The increasing rate of high school dropouts across the United States is certainly proving to be a major cause of concern for everybody. But the question on your mind may be – What has that got to do with online homeschooling? The truth is that there is no one way to answer that question. Online K-12 courses are fast gaining ground as the more preferred option for education, and there are several reasons why. Here are just a few as to why students are slowly forsaking conventional learning environments for more technologically advanced online platforms.
1. Online learning platforms are more user-friendly
When it comes to education, the first thing any parent looks for is its suitability. It needs to be what their child needs. With online learning platforms, students are allowed to customize the way they learn and the pace at which they complete their coursework. In terms of flexibility, online K-12 courses definitely score over traditional courses. For starters, students are provided with immense flexibility in terms of choosing their learning environment.
Conventionally, students have always been required to travel to a physical brick-and-mortar school and their learning environment consisted of a physical four-walled classroom. With online homeschooling however, they now have access to a wide range of options to choose from. They can choose to study at their own home (in their own bedroom, the living room, the porch or any other place that suits them) or at the home of a relative, or in some cases, even at the library.
Learning is no longer confined to the classroom. All students need is a computer, tablet or even a smartphone with a good enough internet connection and they’re all set to begin their learning process. Each student is unique and different students respond differently to changing environments. Helping each child explore what suits him or her best is one of the significant advantages online K-12 courses bring to the table..
2. Online K-12 courses allow you to vary the pace of learning
This has been touted as a major winning point of online learning platforms over conventional learning mechanisms. Traditionally, teachers have always been required to set a pace of learning that caters to a majority of the students present in the classroom. This however, tends to have an adverse impact on the learning process of other students who do not fall into that majority. Students with a greater aptitude for learning tend to get bored since they grasp concepts much faster than the other students and the ones who are weaker tend to get left behind.
Boredom has been cited as one of the major reasons for students dropping out of school in recent research studies. Teachers have always acknowledged the fact that each student is unique in his or her own capacity for learning and course material is absorbed and assimilated much better when adapted to the child’s strengths. By allowing students to alter the pace of learning, online homeschooling essentially offers them the freedom to choose how much time they wish to spend on a particular subject or segment of course material.
Effectively, this promotes learning as a process as opposed to the growing trend of test-taking for the purpose of securing a grade. As a result, students graduating from an online high school have shown results that are on par with (or better than) those graduating from a conventional high school. They also display a higher level of self-confidence in terms of independent learning, a valuable skill that is increasingly being sought after in the corporate world.
3. Online learning isn’t just for students
Contrary to the popular notion that online K-12 courses are primarily meant for students, they can be used by anyone who wishes to earn a diploma or degree. While they are more often used by students to help with credit recovery and for AP courses, there are those who use them to finish high school and earn their high school diploma. Essentially, not only are such courses helping students get a jumpstart on college but they are also helping many finish high school and graduate.
For many, a high school diploma may be only a course or a few credits away. However, the time and travel involved in attending school may have prevented them from completing the necessary coursework. With online homeschooling, they can now easily complete the necessary coursework at their own pace and earn the required credits necessary to graduate. They have the freedom to schedule classes around their work schedules so as to avoid conflict with their professional commitments.
Moreover, since all they need is a computer and an internet connection, they are free to study from practically any location.
4. Online K-12 courses are extremely economical
Setting up an online school is a lot more feasible and economically viable than setting up a traditional school. The rapidly increasing number of online schools is testament to this. Moreover, with the costs associated with education spiraling out of reach of the average American, learning online has proved to be an extremely viable and cost-effective solution. No longer can the exorbitant costs of education be a deterrent to one desiring a quality education. Furthermore, the costs associated with developing online content and distributing the same are much lower than those associated with developing and distributing learning content in conventional schools.
5. Online learning platforms offer safer environments for learning
This significant advantage is of prime importance to parents given the recent incidents we have witnessed across the country. Parents want their children to be able to learn in a safe environment and what better place can there be than one’s own home? With the help of accredited online homeschool, parents can now offer their children an environment that is extremely safe. Moreover, they can feel rest assured that their children are in a safe environment that allows them to focus completely on their education without worrying about any untoward incidents.
While there are many more reasons why parents increasingly prefer online K-12 courses, the above mentioned ones seem to be the most significant ones garnering their attention.
