This pandemic has had an impact on practically every aspect of our daily lives. We shop differently, socialize differently, dine differently, celebrate differently, work differently, and approach school differently. We’ve added words to our vocabulary that would have seemed foreign a year ago. Most of us hadn’t spent time pondering the differences between blended, online and remote learning. We never fathomed that we’d have to juggle our careers and home lives while simultaneously acting as a personal assistant to our first-grader, attempting to teach our sixth-grader her music lessons, and motivating our high schooler to logon to one more Zoom meeting. And don’t forget the emotional support — So. Many. Tears.
Brick-and-mortar schools just weren’t set up for this, nor were they ready. No one was prepared for what 2020 has brought. With the quick shift to remote learning, students, parents, and teachers have been forced to adapt to new teaching/learning modalities, hold on for dear life and deal with the growing pains. Many assume that remote and online learning are the same, but they would be wrong. ADVANTAGES Digital Learning Solutions has been in this space for 14 years. We weren’t caught off-guard.
Traditional schools are suffering. Our children are suffering. In a recent article by The Associated Press, schools are dealing with exponentially more failing grades than ever before.
“Educators see a number of factors at play: Students learning from home skip assignments — or school altogether. Internet access is limited or inconsistent, making it difficult to complete and upload assignments. And teachers who don’t see their students in person have fewer ways to pick up on who is falling behind, especially with many keeping their cameras off during Zoom sessions. The increase in failing grades has been seen in districts of all sizes around the country.”
To read the article in its entirety, click here: https://apnews.com/article/distance-learning-coronavirus-pandemic-oregon-7fde612c3dbfd2e21fab9673ca49ad89
“Distance learning,” as it has been referred to in the era of COVID, is a knee-jerk solution to what our schools have been faced with. It is the taking of brick-and-mortar content and pushing it out to students by means of Zoom, Google classroom or Microsoft Teams. Online education is completely different. It was designed to educate students in the virtual space.
ADVANTAGES students are able to work online whenever they want and access their curriculum on a secure internet connection with a single log-in. All of their textbooks are embedded into the computer modules. Students can use any computer, laptop, tablet or cell phone to get into their classrooms and do their coursework anywhere, anytime!
Students do not have to sacrifice rigor for flexibility in their curriculum. ADVANTAGES offers a full range of coursework, from foundational courses to college prep, honors and Advanced Placement. Students have two high school diplomas from which to choose based on their personal goals – the college prep diploma requires earning more credits than a general studies diploma. Credit recovery courses are another option for students to simply retake a class in which they did not do well. ADVANTAGES has open enrollment, meaning students can enter any time throughout the year and be dual-enrolled with their current full-time school. We are nationally and internationally accredited, and athletes can feel confident that all of their ADVANTAGES completed coursework is approved by the NCAA.
ADVANTAGES has been educating students online for 14 years, graduating thousands of students, with diplomas and transcripts in-hand to conquer college, trade school, military and the workforce. Advantages’ students are set up for success throughout their personalized enrollment. A recent quote from a parent says it best:
I rarely write these kinds of notes, but I felt compelled to communicate my incredible experience with Advantages School International. My son was having difficulty with the traditional school system, for years we struggled, until we found ADVANTAGES. In the years we worked with them, they have been available, easy to communicate with and a beacon of hope helping my son to graduate high school. They have made it easy to start and stop when needed, virtually seamless, which was an enormous help moving forward. If any parent is struggling with the traditional educational system, that simply, does not work for every student, I highly recommend Advantages. For us, they helped save our son and helped us all to better our future.
For more information, contact information@advantages-dls.com.
This week’s blog post was written by Pam Dion, CEO/Founder of ADVANTAGES Digital Learning Solutions.
