TEMPE, Ariz. — Blended Model and Concurrent College Credit Courses Offer Advanced Options for Utah Students

Education changes lives. Yet for a multitude of reasons, not all students have equal access to quality learning. It is a challenge that former Utah State Senator Howard Stephenson has been working to solve for 20-plus years. Recently, with the support of the Utah Legislature and groups like the Utah Private Schools Association, he has made some great strides. The most recent – and most notable – comes from what some may consider an unlikely source: a series of partnerships between Utah schools and ASU Prep Digital, an accredited online K-12 school based in neighboring Arizona.

Utah Education Landscape
Stephenson, who graduated with a class of 22 students from a small rural high school located three miles south of the Utah/Arizona border, recalls taking TEMAC Programmed Learning Material courses by correspondence – an experience he describes as “painful” – to complete coursework to make himself stand out to college admissions committees. That was decades ago, a far cry from the level of competition that today’s students encounter.

“We encourage kids to dream big, and to reach for the stars,” Stephenson said. “But then on the other hand, in so many parts of the country, we fall woefully short on giving them the right tools, and more specifically, the best curriculum, they need to compete and succeed. This is where a program of ASU Prep Digital’s caliber makes all the difference. It works exactly as the Statewide Online Education Program was intended, giving students the chance to take world-class courses in a way that best fits their needs.”

In 2011, Stephenson championed the Statewide Online Education Program, which was originally passed to increase access to quality, individualized online learning options for students attending public schools. Two years later, the program was amended to include funding for homeschool and private school students.

Partnering for Opportunity
Stephenson is the first to acknowledge that his role in bringing greater opportunities to Utah students is not a solo act. Dr. Galey Colosimo, Principal of Juan Diego Catholic High School in Draper, and Executive Director of the Utah Private Schools Association, also plays a pivotal role in Utah’s education community.

Upon learning that private schools, like Juan Diego, and smaller rural schools could participate in the Statewide Online Education Program, Colosimo began forging relationships – first with the nearby Canyons School District and more recently with the Juab School District – to formulate more partnerships with ASU Prep Digital.

“We simply could not have embraced online education without the help and support of Canyons and Juab School District,” said Colosimo. “Our partnership with ASU Prep Digital brought us a world-class online curriculum and professional training for our teachers that has made all the difference. At Juan Diego, every class is now a blended online learning class.”

Designated by the Utah State Office of Education as an approved online provider participating in the State Online Education Program, ASU Prep Digital is an accredited online K-12 school that allows students to take a single online course or enroll in a full-time, diploma-granting program. Started by Arizona State University, ASU Prep Digital also serves private schools, single public schools, and entire districts nationwide, with innovative partnerships that offer a rigorous K-12 curriculum and one-on-one instruction in a virtual environment. For schools like Juan Diego, ASU Prep Digital gives students an edge in preparation for college and access to advanced coursework in their areas of interest.

Through its partnerships, Juan Diego provides the “in-class” portion of the content and the teacher for the class itself. In many ways, the blended-learning online classes look and feel like other classes offered at Juan Diego. Even so, the whole-classroom model is a unique but effective application of ASU Prep Digital’s curriculum, which historically has served individual students or groups of students outside the traditional classroom.

For Juan Diego’s part, there are differences, as well. Unlike a traditional course, students have 24-hour virtual access to the learning materials (handouts, interactive presentations, quizzes, test-preps, etc.) with faculty present (in the classroom and online) to develop, guide and provide a digital dialog with students as they progress through the rigorous coursework. They also benefit from access to highly supportive Learning Success Coaches at ASU Prep Digital, who bring a level of personal attention and encouragement that is impractical in most traditional school settings.

To complement the blended course model, Juan Diego also offers concurrent courses through ASU Prep Digital, giving  students the opportunity to earn college credits that will transfer to most accredited universities. These courses are taught collaboratively by an ASU college professor and Juan Diego teacher, students from the most recent semester averaged a 96% pass rate on the courses they took with ASU Prep Digital.

Looking Ahead
Arizona State University President Michael Crow is known as a pioneer of online education. Years before the pandemic forced schools and universities to move online, Crow had created a tech-enhanced learning environment at ASU. His decision to begin offering classes online came from the realization that many students with potential were not able to get the opportunity to pursue higher education. He wanted to include a more diverse group of students cutting across age, culture, socioeconomic status, and nationality. Online education presented a new path to achieve that goal.

