As online courses gain in popularity it is important to look at the cons and address their shortcomings to help students be successful. Students who don't have good time management, are not self disciplined, and are prone to procrastination will not be successful in an online course. It is important for people to know honestly if they have the skills necessary to be successful. A second con is the amount of time it takes as an instructor to facilitate and for a student to participate in an online course. Administrators need to know it will take an instructor more time to facilitate an online course and the number of students participating in the course should be less than a traditional course. Students will need to consider the extra time necessary to participate in an online course when deciding how many credits to sign up for during a semester.

Debbie and Mary

Online courses have opened up education to many people who would have had to made major lifestyle changes to access a college degree. Mary and I discussed the following pros. Online courses allow students from anywhere to study anywhere and anytime that fits into their schedule. This allows parents with young children, people who work, and individuals who live too far away from a college campus to earn a college degree.

A second pro with online courses is they allow students time to construct their responses giving everyone an equal chance to participate in discussion, and constructing meaning from the content from the shyest to the most outgoing students.

Debbie and Mary