How Online School Allowed a Student to Go at His Own Pace and Get Back His Motivation
6 MINUTE READ • STUDENT STORIES
As a Grad Solutions student in 2021, Jacob was given the assignment to write an argumentative essay in one of his classes. He chose to write about his experience with online education. We thought he did such a good job that we wanted to share his essay on our blog! Take a few minutes and see what Jacob had to say about his experience learning online.
Education changed significantly after Covid. When the outbreak hit America and my hometown Phoenix, all schools went online. This meant Zoom classes instead of in-person, and assignments were given and turned in through online tools Google Classroom and Canvas. Though there has been much controversy about the topic, I’ve discovered that I prefer online school and have been more successful in taking online classes compared to being in the classroom. School is now completed on my own time and at my own pace.
Though there is disagreement, many students do need to have the classroom experience for social skills and accountability in their work, but that doesn’t include kids who may have severe social anxiety and find the school stressful and something more of a chore than a benefit to their everyday life. Though many kids thrive in a school setting, many of them, myself included, find schoolwork more possible in a more comfortable and familiar place such as my room on my home computer and somewhere where I can take a class as fast or as slow as needed. As an online student, now my subjects fit into a span of 45 minutes, but my style is always open. It is always available for me to work and learn, which was not an option in a traditional school.
Opponents of online education can be closed-minded and do not always understand some students’ barriers. School can be extremely overwhelming when it feels like the last thing a student wants to do.
Many students in traditional schools can “fall through the cracks” when they consistently get terrible grades or don’t show up for class. Many schools don’t seem to have the resources to help. An online school like the program I am in gives students time to finish their classes and take one class at a time. So far, subjects I know well, like History and Science, I can get through fast. Courses like Math and English I can take at a slower and more comfortable pace. The stigma of online school is unfair because it’s the same work, just at home.
Since my transfer to online school, not only have I raised my GPA, but my overall motivation for school has increased and my future seems brighter with every class I finish. Because of that, I am grateful for my online school and my online teachers, who have given me this option to complete unfinished courses and retake classes that were not satisfactory.
“Since my transfer to online school, not only have I raised my GPA, but my overall motivation for school has increased and my future seems brighter with every class I finish.”
I have more time now to work and do other things. Because of my online courses, I have become the student I have always wanted to be without the pressure of being at school all day every day. I am grateful and wouldn’t change a thing. I am lucky to have experienced both in-person and online school. I’ve found that online school was the perfect choice for me!
