Starting Relationships with New On-Line High School

I am part of setting up a new on-line high school. The school is Francis Virtual School at http://www.francisvirtualschool.org

I wanted to know what students are looking for in virtual high schools and what components of this high school can be better or what are the benefits of our school

Thank you.
Peter Bencivenga

 

Hello, I'm very interested in this concept and have e-mailed the school web site. I work in a high school setting and feel this would be a great option. I'm looking for specific ideas for graduate credentials to be part of this type of educational team in the future. Have a peaceful weekend. Hille

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings -- but based on the sample lessons here these are nothing more than correspondence courses via internet.

For online learning to take place, there must be interaction. This requires specific start and stop dates and facilitated instruction.

The sample lessons call for nothing more than reading and reciting information. There is no critical or creative thinking involved here. Students will merely recite information; they won't be learning anything.

Please visit my OTL Course for Teachers for an idea of how online courses SHOULD be conducted. You can simply click on preview to see the syllabus.
http://coursesites.blackboard.com/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_17655_1&frame=top

It is stated that credentialed teachers wrote the courses for this Virtual High School. How many of these teachers have had training and experience in either online teaching and learning or curriculum design?

You may wish to rethink the purpose of this Virtual High School. If the purpose is for students to get coursework done as quickly and easily as possible in order to make up credits for graduation, then this would fit the bill nicely.

However, if the purpose is for students to have a meaningful learning experience, then perhaps hiring a curriculum designer might be in order. If your courses are basically outlined by teachers already, it would not be that hard for a designer to create true online courses.

This would, of course, need to be followed by training for the teachers who will be teaching these online courses.

I sincerely wish you good luck in your venture. Please be sure your students know that these are correspondence courses, not online courses. There is a big difference.

Respectfully,
Sunnie

 

I look for specific information -- for example, don't just refer to the school as accredited, say when it was accredited and by what association and provide a link to the association's website. For example, see the description at http://cdis.missouri.edu/MUHighSchool/HShome.htm

Provide links to information about the administration and faculty -- let students and parents know there are real people at the school.

In course descriptions, name the accomplished
teachers who developed the courses, with a note about their qualifications and accomplishments.

Attractive website -- but there are no names of any person anywhere on the site. No history. No info on numbers of students or faculty.

It appears that all exams are online and open-book and can be taken as many times as possible.

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Kristin Evenson Hirst
DistanceLearn.About.com

 

You might get some ideas and contacts from: http://dcs.unl.edu/dcs1/audience/highschool.html at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Click on the "Start now" (or "Start Today") link to get more information.

Also, don't get wrapped around the axle with website graphics. As Kristin pointed out, the information is what people want. There is nothing more annoying (on the WWW anyway) than waiting for a graphic or animation to complete only to find nothing of substance. The graphic is only interesting once, if at all.

 

Here are some examples of virtual high school websites.

Michigan Virtual High School http://www.mivhs.org/Orientation/orientation.htm

Kentucky Virtual High School http://www.kvhs.org/

Illinois Virtual High School http://www.ivhs.org/

Nevada Virtual High School http://www.nvhs.org/default.htm

There are more, but this is a start. These are all different. But the one common factor is interactive learning and training for online teachers.

 

Thank your for this constructive information. I am now in the process of adding our accrediting agent and faculty and showing a full course with the faculty credentials who created it. This information was very helpful. Thanks again.
Peter Bencivenga

 

I looked at your web site and liked what you have presented. I especially like the fact that the student copies test results and mails the results in! I have an unfortune experience I wouldl like to share with you. My son has completed 9 courses on-line throught the CLASS.COM at UNL(University of Lincoln Nebraska). Somehow, the servers lost the information for all the work he submitted, the school lost all the work, or they have a hacker. Regardless, he has no credit for 1 full year of high school work:>( If we would have been mailing in test results ourselves we would have a paper trail. Now, we have nothing since all the work was entered on their domain. And it's there domain that is having problems. This has been a hard lesson to learn, especially for my son. So, if anyone is looking to on-line education for high school-beware. I had done research before enrolling at UNL, and there accreditation has not helped us out in anyway. If you do sign up for on-line classes make sure that the school has there own domain and does contract through someone else as UNL had with CLASS.COM Helen

 

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Howard Rodgers

 

Howard, I agree that teachers having training in distance learning is a crucial issue. Too many are teaching on-line with little or no training. Distance mediated courses involve much more than many anticipate.
Rob

 

Hello,

I've one question: what is, essentially, the difference between a high school diploma and a GED? Is one better/more regarded than the other?

Thanks,

Dennis Siemens

 

Let's try that again....

The high school diploma is superior. In some circles, the GED is seen as a consolation prize given to dropouts. While the GED will suffice in some situations, it will not in others. For example, enlisting in the Armed Forces is more difficult with just a GED. And the robust City of Whitehouse, TN, will not accept the GED for potential police officers.

California offers the California High School Proficiency Examination. The state considers passing this exam legally equivalent to a high school diploma, and requires all entities within the state to honor that. They make clear, however, that passing the exam isn't the same as having passed your high school courses. So, if you've passed the exam and apply for a job where a diploma (not a GED) is required, it will do the trick. But if you apply, say, to a college that has admissions requirements demanding you've taken certain courses, the CHSPE isn't going to get those requirements waived.

I did the CHSPE at its second administration in 1976 when I was a junior in high school. I took my diploma and ran.

Rich Douglas