Derek Owens - how much time per course?

[klmama]

Derek Owens' website offers 32 week syllabi for each course.  That's great, but the time per day needed for video instruction and assignments isn't clear.  How much time did your dc spend per day or per week working on a DO class?  Which class was it?  Did 32 weeks seem like the right amount of time to spend on the course, or did that seem too short or too long? Thanks for any input.

[fourisenough]

We will finish both Algebra 1 & Physical Science in about 31 weeks this year (following his syllabus almost exactly, but not taking two full weeks for review/exam). To prevent the problem of setting it aside for other more pressing deadlines, I consider the week's work a hard deadline (doesn't have to be finished on a particular day, but if not done by Friday, it becomes weekend homework). It can be more difficult to say how long my DD worked each day as it was pretty variable. I would say somewhere between 25 minutes and 60 minutes per day, usually 4, but sometimes 5 days per week. Unfortunately the video lessons vary in length (number of videos and their length both vary), so it's a little unpredictable. I would say to plan to work for about an hour per day 4-5 days per week and the average student could finish the course in 30-32 weeks at that pace.

[Julie of KY]

My son does an hour a day and takes some breaks. He does not have any trouble doing it by DO schedule. He has finished both precalc and  physics in fewer weeks than scheduled. (He is on the fast side of average, but not super fast - mostly very motivated to get it done and move on to other things).

 

Edited to say in general he does a weeks amount of work in a week. He gains time on the schedule on the review and test weeks as he spends very little time studying - just does the test and moves on to the next week.

 

 

Edited May 1, 2017 by Julie of KY

[gstharr]

We try to do 4 sessions of 45 minutes per week. it will take about a year to complete Alg.2.  there are so many school conflicts now. Another thing, I got spoiled with being able to track progress at any time with Thinkwell.  D.O does not that feature. So, have to take kid's word that he working at reasonable pace.

[GoodGrief]

It's going to very much depend on the kid.

[RootAnn]

My dd does better with hard deadlines of live classes. Since DO doesn't have those, DD had a tough time with his physics, even when there is a schedule of what you should get done in a week. Also, we had to build in more practice of some topics than DO provided and review of previous topics (second semester) because DD really needed it. (We should have done more on-going review during first semester. It really bit her on the first semester test.)

 

All-in-all, it took DD almost an entire year (Sept-Aug). She worked approx an hour a day, four days a week, plus some time on the fifth day (which I didn't track). Labs aren't counted in that time because DD did them with DH and DH is VERY thorough with labs - making sure the idea sticks.

[skimomma]

My dd just finished Physical Science.  I think that particular class requires a lower time commitment.  Dd accelerated the syllabus and finished in about 24 weeks spending roughly 1-1.5 hours a day, 3 times a week.