Online classes are a requirement for an advanced diploma, but some students have different ideas about the challenges they offer when compared to traditional classes.

“I heard multiple of my friends that said, ‘take online instead of with a teacher. It goes by way faster’…I’m almost done with a semester of work” Pirre Mblar said. Sophomore Pirre Mblar said, who’s taking his Personal Finance/Econ class through PLATO instead of through a teacher.

However, not all online classes are this straightforward or laid back where, according to Mblar, “When you finish you can go to sleep,” Senior Hannah Daniel is taking an AP World History class through Virtual Virginia, and it’s in an entirely new league.

“Usually online classes go pretty quickly, but mine is an AP course and it’s very scheduled. I have specific dates that I have to turn things in so that I’m kept on course for the AP Exam for the end of the year. My friend took this course last year and I expect to be working up until the last day of school,” Daniel said.

The only reason she had the option to take a rigorous course online is because she never took her world history course freshman year because her schedule got a bit muddled, in that she never took World History 1 freshman year. Unlike Daniel, other students take classes online because they’re easy.

Junior Nathan Gehman, who’s taking personal finance through PLATO, states that there are some difficulties in basic understanding of the content.

“You can’t ask questions because there is no one to ask it to. There’s the instructor, but [the classroom instructor is] there to help with technical difficulties,” Gehman said.

Students like Mblar think there are problems with taking advanced courses, issues the classes being more focused on taking tests than learning ideas are common, she describes.

“I feel like I’m learning things just for a short term memory…I’ll take the quiz and I won’t really retain as much as I want to,” Daniel said. Different types of learners, like Daniel, believe that there are problems with the structure of online classes.

“There isn’t a lecture style, and I really learn with with a traditional lecture style…so I read, I do the activities then I sort of get it out of my mind because it’s a fast-moving course. I don’t have time to delve in deeper,” Daniel said.

Students experience online classes differently from each other, whether it’s personal finance or AP history.