Potential Advantages and Challenges of Online Schooling FAQs

Advantage: In short, it is far less than in a traditional school setting. The flexibility of your student’s class schedule largely depends on your student’s grade level and how much additional support from teachers your student needs to be learning at grade level. Students in grades TK–8 who are successful with grade-level work can choose what time of day they would like to complete lessons. Due dates for lessons are somewhat flexible as long as students stay on track for course completion. For students needing additional teacher support, there will be scheduled live Class Connect sessions throughout the week that students must attend. The high school program combines self-paced work and scheduled lessons, activities, and exams. Students must attend Class Connects and do schoolwork daily to stay on track. Still, the daily schedule can be flexible, allowing for lessons at different parts of the day, and schooling can take place at home, in a library, or on vacation as long as there is an internet connection.

Challenge: While students have flexibility in choosing when and where to do their coursework each day, they are expected to complete schoolwork each day, attend virtual classroom sessions as scheduled by their teachers, and make a year’s academic progress within the school year. When students are not learning at grade level and need additional support from teachers, there will be more time requirements when a student must attend live lesson sessions. These sessions may be as little as a few hours a week or as much as 20 to 25 hours a week, depending upon how much direct teacher instruction a student requires. In addition to complying with state attendance requirements, all students must adhere to all state testing requirements. The state testing location may not be near your house, so you may have to travel to take state-proctored tests.

Advantage: Students access the online learning system through a unique username and password. Once logged into the online learning system, students have almost everything they need for their online schooling, including course calendars, online lessons, course progress tracking, supplemental tools, and Class Connect access, all available in the same place.

Challenge: Tackling new technology and going to public school outside a traditional classroom can be frustrating at first, like learning to ride a bike, especially for students and Learning Coaches with limited computer skills. However, K12 does not leave you to figure out the platform on your own; we provide assistance to both our students and their Learning Coaches through our Strong Start and Learning Coach University programs. In addition, our technology support team is just a phone call away. K12 also provides online self-help support where students and Learning Coaches can go to find solutions to the most common issues encountered when using the online school system.

A Learning Coach supports the student in the learning process while they are enrolled in the K12 program. Coaches are responsible for ensuring their student is on track with assignments and coursework as well as communicating with their teachers throughout the school year. Learning Coaches play an active role, especially in the early grades.

Advantage: Learning Coaches enjoy the additional time and daily interactions with their child as they help their child pursue educational goals. K12 does not leave you to master the Learning Coach role and responsibilities on your own. The K12 Learning Coach University offers a large selection of live sessions, workshops, and events that provide support for your role as the Learning Coach all year long.

Challenge: Learning Coaches can find making the necessary time commitment and effort to be a challenge. Your role as a Learning Coach will also change as your child grows. In the early elementary years (grades TK–5), Learning Coaches must be prepared to spend three to six hours per day working with their student on lessons. In the middle-school years (grades 6–8), Learning Coaches spend approximately two to four hours with their student and in the high school years (grades 9–12), Learning Coaches spend approximately one to two hours with their student.

Parents who do not speak English or have limited English language fluency may find taking on this new role of Learning Coach especially challenging. However, K12 pairs the family with an English Language teacher as well as the student’s general education teacher and the English Language teacher works with the student daily in simultaneous instruction to help the student where the Learning Coach cannot.

Advantage: In short, it is far less than in a traditional school setting. The flexibility of your student’s class schedule largely depends on your student’s grade level and how much additional support from teachers your student needs to be learning at grade level. Students in grades TK–8 who are successful with grade-level work can choose what time of day they would like to complete lessons. Due dates for lessons are somewhat flexible as long as students stay on track for course completion. For students needing additional teacher support, there will be scheduled live Class Connect sessions throughout the week that students must attend. The high school program combines self-paced work and scheduled lessons, activities, and exams. Students must attend Class Connects and do schoolwork daily to stay on track. Still, the daily schedule can be flexible, allowing for lessons at different parts of the day, and schooling can take place at home, in a library, or on vacation as long as there is an internet connection.

Challenge: While students have flexibility in choosing when and where to do their coursework each day, they are expected to complete schoolwork each day, attend virtual classroom sessions as scheduled by their teachers, and make a year’s academic progress within the school year. When students are not learning at grade level and need additional support from teachers, there will be more time requirements when a student must attend live lesson sessions. These sessions may be as little as a few hours a week or as much as 20 to 25 hours a week, depending upon how much direct teacher instruction a student requires. In addition to complying with state attendance requirements, all students must adhere to all state testing requirements. The state testing location may not be near your house, so you may have to travel to take state-proctored tests.

Advantage: Online teachers are available to your student via the online class sessions they lead as well via phone and email to answer any questions or concerns your student might have. In addition, the teachers are specially trained to teach online. As noted previously, students’ parent (or other adult) play a much more active role in their child’s education so children in essence have more adults actively working with them to achieve their educational goals.

Challenge: Immediate access to teachers is potentially less available in an online environment. In addition, parents are often concerned that their student will not have sufficient face time with their online teacher(s).

While teachers strive to respond to all emails and voicemails within 24 hours on school days, emails and phone calls may not be responded to immediately, which means that students and Learning Coaches must be able to be flexible and find other courses to work on in the case that they need to hear back from the teacher before they can move on in a particular course.

Part of every child’s educational experience is not only the academic lessons they master, but also the socialization skills acquired through daily interactions with peers and teachers.

Advantage: One of the big reasons parents often turn to online schooling is to remove their children from negative social environments at schools, which can include bullying and ostracizing children. With online schooling, this type of unfavorable socialization is mostly eliminated. But learning online does not mean a child’s socialization development stops. Socialization skills are acquired in every aspect of a child’s life wherever and whenever he or she is interacting with others. So, when your child is playing on the playground, going on school-sponsored museum visits, or taking part in one of the many other field trips or extra-curricular activities that are part of the K12 educational experience, they are also developing socialization skills.

Challenge: Not attending a classroom on a daily basis could impact that one way in which a child develops socializing skills. As pointed out above, attending school online will eliminate or greatly reduce the impact of the negative socialization that can be part of a child’s school environment. Learning at home may impact a child’s socialization in general because they spend less time interacting in person with peers in the classroom setting. However, many online students are involved in activities surrounding sports, religious institutions, or volunteer activities, and the Learning Coaches of these students often find that there is plenty of opportunity for students to be social and to learn social skills outside of the school environment. For some students, being alone in a home setting during the day can feel isolating, and these students desire a return to a traditional school setting where there is constant in person interaction with other students and with teachers.