Brenda Futrell David Cloughley ENG-111-28IN 20 September 2016 A Critique of Johann N. Neem’s “Online Higher Education’s Individualistic Fallacy” With today’s technological advances, a college degree has become easily obtainable for those interested in furthering their education and careers. Many colleges are now offering their degree programs through online learning in order to fulfill the demand for flexibility of higher education for the working class. About 6.7 million students enrolled in college have taken at least one online course (Sheehy). Some will argue that the online experience cannot compare with the traditional on campus experience. In his article, “Online Higher Education’s Individualistic Fallacy”, Johaan Neem offers his stance …show more content…
a degree) it doesn’t provide the social interactions with other students and teachers. College can be seen as more than gaining facts and figures but for finding a thirst for knowledge. Neem believes that the learning experience is “like religion, a social experience” (92) and being on campus holds the highest educational value. Learning can be difficult and one must be engaged with other students and teachers in whom we can develop trusting relationships with to fully understand what is being taught and ultimately leave differently from where we started. The computer cannot fully engage the student as a teacher would be able to; classroom discussions, assignment advice, and the like cannot be replicated in an online …show more content…
Many late in life college students, those with full time jobs, and those with families are able to further their education with the help of distance learning. Some may feel that they may get lost in the larger class sizes and end up memorizing material instead of grasping what is being taught, others may be overwhelmed by the set schedules of classes, not being able to handle home life as well as campus life. Most online courses have the same teachers, as well as the materials, lessons and exams as the on campus course follows. The responsibility of self-motivating leaves online students tending to have higher grades than those on campus as well as better organization and time management