As millions of children have adapted to online or hybrid learning over the past year, many stories have emerged detailing the unforeseen challenges of online education, and the ways that many students are struggling to keep up with the curriculum.
It is natural to be concerned about radical changes in your child’s education, but what these stories highlight is often not the problems of eLearning as such, but ofeLearning that has been poorly executed.
There’s a big difference between the ad hoc online schooling many children have experienced during the coronavirus pandemic and the eLearning offered by virtual schools that have been developing online curricula and refining their pedagogical approach for years.
If you feel caught between the rock of the pandemic and the hard place of zoom school, here are three reasons to consider enrolling your children in a virtual school with a proven track record of academic success.
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1. Virtual Schools Provide an Integrated Approach
When the spread of COVID-19 caused schools across the country to go into lockdown in early 2020, many educators were forced to adapt their curricula on the fly, turning lessons meant to be presented in-class into online seminars.
One of the advantages of enrolling in a virtual school is that the course materials were designed to be taught remotely, and make use of all the tools available to ensure active learning. If you enroll your children in an online school that makes use of a broad range of tools, including:
- Interactive software
- Video lessons
- Responsive grading
- Accredited guidance counselors
This allows students to receive the kind of detailed instruction and rigorous feedback necessary to meet their learning objectives, but without having to follow a rigid course timeline or sit in on zoom lessons with dozens of other students.
2. Virtual Schooling Allows Children to Progress at Their Own Speed
No child ever learns at exactly the same speed as their peers, and this is only exacerbated when traditional school classes are moved online. If kids are unable to keep up during virtual lessons, they can become discouraged and disinterested, falling behind and losing the sense of self-confidence that is essential for learning.
Virtual schools, on the other hand, set up courses in such a way that children are empowered to learn at their own speed. Instead of constantly playing catch-up, they can spend as much time as they need to on the topics they find more difficult.
3. Virtual Schools Offer Continuous Enrollment
As the second semester gets underway, many parents might be worried about whether or not their children will actually be able to get through another four to six months of uneven learning. Because online virtual schools offer continuous enrollment, you don’t have to wait until the semester is over to sign your kids up for classes like SCH4U or ENG4U.
Your kids can start virtual courses today, immediately getting access to superior learning opportunities that will help them make the most of the second half of the school year.
Though the end of the coronavirus pandemic may now finally be in sight, there can be no question that the experiences parents, teachers, and schoolchildren have had over the past year will cause a fundamental re-evaluation of how education will look moving forward.
One of the past year’s biggest lessons is that for eLearning to be effective, educators need to have the right tools and be able to provide enough academic support to help students really learn. The good news is that established virtual schools have already developed these competencies, and can start helping students succeed at online learning from day one.
