The Pros and Cons of Taking Online Classes

Enrolling in a four-year university and attending classes on campus is a huge commitment. Many people do not have the time to get a degree while enrolled as a full time student. Moreover, some students need a few additional credits in the summer in order to complete the requisites for their program. Luckily, there are several websites that will allow you to take these classes online, furthering your progress towards that valuable college degree.

However, there are certainly pros and cons to taking these classes from home. In terms of the pros, you can take several online courses from hundreds of accredited colleges right from the comfort of your home. These courses can be accelerated and take anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks. Upon successful completion of the course, you receive a certificate that you can flaunt on your resume or LinkedIn profile. You can also receive specialized certifications if you wish to narrow your focus within a discipline.

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There are also a few cons to taking these online courses. For instance, there is no graduation path that you can take. Because many of these websites don’t have a graduation program, there are not any prerequisites to the courses, meaning you can enter any level course at any time. If you want to take advanced biophysics at Harvard for your first course, then you certainly have the liberty to do that. The assessments are also extremely weak compared to standard collegiate assessments, so the certificates you receive do not hold the same weight in the job market that real college degrees do.

Coursera
If you are intrigued by the concept of online courses, then Coursera is certainly the website to check out. You can take classes at Stanford, Duke, University of Michigan, UC San Diego, Johns Hopkins University, Penn, and several more top colleges. The website has an extremely user-friendly search function, you can search by popularity in courses and specialization. You can also search the most popular courses within a discipline, such as Computer Science or Business.

Each course serves as a scholastic textbook, full with chapters and assessment chapters. You can also receive help and support from professors and fellow peers. After you complete the course, you will receive a certificate from Coursera that you can show off to your friends and employers.