In the summer of 2009 I taught my first fully online class–credit-recovery English for students entering grades 10-12. All of the students enrolled in the class had received a D or F and were making up the class for credit (if they received an F) or were seeking grade improvement (if they received a D). Families paid for the courses and a semester was covered in three weeks. In the fall of 2010 I became the first teacher to offer a fully online class during the regular school year. This time the class was for students who attended the high school where I worked. Eleventh-graders attended five traditional classes, but took my English class online. I continued to teach online high school English for another five years. As you can imagine, I learned a lot, not only about online education, but about student motivation, and simply teaching English. There were many unexpected discoveries to be made and I will dig into this more in a later post. Recently, I had the opportunity to observe an online high school class as a parent.
This summer, my son took his first online course for credit. He is entering high school in the fall and we decided it would be a good idea to take the semester health class over the summer. By completing this graduation requirement early, he will have room in his schedule to take a year-long elective next year. He is pretty disciplined and tech-savvy, so we figured the fully-online class would be a good fit. When I say fully-online, I must clarify that while all of the coursework is delivered via the online course management system, students are required to come in to physically take the five unit tests (which are taken online). This is an asynchronous, self-paced course, so there are no deadlines except for finishing by the end of summer session.
After the face-to-face course orientation, my son was convinced that the course would be more difficult than he anticipated and that he would surely not receive an A. I helped him map out a plan for completing the units and taking tests in between our vacation plans. He signed up for five appointments to take the tests (and one extra in case he missed his goals or encountered some unexpected hurdles). He dutifully completed the coursework, even taking notes, though they would not be turned in or assessed in any way. He reviewed and studied for the tests and gained confidence that he would do well. In the end, he finished everything by the timeline he determined and received an A. And while he learned about health, there were some additional unexpected benefits.
First of all, because the course was delivered asynchronously, he learned to “backward plan” and map out when he would complete each module so as to finish before the deadline he set for himself (long before he was required to complete the class). He figured out that by taking handwritten notes, he remembered the material better and was more prepared for the tests. He also had a tool to review for the tests. He gained confidence in his ability to tackle high school coursework. His 14-year-old self articulated these benefits, but I saw something else.
Having taught online, I expected my son to learn some self-discipline and to identify practices that would help him be successful. But, I didn’t anticipate that by dipping his toe into the curriculum before actually starting high school, he gained confidence about the transition to the exciting, and often challenging, experience that is high school. But, most importantly . . . to me anyway, is how he absorbed the health content. Learning about nutrition, drug use, and sex can be uncomfortable at best for 14-year-olds in a classroom setting. Because he took the class online, he was free to explore these subjects without the comments and jokes that are often used to disguise the discomfort young teens feel when discussing such subjects with their peers. He even talked about what he was learning with me and his dad. Though the motivation for taking the class online stemmed from an effort to open up his schedule, he enjoyed the freedom to internalize the information without fear of judgment or ridicule. It turns out that taking online health over the summer is setting a solid foundation for what we hope will be a smooth transition to high school.
Update-Ed 
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