Doubters, beware. This may change your mind. Or, at least cause you to take a look.
Here’s a bold statement…The only people I know who think online education is a choice of last resort are those who have not experienced it.
One of the challenges we face is convincing some that online education is a viable option, much less a great way to be educated. Some think it's a poor alternative to live, in person, in bricks and mortar schools. That it’s an education of last resort because you don’t live near a great school and can’t teach the subject yourself. These people have one thing in common. None of them have seen what we do.
When we started offering online classes, I was in the doubters' category more than I care to admit. I knew it could be good. I just didn’t realize all the reasons why or all the benefits that would come with it. I was amazed at how good the experience was (including building the school community and academics).
There are three main elements to education:
The curriculum
The pedagogy or educational philosophy
The teachers
At Veritas we have been attempting to create the “best in class” curriculum for nearly three decades. Accolades and awards would be one way we might confirm we have succeeded. Results in the lives of students would be another.
Veritas came to exist because we, as the founders of Veritas, were convinced that classical Christian education, or, as we like to call it, classical education from a Christian worldview was a superior model to anything we had experienced in our education and was superior to anything we knew of. More than 30 years later the data confirms our belief.
Even with the best curriculum and the best pedagogy, we have to admit that teachers are the most important part of education. Think about your own experience. I doubt you remember any of the curricula you used. It’s less likely you can describe the educational philosophy applied to your education. But I’ll bet you remember the great teachers and the influence they had on you.
There are two reasons why a well-executed live online class is a great (maybe superior) option to the alternatives.
Teachers - Of course, if we believe that the teacher is the most important part of education, and we do, then finding teachers for our faculty without geographic limits is an incredible advantage. There is no single location that can compete with drawing from the entire world. And, man does it make a difference.
International Student Body - My greatest surprise was the richness added to classes in discussions, etc. when the classes have students from a variety of countries. What I didn't see coming was the tremendous benefit of having students from a variety of cultures and countries. The richness and breadth that this adds is hard to overstate.
Tom Garfield, our Academic Dean and one of our art teachers believed even less than most folks in online education before he experienced it. He worked for decades as the head of Logos School, the school that is the subject of Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning. Now, he's a believer. He's seen community, academic success, and all kinds of other benefits that he just didn't expect. He even spoke about it at an ACCS conference where he was preaching to a disbelieving audience.
As technology advances no one is surprised by the growing popularity of things new technologies make possible. What is hard is giving up old opinions when they are no longer true. That’s where we find ourselves with online education. It’s better than those who’ve not experienced it think it is. And it’s getting better all the time.
Note: Not only do standardized test scores routinely demonstrate that classically educated kids score higher than their peers but a study done a few years ago provides excellent objective proof. See The Good Soil Report.
