Experiencing college from a distance Online

Melody Ademisoye/Roundup mademisoye.roundupnews@gmail.com

Samantha Lipton is a full time Pierce College student working in one of the college’s offices at the front desk.

Like most students, working and going to school proves to be a balancing act between priorities, and when Lipton heard about the distance education classes, it was a perfect alternative to her regular classes.

“Actually I heard from one of my friends, that it was a really neat idea because it’s a way of getting the classes that you need and being able to work a job and have family kind of things going on and being able to take classes,” says Lipton of her first introduction to distance education classes.

The distance education program has been around for a number of semesters at Pierce College.

Wendy Bass, Distance Education Coordinator, explains what exactly distance education classes are.

“Distance education is an online class and we have them specific to Pierce, but obviously at all the other colleges in our district they have distance education courses as well.” said Bass.

David Schamus, chair of the Computer Science and Information Technology Department, explains that there are two types of online courses, completely online courses which do not meet in person, and hybrid courses which meet online as well as regular in person meetings.

Aside from online courses, most classes offered at Pierce College use some degree of web enhancement such as Moodle, a website for instructors to communicate course materials to students.

“About 95 percent of what we do on campus with distance education is web enhanced,” said Schamus. According to Bass, who also teaches online courses, online courses have been in high demand from students at Pierce.

“There’s a lot of student demand for online classes from students that are working full time, or taking care of family or even some of our students have disabilities and it’s hard for them to come on campus, so there’s a lot of benefits to online courses,” said Bass.

With all the benefits of taking distance education classes comes a higher level of responsibility for taking these courses and being able to succeed in the online environment.

“I actually think it’s harder to take an online class than a face-toface class. You have to be very selfmotivated, you have to know to log online and stay current,” said Bass.

Bass admits she frequently sees the frustration students go through with online classes and is often on the receiving end of it, being in charge of student assistance on Moodle.

“People get mad when they can’t log into Moodle, and then they’re like, ‘Who am I supposed to talk to?’ and I’m like, ‘I’m it, I’m trying to help you,’” said Bass as she read an angry e-mail from a student.

Despite the difficulties, students like Lipton face still have a positive outlook on Pierce College’s distance education program and even offers advice for those in her position who are contemplating online courses.

“Do the work, and ask questions, it’s kind of self-paced and selfmotivated, so you have to be kind of motivated on your own to do well. If you put in the work, you’ll get the grade,” said Lipton. For more information on the