Online-only courses draw avid audience

Press the "on" button. Sign onto the Internet, and voila -- Penn students are ready for their first PennAdvance class.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, the College of General Studies, along with Sylvan Learning Center, embarked on a joint partnership. Through this program, students could visit their local SLC and watch a live video of a lecture given by a Penn professor. High school students were given the unique chance to take college courses before even entering university.

By 1998, according to PennAdvance Technical Director Elizabeth Scheyder, "Penn decided to go solo on this project, [and] PennAdvance was born."

"The program," Scheyder says, "was created to respond to the marketplace, where many prestigious institutions were beginning to offer online courses."

Since 1998, the PennAdvance program has grown significantly, offering courses in geology, anthropology, English, classical studies and even world music.

PennAdvance courses receive equivalent credit to in-class lectures, which may also be transferred to other colleges.

Still, according to the PennAdvance Web site, this program "is not a degree program," but instead provides an opportunity for "students from around the country and even the world" to take Penn courses.

The student response to PennAdvance has been overwhelmingly positive, according to the program directors.

When PennAdvance students were asked the online teaching system has any downsides, CGS student Victoria McCreary said there was "not one" drawback.

The convenience of taking a class in the comfort of one's home or dorm room has proven to be an asset of the program.

Instead of getting dressed for class, Wharton junior Daniel Kline explains that PennAdvance is "the only way [students] can take a class while sitting in [their] underwear and having Greek Lady delivered to [their] door."

College junior Alex Brodsky agreed, saying, "I'm just as willing to walk to [David Rittenhouse Laboratory] and sit through a lecture as I am to watch one online. However, [with PennAdvance] I can attend class in my boxers, so that's pretty sweet."

Yet wearing pajamas to class is just the beginning of the advantages of PennAdvance. For those who are not located in Philadelphia, but who want to continue their education, PennAdvance provides this opportunity.

Lynn Kilroy is currently retired and living with her husband in County Mayo, Ireland. Kilroy graduated from Penn with a master's in nursing, and since her move to Ireland, she says she felt "a bit isolated way out here and was looking for something interesting to do through the computer that didn't cost a lot of money."

That's when Kilroy discovered PennAdvance. Since this discovery, Kilroy has enrolled in both oceanography and forensic anthropology courses.

While she initially experienced some technical problems with her computer, Kilroy no longer "feels so isolated."

Another benefit of the program, Scheyder says, is that "students who have family or work commitments or health issues that would [normally] make it impossible to take a face-to-face course during a given semester" can now have such an opportunity.

Debi English is a senior in CGS who is an adult student in her 50s. She hopes to graduate this May and is happy to have the opportunity to take Penn courses from her home computer and still have ample time for her other family and work commitments.

Still, English sometimes misses the face-to-face contact with professors. She recommends that students "know the professor well enough to know how he or she teaches" before taking an online course.

And for some PennAdvance students, the fact that they were taking an online course came as somewhat of a surprise.

"I didn't find out until I registered for the class and tried to figure out where I was [supposed] to go, because it said 'unspecified.' That's when [the professor] told me it was online," College sophomore Cara Bergamo says.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.