I’m about a third of the way through my MS in Data Analytics. I decided to get my degree through a traditional graduate school program because I wanted to interact with the professors directly and get to know my fellow students. Then, COVID came along just before I started school and all of my classes switched to online. There are some drawbacks to learning online, such as it takes a while to get questions answered instead of just being able to ask the professor directly during class, as well as having very limited relationships with any of my fellow students. School is a good opportunity to increase the number of people you know in your field and thus increase your chance of finding a good job. Also, it’s great to be able to work through tough concepts with fellow students when you inevitably hit a roadblock.

Even though there are drawbacks to online classes, I’ve come to really enjoy that format. Some of my classes have live lectures that allows some interaction with the professor. I also really enjoy having the comforts of home while in class. If the material is dull or class is dragging I don’t feel bad looking up additional information or working on my homework during class. I could do this in an in-person class but I feel an obligation to give my full attention to the professor in classroom lectures. Plus, online I can attend class while wearing my PJs - not a bad deal.

I don’t feel like I’ve lost out this last year by doing my coursework online. For the most part, the lectures have been more of a roadmap of what I need to go out and learn for that week. The professor presents material and then I go do the suggested reading, start the homework, and find additonal information from other resources for areas I having difficulty with. I leverage the heck out of YouTube, Kahn Academy, StackOverflow, and Medium as well as other random sites I discover through searching.

This fall I’ll actually have my first in-person class. That’ll be a good opportunity to really see which format I prefer now.