Online classes, whether completed through a full online K-12 school or in a normal school setting as an extension course or make up class, have many benefits for different types of learners. While attending a fully online K-12 program, students will complete all classes online, and virtually communicate with teachers and peers. This could be a benefit for students who move quickly and can complete tasks well on their own, but it could also be a benefit for students who move at a slower pace and need more time than a normal classroom provides them. Another option is attending school normally, and the school offers an online course as a replacement for credits or for gifted students needing deeper challenges than what they can receive in the
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This could students that do not see the benefit of an education might struggle in an environment where they have to self pace and do a lot of exploring for answers on their own. The Illinois Online Network states in its article about weaknesses in online learning that the students who would not be successful in an online class would be “...students who are dependent learners and have difficulty assuming responsibilities required by the online paradigm.” A lot of the work that students must complete in an online class is self paced. There may be deadlines made by the teacher, but students are still responsible for completing the tasks without daily reminders and a teacher their everyday to answer questions. To me, this is a major con of online classes. There could be students who really need the online classes to be successful but their intrinsic motivation is low which doesn’t really allow online classes to be an option. On the other hand, slowly transitioning these students into online classes could help them get used to it slowly. Students that are struggling and have no intrinsic motivation could benefit from an online school setting because the lessons are geared more towards them and their interests. I believe if this were the case, students would need a class or two to get used to the online class setting before being thrown in and set free. …show more content…
A lot of schools cannot fully meet the needs of their gifted students in the normal classroom setting, and sometimes cannot completely satisfy their academic needs with the honors classes offered. This is where online gifted classes can come into play and be a huge asset for not only gifted students in the regular school setting and gifted students in the online K-12 environment. In a paper written by Paula Olszewski-Kubilius And Susan Corwith and published by the The Northwestern University Center for talent development, the authors state, “Distance learning programs provide access to a wide range of advanced courses that would otherwise be unavailable, particularly to students in rural and low-income communities whose schools have limited offerings, and to students who might now have the prerequisites to take advanced or AP classes in their home school. Being able to offer courses not available in one’s school, particularly advanced and AP courses, and meeting the needs of specific groups of learners including gifted learners were the two most important reasons cited by school district administrators for offering online courses”. I believe that more school should adopt this class option when possible because schools can easily meet so many other students where they are at and allow for them to be even more successful and challenged than they thought and the school thought was
This could students that do not see the benefit of an education might struggle in an environment where they have to self pace and do a lot of exploring for answers on their own. The Illinois Online Network states in its article about weaknesses in online learning that the students who would not be successful in an online class would be “...students who are dependent learners and have difficulty assuming responsibilities required by the online paradigm.” A lot of the work that students must complete in an online class is self paced. There may be deadlines made by the teacher, but students are still responsible for completing the tasks without daily reminders and a teacher their everyday to answer questions. To me, this is a major con of online classes. There could be students who really need the online classes to be successful but their intrinsic motivation is low which doesn’t really allow online classes to be an option. On the other hand, slowly transitioning these students into online classes could help them get used to it slowly. Students that are struggling and have no intrinsic motivation could benefit from an online school setting because the lessons are geared more towards them and their interests. I believe if this were the case, students would need a class or two to get used to the online class setting before being thrown in and set free. …show more content…
A lot of schools cannot fully meet the needs of their gifted students in the normal classroom setting, and sometimes cannot completely satisfy their academic needs with the honors classes offered. This is where online gifted classes can come into play and be a huge asset for not only gifted students in the regular school setting and gifted students in the online K-12 environment. In a paper written by Paula Olszewski-Kubilius And Susan Corwith and published by the The Northwestern University Center for talent development, the authors state, “Distance learning programs provide access to a wide range of advanced courses that would otherwise be unavailable, particularly to students in rural and low-income communities whose schools have limited offerings, and to students who might now have the prerequisites to take advanced or AP classes in their home school. Being able to offer courses not available in one’s school, particularly advanced and AP courses, and meeting the needs of specific groups of learners including gifted learners were the two most important reasons cited by school district administrators for offering online courses”. I believe that more school should adopt this class option when possible because schools can easily meet so many other students where they are at and allow for them to be even more successful and challenged than they thought and the school thought was