By Jessica Broverman, Editor

The ability to take classes from the comfort of your home is both a blessing and a curse. Not only may you shape your academic experience to your liking, but you may also work at your own pace while still managing to get an education, at a reduced cost much of the time. Though these are all great things, does this method give students the opportunity to enhance their learning?

The most practical thing when it comes to online classes would probably be the fact that you can work as slow or as fast as you like. Rather than being in a classroom where the work is too easy or too difficult, at least this way, you can make the class your own. However, due to this flexibility, many students lose track of their classes.

Since online classes are often in the summer months, students will go off to the pool or on a vacation and will put that assignment off for a few weeks to enjoy their summer. That one week or that single trip can completely destroy a thirty-day class, in which one week of work is crucial.

There is also the financial aid aspect of it. Many classes during the summer cost around $1,000, give or take depending on your financial situation. Though you may receive financial aid, it more than likely will not be available for usage in the summertime. Therefore, many students must turn to their parents to take out a small loan.

Now add up a few summer courses over the span of four years and your parents have a pretty hefty loan to pay off, especially if they are paying your full tuition already. Obviously an education is important, which is why it is so costly, but how much of an education are you really getting through a computer screen?

In a classroom, you have an active learning environment. Your professor can challenge you at any given moment and if you have a question they are there to answer it. With an online class, you must send a message to your teacher and wait.

It could be minutes, hours, or even days until you hear back from them just to get a definitive answer about an assignment. Online classes also tend to be disengaging. While many professors offer hands-on learning in the classroom, online classes tend to focus solely on taking notes, passing quizzes, and so on.

Though there are many positive aspects to working online and online classes are necessary for many of us, they should come as a last resort. College is not only meant to educate, but you are also meant to experience the people and the environment around you. When you take classes online, you are not only losing that experience, but you are also losing a more well-rounded education.