I first taught an online class in January 2013. I had just accepted a full-time position at a community college and my supervisor told me I’d be teaching online classes. While I had to turn in everything online during graduate school, I’d never taken an online course during undergrad or graduate. With that, it was entrusted to me to find a way to translate ENG 111: Writing and Inquiry into an online course. I wasn’t happy about having to create an entirely new course online for my students in less than 2 weeks.

Teaching online forced me to create a lot of materials from scratch. I had to carefully and logically write out weekly directions for students in new and engaging ways with PowerPoint, Word documents, video content, and consistent content creation. In some ways, teaching online is like maintaining a social media presence. I’ve taught at least one online for 10 years straight, which is 20 semesters. After all these years of teaching online, I have found teaching online made me a better face-to-face teacher.

While teaching online has made me a better teacher, is the same true for college freshmen?

Students in their first year at the university should consider whether they can handle online classes. That is especially true for students who just graduated from high school. I'll first start off with some stats my co-worker and I ran after analyzing some data about student success rates. After that, I'll share a few reasons why I think online classes can be more challenging.

First, the data. I work at Carteret Community College in Morehead City, NC and my co-worker and I ran some stats on all ENG 111 classes from Fall 2021 to Spring 2023. That not only includes my classes but also multiple other English professors. This a class almost all students at our college has to take. When looking at this period of time, we found that 60% of students took this class online(417 total), while 40% of students took ENG 111 seated(282 total). We found that 63% of all students who took ENG 111 online were successful (made a C or higher), whereas 74% of all students who took ENG 111 were successful. But one particular number stood out even more and that is that when we looked at students who were between the ages of 18-23, 75% of students who took the class face to face were successful, where as 60% of online students were successful. Overall, students right out of high school are 15% more likely to pass ENG 111 face to face in contrast to those who take the course online.

Now, why is this? I'd like to go over 4 observations as to why students who take English online struggle mixed in with observations as to why students in seated classes succeed. Here are my reasons why....

1.) The Face to Face experience of Being Required to Listen to a Professor's Lecture is Underrated.

My face to face students are forced to listen to me lecture about how to make an A. My online students may choose to skim the directions.

Taking any college class requires a certain amount of self-discipline and self-control. Self-control is a certain kind of muscle that you have to develop.

Taking online classes and taking seated classes require different kinds of self-control. What kind of self-control do you have?

If you take a class face to face, the main type of self-control you will need is to get to class and take notes. Getting to class on time and being mentally available for the lecture will take real time and effort. In this situation, a certain amount of responsibility is put on the teacher to present the material in a clear manner and engaging. A seated class puts the “material presentation” on the teacher. For me, I lecture for 20-30 minutes per class and often have 15 minutes of discussion and 10 minutes of in-class reflection. In this case, it is the teacher’s responsibility to connect with the students and make the material engaging. In a way, the teacher’s job is somewhat like an entertainer.

The “Tattoo this to your face” announcement method is something I’ve always found effective as a teacher. This is a moment in a live lecture where I can say to my students: “If you want to make an A on this paper, you need to ________________. Tattoo that to your forehead.” I explicitly give tips to students on what they should pay attention to and prioritize in an animated manner like waving my arms, raising my voice and putting something on a PowerPoint slide in all caps. When I do these kinds of things-------students listen and most of it is audience specific because I can tell what each class is struggling with.

I can’t do spontaneous “Tattoo this to your face” announcements with my online courses.

Online classes require a different type of self-control considering the online instructor is more of a facilitator rather than a direct instructor. I teach all asynchronous English classes and I operate more like a facilitator who offers resources for students to study on their own time rather than for me to explicitly instruct them in real-time. This means that online students have to force themselves to watch Youtube lectures, read Word documents and read over online resources. This type of self-discipline is then put on the student’s ability to force themselves to watch a 25-minute Youtube video that I’ve made or perhaps read a 4-page long essay in APA format. This is a different type of self-discipline. This puts a higher value on a student’s ability to push themselves to self-motivate.

