A & P of Speech- Online or In-Person?

[samiamslp]

Hi all!

I am planning to taking Anatomy and Physiology of Speech and Hearing over the summer and am debating if I should take the course in person or on-line. The class that is close to me is only four weeks, but it's 10 hours a week (5 hours, 2 days a week). I'm not sure if I'll get everything I need out of course that is only a month long, even if it intensive, and I am heading to grad school in September, so I really want to feel prepared and comfortable with the material. I can also take the course online elsewhere and over a longer period of time, but I'm worried about how much I'll actually learn if the anatomy course is online and I'll be missing the lecture and real discussion aspects.

Thoughts? Which option would you do?

Thanks in advance!

[bibliophile222]

I took my anatomy course online and learned a ton (although I definitely didn't retain all of it because there's just too much: all those damn torso muscles suck). There will probably still be video lectures wherever you take it, so I didn't feel that I was missing out at all.

I would HIGHLY recommend stretching it out over a longer period of time. I think for most people (me included) A&P is the hardest prereq due to the sheer quantity of memorization required, so taking it in an intensive 4-week stretch sounds like hell.

Edited April 29, 2019 by bibliophile222

[samiamslp]

11 hours ago, bibliophile222 said:

I took my anatomy course online and learned a ton (although I definitely didn't retain all of it because there's just too much: all those damn torso muscles suck). There will probably still be video lectures wherever you take it, so I didn't feel that I was missing out at all.

I would HIGHLY recommend stretching it out over a longer period of time. I think for most people (me included) A&P is the hardest prereq due to the sheer quantity of memorization required, so taking it in an intensive 4-week stretch sounds like hell.

Thanks! Would you recommend taking a longer course even if it would have to be online? 

I also may or may not have to take a leave from work for a month if I do i the in-person class, since I won’t be able to be working full time while taking it, which I can do, but that’s another factor to consider. I think I’d normally lead to the online class, but I’m worried about not fully processing the material if it is online only. 

[samiamslp]

Also, if you don’t mind me asking, where did you take your class, and how interactive was it?

[bibliophile222]

2 hours ago, samiamslp said:

Also, if you don’t mind me asking, where did you take your class, and how interactive was it?

I took it as part of my online post-bacc at Pacific University. There were short video lectures (maybe 15-20 minutes a week), readings, and worksheets that helped us learn the structures/muscles. I don't think we had any discussion boards, though, so it wasn't super interactive, but I personally don't find that necessary. I think if it were more theoretical material that was well-suited for discussion and thorough explanations that would be one thing (for instance, my child development course had lots of discussion posts and video lectures of at least 1 hour a week) but A&P is so memorization-oriented that I don't think it really needs to be interactive. 

That being said, everyone's different. If you've never taken an online course before, it might be quite an adjustment. However, in my mind, online courses don't make it harder to learn/retain content. I think what matters more is duration of the course: I also got my undergrad degree online. I took one course at a time for five weeks each. I still learned a lot, but in some courses I retained practically nothing because it was just too short. I think even in an in-person courses, condensed courses are difficult and I just don't remember the information as well.

Now, that also being said, I don't think it's really that important that you retain EVERYTHING you learn in A&P. The structures of the larynx and oral cavity are important, but I've forgotten almost everything I learned about the torso/lungs and most of the face muscles because we just don't use most of that information in grad school. Focus on the larynx and you'll be fine!