Online School

I'm curious to know what you all think about online school, especially for people with disorders.

I have a degree from an online university, I loved it. I'm currently taking an advanced course from a university in another country online. If you can get your work done, it can work well but if you have trouble procrastinating, writing, or doing work on your own, it probably can be a nightmare.

If you mean grade school/middles school/high school I would recommend it to someone who feels like it is the better option for them and have ways to keep themselves disciplined enough and have the ability to do the work. I took online classes for the final few years I was in high school due to my first major depressive episode. I did great the first school year, but afterwards I basically gave up due to the depression and had to try to recover from it before I could get back to work. I started to, but by then I should of been graduating and going to college. Due to this, I decided to get my GED instead so that I could go to college rather than being depressed due to being stuck in high school still. I don't regret it because I got to learn a lot about who I am as a person, learn a lot of things on my own due to the independence I had rather than relying on the public school system, and was able to overcome depression during that time period. I don't think it is ideal if you are someone like I was who couldn't moderate himself, but it can work.

It has been a life saver for me. I find in my case, it's best when paired with at least one on campus class. The online courses help because I don't always like being in public around people (during depressive episodes), the on campus one helps because sometimes, I need to be around people. It prevents me from isolating myself completely. Gives me incentive to leave the house. I take more online courses than on campus. Four courses a semester, one on campus and three online.

If you are good at managing time, they're great. There is still some level of interacting with classmates. Most classes require you to post on a discussion board and interact with the other students at least once per module (a module being 1-3 weeks long, depending on the course). You still have to meet deadlines. You can't exactly do things on your own time. When they say that, they mean at your own hour. Daily and weekly deadlines are still crucial. If you procrastinate, I do not recommend it at all.

It probably depends on your learning style and how you like to engage with the material as well?

I HATE online classes [which is funny because I hang out so much online in general]. I really like to pull ideas and concepts apart and analyze the crap out of them with other people and debate theories and POVs. So an online class was just so tedious. Even the hybrid class i tried seemed so bland for me. I found with discussion boards, a lot of people would wait until a few hours before the deadline so much of the discussion wasn't as valuable as it couldbe.

But if you get a lot out of reading and soak up much through just that, can do a lot on your own, I would really recommend it.

Whatever compliments your needs is really what you should be after.

I tried a semester of online school and absolutely HATED it. It just wasn't for me. I was doing it to make up some credits over the summer and it was the hardest thing I've ever done academically. I think it really depends on the individual's learning style and needs in the classroom. For me, I'm a verbal/kinesthetic learner so I have to have someone demonstrate something and explain it, and then I have to try it myself before I actually understand it. That's nearly impossible via a computer. Most of the material was reading and answering questions and I hate reading. I also have ADHD and because reading is so boring, I found it so hard to get the work done and stick to the task. So yeah, online school was not for me.

I just finished an on-line course. It kept me focused.