[Online Learning] Fundamental Courses to Prepare Your Students for College, Careers, and Beyond

Districts often create a set of goals or objectives and base curriculum around those points. As college and career requirements change, districts must make sure that they teach and prepare students for colleges and career fields as they evolve and shift.

Forward-thinking schools often look to a wide variety of courses to help prepare their students to meet educational objectives. With Courseware and EdOptions Academy, schools can provide courses that follow these objectives and provide engaging content that captivates students and sets them on the path for success later in life. Here are a few common objectives that schools nationwide are working toward, as well as corresponding classes from the Edmentum catalog that your school could consider offering.

Global Competence

As our world becomes more connected than ever, students need to be prepared to speak different languages, understand cultural differences, and comprehend the global economy. Global education can provide students with a broader perspective of the world, decrease cultural misunderstandings, and create more well-rounded individuals. Here are a few courses that support this objective:

• World Language Courses: French, Chinese, German, Latin, and Spanish are offered through Courseware and/or EdOptions Academy.
• Introduction to World Religions: This one-semester course features 14 lessons that discuss the origins, beliefs, and practices related to various world religions.
• International Business: Global Commerce in the 21st Century: Students cultivate an awareness of how history, geography, language, cultural studies, research skills, and continuing education are important in business activities and the 21st century.

Real-World Writing Skills

Now, more than ever, employers are looking for candidates with strong writing skills. While a standard English course remains important, students should learn how to write in a variety of styles they will encounter in the workplace. We offer several courses to help achieve this goal:

• Professional Communications: This course is designed to enable all students at the high school level to develop communication skills they will need to be successful in a profession.
• Structure of Writing: Students will learn how to put words, phrases, and clauses together and how to punctuate correctly. They will start using sentences in short compositions. As an extra bonus, students will add some new words to their vocabulary, and they will practice spelling difficult words.
• Creative Writing: The lesson tutorials in this course familiarize students with the basic structure and elements of different types or genres of writing.

Career and Technical Education

There is a growing need for students to pursue careers in a trade. According to an NPR piece from April, 70% of construction companies nationwide struggle to find qualified workers, and many electrical, plumbing, sheet-metal worker, and pipe-fitting jobs sit empty. Schools are encouraging students to pursue these jobs by offering CTE courses and paths to certification. Here are a few courses in subject areas expected to have an increase in jobs:

• Principles of Health Science: With an engaging and interactive instructional approach, this rigorous course provides your students with a comprehensive overview of health science topics and careers.
• Computer Programming: This course combines engaging online and offline activities in a rigorous one-semester course for high school students who may be aspiring to technical careers.
• Essential Career Skills: This course helps students understand and practice critical life and workplace-readiness skills identified by employers, state boards of education, and Advance CTE.

STEM & STEAM Education

Many schools are increasing their offerings of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math courses to prepare students for careers in engineering or tech-related fields. We’re proud to offer a number of such courses that aren’t typical in a school’s course catalog:

• Integrated Physics and Chemistry: This course includes application and inquiry-oriented activities that facilitate the development of higher-order cognitive skills, such as logical reasoning, sensemaking, and problem-solving.
• Probability and Statistics: Students acquire a comprehensive understanding of how to represent and interpret data, how to relate data sets, how to differentiate independent and conditional probability, how to apply probability, how to make relevant inferences and conclusions, and how to use probability to make decisions.
• Biotechnology: Unlocking Nature’s Secrets: In this course, students will explore the science behind biotechnology and how this science is being used to solve medical and environmental problems.

For many schools and districts, the biggest obstacle to providing expanded course options like these is simply a lack of teachers available to take on additional classes. When that’s the case, EdOptions Academy can support curriculum in subject areas that your school may not be able to. Partner with our fully accredited virtual academy, which pairs our proven Courseware with teachers licensed in your state to overcome staffing challenges—without losing your students! Our full course catalog has over 300 options that support your district’s learning objectives.

Looking for more information on online courses and how they can set your students on a path to graduation? Check out this blog post on how online courses can help your students achieve their graduation goals!