Online and Face-to-Face Students

While individuals in each group do select their preferred classroom for recognized reasons (e.g. online learners’ preference for flexible attendance schedules), the best students in both settings are those who engage with the content, classmates, and the teacher. Learners who react to new and challenging ideas with reasons (excuses) why the ideas have no connection to their work or their life exist in both environments. While such students may earn credits for attending the course, there is little chance they will change anything they do as a result of the course. In my experience the proportion of students who are actively engaged and those who are actively opposed to new ideas are about the same in each group.