Online Courses Popular

CNN reports that many college students like online course while some colleges feel that offering them is only giving in to the lazy student; however, one student reports that he concentrates better and as a result has better grades.

Public schools should be studying the trend that is happening around some colleges and univerisities and consider the option of offering some of its courses online like math. More than ever, many high school students are working part-time jobs to help towards the costs of their future college education. Many of the students that I hear from wish that courses like math could be offered online so that they could take an afternoon part-time job. I can't think of a better way to learn time-management and future undergraduate success. If a high schooler can juggle part-time work with an online class along with their high school campus classes, I feel we are assuring a student to succeed with higher education that demands students to multitask and we are also giving them the opportunitiy of true "real world" experience.

Another plus for offering online courses, would be to assure highly qualified teachers for all students. For example, many of our upper math courses like Trig and Statistics, have class enrollments under 20 compared to the average class size of 28 for other courses. It is very hard to find certified math teachers for five high schools but these courses could be taught online to all students by a qualified math teacher. The school district saves money too. Instead of five teachers, the school district is only paying for two or three teachers.

Virginia public schools are already offering online AP courses now but I feel that the school system should be looking at other ways to expand online options to other students as well. Online courses offer a win-win for both students and school officials.