I'm trying to fulfill the foreign language req for ds#3. Because of his LD it has been suggested that Chinese is a good option for him. Someone also suggested the MIT course. I have looked at several of these but haven't figured out the practical day to day implementation. I see that there is a text as well as mp3 and YouTube aspects as well. But the syllabus is written for the college course or so it appears. How would one provide testing for these courses? Or is there another way to evaluate the student? What does a day with a MIT course look like? Also, would you transcript these the same as other college level courses such as 1 semester equals a full high school credit?

Have you heard of this guy? This guy, Scott H. Young, studied all of the courses needed to earn a computer science bachelor's degree from MIT, using their Open CourseWare, and finished in 12 months of intense, intense study, averaging about a class per week. He explains on his blog and YouTube channel exactly how he did it, and has a lot of good tips on how to study effectively.

Oh my, I was browsing the Yale open courses and they have a Classics dept Ancient Greek History course with Donald Kagan :svengo:

I was poking at the UCCP open course site again today and realized that they have an Algebra 1 course that uses one of the recent editions of Algebra Structure and Method by Brown & Dolciani. It looks like used copies are available for under $20. The readings aren't super specific. Lessons are tied to chapter, but not to specific pages. But this might provide a means of scaffolding online lessons with a Dolciani text. The lessons look like they are sample problems to guide you through the lesson in the text, rather than being a teacher working out the problems as you watch.

Does completion of these classes hold any extra weight with colleges? I know they're not outside verification as with AP or SAT II, but do they have any merit in the application process? I'm thinking of high school level, like Hippocampus, and/or college level like MIT or Academic Earth. Obviously there is no way to prove how much of a syllabus you completed. Just curious.

Does anyone have experience with doing AP prep Environmental Science (meaning prep for the test, with or without having College Board certify the syllabus as being ok to brand as AP)? I have rising 7th and 8th graders. They love science and are high level readers. My plan for the upcoming year was to do a year of various earth science studies (geology, fossils, weather, possibly astronomy). I was going to put something together using PH Science Explorers, Smithsonian Science 101, Pearson Interactive Science and specialist books that we have on hand. My general plan for high school is to do biology, chemistry, physics and probably one other science. They are about midway through Saxon Algebra 1/2 and will move on to algebra mid fall. But the AP Environmental Science course on the UCCP site caught my eye. I notice that several of the topics covered are similar to topics that I was planning for anyway (for example geology and weather) So: Is Environmental Science a course worth doing? Is it a good class if it's done for AP, but otherwise filler? (My kids hope to qualify for admission to a service academy or an upper level school under ROTC.) Does anyone have experience with the AP test for Environmental Science? Does anyone have experience with doing AP tests for students who are not yet high schoolers? (Pitfalls? Administrative details I would need to be aware of?) And if anyone has comments about the UC Open Course College Prep classes I'd appreciate insights. Specifically about how well they prepped for the AP test and how you did other assessments to base a grade on.

So, I am exploring high school resources. . . and have downloaded my first college 'open course'. Political Science from Yale's Open Courses. http://oyc.yale.edu/political-science/introduction-to-political-philosophy/content/downloads I was able to get all of the readings in epub format, then used Calibre to convert them to mobi format, and they're now beautifully on the kids' kindle (and will be on my kindle as soon as I get it from upstairs). So, all the readings are 100% free and paperless. I am in the process of downloading all of the video lectures (and will do the audio only formats, too, if they prove to be w/o visual elements) from itunes university. Every resource appears to be in tidy order. . . I am going to take the course myself over the next little while before deciding if/when my dd is ready for it. It's sort of an experiment in the technology. From what I can see so far, it looks like a pretty spectacular technology. I wonder how much of the kids highschool (advanced/AP level) course work we can/should get from these amazing open courses that many elite colleges are putting out there. Wow. I think education is going to really change. Talk about a leveling of the playing field. With some of the best universities offering free courses online. . . I wonder to what extent we can take advantage of them, and how that will change college. It is really amazing. What do you all think? Have any of you taken any of these courses? What do you think?

For high school? For yourself? How did you put it on your dc's transcript? Thanks! I'm just exploring what they have to offer.

If you've used the MIT open courseware online with your high school students did you use it as an enrichment of your standard course or did you use it as a stand alone course. I'm looking at the open courseware for high school and note that they have Physics - something I've been mulling over for the past month or so. The even have AP course designations. So, are these good enough to use by themselves? If you use them solo, how do you transcript them? Seems like it would look very nice to say a course was taken through MIT ;) ....