While on-campus students at UW-Platteville may not even realize that they have peers living halfway around the world, UW-Platteville’s Distance Education online classes offer classes for non-traditional students wishing to earn a degree.

UW-Platteville offers two undergrad programs: Bachelor of Science in business administration and Bachelor of Science in criminal justice. Three graduate degrees are also offered including a Master of Science in criminal justice, Master of Science in engineering and Master of Science in project management.

“[Online programs] cater to employed, non-traditional students who just cannot get to class,” Cheryl Banachowski-Fuller, director of the masters criminal justice distance education program, said. The advantage of the program is that students can complete coursework as they have time during the week.

It is not uncommon for students to submit assignments at 2 a.m. since that was the time they had available to study, instructor Thomas Pavick said.

Since an online environment is different than a traditional classroom, lectures are presented in a different format, Pavick said. Most lectures are presented in written format for students to read. Some professors are working on creating other forms of presenting such as audio files.

“The whole program could be completely different two years from now,” Pavick said.

While courses vary depending on the course facilitator, most course instructors post all of the assignments and lectures online at the beginning of the semester. Students are then given a timeline to follow to make sure they complete all the work on time.

Some classes allowed highly motivated students to complete the course in half of the required time. Other classes required students follow the course outline week-by-week. Mike Sharkey, assistant professor of philosophy and instructor for business ethics, required students to respond to three discussion questions each week. He noticed that the online format required him to be precise with the feedback he gave to students.

The online classes also have a variety of students around the country and the world.

Some students have found this format advantageous after they started classes in the United States and were deployed to Iraq. These students were able to continue their education in Iraq and share new experiences with other classmates, such as differences between U.S. and Iraqi police forces.

Students that work at jobs in organizations such as the FBI also add extra insight to classes and provide a variety of experiences, Banachowski-Fuller said.

Sharkey pointed out that while there are some benefits for online education, especially for the non-traditional student, there are still many benefits for on-campus students willing to learn in a traditional classroom setting. In a classroom, students can ask questions and have instant feedback. The lecturer is also better able to judge if a student is grasping a concept through nonverbal cues.