Does anyone know of a good online biology class that would be appropriate for a freshman in high school? Thanks! -Chris
University of Nebraska Lincoln's Independent Study High School (UNLISHS) is, in my opinon, best-of-breed. Or, if it's not, then it's right up there. There are many other fully-regionally-accredited distance learning high schools out there... some every bit as interesting-looking as UNLISHS's. But I've been kinda' keeping my eye on this program since it got started, and I'm terribly impressed. All courses taken there should easily transfer into virtually any regionally-accredited high school, anywhere. Here you go: SCIH025 - Biology 1 SCIH026 - Biology 2 Hope that helps!
Thanks! I'll look into it (my grandfather graduated from UNL). I'm taking one extension and two distance classes this semester myself, incidentally. UCSD, Harvard, and UCLan. -Chris
Here's another... but first some background: PCDI is one of those companies that advertises on daytime television -- presumably to people who are unemployed and whom, therefore, PCDI presumes are sitting home watching TV -- selling accredited career diplomas, etc. (in things like auto repair, paralegal studies, medical assisting... you've probably seen the ads). PCDI also owns the accredited Ashworth College, which offers associates and masters degrees (but, curiously, not bachelors degrees... go figure). By "accredited," above, I mean nationally (as opposed to "regionally") accredited. National accreditation, like regional accreditation, is approved by the US Department of Education (USDE) and/or it Council for Higher Education (CHEA); but some around here argue that national accreditation doesn't have the utility of regional accreditation. And in some cases they're right. Well, guess what... PCDI also owns a thing called James Madison High School (JMHS); and, unlike PCDI's career diplomas and associates and masters degrees (which are only nationally accredited), for some reason PCDI's online high school (JMHS) is regionally accredited. So that means JMHS is just as credible as UNLISHS, above. Click here to see JMHS's online biology course; or here to see all of its individually-available, regionally-accredited, online high school courses. And, like I said, there are many others out there. I just wanted to put another one that I happen to respect (but that I notice is a little more expensive) in front of you. Hope that that, too, helps.
The UNL course looks good and is of an appropriate level. The girl in question wasn't able to take biology this year because her previous teacher didn't "recommend" her for it. This teacher is an idiot, and she'd be wasting her life in her current class. I'd rather her take a study hall and do biology during that time. I'd also find a tutor for her, in case she needed to go over some of the concepts with someone in person. Thanks again. -Chris
I'm also a big fan of UNL's independent study high school. As it happens, I just finished compiling a list of what I believe are the ten best online high schools called, surprisingly, "The Ten Best Online High Schools.*" UNL makes the list (as does Laurel Springs School and the North Dakota Division of Independent Study as well as others). Since writing Bears' Guide to Earning High School Diplomas Nontraditionally (in 2003), my most common email question is about online high schools. Since the book hit the streets, I've had easily hundreds of queries (either from book readers or people who've read my articles at about.com). Tom Nixon (*And, yes, I'm brazenly charging 5 bucks for it at my website, Degree Press ). Apparently, people actually want to buy it.
Ditto. We've used BYUs high school classes as supplements to the local curriculum for our daughter and have been pleased with the service and value.
I've got to give a shout out to Thomson Education Direct's high school courses and diploma program. It is RA and inexpensive. I'm currently studying one of their associate degree programs and so far I am very happy with it.
