Jessica P. Menjivar ’15 said she dropped “Science and Cooking” after the second week because she felt the “unexpected level of work” failed to adequately prepare her for the assignments.

“I made the decision [to drop the class] when I was doing the first p-set, and I felt very unprepared despite watching all the online videos and going to class,” Menjivar said. “I did not expect the first p-set to take so long if I had done all the prep work.”

According to A., a senior in “Science and Cooking” who asked to be identified only by his first initial out of concern that his comments could adversely impact his grade, course staff initially indicated that the HarvardX version of the course would merely provide supplementary information for problem sets and the midterm.

But this turned out not to be the case, according to A. “The videos are more tangential and not directly relevant. Because of that, people are not spending the time they’re meant or purposed to,” he said.

Moreover, without a lecturer to demonstrate in person what needed to be learned, students have expressed confusion over which material they would be held responsible. “The videos contained things you didn’t have to know,” Acosta said. “They went into detail, and it wasn’t apparent or obvious about what detail you had to know.”

LEARNING AMONG ‘STRANGERS’

As online components play a more significant role in undergraduate courses, some students have also expressed concern over a lack of direct interaction with faculty and teaching staff.

Nagy’s “Concepts of the Hero in Classical Greek Civilization” course, for example, no longer has a section; instead, groups of students assigned to a particular teaching fellow sit in a semi-circle on stage during each lecture to discuss class readings in front of their fellow students, who can also choose to participate.

Although these types of classes act as a substitute for sections, direct student interaction with teaching fellows in the new format occurs solely through email and designated office hours.

“The edX course really takes the human connection out of classes,” said Sean M. Frazzette ’16, speaking about this year’s version of “Concepts of the Hero in Classical Greek Civilization.” “I feel like talking through ideas [in section] is much more beneficial than self-assessments online and weekly emails to, in some cases, strangers.”

Students in "The Einstein Revolution” described similar feelings of isolation as course activity increasingly moves into the virtual realm.

“We're given material each week through the lecture videos and are tested on it without being able to ask the professor to clarify or explain concepts,” said Ben, a student in “The Einstein Revolution” who asked that his name be changed because he was worried that his comments could adversely affect his grade in the course.

According to Galison, the new version of “The Einstein Revolution” is still in its early stages of experimentation. “No one knows how to do this,” he said. “I’m learning new things all the time...I’m constantly going back to the students, asking what’s working, what’s not.”

Ben acknowledged that virtual learning does have the potential to enrich courses on campuses, but said that current uses of online course materials have failed to contribute positively to the undergraduate experience.

“As Harvard students, we come here to learn from and interact with professors personally,” Ben said. “Let's cut out the middle man.”