I'm really, really not good with them, as I have discovered this quarter. I am never taking an online class again.

With an in-person class, you can talk to the teacher. Ask questions. The teacher explains things out loud, and points out issues other students have had in the past with assignments. If you stupidly miss one small part of the instructions on an essay that marks you down a lot, like I did, you can talk to the teacher about re-doing it for some extra points, or extra credit to make up for it. It's flexible and individual.

With the online system my college uses, there's no re-doing. There's no process of getting a teacher to look over your paper beforehand to see if it looks good. One misread direction will drop your grade significantly. I don't even know if the system will let a teacher take a re-submitted paper. I suppose it doesn't help that the book is badly written and contains about three too many pictures of Paris Hilton.

I'm not even kidding.

Has anyone else had better luck than I with online classes?