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Types of College Courses
Video Courses
These courses have all the ‘lectures’ on videos that you “rent”. “Renting” means that you buy the tapes for maybe $25 and then sell them back for maybe $5. In order to sell them back you must have all the tapes in good working order. I was not able to sell mine back because my dad accidentally taped over one of the lectures. For some reason the “record protect” tab was not removed thus allowing you to record on it. (As luck would have it, it was a tape I hadn’t even completely watched yet.)
While not as popular in some areas, some video courses can be viewed on cable channels.
With video courses, you won’t have classes either. Instead, you will have a course schedule and will do your reading/work intertwined with watching your videos.
With these courses, you will have to go to campus to take your tests and turn in your work (sometimes you can mail in work). An instructor will also be available for help.Both of these courses are considered a “distance-learning” format. Basically it means you will not have regular class meetings. This is actually good for the college as you will pay them the same tuition for these classes; however, you won’t actually be on campus taking up a parking space, adding to their overhead cost and so on. This is good for you because you don’t have to go the effort of showing up for class every other day or even driving to campus (except for certain occasions).
In summary, these formats allow you to work at your own pace, but you still need to do the work and may occasionally have to put more effort into a class as there won’t be a lecture to spell everything out for you.
I have found that the online, text style, courses can sometimes be harder since things are not being verbally explained. On the other hand, the video lectures are nice because you can stop and rewind as you please, but it’s harder to ask questions. Regardless though, you still have an instructor to question if you have trouble.
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