by Emily Wemhoff

Senior Miranda Schultz always wanted to be an engineer. She knew she wanted to take as many classes as possible that would prepare her for that career. So last March when she saw that STA was offering an introduction to engineering course in the course catalog, she immediately signed up for it. It was also then when she realized that the class was online, affiliated with the Online School for Girls (OSG). This is the first year STA has offered classes through the OSG, the first single-gender online school and the first independent online school in the world.

“Now I know that engineering is definitely not my calling thanks to this class, but I’ve really liked [the course] so far,” Schultz said.

Although only a few students are taking online courses this year, including junior Monica McGraw, Schultz thinks that as more students find out about it, they will eventually take the classes.

“My class has really been a good learning experience,” Schultz said. “Although the class is a lot more project-oriented and hands-on than I was expecting, it’s good to go through something new.”

According to McGraw, who is taking genetics and human biology, she thought the material would be boring and slightly rigorous, but has found that the information is fascinating.

“The units we have being going through have helped me really narrow down what I wish to specialize in, pediatric oncology,” McGraw said.

Students who take the online class have more frees built into their schedule throughout the week to accommodate for the class. This allows for increased freedom and for students to decide when to work on their homework.

“I love that I can see in advance all of the assignments and be able to work ahead if I know I will be busy later in the week,” McGraw said.

Schultz said the freedom can also pose disadvantages.

“My favorite and least favorite part of [the online class] is working on assignments whenever I want to,” Schultz said. “I have the freedom to either get it done early or wait until they’re due, so it’s good and bad.”

Another “strange” part of the class, according to Schultz, is the fact that there is no face-to-face interaction with other students in her course.

“You don’t really get to know students the way you would know them in an actual school setting,” Schultz said. “I get to see their pictures but that’s about it. We have group assignments sometimes, but we do the collaborating online.”

The class’s structure is very different from an STA class, according to Schultz and McGraw. Schultz says that every week her teacher, Ms. Kovach, posts the week’s lessons and homework on a website called Haiku, “similar to Moodle.” But according to Schultz, she only sees her teacher in weekly video lectures. McGraw said she has quizzes after each section, vocabulary, tests and reflection journals due.

“[Ms. Kovach] also uses this thing called VoiceThread where [students] get to discuss what we’re learning and hear other people talk about it,” Schultz said. “I’ve had one quiz so far and it wasn’t moderated and I took it on my own time.”

Schultz and McGraw have also had to get used to being the “guinea pigs.”

“I’ve had to talk to Mrs. McCormick several times just to tell her how it’s going,” Schultz said. “If we’re not doing the class work then she’s going to let us know. But we have no problem keeping up with it. The class costs extra money so I think we want to get the most out of it.”

“I love [being the guinea pig] because there are so many cool things I get to try out, like having my webcam opened for Skype,” McGraw said. “Sometimes there isn’t someone older I can turn to when and if I have questions about the course in general.”