Expand learning horizons

State leaders should jump at a proposal to dramatically expand online and distance classes available to Iowa high school students.

In this era of tight budgets, expanding the State Department of Education's Iowa Learning Online initiative would be a smart, efficient way to make specialized and advanced coursework available at even the smallest rural schools. And it would be a chance to unshackle students from the old assembly line model of classroom education that everyone's so fed up with - if only for a course or two.

It could be the start of an institutional shift to bring students' educational experiences more in line with the rest of their world.

Iowa Learning Online was launched in 2004 to make science, technology, engineering and math coursework available to more Iowa students - especially in smaller schools, where it can be difficult to get a critical mass of students to take a course or an instructor qualified to teach it.

Since then, the program has changed to accommodate schools' needs - offering English, government and foreign language courses, too.

The program's four full-time teachers and clutch of part-timers teach about a dozen different courses each semester. In recent years, it's been operating at capacity - 625 kids - routinely turning would-be students away, Director Gwen Wallace Nagel told me Friday.

Nagel wants to expand the program to accommodate 5,000 students and offer a full curriculum, including advanced courses and instruction in several languages. She floated the idea before State Board of Education members last week. Her proposal would cost about $5 million and require legislators' approval. It also makes a ton of sense.

Iowa Learning Online courses are rigorous - designed by master teachers and instructional designers, aligned with the Iowa Core and national online learning standards to try to provide a rich experience.

But the courses are also flexible. Students usually can learn at their own pace - powering through and completing coursework early, or taking longer if they need to.

If students fail the course, they often can pick up where the coursework got away from them - rather than starting over.

Of course, students have to be motivated to do the work. That's the nature of online learning. - you can't squeeze by just by spending time in a classroom chair.

Which is exactly why making online courses available to all Iowa students could be the perfect bridge from old industrial-age schooling to the information age.

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jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net