“ASU Prep Digital has allowed us to partner and advance educational opportunities for thousands of K-12 students who might not have otherwise had access to the courses, credits, mentors, and teachers we offer,” Crow said. “The tenacity these champions of education have shown in melding our curriculum and resources with local Utah schools is a model for the rest of the state and the nation, for that matter.”

With Juan Diego’s success as inspiration, Canyons School District’s board, through the leadership of Superintendent Rick Robins, recently voted in favor of establishing its own partnership with ASU Prep Digital. The partnership will launch for the 2021-22 school year, with nearly 3,000 students participating in courses like algebra, biology, chemistry, geometry, and more.

Meanwhile ASU Prep Digital’s Private School Partnership in Utah continues to grow, as well, expanding curriculum throughout the Diocese of Salt Lake’s 19-school system.

Coming Full Circle
When Senator Stephenson championed the Statewide Online Education Program in Utah in 2011, he could hardly anticipate how close to home the program would ultimately hit. Today, four of his grandchildren have utilized the program in Utah through ASU Prep Digital partnerships; one is currently enrolled as a full-time ASU Prep Digital high school student. (Although his granddaughter, Jayda, is a full-time ASU Prep Digital high school student, she still swims for her local high school team and attended junior prom this year, thanks to legislation that was passed years ago to make such inclusiveness possible.)

“The successful partnerships ASU Prep Digital has forged in Utah are proof that with perseverance, and a variety of resources, we can give our students all of the resources and tools they need to succeed,” said Stephenson, who now serves as an advisor to ASU Prep Digital. “With forward-thinking leadership and technology advancements, there really are no boundaries to the opportunities we can provide to Utah students.”

ASU Prep Digital has established partnerships with 21 schools in Utah and 138 in other U.S. states. For more background about its customized partnerships with schools in Utah and across the nation, click here: asuprepdigital.org/partnerships.

If you’re an educational leader, chances are you’re familiar with distance learning options or even have experience running or building a virtual program for your school or district. If so, you know distance learning can be an incredibly powerful option for many students and families, but it’s not exactly “plug-and-play.” Effective online learning—especially in the elementary years—requires knowledge about how to translate instruction to an online environment and what teaching strategies work best online. If you’re looking for some guidance or inspiration for your online elementary program, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll cover best practices to help you support your online students in grades K–5.  

Communicate closely with families. 
When it comes to online elementary, it’s about making it a positive and enjoyable experience for students and families. Parent involvement is essential, and it begins with communicating in a way they’re familiar with, such as texting. “We’re finding this new generation of parents would often rather get text updates than pick up the phone to talk,” says Megan Grothman, Global Partnership Manager for ASU Prep Digital. It’s also versatile since it can be used to communicate updates, send screenshots of student work, or even share the day’s schedule or Zoom room. “Like any communication, the key is to engage parents so it feels like a team interaction and not like a phone call home to say their student is struggling,” advises Grothman.  

Create opportunities for students to connect virtually. 
“In an online environment one of the biggest success factors is maintaining relationships between students,” says Grothman. “The conversations you have with kids are as critical as the feedback you give them.” For younger learners, simply having time to talk and stay connected in an online space with others their age is a powerful and positive experience. One way to facilitate this is by hosting virtual “recess” sessions where teachers chat with students and ask them questions, play a game like online bingo, or host a show and tell. The goal is to make it feel fun and special and to get students talking with each other. 

Maintain a balance between online and offline activities. 
For most elementary students, sitting at a computer all day long isn’t realistic, and it isn’t always the best way for them to learn. Offline activities can help students make connections in tangible ways. Consider incorporating activities to encourage students to explore their environments, their backyards, and their neighborhoods. But don’t forget to create instructions for parents to facilitate these activities. This can be as simple as a list of questions to ask their child after their daily lesson, a list of sentence starters, or a scavenger hunt of objects or behaviors the student can observe around their home. 

Create online experiences for students to share their knowledge. 
“It’s our job as educators to guide students in meaningful ways to share their learning,” says Grothman. “We can’t just get on Zoom and go through slides. We have to intentionally facilitate experiences where students are sharing their knowledge.” Thankfully, elementary students are often much more comfortable speaking up in video calls than older students. To help create a structured and organized sharing experience for young learners, Grothman suggests using Nearpod, which is a digital tool to help teachers deliver interactive videos, games, and activities while also collecting student feedback to gauge their understanding of concepts.  

