Advanced Research Writing

Do Students Lose More than They Gain in Online Writing Classes
The article, Do Students Lose More than They Gain in Online Writing Classes, does not contain any valid points that there are more benefits from a face to face classroom environment or that students in an online writing class lose benefits from the lack of physical interactions. The authors examples used in this article do not provide proof that online writing classes are not adequate for learning or that face-to-face classes are more beneficial.
The author’s opinion in this article is that students taking online writing classes do not get the same benefits as the students taking a traditional writing class in a classroom. The author states on several occasions throughout the article that students in face-to-face classrooms benefit from working in groups and interacting with peers. The article list different obstacles that online students face during the course that affect the amount of learning that they gain from the course overall.
The author’s argument does not validate that students lose more than they gain, in my opinion with any of the reasons listed in this article. The reasons that are used in this article,” technological impediments, time constraints, attitudes toward education”, do not provide any proof that online writing classes are not adequate for learning. I do not share the same point of view of the author of this article. The reasons listed to me are reasons that someone would just be a bad student in any classroom environment face to face or online. In my opinion, it is how the student preserves the class and their desire to learn from the class determines what they gain from a particular class. In an article I read “Virtually the Same”, they were discussing research that had been conducted to try to determine if students learned more in face to face classes than in online class rooms and the conclusion was that the students did not report a significant difference in learning the material. The article did say that,” The current study investigated student perceptions of the equivalence of online classes and face-to-face classes and how these perceptions may be influenced by students’ previous learning experiences”(Platt). This statement to me makes sense because if a student has had previous online learning experience than they are more likely to learn more from an online class than a student who has only participated in face to face classes.
The tone of the whole article,” Do Students Lose More than They Gain in Online Writing Classes”, seemed to be a rant about how they feel students should learn but in my opinion everyone is different and they learn best with different learning and teaching styles. A different teaching style may be what this teacher needs to try in her online classes. Several different online classes are implementing multimedia tools into their classrooms and are getting great responses from students. In one article that discusses the use of multimedia in online classes,” Engaging Students in Online Classes with Multimedia” it states , “Results of the faculty survey and faculty interviews show that a majority of survey participants and interviewees believe that the use of multimedia in the online classroom improves faculty-to-student interaction and student-to-student interaction“(McDonough). I think that the author of this article is frustrated with online classes, and the way students are learning. They could implement different methods of teaching and try using multimedia to benefit both the instructor and the students. | | Overall, my opinion of this article is that a traditional style teacher that is not readily acceptable of the change in learning in this new era where everything is more technology based wrote it. All of the reasons given on why writing classes online compromise the content of learning how writing works seem too geared towards how they prefer to teach. I did not find any valid points that there are more benefits from a face-to-face classroom environment or that students in an online writing class lose benefits from the lack of physical interactions.
References
Platt, C. A., Raile, A. W., & Yu, N. (2014). Virtually the Same?: Student Perceptions of the Equivalence of Online Classes to Face-to-Face Classes. Journal Of Online Learning & Teaching, 10(3), 489-503.
McDonough, W. (2012). Engaging Students in Online Classes with Multimedia - DE Oracle. University of Maryland University College.
I sent my paper to the writing center on Sept. 29th I got my response from Mary Alice that recommended that I make sure I check my punctuation and formatting.