I'm sorry guys -- I really didn't use a template for issue essays!

I did those far

more on the fly since those were more question-specific than argument essays.

I guess a general template would be

P1 - Intro and a thesis

P2 - Example 1 (usually in depth)
P3 - Example 2 (in depth)
P4 - Exploring the nuances of the question -- ie, why the opposing position is not
entirely wrong. This shows I understand that the issue is not black and white.
P5 - Conclusion

I'm sorry, I really structured issues essays loosely and didn't go as in depth with
them as I did with arguments. I've attached an issue essay below and hopefully
that might help some of you guys? If you have specific questions let me know.

Question:
"Despite the convenience of distance learning and online educational programs,
they will never replace in-class instruction."

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the position stated
above. Support your viewpoint using reasons and examples from your own
experience, observations, or reading.

Essay:
With an increasingly globalized world, and the advent of ever-improving
technology that allows people to go as far as to project a holograph of
themselves sitting in a chair in Tokyo from their office in San Jose, California, we
are starting to reexamine the ways we structure learning. Gone are the days on
the one-room schoolhouse, where all learning is completed between eight and
three p.m. More and more often, schools are utilizing the significant
technological tools that have been developed in order to redefine the way we
teach and the way we learn. Indeed, we can now learn math from an online
recorded voice while we sit on the couch in our pajamas. In the statement above,
the author claims that though distance learning and online educational programs
offer convenience, in-class instruction is irreplaceable. Though, distance
learning and online educational tools can provide fantastic aids to
traditional classroom learning and a great deal of benefit to certain
students, as the author claims, they cannot entirely take the place of
in-class instruction.

The main reason that distance learning cannot take the place of traditional in-
class instruction is that the primary benefit that in-class instruction provides is
spontaneity. Students can learn from the questions another student asks, which
can make them realize that they do not understand a subject as well as they
thought they did. In debates with other students surrounding, perhaps, the Cold
War, students can learn from each other based on their give-and-take,
something impossible to duplicate in online educational programs. Many
programs through reputable universities, such as Johns Hopkins' CTY program or
Stanford's EPGY program provide distance learning to secondary school
students. In such programs, students complete assignments, email them back
and forth with their teachers, receiving comments each time, learn primarily
from books or prewritten tools, and only hear their teacher speak through phone
or web based tools. Studies show that humans communicate over 90% of their
emotion through body language, yet this interaction is nonexistent in distance
learning. CTY students cannot see the imperceptible body shift or raised eyebrow
that let them know they are moving off track. Because they can only
communicate with other students (generally) through discussion boards or chat
rooms, they are not as spontaneous in their student-to-student interaction. By
writing down what they say, they have time to read it over, think about it, before
posting it. In a typical classroom, however, students bounce ideas off each other,
and often, the exchange of ideas is far more free than if they are given the
chance to self-censor. Because distance learning lacks the spontaneity of
conversation that in-person teaching provides, by definition, it cannot perform
the exact same function.

Another issue with the replacement of in-class instruction with distance/online

learning is that the two serve often drastically different populations. In-class
instruction generally caters to students in a specific geographical area, whereas
distance learning allows for interactions with students around the world. In-class
instruction might utilize specific community examples such as a proposed city
ordinance to teach a concept, while distance learning, by definition, must include
more universal examples that are easily understood by people with a variety of
backgrounds. This lack of personalization and tailoring of teaching to specific
students makes distance learning fundamentally different than in-class
instruction, and therefore, beneficial to different people. MIT recently launched
an open courseware system where lecture notes, Power Point slides, essay
questions, and assessments are provided to anyone with an Internet connection.
Yet the act of attending MIT is substantially different than the act of using the
courseware to take the same classes MIT students take. The students one would
interact with at MIT are generally at the top of their high school classes, have
been preselected by the university as able to do the work, whereas though the
MIT courseware allows for online discussion of the material, any person can log
in and utilize it - a significantly different population than the population that
attends MIT. Because the two modes of teaching by definition must serve
different populations, they cannot act (fully) as substitutes for one another.

Though distance/online learning may not replace in-class instruction, we cannot

go so far to say it is not valuable or that a student cannot learn a great deal from
them. Many colleges, particularly community colleges, have launched distance
learning and online educational systems to better serve their largely commuter
population. The student who takes, for example, Calculus I through distance
learning will likely leave with a similar understanding of the mathematical
principles as the student who takes Calculus I through a traditional, in-class
teaching system. The key point, however, is that their experiences will not be the
same. Distance learning/online education and in-class instructions provide
substantially different experiences to the students (and teacher) involved, and
different students will prefer different methods of course instruction. Distance
learning has value, can teach a student a great deal, but not all students learn
best in such an environment. Distance learning will never replace in-class
instruction, since many students learn better through in-class instruction than
through distance learning (and vice versa), but that is not to say it will not
continue to expand and provide value for the students who utilize it.

In sum, distance learning and in class instruction provide different modes of

learning, and neither can exist as a substitute for the other. Neither can replicate
the other so completely as to say they are the same, and thus, neither can
replace the other. While distance learning will likely to continue to expand,
better serving populations that likely otherwise would not have access to the
types of information the courses disseminate, in-class instruction will remain,
primarily because it offers benefits that distance learning does not. Distance
learning provides convenience and an ever wider net of people willing to be
educated, but in-class instruction provides a spontaneity of interaction that
distance learning cannot duplicate. Therefore, distance learning will never truly
replace in-class instruction worldwide, though it will surely continue as a
supplement to such instruction and beneficial program on its own merit.