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Hi parents!
I'm wondering if any of you have experience with distance learning classes taken via the internet, like the ones CTY offers. I'd just like to hear any experiences you've had. Did your child work at their own pace, or was there some sort of timetable they had to follow? Was it difficult for them to work outside of a classroom setting? I'm worried that for a math course, which is what I'm interested in taking, I won't be able to readily grasp the concepts without a teacher there to explain things to me in person. I'm not sure if this fear is well founded, but I'm still concerned. Any input would be appreciate. Thanks in advance, wise parents of CC!

By Soozievt (Soozievt) on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 12:47 am: Edit

Both my teenage daughters have taken CTY distance learning courses. My younger daughter took a writing course in 8th grade through CTY that was called Crafting the Essay (lol, sounds like a college application topic!) but was considered college level expository writing. That course worked differently than the way the math tutorial courses at CTY work. This one had an assigned mentor. The mentor sent assignments on specific dates you knew in advance with specific due dates. Then the mentor wrote narrative feedback reports on the assignments. It was not completely at your own pace as the dute dates were set. The format was set. But within the two week period, you could choose how much to work on it any given day. I thought the course was well done....alot of revising and having someone critique your work and so forth. Lots of thinking of ways to make your writing better. That child of mine has writing as a forte. I do not think she really needed the teacher so much but the course gave her some structure to do writing and then get extensive feedback.

My current senior daughter is taking a CTY course right now, AP Calculus BC. She took Calculus AB last year at our school as a junior which here is accelerated and nobody does that so she has exhausted the math curriculum offered (I meant kids accelerate here but that puts them in Calculus as seniors, not as juniors but she accelerated more than normally is possible in our school). Anyway, doing the CTY course works as a way to get a second year of Calculus or to continue in math. She started the course about two months ago. She is sleeping now so I cannot say a lot of specifics and if you have a certain kind of question, I may be able to find out for you. But in any case, this course IS designed to be self-paced. She happens to really like working at her own pace and has done many indep. studies before (three years of math were done as indep. study so this was not completely new but doing CTY IS new). I think the lessons appear on CD Rom. She says you watch it like a video or something like that on your computer and it is well done. Then you get assignments to do. They provide a tutor to interact with. Then there is this thing called a white board where I guess you can communicate with the teacher and can write problems on the screen. My daughter seems to get this stuff on her own so she has never interacted with the teacher or used the white board but likely most do and it sounds like you can get plenty of help. The homework exercises are graded and there are tests that are graded. She seems pleased so far. I think every learner is different so I cannot say how it would be for you. But if you like self pacing, enjoy challenge, can work independently and can ask for help when needed, this math course tutorial is well done. You can take as little as three months to complete the course, or can add one month increments on or another three month period on. My daughter has forty minutes blocked into her school day to work on this course on a computer. She does not bring work home for it. Remember you are doing away with class time and correcting homework as a group, etc. It might go slower if you have to ask for help and work out problems on the white board with a mentor, etc. My daughter says it will take longer than three months with the time she is allotting to it each day. I am not sure how long it will take her but she allowed for six months so she can be done in time for the Calc. BC AP exam. I cannot tell you how you would like not having a teacher in person. You do have a teacher though! That person is available to help via email or phone and to use the white board to do problems on. I can only speak for my daughter's experience in that she has worked this way for other courses, though not online....her mentor was always available to ask in person if she needed to but I think this mentor in CTY can do that too (though she has yet to ask for help). I know it is set up so that you can get help as much as you want.
Susan

By Vegangirl (Vegangirl) on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 01:08 am: Edit

wow, thank you so much for the informative response! CTY sounds like it really worked out well for both your daughters. It seems like a great program. They offer the course I'm looking for too, which is precalculus. My school recently discontinued this class as it is transitioning into an integrated math program. Because of that students jump from the 3rd year of integrated math into calculus, and after skimming some precalc textbooks, I don't feel like I'll be conceptually ready for calc AB next year. However, I do have background in some parts of the precalc curiculum, so I think I might be able to finish it fairly quickly. We'll see! Thanks again for the help Soozie.

By Texas137 (Texas137) on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 01:19 am: Edit

My son did multivar. calc and linear alg thru U. of Texas distance learning. They also have pre-calc, college alg, other courses (both high school and college level). It worked out well for him, but he didn't need any help from an instructor. The turnaround time (about 3 weeks) on assignments was probably too long for someone who might need help before going on. On the other hand, it was much cheaper than EPGY. And you can work at your own pace as long as you finish within a year. No lectures. You just read the book and supplement, and do the problems. You don't have to live in Texas.

By Soozievt (Soozievt) on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 01:25 am: Edit

Vegangirl....while I think the CTY course is a great option for you, I will tell you one other idea. My daughter did PreCalculus as an independent study in tenth grade. Her reasons were not like yours....cause it IS offered at our school. She had done Algebra and Geometry as indep. studies in seventh and eighth grades (to accerlerate), and then took Algebra2/Trig as a class in ninth grade. She was so used to working at her own pace in math that she got frustrated with how the class was in the math course that year. She felt she spent too many classes correcting homework as a class when she had the answers correct. So, as a tenth grader she asked to take PreCalculus as an independent study so she would not be as bored again by the pace/nature of the class. In each of these math independent studies, she basically was given the homework assignments. If she ever needed help, she had a teacher who had volunteered to be her mentor for the study whom she could turn to for help. The teachers had the materials/ assignments and tests already available cause they had taught these courses previously. My D COULD have done this kind of indep. study again a a senior for Calculus BC but thought it might be harder to do cause this time the teachers had no set lesson assignments, quizzes/tests. So then it would have been harder on the teacher to take on a one on one study and have to make up assignments and such. She decided to not do it that way this time around.

I wish you well. Look into CTY or into setting up an independent study with a faculty member who has taught the course before and has materials in place.

By Emeraldkity4 (Emeraldkity4) on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 03:00 pm: Edit

My younger daughter took a writing course in 8th grade through CTY that was called Crafting the Essay (lol, sounds like a college application topic!) but was considered college level expository writing. That course worked differently than the way the math tutorial courses at CTY work. This one had an assigned mentor. The mentor sent assignments on specific dates you knew in advance with specific due dates. Then the mentor wrote narrative feedback reports on the assignments. It was not completely at your own pace as the dute dates were set. The format was set. But within the two week period, you could choose how much to work on it any given day. I thought the course was well done....alot of revising and having someone critique your work and so forth. Lots of thinking of ways to make your writing better. That child of mine has writing as a forte. I do not think she really needed the teacher so much but the course gave her some structure to do writing and then get extensive feedback.

We had this experience.Could have been in 7th grade though. Great topics for thought, but as my daughter was attending a prep school that was very challenging we ultimately decided that she didn't need the extra challenges.

By Vegangirl (Vegangirl) on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 03:53 pm: Edit

thanks again to everyone for your help!