Imagine yourself joining a Crossfit gym where you work out in person with a trainer. The trainer has a set routine for what he wants you to do. You aren’t the only person in the class. You are there with 10 other people who all want to get in shape, so you aren’t working out alone. Or perhaps you do not need a trainer. You would prefer to work out alone because you are able to self-motivate and complete the work on your own. A seated class is like joining a Crossfit gym where you will train on a schedule, learn in real-time with your peers and take detailed directions about what you will do. An online class is like training by yourself on your own schedule and training by your own set routine.

Most college freshman that I teach are still developing their internal self-control muscles. So I find that seated classes are often best for college freshmen to take.

Questions to Ask Before Taking an Online Class: Are you the type of student who would do better showing up to class to hear the lecture? Or are you the type of person who can read Word documents and watch Youtube videos alone?

2.) Seated Classes Allow Space for Students to Ask Questions in Ways That is More Difficult Online

The ideal online student reaches out to me through email when he or she has a question. The ideal online students arrange a phone call with me during my office hours to discuss their essays. The ideal online student schedules an appointment with me to look over an essay.

What is real? Every semester a few online students reach out and intentionally asks questions. Most of my online students choose to stay anonymous the whole semester.

Most online students feel like they are bothering me when they ask me a question. This is a problem.

Yet.....there is a clear advantage for seated students when it comes to asking questions.

Students who take a face-to-face class with me understand that I am not a scary or unapproachable person. I work hard in my seated classes to make my students feel comfortable with coming up to me after class and asking me a quick question. Just having those 2-3 minutes after class when I am at the front of the room packing up often allows students to approach me with what they are confused about. I know what my seated students look like. I see them on campus, I greet them and I try to ask them if they have any questions.

Students in seated classes can hear the questions of their peers during Q&A time. If a fellow student asks “How do you write a thesis statement for the synthesis essay? I don’t understand how to do that,” then I can publicly answer the question. This demystifies the idea that other students are all smarter than them. Hearing the questions of other students allows them to understand that everyone in the class is on the same journey as their classmates.

In general, I have noticed that my seated students are more willing to admit to me they need help. I am still unsure why this is, but this is just a general observation I’ve seen for at least the last 5-6 years.

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Taking an Online Class: Are you the type of person who has the courage to email your professor a question? Can you push yourself to ask the online professor a question if you are confused about something?

3.) Students are Overconfident in how well they can Digitally Multi-task For Multiple Hours.

I spend at least 4 hours a day at my desk creating lecture material, writing out directions for classes, grading papers, and doing research. I spent a lot of time adjusting assignments on Moodle and rearranging the layout of each Moodle webpage for both online and seated classes.

Is this fun? Sometimes it is and I do enjoy the design and creative part of it. Yet other times when it gets hard I want to get on Youtube and watch videos. Or worse, I get on sports news websites and start reading articles about the NFL.

The temptation to multi-task for college students today is real. Can we recognize that we are now working in a virtual world where we can easily waste our time on web content? If you are a student who is only taking online classes this means the experience will require significantly more screen time for you. This also means that there is a much more likely chance the student will be multi-tasking between multiple tabs on their laptop. One writer named Julie Morgenstern, a productivity expert, says this about multi-tasking on the job:

“It has been scientifically demonstrated that the brain cannot effectively or efficiently switch between tasks, so you lose time. It takes four times longer to recognize new things so you're not saving time; multitasking actually costs time. You also lose time because you often make mistakes. If you’re multitasking and you send an email and accidentally "reply all" and the person you were talking about is on the email, it’s a big mistake. In addition, studies have shown that we have a much lower retention rate of what we learn when multitasking, which means you could have to redo the work or you may not do the next task well because you forgot the information you learned. Everyone’s complaining of memory issues these days – they’re symptoms of this multitasking epidemic.”

Morganstern here mentions that we have a lower retention rate for learning when we are multitasking. It also means that we are more likely to make mistakes.

