Santini

Nick Santini
Julie Malsbury
English 101, Section 126
20 October 2014
Ethernet Education
Anxiously waiting for my freshman year at Drexel to start, I winced at the sight of
the required English course looming on my schedule. All of my fears about the class faded
however, when I saw the class was marked hybrid my head became shrouded with
curiosity. Before the fall term, I had never heard of or been in a course in which the
majority of my grade depends on online submission and discussion performance.
Submitting weekly assignments online and obtaining immediate feedback made my writing
quality soar in just four weeks. The results that I saw lead me to question why more
primary and secondary schools dont format their class around online writing if it has been
proven that online courses strengthen the overall quality of the learning experience.
Teachers and students reflect the quality of the school so it is critical that they are
the focus of the online course study. In analyzing this, the demands of teachers and
students range depending on the education level. Primary schools are required to stay
within a tight curriculum while secondary schools generally teach the application of
advanced practices, which give a breath of freedom. Naturally, the teaching of basics tends
to be molded while higher-level education consists of more variation.

Safety and security are the two concerns that are come to mind whenever an

elementary school talks about an online class. Veering off the educational standard can
draw complaints from a wave of parents. To establish a sense of insurance, Kelvin Oliver,

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Shain Kellogg, Latricia Townsend, and Kevin Brady, worked with eight teams of elementary
English teachers to get their position on the matter and laid out their results in the article
Needs of elementary and middle school teachers developing online courses for a virtual
school. After running the simulation with the kids 80% of teachers or strongly agreed that
safety and security is not a risk (Oliver 72) to the online course format. From this it is fair
to argue that online education will not compromise a schools security and can used at a
teachers discretion. Adding to this, online courses can provide more security than a brick-
and-mortar class. Web development technology for online courses at this level of education
can have set parameters to ensure harmful or distracting sites cannot be accessed. In an
age where technology is rapidly expanding, this security is invaluable to a schools list of
assets. However, longevity of an online curriculum depends on the student experience
early on in their academic cycle.

The popularity of online courses with elementary students in recent years is

unprecedented. The primary reason for this is that online classes share many aspects with
regular classes; making a transition easy. Leslie OHanlon, writer of the article Virtual
Elementary School: Should You Enroll Your Kids explains Kids still read books, fill out
worksheets, write papers, complete science experiments, and take quizzes and tests
(OHanlon 1). Since an internet education provides the same basic functions as a standard
education, there appear to be only benefits. This opportunity, if presented to kids, would
develop their online skills to the level college courses will expect in the future. While it
takes many students years of college to learn how to manage work, it took her [a student]
nearly a year and a half to get ... the concept of being responsible for work (OHanlon 1). To

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present this opportunity to students is to provide them a unique opportunity to take

advantage of in the future.
Catching fire in modern teaching techniques, high schools around the country are
eager to add it to their curriculum. Analyzing the structure of these courses is Jon Justis
who wrote Online Education in Secondary School for College Preparation and Improved
Writing a Teachers Guide with intent to look at how to implement an online hybrid
education unit into an expository writing class (Justis 4). In his essay, there is an
underlying connection between the usefulness an online course has to the teacher and the
value to the school. Plagiarism is a problem that most teachers struggle to catch and can
tarnish a schools reputation if not dealt with properly. An instructor is only human and
cannot catch everyone in the class cheating especially if assignments are hand-written.
Although the introduction of computers has allowed cheating to be as simple as copy and
paste, the ability to catch it is much higher. Justis puts it as the very technology that
makes plagiarism so easy to commit also makes it easier to catch (Justis 87) Schools that
implement the online course format will have fewer plagiarism attempts because students
can no longer forge assignments due to crosschecking technology that can compare
submissions for cheating. This allows teachers to focus directly on the course material and
makes the level of education higher.
An online format for students in high school enriches their experience in multiple
aspects that a traditional class cannot. Seeking the true value of these courses, Joanna
Castner has researched the impact that a single course has on the communicative skills of
pre-college students. As Castner ran an experimental online course, she noticed that it
enabled students to develop their own ways of talking about the concepts presented in

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class with others (Castner 28). Helping students find a writing style contributes to an
increase in writing quality and improved confidence. With students able to write at a
higher level, a schools reputation and curriculum will earn prestige. Castner was not the
only one that saw value in the course; when she surveyed the class, 41% of the students
chose small-group online discussion (Castner 28) as the best format for learning.
Concluding this, an online class is a positive mutualistic relationship between the school
and high school students.

Online courses have proven to be helpful to teachers for providing safety and

preventing plagiarism, while it helps students manage workloads and connect with each
other in ways that a traditional class cannot. It is for those reasons that I believe primary
and secondary schools should add more classes in this format. Personally, online classes
have improved my writing immensely and because of this, lead me to research the topic
more. An online education is the future for students to prepare for college.

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Bibliography

Justis, Jon. "Online Education in Secondary School for College Preparation and Improved
Writing A Teacher's Guide." Online Education in Secondary School for College Preparation and
Improved Writing A Teacher's Guide (2012): n. pag. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

Castner, Joanna. "Digital Discussion: A Qualitative Study of Online Discussion in Writing
Classes." Technical Communication in Rhetoric (2000): 25-30. pag. ProQuest. Web. 20 Oct.
2014.

Oliver, Kevin, Shain Kellogg, Latricia Townsend, and Kevin Brady. "Needs of Elementary and
Middle School Teachers Developing Online Courses for a Virtual School." Distance Education
(2010): 55-75. ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.

O'Hanlon, Lelslie. "Virtual Elementary School: Should You Enroll Your Kids." Teaching
Strategies (2013): 1. ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.