The Fergus Falls Daily Journal

By Tom Hintgen

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Online learning more popular in FF, Minnesota

Published 10:58am Thursday, September 22, 2011

More Minnesota students, including those in Otter Tail County, are taking advantage of the scheduling flexibility and growing online class choices. However, a state report released Monday found students taking the classes full-time often fell short of their peers in traditional schools.

Fergus Falls iQ Academy, however, has taken steps to make its online program better.

“We have a new Learning Management System (LMS) that allows access to many new academic resources for teachers and families,” said Molly Johnson, who heads Fergus Falls iQ Academy along with Jesse Thorstad.

iQ Academy Minnesota, a program of the Fergus Falls Public School District, offers an interactive curriculum for students in grades 6-12, what Johnson refers to as “a robust virtual learning environment” and a supportive teacher and student network.

Fergus Falls IQ Academy, still enrolling students in September, had over 300 online students in 2010-11.

Another major new feature this school year includes the Scantron Series, which involves performance tests to help measure student growth.

The Office of the Legislature Auditor reported that an estimated 20,000 students in kindergarten through high school took at least one online course last year. That’s less than three percent of the state’s K-12 students, the report said, but the number has been growing.

Statewide, for the 2009-2010 school year, the number of students taking classes part-time online classes doubled to about 3,800 and the number of students taking online classes full-time tripled to about 8,300, from 2007.

The state report defined students who only took classes online as full-time students while those students that take classes at both traditional schools and online as part-time online students.

The report found that part-time students tend to do better than students as a whole on standardized tests and much better than students taking online classes full time. That, according to analysts, may be attributed to the different backgrounds of the two groups of students.

“We think there are a number of students who are availing themselves of online learning who haven’t been successful in traditional education,” said Legislative Auditor James Nobles.

The report also found that drop-out rates for full-time 12th-grade online students increased from 18 percent in 2006-2007 to 25 percent in 2009-2010, while noting that only three percent of 12th-grade students statewide dropped out during the 2009-2010 school year.

Jon Voss, principal of Northern Star Online, said the poor academic showing is more indicative of the issues the students bring to the programs than anything intrinsic to online education.

“It’s the last opportunity many students have taken to try and find a way to graduate,” he said.

State Rep. Sondra Erickson, Princeton Republican and chairperson of the Minnesota House Education Reform Committee, said the state’s policies for online classes will be at the top of her committee’s agenda when it reconvenes in January.

“Online learning is the way of the future,” said Erickson. “We need quality and a direction for our students that make sure the courses are rigorous.”