Online College Courses

[Brutus Brewer]

Hello,

I will be finishing up my RN degree in December and am getting prerequisite courses out of the way for my BSN. I have to take a chemistry class and rather than make a 3 hour round trip drive 2x per week I'm going to take it online. I've taken other online classes before but I'm a little worried about this one. I'm sure that this will be more intensive than the Anthropology or Nutrition classes I've previously taken online. Does anyone have experience with an online course of this nature?

 

[MaxStout]

I've never taken online courses before, but had 6 or 7 chem courses in college (engineering). I assume the online course is theory, as you wouldn't have labs. Depending on the level of the course, there will be a little math involved, though nothing to worry about. Calculations of titrations, etc.

Do you have a syllabus that shows what topics will be covered in the course? That might help you see what you're getting into.

 

[Brutus Brewer]

I've never taken online courses before, but had 6 or 7 chem courses in college (engineering). I assume the online course is theory, as you wouldn't have labs. Depending on the level of the course, there will be a little math involved, though nothing to worry about. Calculations of titrations, etc.

Do you have a syllabus that shows what topics will be covered in the course? That might help you see what you're getting into.

There actually is a virtual lab component. I think I'll be ok, was just curious if anyone else had experience with this.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

Email the instructor with your questions/concerns, and mark drop dates carefully, so you can bail out if it is not working out.
Personally, I tried an online course for accounting work and I hated it and dropped it. While different, both subject matters involve technical aspects of fairly esoteric subjects. To add more perspective, I am an attorney with a B.A. in Psychology (lots of statistics and math, believe it or not), but the online aspect did not work for my learning style. I graduated high school in 2001, so I finished up both my degrees just as online courses started getting popular. If you have done well with online courses, then it could very well work for you where it did not work for me. I took AP chemistry in high school and find it difficult to imagine working it without a physical lab component, but I could very well be wrong here.

If my choices were a 3-hour round trip or trying the online course, I would certainly try the online course.

Sorry if I am not all that helpful

 

[MaxStout]

There actually is a virtual lab component. I think I'll be ok, was just curious if anyone else had experience with this.

Good. It's hard to really learn chem without some lab work. And the subject is so important to any medical profession.

I hope everything goes well. Good luck with your degree!

 

[GoeHaarden]

Try to see if your program accepts the chemistry from University of Pheonix online. I had a couple of friends who took that their chemistry from there for their BSN. It was still pretty tough from what they told me and they had to buy a lab kit and do their own lab at home, but it beats driving that much...

 

[GoeHaarden]

And the subject is so important to any medical profession.

I would disagree. You will probably never see the content covered in 100-200 level chemistry courses ever again after the class unless you continue to take advanced chemistry. But you really won't use this stuff in medicine unless you're going into pharmacology...even then it's more biochem.

I loved my chemistry courses, but I'm just trying to keep it real...

 

[mikescooling]

I took Patho in Nursing school (BSN) online and it sucked. All exams are timed and you have to work with and produce the information. I avoided Online classes if I had a choice. As you read the text make a cheat sheet for quick referencing during the exams, but how you budget your exam time is key. These are all "Canned courses", so you have to pick-up the rhythm of answering there questions fast. Give them the answer they want and that may not always be the best answer IMHO

 

[Yooper]

I took an advanced chemistry class online (500 level), and it was fine. BUT I took a "fun" online astronomy class and luckily it wasn't counted, because I found it extremely difficult with tons of math.

So I guess my answer is to look at your strengths and weaknesses before deciding. I'm good at math, really strong in science, and the chemistry was not a problem at all. The astronomy surprised me- it was alot of math (calculus type math) and I was very surprised at how over my head it was.

If you're a little weak in chemistry, I think an online class would be extremely difficult. If that's your strong suit, you'll be fine. I assume it's a basic class(?), and if you think of it as a prelude to pharmacology, it's actually fun.

Of course, I always say "I LOVE drugs!" because I love pharmacology and pathophysiology. But I'm a nerd that way.

 

[Brutus Brewer]

Thanks for the input!!

 

[baldm79]

I’m taking an intro to physics and chem all in one. Both topics that are interesting, yet the class is so easy that I dread doing the work.
I usually don’t recommend checking reviews about a teacher, but I wish I had done it for this one!

 

[mikescooling]

I would check to see if the prof is on RateMyProfessor.com. And if he/she is good about responding to questions, and if the college offers tutoring, if you do need help

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

I did my Bachelor's of Science completely online. However, it was in IT/Programming so... Overall, the online thing was a pretty decent experience, gave me time to work fulltime and have a life. I actually graduated in like 3 1/4 years instead of 4. You get good teachers and bad still though i guess that depends on the school.

 

[WestMichiganSteelheader]

I also believe it depends on the college or university. For example, when I was working on my BS I took a few online courses and really did not care for them. It was busy work rather than meaningful work. With this being said, I completed my master’s and doctorate degree 100% online and enjoyed the course work. When choosing my grad work, I looked at programs with course work I would enjoy and avoided programs that had courses that I would have not enjoyed or would have experienced real struggles.

My online instructors were more than willing to email as needed and I even spoke with many of them on the phone asking for guidance. Do not hesitate to ask for assistance as needed. That is what they are being paid for, to teach and mentor.

What is the minimum grade requirement for your BSN?

 

[Brutus Brewer]

I also believe it depends on the college or university. For example, when I was working on my BS I took a few online courses and really did not care for them. It was busy work rather than meaningful work. With this being said, I completed my master’s and doctorate degree 100% online and enjoyed the course work. When choosing my grad work, I looked at programs with course work I would enjoy and avoided programs that had courses that I would have not enjoyed or would have experienced real struggles.

My online instructors were more than willing to email as needed and I even spoke with many of them on the phone asking for guidance. Do not hesitate to ask for assistance as needed. That is what they are being paid for, to teach and mentor.

What is the minimum grade requirement for your BSN?

I believe I need a minimum of a C for the class to transfer. I have a 3.6 right now, I'm not too worried about it, but Chemistry will be far be the most difficult class I've taken online to date. However, it may be a good indicator for the BSN program I am getting ready for, as all of those classes will be online.

 

[WestMichiganSteelheader]

Remember, “C” get degrees. I had a few of those along the way.

 

[mikeasu]

I did a Master's in National Security Studies through American Military University. No lab work, heavy on research and writing, so lent itself well to an online program. On one occasion, got to see a syllabus for a class in a similar program at Naval Postgraduate School (I was there for a conference), seemed a comparable kind of workload. I'd grant that a master's from say, Georgetown would be more prestigious, but never had issues with employers not recognizing it or denigrating it for being an online university.

 

[passedpawn]

Hello,

I will be finishing up my RN degree in December and am getting prerequisite courses out of the way for my BSN. I have to take a chemistry class and rather than make a 3 hour round trip drive 2x per week I'm going to take it online. I've taken other online classes before but I'm a little worried about this one. I'm sure that this will be more intensive than the Anthropology or Nutrition classes I've previously taken online. Does anyone have experience with an online course of this nature?

I'd look into a local tutor, proactively. If you have a local univ or junior college, you should be able to find them pretty easily on the bulletin boards of the library there. Consider spending an hour and $20 each weekend in the library there, going over things that you're not strong on. All three of my kids are in medicine and used tutors extensively - not because they are dumb, but because they were good students.

Good luck with you're schooling. My daughter is a working BSN - just started.