SMMUSD will add online selections
SMMUSD HDQTRS A popular college offering could soon be made available to high school students, as school administrators ponder allowing students to take online courses.
Chief Academic Officer Dr. Chiung-Sally Chou is expected to introduce Policy 6143.3 at the Board of Education meeting tonight, a policy that would pave alternative ways for students to earn high school credits, making a high school diploma more attainable for some students in the district.
The policy would allow students to earn up to 20 high school credits per school year through online courses from a pre-approved vendor.
School officials are waiting on the University of California system to finalize its online course policy, which could dictate the direction in which the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District would steer in its own policy. The UC policy would list the vendors from whom the students could take online courses for credit, according to Chou.
There are students in the district currently enrolled in online courses through different providers and school officials want to ensure those courses will be accepted for credit, not only with SMMUSD, but with colleges.
“We want to make sure students are not just taking any courses,” Chiung said.
Online courses could also be offered through the district.
“We definitely could look into offering courses,” Chiung said. “If teachers express interest in developing online courses, we’re going to entertain.”
Harry Keiley, the president of the Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Association, warned that school officials will need to approach online course offerings with great caution, adding that nothing replaces the significance of teacher-student interaction in the classroom.
“We need to be mindful of the fact the single most important determinant to student success inside the school is the quality of the classroom teacher,” Keiley said.
The online courses could prove to be beneficial in helping students at Community Day School and Olympic High School get back on track to graduation. Students are usually sent to both schools when they fall short in credits.
During the 2007-08 school year, high school principals will evaluate the effectiveness of the online courses and determine which would be acceptable for high school credit, the policy states. The list of the approved courses will be available in July of next year.
Online courses are currently popular among community colleges across the country. Santa Monica College started offering the online courses in 1999, starting with 30 sections and an enrollment of 700 students. Today, the college offers 650 online courses for 16,500 students enrolled online.
Nearly every single discipline is represented in the online course offerings, but a student is not yet able to attain an associate’s degree strictly through online classes. A few core classes have yet to be offered online.
“It has enabled the district to grow in areas it would be limited if relying only on classroom space,” said Julie Yarrish, the director of online services and support for SMC. “Where we are geographically, we’re pretty impacted. Parking is always a challenge and we’ve been able to provide these classes online and may not have been able to grow exponentially had we been limited to these classrooms.”
The online classes enable students from across the country to enroll in Santa Monica College without leaving the confines of their home. Students taking a week or two of vacation can do so without missing class, Yarrish said.
Through online classes, students can log on for lecture material at any time. Test times are usually more restricted, with professors requiring that students take the exam during a certain period of time.
One of the disadvantages of online classes is the misperception that it’s not as difficult as in classroom courses, Yarrish said.
The college tries to simulate the in-classroom experience as much as possible, creating group assignments and threaded discussion boards.
Even if Santa Monica-Malibu Unified one day offers online courses, administrators will urge students to continue attending classes on campus.
“We want kids to come to school and have the social interaction with peers and teachers,” Chou said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 17, 2007. Read the original PDF.