Online classes are beneficial to students

Beginning with next year, students will have the option to take psychology, ERWC and other classes online. These classes join the list of health, Spanish I and the most popular online course, gov/econ, which currently has 32 students enrolled.

The courses are completely self-paced and require determination to complete.

“I can do my work on my own time and don’t have to keep up with certain deadlines and can make my own deadlines,” Kate Jara said.

By not having to go to school and having the flexibility to do the work on their own, students have more time to focus on other activities, such as a job or sports. Taking a course online frees up space for an open period in which students can dedicate their time to another activity.

With a maximum of eight classes open during the official school day, taking an online course can give you that extra option and put more classes under your belt. This can be a head start to those students looking to increase their class load to get more education. Whether is it to be able to take extra classes for an upper hand with college applications or if you simply need more room in your schedule. If someone wants to take an AP class but they do not have room in their schedule to, because of classes that are needed in order to graduate, but they now have the option to when they take a mandatory class online.

The classes online cover the same exact content as in a classroom. Therefore the students will not be missing out on any knowledge they would gain from sitting in a classroom. The only difference is there won’t be any in class discussions but that is normally made up by a few extra assignments that allow them to communicate with other students through discussion posts.

“I would only recommend online courses to a select group of students, usually about 30-80 students per grade level. It is geared towards students who are self-driven and will take the initiative to complete work by the due date and not procrastinate. Students that procrastinate until the last minute have statistically done poorly on every test because they rushed through the content and don’t have a deep enough understanding of what is on the test. I would also recommend the class to seniors taking a variety of AP courses but still wanted one off period.” online gov/econ teacher Mr. Shawn Robin said.

Online classes can have some downfalls, therefore online classes are not the best option for everyone.

“The hardest part for me is that I procrastinate a lot and you don’t get to hear lectures and such and that’s how I get a lot of my learning from,” Jara said.