I think it has been overall positive because it is such a small online academy that has a focused curriculum. I even put my reluctant 5th grader in the Latin online class after struggling forever with her. It has been so great for her. She even has the same teacher that her older sister has for logic.

I plan on using them for rhetoric and continuing with Latin for the other two daughters.

IMHO it’s about standards and whether the college is truly “watching” the online portion of their programs. My college is relatively picky about both classroom and online classes, and it’s very common to have administrators “sitting in” on both classroom and online classes and there are checklists and standards for both types of instruction. Every college has a few bad professors, but I like to think that the majority of the classes where I work are pretty good — both online and in the classroom.

My child did a great books program and the tutor wanted more participation from him. I specifically asked how many times per class they needed to participate to meet his standards, but could not get an answer, probably because that would mean my child would have an actual standard that he could meet and it would no longer be so subjective. I would sit in on these classes, and unfortunately, it didn’t seem to matter how many times you “raised your hand” (electronically) in class, he had his favorites he would call on, and if you weren’t a favorite, you were just out of luck. So much for the ‘warning’ to participate more.

Unfortunately for my son, no matter how much he tried to increase his participation level this tutor just wasn’t going to call on him enough to allow him to stay in class. It’s a catch-22 for the student. You have to participate so many times per class (not sure how many), but if the tutor won’t call on you he can drop you for lack of participation. So, my son was dropped in the second year of this program. I know he wasn’t the best student, but he had good papers and he tried to participate. Oh, and another fyi – I don’t think I would choose such a theologically reformed/conservative program again, since religion did seem to influence the tutor’s choice of favorites.

My son is still in high school and getting straight A’s at the local community college. It’s much less stressful to have expectations clearly written out and know what’s expected.

Are you willing to name names? I know my sister had her oldest do a couple of online courses through BYU’s online program. One she said was really good and the other was so-so. I wonder if there is really a place out there that is consistently good or if we’re doomed to have a hit and miss experience online.

I took an online course several summers ago from a highly-rated organization and a highly-rated professor that was one of the worst classes I ever took. It was a classroom course crudely converted to “fit” online — literally “read these pages and take this multiple choice test” for almost all of the chapters. There were a few small projects, but not enough to learn the material (which involved an area of web programming). Then something happened with the professor around mid-terms, and none of the assignments I did after that were ever graded and she stopped responding to email. I contacted the college multiple times, and they assured me that she would catch up and that her Dean was aware of the situation.

In contrast, I’m taking a class semester from a former boss who has extensively studied online learning and wrote the online standards for my college, and it’s challenging and very appropriate. She knows just how to keep us involved in the class and with the material, and I am learning so much. One time she actually told me that she thinks she’s BETTER online than in the classroom, which also shows that it’s a different type of teaching.

There are differences!