Online education is clearly not for everyone

Paul Azrak
Bayside, Queens, Nov. 5, 2010

The writer is a professor of economics at Queensborough Community College, CUNY.

As someone who has been teaching online classes for the last eight years, I found the online experience that was described in “Still in Dorm, Because Class Is on the Web” unfamiliar.

The article points out that most private institutions dislike online education because they pride themselves on a low student-to-teacher ratio, yet at my public college the enrollment is restricted to 25 students per class. This low student-to-teacher ratio leads to a much different online environment than the impersonal large classes that were described in your article.

In fact, I would argue that the online experience in a small class is incredibly intimate. Students and faculty interact weekly through online discussions, and everyone knows everyone else in the class.

Students get a large dose of one-on-one interaction with the instructor that is often missing in a traditional classroom setting. Some students who would be loath to discuss their views when face to face with their professor thrive in an asynchronous discussion in which they have the time to digest what is being said and formulate their thoughts before replying. Others, however, find the high level of weekly interaction too much to take and would prefer to sit in the back row and take notes.

Online education is clearly not for everyone, but it certainly doesn’t have to be the impersonal experience that you describe.

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