We’ve mistakenly come to the conclusion that our 21st century brains are able to handle multi-tasking and perhaps even thought that we’ve become excellent digital multi-taskers. As Morganstern states above, we have believed the lie that digital multitasking means that we are at peak productivity. This is a myth. Digital multi-tasking does not equal peak productivity.
Yet, a majority of online classes inherently invite digital multitasking. During the pandemic, I created a Youtube channel with lectures that would give my students variety. My students enjoy these videos and I’ve received positive feedback from multiple students about my videoes. Youtube is a multitasking mental experience as there are various recommendations popping up on the sidebar. I made Youtube videos during the pandemic because it was the easiest platform to give my students access to my lectures. However, I know that the sidebar of entertaining recommendations on Youtube will be tempting for anyone.

The multi-tasking nature of the online component of a class is unavoidable. We all need to learn to multi-task well. The self-control to focus on one video at a time will be essential for the online student in contrast to the seated student.

Question to ask yourself before taking an online class: What methods do you use in order to not get distracted by clickbait online while you are studying for a biology exam? What methods do you use in order to avoid multitasking between entertainment and studying for an online exam?

4.) Students Learn as much from One Another as they do from the Professor.

It is a bad model of education to think that the student can only learn from the professor. We underestimate how much students can learn from their peers. One gregarious, intelligent student might be able to explain a concept to her fellow classmate better than the teacher explained it.
At UNCW I befriended a guy named Kyle Abode in my chemistry class. The class had at least 80 students in it. There was little chance I could find time to meet with the professor(he was not an approachable person). So I depended upon Kyle to help me understand the key elements of chemistry. Kyle and I would sit in the library for 2 hours at a time talking about chemistry. He ended up being a pharmacist, naturally. His guidance helped me at least get a passing grade (the only D I made in college).

If I had taken chemistry online, I would have failed. There was no way I would’ve made even a D without Kyle’s help. Did I also mention that Kyle was incredibly funny? He was fun to hang out with as we studied in the UNCW library.

As an online student, the responsibility of meeting and learning from other students is solely put on the student. Online students must reach out to other students intentionally to make connections.

In contrast, I design student interaction for my seated classes. I require students to do group work on a daily basis. I require students to give one another in-class feedback on one another’s essays. I require students to introduce themselves during the first week of class. Recently I’ve even been integrating mid-semester icebreakers so students will learn one another’s names. The nature of my seated classes has a design so that students can learn from one another.

I design 5-6 discussion forums in my online classes. Online students do have opportunities to meet other students, but there are opportunities for students to interact online, but it is significantly less.

The nature of the online class is more geared towards the student learning from the instructor. However, the advantage of the seated class is that students can more easily learn from both the instructor and their classmates.

Questions to ask yourself before taking an online class: What methods do you have for meeting other students at your college? How can you actively take steps to meet other students on campus in order to have more student-to-student sharing/learning?

Did you know that the online experience is significantly different from the face-to-face experience? Most students do not know the difference. I wrote this blog entry with the hope that you now know some of the differences. I recommend that you consider the questions I've mentioned above before making a choice. If you are terrible at science, I would not recommend taking Anatomy and Physiology online. If you are strong at writing, then you might do great at taking American literature online. However, you may miss out on the in-class discussions about the Robert Frost poems that you enjoyed. Most of this comes down to self-awareness and your ability to know your academic strengths and weaknesses.

If you are on the fence about which one to take, I'd recommend face-to-face. The picture of the guy with the face tattoo represents my ability as an instructor to say to my students "Of all the ideas we've covered this week, remember these 5 things." And then I hammer home a few ideas for 5 minutes. My ability to stress certain ideas while looking my students in the eye often makes an impression on students that I can't replicate in any other way. For some struggling students, hearing me say these words gives them hope that they can actually pass this class; it lifts away crushing academic despair and instead of failing the class with F, they get a second wind and make a B.