Today Megan and Erin answer a listener question about online classes and brainstorm ideas for students, parents, and educators to help avoid a schedule full of unwanted online college classes.

Laurie wrote:

I have noticed a trend the past two years that is frustrating the students I work with and I would love to hear your and Erin’s perspectives and thoughts. Out of about dozen college freshman that I worked with last year, 8 of them have come home on their holiday break from college disappointed because they had so many online classes their first semester. They are very discouraged and it’s all I could do to talk them into not transferring but trying to advocate for themselves and talk to their advisors about not accepting online classes semester 2. Thoughts/ questions:

• Why are colleges and universities doing this? Budget cuts? Lack of professors? They have to know that sitting in your dorm, alone and doing an online class is not an optimal experience for new freshman.
• Should we encourage parents to help advise their students when they register for classes their first semester? Just to peek over their shoulder and make sure they are not stuck in a bunch of online classes? They right amount of parent involvement is a fine line…
• How can we help students learn to advocate for themselves? They do not have to accept the first schedule they are offered- and one that is likely generated by an algorithm. What can they say and do when they need to change it? My students say they felt trapped, like they shouldn’t be “difficult” or that it wouldn’t be possible to find all their classes in person, or they didn’t know how exactly to make changes.

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