Online Classes at Georgia State

By: John Harris

It took a global pandemic for most of us to see what it was like to take an online class.  Of course, they existed prior, and many took them, but I did not.  While there were downsides, such as the loss of the social experience of school, and just the undefinable essence of the teacher-student interaction, I would say the ubiquitous online learning worked.  The bottom line was that students were able to learn what they needed for their classes safely.  Now that we’re back to normal, I am now realizing the downsides of having only in-person classes, especially at a school like Georgia State. 

I take the Marta train, southbound from Chamblee, which is approximately the same amount of time as driving when accounting for how long it takes driving to the station, waiting for a train, and walking to class from either the Peachtree Center or Five Points stations.  I do this every Monday through Thursday, catching the train in the morning and getting home late in the afternoon.  This summer, I made great strides in pursuing the career that I want which is in the film industry.  Disappointingly, I’ve had to slow down my film activity this fall as I am unavailable for four days out of the week.  It’s made me think that if I was taking all online classes like I was during the pandemic, or at least some, I would be able to accept a lot of the work I’ve been offered because I would be able to create my own schedule and not have mandatory attendance that’s twenty miles away.

Although I do not condone the overall condescension that exists among the general populace when it comes to liberal arts degrees, I do think that the English majors is the kind of major that should have more available online classes.  There are some classes that require in-class practice and repetition in order to learn the material such as Editing for Publication and Technical Writing, but most of the other classes are theory-centralized, which mostly requires reading.  I notice that most of the theory classes are hybrid which saves some time, but I still think they could be totally asynchronous based on the lack of in-class activities and the aforementioned cost I pay by having to attend class: Marta expenses and the time it takes to commute to downtown and back, which is again, time I can’t use for my own personal interests.

I don’t want to be too damning with an extensive list of inexcusable reasons as to why there aren’t more online classes, it’s just something I want the university to consider looking at.  I certainly prefer the current situation over the pandemic when it was all online classes; not being able to meet people or walk around campus, both of which I enjoy doing when I’m downtown.  I just wish it was more of an option, such as an online class for every in-person class.  I understand that would be harder for the highly abundant intro and lower-level courses, but I’m mainly talking about the upper-level ones which are more scarce.  There are a lot of situations when a student needs a class to graduate so they can’t be picky as to whether it’s online or in-person.  And with upper-level courses, that are typically being taken by juniors and seniors – students that are either looking for internships or any kind of work opportunity that would lead them to their desired career choice.  So, having more modality options for those courses in particular would be highly beneficial to the student.  I’ve had friends/co-workers that claimed they’ve had to turn down multiple job offers because they were in school.  That’s pretty costly, because although education is important, I’d say it’s not as important as work experience.  Typically, education leads to work opportunities, but not all industries are strict about that, and the university needs to consider it. that.  What it really comes down to, is that online classes provide a way of doing both, so why not take advantage of that?  Georgia State started that way, being mostly a night school for people seeking an education while already having a career.  With online classes, people can do that without depriving themselves of sleep, and it can be in their hands how they coordinate their schedules