DEAR EDITOR:

I am currently in my fourth active semester at Los Medanos College and have chosen to exclusively take online courses. It works best for my work/life schedule and at first, I felt it best fit my learning type — but I feel that’s changing. Now while I obviously cannot attest to the quality of learning and education students are receiving at their in-person classes, I am beginning to become more and more exhausted with the education, or lack thereof, from my online courses.

My week’s work is as follows: Read a Powerpoint, answer a discussion post (but don’t forget your two peer replies), homework assignment, quiz, repeat. Halfway through the quarter? Time to throw in an exam. or perhaps an essay this time?

For some classes, this format works. In simple courses such as electives where reading the information is really all you need, I have thrived off of this routine. However, in my last two semesters, as I dove into my degree-focused courses, the lack of teaching quality this routine has brought is becoming more and more apparent. Certain courses require instruction, explanations that a Powerpoint or my textbook cannot provide — especially when your teacher in return requires knowledge for an exam on concepts not even covered by a measly textbook.

While I do feel strongly about this concept for many of my courses, I do want to emphasize this is not a blanket statement to all teachers. I have had a good handful of online teachers whose effort, care and energy into these online courses is very apparent — always extending the extra help, offering optional zooms and filming walk-throughs/explanations of our topics. For that I must express my gratitude. In fact, it is the efforts of said teachers that prove to me it is not the online/asynchronous format to blame for the lack of content in many online classes.

I think it’s important to talk about what we are lacking, as the bottom line is students should not be given half an education because they chose a class option provided by the school. While I understand online and in-person classes simply cannot look the same. I know from good online course experiences, that the quality of teaching online seems to be getting lower and lower.