Be thoughtful about integrating apps and technology tools.  
“For students in K–5, we want to increase exposure to applications and technology, but in a balanced and authentic way,” advises Grothman. The goal with elementary students is to create consistency and predictability to help them build routines and schedules. Younger learners can become easily overwhelmed, so think about “scaffolding” the technology and apps you plan to use in class. Once they’ve mastered one tool or platform, you can start thinking through additional apps or technologies and determine the right time to introduce them.

Help students become aware of digital etiquette. 
In elementary grades, it’s important to remember students are still learning how to interact with each other. Online elementary education adds another layer of mastery to this lifelong skill. “We want students to not only understand how to interact online, but how to manage mistakes when they do happen,” says Grothman. “The idea is for students to embrace the mistakes as learning opportunities to help them become aware of what it means to be a good digital citizen,” says Grothman. 

Partner with ASU Prep Digital
ASU Prep Digital is an accredited online K-12 school providing districts with single online courses, full-time virtual programs, innovative learning recovery solutions, and professional development options. We would love to collaborate and develop a customized program for your school’s needs. For information about partnering with ASU Prep Digital, please email partnership@asuprep.org.

By Julie Young & William Donovan
February 02, 2022

To the list of services that have grown in popularity during the pandemic, such as video conferencing, take-out delivery, and at-home fitness, add one more: virtual learning.

Not the slap-dash remote instruction that many schools rushed to use following the shutdown of classroom instruction in March of 2020. Rather, the tested approach used by reputable virtual schools. Because of the persistent health threats caused by coronavirus variants and the assistance virtual schools can provide to at-risk students, virtual learning in K-12 education continues to grow.

Those two factors are distinctly different, but their impact has prompted more families to explore the possibilities of digital learning. They’ve discovered that expert virtual learning differs from what many parents and students experienced after schools unexpectedly closed nearly two years ago. Others have seen how the use of technology can address the unique needs of certain children and high schoolers.

Virtual learning is an educational model that uses computers and takes place through an online platform. The term is frequently swapped with the word remote to describe out-of-classroom learning as if they were the same. They are not. True virtual schools and their programs are much different from the frantic switch to remote teaching that schools were forced to make after the 2020 closing and soured families on virtual learning.

But set aside that broad paintbrush. Established virtual schools apply years of experience to create courses designed for the online platform. Courses are developed by teams of learning designers with expertise in learning theory, user interface, graphics, instruction and curriculum. It isn’t meant to replace an in-school education. Rather, it can supplement and complement face-to-face learning, or it can provide a genuine alternative for families who have challenges that interfere with attending brick-and-mortar models.

The pandemic presents obvious health concerns for young students or those with compromised immune systems. At-risk students, particularly minority students and those from low-income families, often face personal or social issues such as violence in school, teenage pregnancy or the need to work to help support their family. Unable to attend school, many drop out and ultimately fail to graduate.

Some students simply find an online, blended, or hybrid environment to offer more engagement, particularly because students have more agency over their learning. When students understand how to drive their learning pace, set their own goals, and monitor their own progress against those goals, they become extremely motivated.

Digital learning can free students from restrictions that tie learning to set hours in a specific place. Too often we limit students in a system in which time is fixed and learning is variable. Online learning flips that system. Time becomes variable and learning fixed. Freeing students to work at their own time and pace improves their chances of meeting their academic requirements and their responsibilities outside of school.

Demand for remote instruction has declined from the peak of the shutdown surge, while students returned to school full-time beginning in 2021. But there are currently more than 656,000 students who attend one of the estimated 200 to 250 statewide virtual schools in the U.S., according to the Evergreen Education Group. School districts in California, Florida, North Carolina, Utah and elsewhere are continuing to expand their pre-pandemic virtual learning capacity to accommodate further enrollment growth.

Just as there are differences in the quality of public schools, not all virtual schools are of equal caliber. Students are poorly served by point-and-click assessments with no engagement, virtual schools with videos instead of real teachers and programs without learning, pacing and scheduling support. A key differentiator between questionable and quality virtual programs is adherence to the National Standards for Quality Online Learning, which includes standards for virtual teaching, programs and courses. A competent virtual program should adhere to those standards.

As connectivity improves and more students choose to remain at home because of future coronavirus variants or for personal reasons, established online schools, as well as blended and hybrid models, will continue to rise in prominence. For many families virtual learning will be a concrete option.

Julie Young is Vice President of Education Outreach and Student Services at Arizona State University and Managing Director of ASU Prep Academy and ASU Prep Digital. William Donovan is a former journalist and writer for Pioneer Institute, Boston-based think tank. They’re co-authors of recent Pioneer Institute white papers on virtual schooling.