As the internet has changed the way we do just about everything, one of the things that's changed drastically is the way we use it for schooling. With laptops being a requirement at college, many professors have switched to doing online home, with many times, it being due at weird times. In fact, I have 2 homework assignments due at 11:59 pm tonight (Saturday). I've talked about this with my parents before, and they can't believe that I have homework due mid-weekend.
With this all said, I do know that event though it's due on Saturday night, I could've done it earlier in the week to avoid doing it on a Saturday. I do think that online homework has it's benefits. These benefits include being very portable, hard to lose, and not having to lug around heavy materials.
There are also negatives, or things that could be improved about online home. Some issues with online homework includes cheating, poor software, and terrible due times.
When is comes to cheating, many online homework questions can be found online with solutions on quizlet and yahoo answers. This usually acts as a disatvantage to online homework because some people will cheat their way to 100% without teachers knowing. Occasionally, it can be a good thing to look up homework questions for those who actual use homework for what it's supposed to be, a study tool.
One of the issues I've run into with online homework, particularly with mathematics, is poor software. Many times, entering in the answer to the online homework takes as much time as actually doing the problem. My twin sister, who's in a college algebra class, will call me with questions about a math problem, just for the problem to be the way she entered the answer in.
The last major problem I see with online homework are the due times. Homework being due on Friday and Saturday nights can be frustrating, especially when the homework is graded automatically. Why not just give me the extra day(s) for it to be due Sunday night? The other problem I have with due times is that they're due at 11:59pm usually. As a college kid, I usually don't go to bed until 3am, and sometimes don't get off work until 11:30 pm. If class isn't until 11 am, I feel like the homework shouldn't be due until then either, especially since some people have breaks in their schedules. One of my professors has made his online homeworks due at class start, and I already see the difference it makes.
Thank you for reading my post. Please read the post script and please leave comments with what you think. Thanks again.
P.S. This isn't meant to be me complaining by any means. I never expected college to be easy or a piece of cake (like high school has become. I think that's why a HS degree is worth nothing today). This is simply me suggesting some changes to the current system to make it better.
