How to be Successful Attending Online High School?

Many students are shifting from a traditional school to an online high school. They ought to know a good deal about the online learning environment before taking a plunge into it! Usually, the flexible and convenient nature of online learning gives students plenty of benefits. However, online students need to treat their online courses seriously, else they might land up in major trouble! After all, with flexibility comes responsibilities!

Identify your Learning Style and pattern
Customized education is the need of the hour. However, before getting your education personalized, you need to know what your learning style is. Try to gain insight and strategize the most effective way to learn better. Keep in mind that tailoring online learning means fitting your needs and not anyone else’s! You need to know about your personal interests and learning style. This step is critical. One good news is that online high schools usually provide multiple options to set students up for success. After all, the curriculum is always success and result-driven.

Take part and take the initiative
You need to dictate your virtual learning experience. This way you will be able to use all the resources that are available. This is inclusive of active participation in online discussions and forums. Interacting with instructors is important as well and get ready to take the initiative. You might need to maximize your online education. You need to reach out to peers and engage with the faculty. Putting your ideas forward helps you to socialize in a meaningful manner. Also, it makes you feel as if you are an important part of the virtual learning community.

Pen down your goals
You must always find ways to challenge yourself. This is a great way to stay motivated throughout your course and beyond! Online students are most able to learn at their own pace. They can advance more quickly in subjects that genuinely catch their attention and interest. Thus, establishing goals and objectives can help you succeed easily. You can avail many opportunities that are provided by online high schools to gain the necessary skills to succeed in college later on. You can very well envision your goals once you get your short-term as well as long-term goals noted down.

Maintain organization
The organization is vital when it comes to online course success. It starts with organizing your workspace, your time and also your assignments.It eventually helps you achieve academic success. Take the time to prepare, organize in a way the works for you the best possible way. You must have everything you need to set yourself up for success. You must have the necessary tools and supplies to aid you. This also keeps you on track. It helps to increase overall productivity as well.

Call for support when needed
Virtual students must utilize their resources to guarantee that they are getting the right amount of support needed in order to succeed. An online high school provides you with an extensive set of smart virtual tools as well as resources to facilitate you in every possible way. You need to learn the utility of these tools and resources in order to avail these. In case you face an issue, you can contact your school’s IT support team or the Academic Counselor to clear your doubts.

You can get help from your online peer support groups, from instructors and online tutors. Usually, online high school can provide learning materials on subjects in case a student needs additional information on a subject. One of the best features of online schools is that they provide you with multiple forms of educational material to help to accommodate different types of learning styles.

Build a smart routine
It is pretty evident that online learning environment provides you the flexibility that you need. Find a program that works with your schedule. You have the freedom to decide when to study and where. Your starting point should be to create a personalized learning schedule. It should be smart and feasible. It should be productive for you. It should help you to develop healthy learning habits and time management skills as well. Design your schedule in such a manner that it brings the best student and person out of you!

Fix a study space and organize it well
You must get some peace and quiet while working on your daily course. Go for s specific place where you can work without distractions from things such as family arguments, television etc.

You must adjust the height of your chair, keyboard, and screen so that you can be completely comfortable. Your forearms and thighs should be level and parallel to the floor. Keep in mind that your wrists should not be bent while typing. Try to set up good lighting and comfortable seating. Remember that lighting in the room should be at least as bright as the computer screen. This will keep away from eye strain.

Avoid digital distractions
Many overlook this point. But, it is highly likely for students, especially in their teens to get lured in by all the entertainment sites. Self-control comes into play here. Try to uninstall any computer games. This will help you avoid temptation. You can think of keeping the games on a different computer in the house.

Stay away from a cell phone if possible, at the time of studying. Do not bother much if friends are trying to contact you for some weekend party! In other words, prioritize. Keep in mind that you can easily lose track of the time as you wander from site to site, or chat to chat on phone.


Know the technicalities
As an online learner, you must know the basic technical skills. This includes the ability to create new documents, use a word processing program, navigate the Internet, and download software.

In case you do not know the basic computer skills, you can consider finding an online tutorial to get to know those. It is not rocket science, after all! Also, you must check the online school's main website for their hardware and software requirements. Your computer should have those requirements.

Top Reasons to Quit Homeschooling and Join Online High School

Both traditional homeschooling and online high schooling are the feasible options for imparting education. Both these modes of learning improve the student’s situation by protecting them from regular struggles of the traditional school and from certain questionable social acts like bullying. This kind of learning system allows students to learn from the comfort and safety of their homes. They are also kept a safe distance away from distractions of all forms.

