With the daunting task of selecting classes for next year on the horizon, students scramble to make sure every period is filled— whether it be a study hall, elective, or core class.

While some students do not have enough classes to fill their schedules, others struggle to decide which classes they can squeeze in among all the options. Despite this dilemma, the option of online classes is commonly overlooked.

A variety of courses are offered online. A student can take a traditional, honors or AP class, comparable to one taken inside the classroom— even gym.

“I liked the online aspect of [online gym],” Tyler Pilkinton (12) said, “It wasn’t very time consuming or as intensive as a regular P.E. class.”

Just as there are numerous courses to choose from online, there are also numerous reasons for students to take them. Some want to take a class required for graduation that they would not be able to physically take in the classroom because of a lack of room in their schedule, while some choose an online class because the course they want to take is not offered at the school.

“Environmental Science is obviously not offered at White Station or any other school except Cordova, which my [online] teacher is at,” Gyuri Han (12) said. “And if you really want to learn about environmental science, go for it. You will learn just as well as if you had him as a “real” teacher.”

Other students opt to take an online class to get ahead in a subject they are passionate about, like Karen Gan (10), who took chemistry online as a freshman, so she would be able to take AP Chemistry her sophomore year.

Online classes also provide other benefits that attract students such as schedule flexibility, allowing students to work at their own pace.

“It’s time management…You have to learn how pace yourself,” Gan said.

Online classes have their disadvantages as well. The workload can become demanding as it is coupled with other schoolwork. Time management can also become an overwhelming problem if students get off track.

When taking online classes, students will obviously have to deal with technology as well. Navigation through the online class program can be difficult at first. The website could randomly go down, as other websites do, in the middle of an assignment.

Students taking online classes also have different relationships with their teachers. Some may have an abundance of interaction, while others may only talk to their teachers a couple of times during the course.

“There’s something different about [being] in person,” Han said. “In person, there’s more of that personal connection.”