What are the different course formats?
Online vs. Internet-Assisted vs. Traditional
Definitions of the three types of courses are listed below. You should contact your instructor to answer any questions you may have regarding any specific requirements of the course.
Online: Courses are taught entirely online with no classroom meetings. However, there will be due dates for assignments, scheduled exams, etc. relating to the course environment. The course instructor will specify all course requirements.
Internet-Assisted: Courses have minimal scheduled classroom meetings with the rest of the course taught online. The course instructor will specify the scheduled meeting dates and other requirements for the course.
Traditional: Course has classroom meetings weekly depending on the format of the course (Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday or scheduled night classes). The course instructor will specify other requirements for the course.
Personal Responsibility with Online and/or Internet-Assisted Courses
The biggest thing you will notice right away is that YOU are totally responsible to learn in an online classroom. Online learning involves much more action on your part.
Instead, YOU will have to log-on several times every week (we recommend daily) to keep up with assignments, changes to the Course Calendar, and email messages from your instructor or other students. YOU will have to click on the course content links and read the material yourself. YOU will be responsible for making sure your computer settings are compatible with Blackboard. YOU will be required to meet deadlines without someone reminding you a couple of times every week.
Types of Interaction in Online and/or Internet-Assisted Courses
Remember, there is a computer between you, your instructor, and your fellow students. That means that all (or most) of your interaction in the course will require communicating through email, discussion board, assignment tools and other online “tools.”
Some instructors may use audio capabilities to communicate, but others will not. So, you will need to be able to type and be comfortable with communicating to others in writing.
Since your instructor and other students cannot hear the tone of your voice or see your “body language” (gestures, facial expressions, etc.), you’ll need to practice good “netiquette.” Netiquette is a fairly new term that refers to “Internet etiquette” – good manners online. See the article “Eight Good Rules for Online Interaction” for a short list of good netiquette guidelines.
Many courses include discussion assignments. So, you’ll notice that you get to interact with other students much more than you would in a traditional classroom. This can really help you learn from each other and make the learning process more enjoyable.
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