Fresno City College offers a wide variety of online classes, more than before in the school’s history. Over 50 majors are listed on the FCC website, each with online classes.
Online courses aren’t anything new for FCC. A Distance Education Plan from 2018 covers what plans were for distance learning. In 2020 distance learning wasn’t a choice, it was a requirement. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, including community colleges.
Generations of students prior to the pandemic may have never taken online courses. In the modern day almost every student on campus has either taken a high school or college course or both online.
According to the student headcount and course enrollment dashboard on FCC’s website, 4825 students enrolled in online classes in Fall 2018-2019 before the pandemic. 15,158 students enrolled in online classes during Fall 2024-2025.
A look at FCC’s class registration pages show that online classes are not going anywhere. For the Spring 2026 semester, there are 721 listings for online courses at FCC alone. Meanwhile, there are 235 hybrid classes (classes that are both online and in-person) listed.
“I think it’s a good idea for some students, some of us learn better online,” said Nicholas He, an electrical services major, “But me personally, I like going to class. I need to sit in class and focus.”
The shift to online classes has worked well for certain majors, but for others, the lack of in-person interaction made it harder to stay on track.
“I couldn’t keep up with the assignments,” said Manuel Silva, a fire science major. “I was able to tell right away it would be difficult. I like to be in class and in person.”
He and Silva aren’t the only students who prefer an in-person college experience. A recent survey conducted by The Rampage showed 75% (56 out of 75 voters) of students who responded preferred in-person classes, while the others preferred online.
Teachers are also facing the fallout of online classes. Alan Razze, a communications professor at FCC, feels online classes can be beneficial under the right circumstances.
“I’m very comfortable in a face-to-face setting and was less comfortable in an online setting,” said Razee.
While subjects like history can be taught relatively easily online, communication courses present a greater challenge.
“Not only did I have to change some assignments, in communication, we do a lot of public speeches and debates. So I was having to convert some of that, either into written documents, like in argumentation, we were doing different debates, but in public speaking class, you can’t really do a written speech,” said Razee.
College Factual shows that roughly 5,000 students took at least one online class in 2017-18. Meanwhile in 2023 roughly 12,800 students have taken at least one online course.
“I’m not surprised that there are more online classes, even before the pandemic I thought we needed more online classes, but especially hybrid classes, ” said Razee. “When the pandemic hit I thought this is going to be the event that causes the school to embrace online learning.”
A study taken at the Allan Hancock College in fall of 2024 reveals how students preferred to learn. The study found that in the student report, 67% preferred in-person services while 20% preferred online.
An article from Higher Ed Drive explains that two thirds of community colleges are looking to expand their online courses.
“There are a lot of subjects that lend themselves to a fully online situation. I think fully online classes work especially well when the course is really focused on a particular content that students need to learn, but in classes where students need to learn other kinds of skills, besides just learning content, I think a face-to-face component is needed,” said Razee.
Online classes widen the reach of education, however the general feeling amongst students is that in-person classes are preferred.
“I could see certain classes that we would consider more like training education. Other classes wouldn’t fit as well fully online. Partially online yes, not fully online,” said Razee.
