The Internet is changing learning dramatically, and online programming is common in higher education. Our survey shows that about one-third of New Jersey’s districts are using online courses to supplement their student’s learning opportunities.
Following are results of last week’s survey
Does your school offer online courses for students?
Online courses are offered at the following grade levels (multiple answers permitted)
Elementary: 0%
Middle School: 14.3%
High School: 92.9%
Online courses are used for: (multiple answers permitted)
To offer courses which our school does not make available: 71.4%
To offer AP/college level courses: 50%
To offer credit recovery for students who have failed regular courses: 35.7%
Home instruction for students on a short-term basis: 1%
Home instruction for students on a long-term basis: 1%
Does your district produce its own online course content?
Students take classes:
How would you rate the effectiveness of online learning:
Favorable – we believe students learn well using online courses: 100%
Unfavorable – we believe this method does not effectively educate students on a topic: 0%
Does your district use online learning to conduct professional development for staff members?
Respondents provided comments on experiences with online learning. Selected comments are below:
It provides "just in time" learning; is convenient - both in flexible location and time.
Wonderful opportunity to provide students with curriculum that a small school district can not possibly provide.
Our school, a charter school, awards professional development credit to teachers who participate in online learning. We also encourage teachers to utilize technology in many ways; we are currently exploring the possibility of using online learning in our classrooms.
We have had to offer upper level language classes online when enrollment doesn't warrant a full time classroom teacher. It allows us to offer the class but I don't believe that it is an optimal way to learn.
We are in the process of developing connections with colleges to offer courses for high school.
Many staff have found on-line courses to be difficult and miss the human interaction.
We have used online learning in an alternative high school for disaffected students. |
