• by justin , March 30, 2011

Yesterday I had the luxury of enjoying my very first virtual class. Using a website called “Aplia” my Media Economics class was held on the world wide web. All we had to do was log into our already existing Aplia account and join that day’s lecture.

It was as simple as that. I was “in class” but I wasn’t IN CLASS.

Where has this method of teaching been my whole life?

Anyway, my professor said he’ll be attending a few more mandatory seminars away from campus this semester and that, if we liked that method, we could continue to do that each time. Of course, the class agreed. Every student would like to have the opportunity to stay at home or be wherever they want during class time, but still gain the education of a 50 minute class.

I like the idea of these virtual classes a lot. It’s not like a traditional online course that you can already take. Those are basically just you, a book and a weekly email from a professor that you’ll never meet. The Aplia method, and other methods I’ve heard of, are more interactive and still deliver the education directly to the students.

OR DO THEY?

Is this a freedom overload? Does this method disengage the student from the lecture since they aren’t in a classroom environment? Or does this make no difference?

I began to wonder if virtual classes or interactive web-based classes will become more popular. That is why I am writing, I want to get YOUR input on this.

With Skype and USTREAM becoming so popular, I could see those two being very useful to teach web-based, non-specific location classes. Do you think professors would ever teach a class full-time using this type of technology? Of course, I know this type of action won’t be needed for on campus courses but for what we now call, “online classes” could this be the new method?

Please feel free to leave me your opinions or any insight on the subject that you may have.