Has anyone used the Florida Virtual School online courses?

[Lisa in Jax]

I'm thinking about having my middle dd do a 6th grade English course online this summer, but I'm wondering how much time she needs to devote to the course. The site says that the course takes 34-36 weeks. How much time is spent weekly if that is the pace?

Thanks in advance for any insight,

Lisa

[transientChris]

My daughter 14 has taken two classes with Florida Virtual and tried three others. For her, all the classes take a lot longer than the courses estimate. I think this is because it takes time to learn how to use their system, how to use programs on your own computer you child may have not been familiar with (Excel, Powerpoint, etc,), takes a lot of time to make virtual posters and things like that. Sometimes the courses ask for strange information that is hard to find. Did she learn a lot in her two classes (Keyboarding and Personal Fitness)? Yes. But she took much more time than they estimated. I think with her some of the issue is that she sets her own really high standards and therefore needs time to work on that. She won't just throw together a bunch of junk and call it a report or project. She was rewared with A s in both classes and but they took too long. I am also considering trying it with my next daughter. She would be doing 6th grade work.

[Lisa in Jax]

Thank you SO MUCH for the detailed reply! This is exactly what I needed to know. Thanks again.

Lisa

[Jenny in Florida]

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28125&highlight=florida+virtual+school

Neither of mine have done any of the English courses, so I can't help with estimating the number of hours required for that.

Basically, the way most of the courses work, though, is that there are two "segments" (semesters), each of which assumes about 16 weeks of assignments. The student is allowed two weeks of floating vacation time, which may be used when needed during the semester.

It seems like most of the assignments are designed to require about an hour a day. However, depending on the class and the specific assignment, mine have spent half as much or more than twice as much time as that one any given day.

I'd say there's no harm in giving the course a try. You always have a 30-day grace period following the date your student begins the course, within which she may drop the class without a grade.

[Amy in Orlando]

My son took Biology and Driver's Ed this year (9th grade). Biology took between 60-90 minutes a day and he finished the course early. He worked on the class everyday weekday. He is planning to take one or two classes this coming year. It's worth a try - he has enjoyed his classes so far.