philly5113 asked: I might try an internet course, they cost less. Any thoughts on this?
I've taken online courses from two universities.
Taking them through my own undergrad university was easiest - their courses automatically counted towards my degree without any hoop-jumping at all, which was nice. They also came with deadlines and due dates - so it was significantly easier for me to manage my time and get things done over the course of the semester rather than working in fits and starts and then having a big rush to finish at the end of the six months time allowance I was given from the other university.
Taking courses through a different university,
Athabasca U, involved a whole lot of hoop-jumping to make sure that credits would apply towards my degree. I had to get a Letter of Permission, which turned into a process that lasted WAY too long. That was in no way Athabasca's fault, though - it was the people I was dealing with at my end that were a pain in the posterior.
Athabasca U gives you up to six months to complete everything required for each course - no due dates, and no one cares if you actually get it done or not. So completing those required quite a bit more self discipline - and in one case, when I had a car accident during the week my final exam was booked, an extension (more hoop-jumping).
The one thing that ALL of the Internet based courses I have taken have shared is that although I was assigned a prof/tutor, there was next to no interaction with them. When I emailed with a specific question, the turnaround time was BRUTAL .... in far too many cases, it was in excess of two weeks. The turnaround time for marking was also far slower than I find tolerable - I absolutely and positively DETEST it when I don't have assignment #1 back until after #2 or #3 are back. It may be though, that I just wasn't lucky - surely not all online profs are that slow? I hope?!
When I teach online courses (Ha!) I will be very sure to email each student early in the course, and follow up with a
how's it going partway through. And, of course, I will answer their emails and get their work back to them within a reasonable period of time.
I suspect that courses that have an interactive online component would suit me better.
I don't regret having taken any of the courses I did - nor the money I spent - but there are a lot of things that could have been done much, much better.
Have you taken (or taught) any online courses? How did they work for you? Philly and I would love to know.
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That is a very frustrating thing about doing part time studies... I know that as a prof I detested it when courses I was slated to teach would be cancelled at the last minute... it has happened to me more than once. And sometimes, I would be thrown into teaching some other course entirely, only to find out that half the people in the new course didn't actually want to take it - they had wanted to take the other course I was supposed to be teaching. Quite often happened with the course in HTML & xHTML web development I used to teach, actually.
I think that the main thing to decide is whether it is the actual credit you need, or if it is just the information. If it is the course, seems like all you can do is keep trying - and keep hounding whoever the person is that makes the decision about which courses run (nicely, of course). It might also help to talk to the Program Co-ordinator that oversees the department the course is offered in.... at least in my own college setting, that would be the approach I would take (and have advised students to take).
Or, of course, you could also look at online courses through recognized colleges or universities. The University of Phoenix offers several courses in Internet Technology and Web Development, for example. eLearners has a list of 37 online courses in web development that might be a good place to start.
If you are looking for the information but don't actually need the credit there are tons of resources out there. Free-Ed.Net offers Fundamentals of HTML Scripting, Fundamentals of Javascript, or (sort of) Web Page Authoring, for starters.
There are also millions of free online tutorials, including those offered by W3Schools Full Web Building Tutorials.
Another option, depending on your learning style, is just to buy one of the textbooks that the course you would have taken if it had run required and work through that, doing all of the assignments and using the online tutorials and free resources to expand your horizons as desired.
When I was teaching these sorts of courses, I used the New Perspectives Series:
Even though the course was on campus and not intended to be distance learning, several of my students did it as an online course and did very well.
Even if you DO need the actual credit(s), working through any of the free opportunities can only help, right? By the time you get to actually take the course, you'll be a pro.