Online classes are a way to help a student catch up or learn something they didn't at school. These courses can also act as a way for the student to get certain school graduation requirements done. This gives students the freedom to take the class at their own pace while giving them the requirements they need.

Because of online classes, students are allowed to take courses at their own pace to fit their needs. If the student pleases, they can stick to working on the the class everyday in small chunks, or they can to big chunks at a time. I have a friend who took an online course because she needed the class to graduate. She would work on the online class in huge chunks whenever she had the time; therefore, she had more down time during the week. She benefited from this online class by free up her time at school to take the classes she really wanted to do and that helped her towards her future career. Another way online classes benefit students is that it helps commute time. Not every student is fortunate enough to live near a school and can't afford the time or the money to go to school. Online classes can benefit these students by giving them the option to stay home and learn without spending the amount of time and money to go to school.

Although online classes could benefit students, they could still hinder them as well. With the freedom of taking a class at your own pace comes laziness. Students will think they have all the time in the world to finish this class because they can go their own pace. As a result, most students will fall behind and procrastinate. This procrastination will cause stress for the student because they now have to play catch up. Online classes could also result in the lack of information retained by a student. Because it is an online class, student could feel as if they don't need to really know the information, unless it is for a test. My brother is in an online class at the moment, and he is not really retaining much of the information. He fell behind at the start and is now trying to catch up to where he needs to be. Because of the stress of falling behind, he is not really learning. He is more going through the motions to get where he needs to be. Finally, online classes don't give the full classroom experience. In a typical classroom, there is a teacher and classmates. While the teacher lectures and explains the topic, students come up with questions they might have and new ways of look at the problem. The teacher then can help these students understand what they are missing. This is not the case in an online class. There are no classmates to help look at a problem in a new way and there is no teacher to help students personally. Without the classroom experience, students could retain even less information than given.

Online classes are a great resource and a smart way to get the student to learn outside of school; however they are not for everyone. While online classes benefit students by giving them the freedom to work at their own pace and help commute time, they also hinder students by the lack of a classroom experience, the stress of falling behind, and the lack of information the student retains.