Thoughts on Distance students

As I mentioned SDM degree has 3 flavors the on-campus student, the commuter student (moi) and the distance student. The distance students join the class via video conferencing, this enables them to ask questions and participate in the class. But somehow it feels disconnected, the voice and picture quality are not great. I have talked to some distance students and they say that sometimes they cannot hear the comments or questions from other students in the class and they are pretty much on their own when it comes to doing homework assignments. Lately we are also experiencing dropped calls, so we lose them in the middle of the class and then they have to reconnect, all this must be very frustrating I guess. Sergey is a distance student and these are his thoughts on the subject.

On campus and commuter have their own pros and cons. The on campus folks can attend all the cool things which happen practically everyday on campus, MIT has lots of distinguished speakers on campus every week. But they have to finish the program with a thesis in 13 months, that is very hectic. The commuter student on the other hand is around for 2 years, but he or she cannot attend most of the campus events unless it is at night and the work and school schedule is pretty hectic. But there is one big plus for the commuter and distance students they are still getting paid:-)), which helps a lot.