The percentage of high school students taking online courses nearly doubled in a single year. According to the latest data available from Project Tomorrow’s annual Speak Up Survey–released as the ”Learning in the 21st Century: 2010 Trends Update“ at this week’s ISTE conference in Denver, Colorado–more than 25% of all high school students took at least one class online last year, up from 14 percent the year before. The percentage of middle school students taking online classes also climbed, with 21% taking online classes in 2009 versus 16 percent in 2008.The researchers noted that more students actually should have been participating in online classes, but the supply of classes was not yet meeting demand as of the latest survey period. Other findings:
- 52% of pre-service teachers are experiencing online classes, and 38% are engaged in online teaching communities, but only 4% were learning “how to teach online classes in their instructional methods courses.”
- 40% of district administrators and 35 percent of principals said state funding was limiting their ability to offer online courses.
- 26% of administrators said they doubted their teachers’ ability “to effectively use tools for online classes, suggesting a need to provide educators with more training and additional support in online instruction.”
Source: THE Journal
