An online program to launch this fall at Rogers High School will give 100 students the chance to do school work on their own time.

With a waiver from the Michigan Department of Education, the Frontiers program will not require students to meet the state's "seat time" requirements. Instead, if students show progress in online coursework, they will spend as little as one hour per week in school.

"Students can actually earn time away from campus to proceed at their own pace wherever they have Internet access," said Al Vigh, program coordinator. "It's a completely different animal. It will truly blend traditional and online school in a way never before done in Kent County.

"Based on what's happening in our state with the economy and the dropout rate, we've got to change what we're doing. The needs of the students of the 21st century are changing, and we're trying to address those needs."

At the start, students will attend school 10 hours per week in two computer labs at Rogers. If students show progress on quarterly assessments, their time in school will decrease gradually. At the end of the first quarter, they will get a district-owned laptop computer to study off-campus.

Wyoming previously has offered online courses, but the state has limited students to two classes per day. Now, students can learn full-time through video lectures, online text, interactive web links, and a telephone hotline for homework help.

Teachers will staff the computer lab. They're not involved with the actual course delivery unless a student comes to them for help, but that teacher is still going to be responsible for teaching that student how to be a successful online learner.

"We're trying to meet the needs of the students," Superintendent Jon Felske said.

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Source: MLive, 6.30.08