News & Media

Schools form online education consortium

By Lyn Jerde
Courtesy of Sun Newspapers - July 22, 2004

It’s a scenario that, a generation ago, existed only in the imaginations of science fiction writers – students studying on computers instead of in classrooms.

Starting this fall, access to online education will expand in Minnesota, due to the formation of a new consortium of school districts that have joined forces to offer interactive computer classes on subjects such as “Exploring Geometry” and “Advanced Chemistry.”

Northern Star Online will offer 36 courses, available to secondary-level students in public, private and charter schools, as well as home-schooled pupils and adult learners.

Jane Holmberg, the consortium’s executive director of teaching and learning, said the courses’ teachers come from the school districts whose partnership formed Northern Star Online – Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Edina, Hopkins, Osseo and Intermediate District 287.

All Northern Star Online classes meet state education standards, she said.

And, she added, the classes meet the participating school districts’ standards for depth and difficulty.

“Online courses haven’t always had the best reputation as far as rigor, compared to face-to-face work,” Holmberg said.

Taking an online course involves more than surfing the Internet.

In most cases, Holmberg said, it requires keeping pace with the weekly study goals established for courses, including keeping up with the required reading, completing composition or project assignments and conferring with the teacher.

Some of the interactive aspects of online learning might include:

a “blackboard” application, in which students write or draw on the screen in response to the teacher’s questions;
pop quizzes, with instant results;
interaction with the teacher via voice chat rooms;
working in teams with others in the class, via e-mail or chat rooms;
applications that allow, in some cases, more precision than conventional education tools – such as a geometry program that allows a student to make changes in the sides and angles of a polygon with a mouse;
the ability to show assigned projects to a teacher by e-mailing a digital photo of the student’s work.

“Online learning,” said Holmberg, “is not just a beefed-up correspondence course.”

For some students, she said, online education is a solution to educational challenges.

For example, some students need only one core course to complete their graduation requirements. Instead of going to summer school, or trying to schedule a class while holding down a job, students might take the class online, on their own time.

There also are high school students who must take a specific course for graduation, but find that the course conflicts with other classes or activities in which they might want to participate.

“Sometimes, kids have to make class choices that they shouldn’t have to make,” Holmberg said. “We don’t think a kid should have to give up a foreign language class, or band, or whatever, because a required course is scheduled at the same time.”

John Lobben, superintendent of Intermediate District 287 based in Plymouth, said Northern Star Online is intended to offer students a “one-stop shop” for courses that might not be available elsewhere – or that the student might prefer to take online instead of in a traditional classroom.

“It will be especially helpful,” he said, “in situations where students have otherwise limited selections or limited options in making up course credits.”

For example, the slate of available classes includes an array of courses not offered in all schools, in subjects such as Advanced Placement classes American history, microeconomics and macroeconomics, and languages such as Latin and Japanese.

It also offers courses that some might consider to be mainly for enrichment – such as horticulture, sports and entertainment marketing and independent living.

Holmberg said no more than 20 pupils will be accepted into each online class offered through Northern Star Online.

However, she said, one advantage of online learning is, it’s economically feasible to offer a course for a small number of students – meaning classes could remain available even if 10 or fewer students are enrolled.

But, Holmberg cautioned, online education isn’t right for every learner.

To succeed in an online class, she said, a student must be self-motivated, and willing to participate and interact on the computer.

And, she said, offering an array of online classes does not signify an end to the traditional ways of going to school.

“We’re not interested in having these courses replace a good, regular, face-to-face high school program,” she said. “But at the same time, we look at this as a way for schools to augment their course offerings.”