Speaking Of Online Classes..

[kolamum]

Is there any such thing as an affordable online class? I'm just curious as I know many of the online courses are hundreds of dollars. I can purchase my entire homeschool year's needs for 2 or 3 online classes, having multiple children means I could put them all in a private school for the cost of online courses.. Which makes me wonder, aside from VHSG are there any affordable options?!

[Julie Smith]

Is there any such thing as an affordable online class? I'm just curious as I know many of the online courses are hundreds of dollars. I can purchase my entire homeschool year's needs for 2 or 3 online classes, having multiple children means I could put them all in a private school for the cost of online courses.. Which makes me wonder, aside from VHSG are there any affordable options?!

 

Eldest took a free online class. It is being offered for free one more time. It was good, and I am planning Youngest to take it, even when it is no longer free. 

 

 

Digital Learning is an online course to teach homeschoolers to become confident with modern online tools.

www.impactvirtual.com

Digital Learning is Impact Virtual Learning's most popular class--great as a stand-alone for your homeschooling teen or as a prerequisite for the Impact Virtual Learning electives. Digital Learning has received terrific responses from parents and students. You can see some of the reviews at www.facebook.com/impactvirtual

The 7-week course features website creation, digital citizenship, and working with embed codes and design tools. You'll love the teacher feedback, and your homeschooler will love the peer-interaction.

Registrations for Digital Learning are now being processed at www.impactvirtual.com/courses.html.  At $25 for 7 weeks of concurrent studies with other students and a teacher who gives feedback throughout the course, it's a reasonable price.  

 

(But if you search for "Digital Learning" at www.outschool.com, Tim Chase is offering the same course for FREE, one last time.)

[HomeAgain]

TTUISD is $200/semester class.  It's not cheap, but it is affordable.

 

There is also History At Our House for about the same price for a full year, though the class is not live.  I think the live classes are slightly more, and there is an introductory Big Picture History overview live class (one time) that is free so you can get a feel of it.  My son took the Egypt Big Picture class and loved it so much I'm considering the live program for him next year.

[Vida Winter]

Homeschool Connections has very reasonable pricing for recorded online courses. I think you can pay an extra fee for grading.

 

The Great Courses Online is a good buy for many courses and the pdf guidebooks are available to print. We are currently watching the photography and Spanish courses.

[rjand6more]

I have limited funds for school as well. I have decided that there are certain classes that are very worth it to me like foreign language. I will pay the $300/semester. It averages out to what we pay for music lessons.  That's how I justify those classes.   LA can be taught easily from home.  For high school, I am going to use Home2Teach for writing instruction a few sessions over high school.  They are $85 for 6 weeks.  We will use the input from the instructor and apply it to our later instruction.

 

So, basically...foreign language and writing for the more expensive live classes.

 

Math can easily be learned through pre recorded lessons or a book.  History and geography are 100% book based.  I can schedule and grade.(and discuss)

 

Science and electives...I go back and forth on these.  At Landry, dd14 took a Screenwriting class and LOVED it!  No way could I have given her the feedback she got from her teacher.  I can grade grammar and composition, but creativity NO WAY.  So, we are continuing with that.  I MAY consider science outsourcing in the future due to business in my life.

 

kolamum:  I just wanted to give you a big thank you for all your posts about using WP CAW.  We did a SL/CAW combo last year with some of the books you suggested added in.  It was an AWESOME year. :hurray:

[u2006kids]

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/499321-talk-to-me-about-online-class-options/?hl=%2Bonline

[kolamum]

Hmm, I guess my idea of affordable is greatly different.

 

At $200-$300 per semester/class I'd be looking at $1600 per year. Private school in my neck of the woods is $1800. Or, I can buy all our school curriculum, brand new for $1000, if I go the second hand route I can get it for half that or less. ;) I do love the idea of online classes so my kids get the experience of working for someone else, deadlines created by someone else, expectations of another teacher/person, etc. but I just can't justify the prices at the time, especially as we'll no longer be getting our annual education refund. Ouch. ;) 

Aside from the bonus of being able to ask questions in person, at that moment, is there a huge benefit to a live class vs a recorded class? That's another HUGE issue for us, being on the other side of the world my son would have to get up anywhere between 1-6am for classes. :lol: Not exactly desirable! ;) 

[kolamum]

kolamum:  I just wanted to give you a big thank you for all your posts about using WP CAW.  We did a SL/CAW combo last year with some of the books you suggested added in.  It was an AWESOME year. :hurray:

 

Aww, thanks Janet. We were talking about that WP Theme the other day & how much fun we had with it. I told one of the kids that I'd love to do it again, but I didn't know if we had time with high school obligations staring the oldest in the face & the other not far behind..