Since this is the Age of Internet, there is no denying that online high schools are a smarter way of imparting education to students as compared to homeschooling. Though both of them require parental intervention, but online schools are not that demanding of massive parental involvement. In fact, for high school students, no parental intervention is required in most cases since the students are matured at this stage. Online schools provide the full-time access of online teachers. So, students get all the support they need from their teachers and do not have to rely on their parents.

There are some people who even use the terms homeschooling and online schooling interchangeably. However, both are pretty different. In case of homeschooling, the parent plays the role of the teacher and in charge of finding curriculum. An accredited private online school is one that provides accredited courses to children along with full-time availability of the online faculty. This cuts down the necessity of parental involvement.

In both homeschooling and online school, the curriculum needs to be built or altered in a way to suit the individual child. So, this involves careful consideration of unique needs and circumstances.Online schools do have an upper hand over traditional homeschooling. Here is a list of the benefits to attending an online school that you cannot avail in case of conventional homeschooling:

Teachers

In case of homeschools, parents need to be in-charge of everything. Most importantly, they need to be the teachers themselves. They take up the task of teaching all material to their kids. This is quite a concern when a parent is not that educated or well-versed himself or herself, even if it is in certain subjects. The parents need to be good in all the subjects to impart overall education of high quality to their kids.

On the contrary, online schools employ state-certified teachers, at least the regionally-accredited ones do. This strong faculty team is usually available full-time, providing instruction, guiding, encouraging, motivating, supporting and resolving the students’ queries. The online teachers hired in genuine online schools are easily accessible via online class sessions, phone, email, one-on-one tutoring, and face-to-face meetings. They focus on one-to-one attention. They also discuss important issues with the child’s parents, in case required. Thus, they play a great role in the student’s success in passing an online course.

Curriculum

Homeschooling parents need to research and find their own curriculum. They need to build effective curriculum right from the scratch. It can be pretty taxing for these parents. They need to invest time, energy and money as well to create the curriculum all by themselves. Also, the parents along with the students make up their own schedule and lesson plans. They always make sure to adapt to the national and state standards.

On the contrary, a virtual online high school comes with its own in-built curriculum. However, the most appealing feature of an online class is that these curriculum are open for customization. Every student has unique needs. Keeping those needs in mind, parents or students can get their curriculum tailored to fit their lifestyle. This is approved by the state. Online schools provide lesson plans. This helps students to create their own unique schedule. This gives structure to students’ learning. It also affects the daily schedule.

Testing phase

Homeschooling parents are responsible for researching state and national testing standards to ensure their child complies. However, online schools require students to take the same state assessments as their conventional counterparts. Online schools usually provide locations where students can take these exams.

Attendance record

Homeschooling parents need to research local attendance and academic policies. It is their responsibility for their reporting requirements. On the other hand, online school makes sure that the educational accountability is already in place. This accountability includes attendance and academic policies. Right from the first day, attendance, grades, testing, and other requirements are accounted for within the online learning platform.

Socialization

For socialization, homeschool parents need to take measures to make sure their children interact with their peers. On the contrary, online schools provide structured socialization opportunities. Many online schools encourage students to make small study groups to promote socialization and exchange of academic ideas as well. These schools also conduct real-time events such as field trips and outings to enable socialization. Thus, all the plans are made by the authority of the online school, keeping the students’ needs in mind.

Technical knowledge

One of the side-effects of taking classes in an online school is that they make the student technically efficient. They provide an elaborate set of smart and easy-to-use online tours and resources to help the students who want to explore more than just bookish knowledge. Thus, while gaining hands-on experience on these tools, they get tech-savvy. This is not the case for traditional homeschooling where textbooks are used mainly.

Cost

Though there is no definite amount that is charged for an online course, fees for these courses are usually less than the total cost involved in preparing a homeschooling course. This is because in case of online schools, no extra cost needs to be paid for textbooks, guide books etc. All the resources are available online itself, so this cuts down the extra expense.

Homeschooling demands a lot from parents. Today most parents are working and it becomes an issue to take out a large chunk of time from their busy schedules to prepare a curriculum from scratch. Online schools are a safer option since they provide every necessary thing to the students, creating a healthy and nurturing education system.