Online courses for undergraduates have become a popular alternative among students. If you want to study in a nonconventional manner, learning on the web could be for you.
Coursework
Courses available vary from site to site. Some of the ones you will find are fine arts, archaeology and music. Undergraduates may also take up engineering, natural sciences, economics, business or law. Social sciences and Liberal Arts are also available.
Ethics, genetics, Culture and cuisine are being offered in some websites as well. Entrepreneurial sales and marketing, distance education research and design and web design are popular with many students too. Semester based courses are on tap as well.
Other courses that you can take up are descriptive astronomy, human physiology, biopsychology and police & society issues. There are also courses for introduction to gerontology, finance, Native American history and small business management.
There are programs for insect biology, drugs & crime and women in history. College algebra, comparative politics, international relations, insurgency & terrorism and the history of literature are also bundled in many classes.
Format
These programs are delivered in a variety of ways. The most common interface used for online studies is Blackboard. But others use their own unique interface. Some Internet schools utilize CDs, DVDs, videoconferencing, webinars and webcasts.
They also employ email, discussion forums and other online study tools. Websites will not necessarily use all of them; they may just rely on one or two.
Schedule
Some of these classes are self-paced. Students can decide when in the day to study. But deadlines are usually imposed on assignments. But there are online universities that follow semester calendars. Independent study formats are known as Open Enrollment courses.
Instructors are assigned to students just like in a regular class. Even though these programs are asynchronous, you still have to meet the deadlines set by the instructors. If the site has synchronous study programs, a meeting time will be scheduled.
Other Information
Aside from the courses stated earlier, there are undergraduate certificates and degrees. Examples of the former are public policy analysis, meat culinology, legal studies and agriculture. Most if not all of them can be completed on the web. Undergraduate degrees require applicants to have finished a specific number of credit hours of years in college.
Online courses for undergraduates usually have financial aids available. This can come in the form of grants, discounts or loans. Contact the site administrator so you review what opinions are available.