is virtually no limit to student enrolment. Plus the NBN is already being advertised for the purposes of online education.

Personally I prefer the traditional university setting. However I'd like to point out that the whole "distraction" issue also applies to on-campus study. Substitute sitting at home playing X with skipping lectures/tutes to do X. I have no idea how much online units cost, but I see so many on-campus students skip everything at uni besides exams. Why pay all that money if you're only going to watch shit on lectopia?

[slothpomba]

^ That makes a lot of sense. Uni isn't just for the study though, half the people there barely study at all. That idea would be fine if it was all about study but for a lot of people theres so much more to it than that. Heaps of people love the clubs, the events, meeting new people and just even getting out of the house.

There are some things that'll be real hard to replace like science labs for example, in chem first year they send out some chemicals and stuff but id find it hard to see how you'd deal with a lot of later (2nd 3rd etc) year biomedical subjects, especially ones like pharmacology where you need organ baths (no way you can maintain one without training or even mail it out) and things like morphine. There's no way they're mailing that out there, they gave me the third degree even when i asked for a touch more. I doubt it'll entirely disappear but it'll probably change.

Even for something like arts. I'm doing an off-campus arts unit over summer. I feel very lost in it compared to most other units. It's all off-campus, so no tutes to discuss your ideas or see other peoples views or criticism, thats a hugely important bit of philosophy. I could read the text on my own outside of uni anyway or just download lectures, its the tutes that are the value added part here. The discussion forums are very dead, even if they weren't i dont think you could replace the dynamics of a tute.

There are other skills you develop as well. Interacting with diverse groups of people. Being able to give presentations. Even developing your social skills and other important life things like that. I think it would be all that much harder if you were off-campus for the totality of the degree.

Edward Bryne, the VC of monash (whilst obviously not totally unbiased but who really is?) wrote an article about this recently, really worth a read - https://theconversation.edu.au/online-learning-glitch-mooc-flaws-will-be-hard-to-resolve-10866

In those fields, there will always need to be some sort of bricks and mortar institution to provide access and instruction. I invite anyone who thinks otherwise to go under the knife of a surgeon who learnt everything they know from YouTube videos.