Just like every year, senior students are scrambling to take as many college classes that they can before graduating. However, new to this school year, most college classes through Hutchinson Community College (HCC) are online and unfortunately for some students, the classes are double booked. This poses a problem for students enrolled in HCC classes as they question if there will be enough time for all the classwork.

Classes such as English composition and college algebra have proctors inside of the high school but for the most part they are online. Math teacher Erica Rickard is the proctor for college algebra, however due to scheduling conflicts her sixth hour college algebra class was moved online, making it a completely online class for her students for the rest of the semester. 

According to Cision PR Newswire, 59% of students agree that online learning is much harder than in-person learning. So not only are students taking harder college classes, learning the material online but some students are double booked for their allotted time period as well. This means that during their reserved time to be working on their college courses they have another, in-person class to attend.

English composition, also taught by HCC, is partially online for its high school students. After the retirement of Scott McCloud, the former English composition teacher, administration asked students who were planning to take the class if they would prefer an online class or an in-person class. Whether students chose online or in-person, a new, permanent teacher was not obtained for the 2021-2022 school year and English composition is mostly online for its students, aside from certain Tuesdays and Thursdays if the black and gold schedule allows. The proctor, Lael Ewy, former English teacher at the high school, says that he uses the in-person class days to answer questions and to make sure students are keeping up with their work. 

Other dual credit programs offered at the high school are: geriatric aide (CNA), emergency medical technician, American government, nutrition, accounting and many more. All of these classes are difficult enough on their own, when other obstacles such as double booked schedules are added, the workload becomes basically impossible. 

Students who are double-booked struggle with keeping up with classwork when they do not have assigned time to work on that class, senior Linda Shine said, who is taking both college algebra and English composition and is double-booked for both periods. 

Shine said that not having a designated class time seriously impairs her ability to get work done. Not only that, but the college classes have a significantly higher workload. Shine says that although online classes have some positive outcomes, such as extra free time, she would prefer having in-person classes to thoroughly learn the material. 

Without relying on class time to work on assignments, double-booked students have a whole load of homework and no time to work on it, not to mention that students who are involved with athletics, activities, jobs or any other extracurriculars have an impractical work load. This contributes to the ever-knowing opinion that online classes are harder, without motivation or especially a teacher to help you along, students tend to struggle more with online classes. To fix the problem in future years or semesters, counselors at the high school can focus on whether or not specific students will be able to handle the double booked classes or if double booked classes should be available to students at all.