Virtual classes provide learning opportunities

High school students across the state are taking more challenging courses outside the comfort of their classrooms, potentially changing the college admissions field in North Carolina.

N.C. Virtual Public School, an online program designed to help students learn course material that is not available at their high schools, is seeing a significant rise in enrollment.

Students in rural counties are especially likely to take online courses. Often their schools lack the funding and resources to provide Advanced Placement classes and similar opportunities.

Students enrolling in the virtual school are especially using the opportunity to take a more rigorous course load and be more competitive in the college admissions process, said Bryan Setser, executive director of the N.C. Virtual Public School.

That trend could narrow the gap between students who come from rural school systems and students coming from urban school systems, said Barbara Polk, senior associate director of admissions at UNC.

The virtual school offers 72 courses, including AP and foreign language classes. One of its most popular offerings is Latin.

The extensive number of courses gives students a greater ability to control what and when they learn, boosting their scores as compared to students in classroom settings.

“Nationally, online AP students are actually out-performing face-to-face AP students,” said David Edwards, the chief communications and professional learning officer of the N.C. Virtual Public School.

“The online learning and blended learning environment is the way the twenty-first-century workforce learns and they are looking for students who have had that experience,” Edwards said.

Out of 1,100 students in the two high schools in Montgomery County, 270 students are taking 367 total online classes.

Many of those are being taken through the virtual school, said Beth Blake, the distance learning coordinator for Montgomery County Schools.

Blake said the program has become popular because students are striving to achieve more college credit prior to applying to colleges.

The two high schools in the county offer only three to five AP classes in a face-to-face setting.

An increasing number of students are looking toward online options to bridge the gap between them and students at schools with more AP opportunities.

“I think that the savings that they are going to have as they look at entering into college is a key factor,” Blake said.

The classes are similar to college courses and prepare students for college-level academics because they require skills such as time management and the ability to study ahead, Blake said.

“We do want all students in Montgomery schools to take an online course before they graduate” she said.



Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.