> If online works for you, awesome ... But I don’t think you are in the majority.
I think there's a huge under-served group who are specifically not the majority. Smart kids are generally held back by being shoehorned in with other kids.
Personally, I think we need to figure out how to use online resources best and that the future will most certainly be a mix. But also please entertain that maybe the optimal audience for this program isn't the majority at all, actually. And that doesn't make it less valuable.
This is exactly my daughter, she thrived online when her teachers posted a weeks material at a time she'd be done by wednesday. She was so happy she could work at her own pace and didn't have to wait for other kids.
I'm a bit similar. I always did poorly in school working at the pace that the teachers wanted me to go. I would do well on the tests, but always had awful grades because I didn't do all my homework.
When I discovered WGU 1.5 years ago, I did much better simply by being allowed to go at whatever pace I felt like, and taking time off when I felt like it, and I managed to get through school in a fairly short amount of time.
I'm doing online graduate school now, and fortunately my supervisors are somewhat amenable to this style; they simply give me a bunch of recordings of their lectures and all the assignments that I'm expected to do all at once. Some days I don't do anything, other days I'll spend six hours straight watching lectures and doing homework.
Couldnt agree more. I personally prefer to study alone, and even my MBA i chose a program where class-time(f2f or online) was optional. I did none and still passed.
Have recently watched my daughter respond quite differently in online learning in group environments. One is Wingchun( a martial art) taught by enthusiastic and outright funny instructors. My little girl loves every minute of class. The other is oddly-enough Montessori class where she feels held back by other kids and their chatter. But she LOVES the IRL Montessori classes.
I feel that this form of online high school wont be for everyone but there is a segment of those for whom this medium suits them best due to combination of circumstance, motivation, and personality. Education is not 'one mode suits all'. I struggled to stay engaged at high school. Tertiary wasnt much better until i discovered extra-mural (distance education), and loved it.
I think there's a huge under-served group who are specifically not the majority. Smart kids are generally held back by being shoehorned in with other kids.
Personally, I think we need to figure out how to use online resources best and that the future will most certainly be a mix. But also please entertain that maybe the optimal audience for this program isn't the majority at all, actually. And that doesn't make it less valuable.