Online or in-person? UM-Dearborn students weigh flexibility, connection, and choice
By Yara Nasser
Online classes have become a familiar part of the college experience, allowing students to complete coursework without regularly stepping into a classroom. At a commuter campus like UM-Dearborn, this flexibility can allow students to build their education around work, family responsibilities, and other life demands.
But convenience is only one factor students consider when choosing how they want to take their classes. For some, online learning provides independence. Others value the relationships and discussions that can only develop face-to-face. However, for students whose required courses are only offered in one format, the choice may not be theirs to make at all.
Yuliya Fedorenko, a junior majoring in political science and criminology, has only taken three or four of her classes in person; the rest have been online.
“If I had the option to choose, I would opt for online,” Fedorenko said.
Fedorenko works while attending school and said online courses make balancing the two easier. But this convenience is not the only reason for her preference.
“I’m not good with lectures. I don’t like lectures personally,” she said. “I like to just see what I need to do and just get right on top of it.”
Fedorenko has taken all of her English minor courses online and said the format has improved the way she participates in discussions. Rather than having to rush to formulate an answer immediately in a classroom, written discussions allow her to better formulate her train of thought compared to when she is just speaking.
For Mariam Sehran, an art history major who was previously an English major, online learning has been a more complicated experience. Although Sehran prefers taking classes in person, she has struggled to find major-related courses offered in person for both subjects.
Despite her preference, Sehran said she does not hold anything against the online courses she has taken. Sehran explained that her online professors have been very interactive and that she still values the readings, lecture recordings, and other materials she receives online. However, she still feels that it is difficult to reproduce some elements of the classroom virtually.
When comparing an in-person class she took last semester with an online course she is currently taking, she found it hard to deny the differences in classroom interactions.
“In my Ways of Seeing class it was very interactive in the classroom … So now, online classes there’s reading, discussion posts, and a biweekly quiz and that's about that.”
Composition professor Dr. Liz Rohan shares concerns about what happens when traditional classroom conversations happen online.
“Online classes, I mean, they can be good, the content can be good, but the interaction with your fellow students is pretty canned and controlled,” Rohan said.
For Rohan, these interactions are not separate from the education itself, and she said that “teaching isn’t so much about the topic. It’s about relationships and feeling part of a group.”
These relationships can extend beyond just classroom discussions. Rohan said she has written recommendation letters for students she has had exclusively online, but doing so feels different when she has had limited opportunities to get to know them personally. She said meeting students over Zoom during her own online teaching made “a huge difference.”
For students who have the ability to choose, however, the decision comes down to what they want from their college experience.
Biology major McKenna Shaw said that online classes have been offered to her every semester, but she consistently has chosen to attend in-person classes.
“I definitely prefer the engagement of the lecture hall or classroom environment,” she said. “I feel so much more motivated to participate and put in real effort when I can see my classmates working through the same processes that I am.” Shaw also spoke about feeling a sense of community with in-person classes in contrast to that of isolation in asynchronous courses.
Federenko also pointed out some of the drawbacks Shaw discussed, despite preferring online learning herself. Federenko currently comes to campus only once a week and said that she feels “on some level, a little more disconnected” from the university.
While Federenko reports being able to recognize classmates through discussion posts and group work and even “grow a bond with them,” to her it is “from a distance.”
But, ultimately, this tradeoff did not change Federenko’s preference, as she says she still interacts with the course materials, online lectures, professors and puts the same time into her education -- just from home.
Taking online courses can mean different things to different students, and while learning through a screen definitely changes how students interact with their classmates, professors, and campus, these dynamics do not carry the same weight for everybody.
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