Online science classes meet student demand for flexibility and meaningful content

Prairie State Community College offers the AMS meteorology class as an Internet based class. Online science classes are becoming more popular but some science faculty still question the ability to teach concepts and scientific technique in online classes. The idea that students must meet weekly in a laboratory setting is hard to overcome but students who have taken online classes have reported that they spend more time working on labs and are more likely to repeat the lab if they do not get the expected results than they were when participating in in-house labs.

As more students take online classes in high school, begin to feel more comfortable online, and enjoy the flexibility that online classes offer the demand for this type of class will increase. I teach in a community college where 79% of all students are classified as part time. The majority of my students have families and/or work. They like to take online classes because they can fit the class in around their busy schedule.

The AMS meteorology class allows students to take a challenging science class with the flexibility that they need. As science faculty, we need to concentrate on methods to make online laboratory experiences more meaningful and help students feel comfortable in online courses. This course has evolved over the last three years to help maintain students and to insure that they are able to learn the material.