By Brady Currey
Contributing Writer
Although the idea of padding one’s transcript with classes that can be taken online sounds tempting, Mira Costa’s strict online class policy of rarely allowing online credit should not be changed or even made more lenient.
As the current policy stands, Mira Costa students may take online courses for the purpose of grade remediation or program acceleration. Only classes taken for the purpose of remediation, to make up a grade of a D or an F for a class taken at Mira Costa, are placed on Mira Costa transcripts.
In an effort to control quality, Costa’s administration has strict standards regarding which online class providers students can use for remediation. According to Costa guidance counselor Jennifer Woodie, the online courses Costa uses come from National University Virtual High School. The school chooses to use those schools because they are both CSU and UC approved. Woodie also says Costa chooses National because it is among the few online course offerings comparable to the rigor of AP and CP courses at Costa.
The one area in which students should potentially be allowed to take online courses is the semester health course. Seeing as this is a class based less on comprehension and analysis and more on information retention, it is the perfect course for online completion. Furthermore, it is only a single semester class and the presence of an empty semester in many students’ schedules can lead to them taking classes they are uninterested in. Other than this, students should be able to make decisions regarding their schedule and should not use online courses to escape from obligation.
Administrators do not have an easy way to verify the rigor or content of online classes, so they must use the most stringent metrics available to them. According to the U.S. Department of Education, policy makers lack scientific evidence of the effectiveness of online classes. These classes are more of a convenience than a viable means of communicating curriculum and should only be used as a last effort to ensure that students are able to graduate.
Generally, teachers feel that in most cases, online classes will not be able to equal classes provided in a traditional setting. History teacher Bill Fauver believes that online classes are insufficient when compared to a class in a traditional setting. The interaction between the student and teacher is the most vital part of the education process, and removing that aspect of the learning environment will effectively remove the most important part of learning.
Yet there are areas in which online classes excel. Physics teacher Jon Lewis believes that the presentation of online material can be better than many teachers across the nation, especially for advanced students.
This is congruent with the administration’s policy on acceleration. Online classes may be taken if students aren’t making up a grade, but they will not appear on Mira Costa transcripts and cannot be used to satisfy graduation requirements. This is a useful tool for students who are seeking more depth of knowledge than traditional classes provided; online classes targeted at high-achieving students, like Johns Hopkins University’s CTYOnline program offer courses like Linear Algebra or Web Design that aren’t available at Mira Costa.
While students should able to enrich their education, it’s a good decision to keep these classes off of their high school transcript. If they weren’t, students may very well be tempted to inflate their GPA by taking many easy online classes, undermining Mira Costa’s rigor and leaving them unprepared for higher education.
Mira Costa is a school that prides itself on the quality of its classes and the strength of its teachers. To allow a bevy of online classes to fill student transcripts would damage the excellent nature of the education Costa provides. Instead, Costa should continue to improve upon the traditional classroom environment that makes the school so great.
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