Edmonds Community College has one of the state's largest Internet programs, with more than 35 online classes. EdCC has more than 400 students taking online classes and the school's fire command classes are taken by firefighters from Washington, Alaska, Montana and Oregon. Internet courses offer different challenges and benefits from brick and mortar classrooms. Wayne Ude, who teaches the online English composition class at EvCC, has frequently run up against the limits of Internet classes. Technical challenges cause headaches, even for something as simple as sending a file over e-mail.
Internet classes mean more work for teachers, too.
You can't handle more students in this setting than you can in a class. They're writing so much more. Today's software lets computers download recorded video and sound, and even conduct live video or voice conversations, but not enough home computers have the power to run those programs and the Internet itself is simply too congested to make teleconferences practical. As a result, most online classes opt for a lowest common denominator approach to technology. I don't like to use technology for technology's sake.