Distance
Learning Profile:
University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Independent Study High School
by Mitchell Levine
Distance education has come along
way since the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Independent
Study High School's inception in 1929. In its 75-year history,
Nebraska's High School has moved from delivering courses
on horseback to offering an interactive, real-time web-based
course management system they call Way Coolª. Introduced in April of 2003, Way Coolª allows
students to submit assignments and tests online, receive instantaneous
grading, view feedback on graded assignments and access their
online courses.
"The entire scheme of online and distance learning has
changed dramatically, particularly in the last five to ten
years," says Carol Ash, director of Nebraska's High School. "We
offered our first online course more than five years ago, and
already we have moved from that platform to Way Coolª,
which goes beyond just an online course to a full course management
system. I like to think of Way Coolª as a student's homeroom
on the Internet."
Having year-round open enrollment is such a blessing for so
many students, Ash continues. This kind of flexibility allows
students to customize their academic schedule. Our students
can enroll in courses at any time throughout the year and complete
in as little as five weeks or take as long as a year.
Students wishing to earn their diplomas from Nebraska's High
School have the option of choosing from two-sequences: a general
education or college preparatory sequence. Students wishing
to attend college after graduation are encouraged to enroll
in the college preparatory sequence. In addition to granting
diplomas, courses Nebraska's High School can also be used to
supplement either a homeschool curriculum or a local high school
curriculum. With more than 160 online and print courses in
14 subjects, Nebraska's High School offers courses such as
Latin, Career Planning, Drivers Education and courses that
are challenging to teach at home, such as science courses with
labs.
All of Nebraska's courses are designed
by an in-house instructional design staff that has won numerous
curriculum awards from the University Continuing Education
Association (UCEA), an organization devoted to advancing
new distance education technologies within universities.
Nebraska's High School also offers advising services, a friendly
customer service staff and Way Coolª, its online
course management system.#
For more information about Nebraska's High School, visit http://NebraskaHS.unl.edu or call (402) 472-2175.
