Program Overview

Platform

Students are given access to a web-based student portal, including their coursework, virtual classrooms, online gradebook, and numerous other resources.  The portal also includes a monthly calendar and weekly progress indicator to help students stay on track and finish their coursework on time.

Parents/Guardians are provided with a Parent Portal account to view their students’ online gradebook, coursework submissions, teacher feedback, daily activity, and the due dates calendar and weekly progress indicator.

Materials, Equipment & Technical Support

Students receive a district-issued computer to utilize while in the program. Students will also receive digital textbooks for each assigned course (physical books and workbooks are provided for grades K-3). 

Help Desk Specialists are available 7 days a week, from 7 am to 7 pm, to assist with the online interface. In addition, District-provided technical support is available for any hardware-related issues.

Learning Environment & Curriculum

Recognizing that each student has a personal learning style and unique needs for scheduling flexibility, our program is designed to provide flexibility while maintaining daily checkpoints to ensure students are accountable and develop the necessary skills to be successful online learners. The Virtual Learning Network curriculum is standards-aligned and district‑approved for grades K-12. 

Courses are designed with a consistent weekly module structure, providing students with engaging content while dividing the coursework into manageable lessons. Courses include a wealth of web-based resources, including lectures, videos, interactive animations, supplemental materials from textbook publishers and a wide range of other engaging educational media.

Mastering the Content

A variety of activities and assessments are vital to a student’s success.  While multiple-choice assessments are an important part of any assessment structure, we ask students to demonstrate mastery with the following exercises further:

• Assignment – Questions/problems designed to provide students with practice of key concepts.
• Short Answer – Questions that require students to demonstrate understanding by providing detailed responses in complete sentences.
• Essay – A topical essay question intended to assess students’ understanding of the overall concepts outlined in the reading assignment and to evaluate and develop students’ writing skills.
• Project – Long-term assignments interspersed throughout a course to give students the opportunity to build knowledge across multiple units.

Students are also required to show their work on all math assignments so that teachers may fully evaluate their understanding of the material and provide constructive feedback.

Student Support & Achievement Monitoring

It is our goal to provide students with the tools and support systems needed to be successful online learners. Student support and performance tracking is provided via daily homeroom sessions, office hours and labs, and weekly progress reports.

Daily Homeroom Session

Homeroom is a daily synchronous session in which:

• Attendance is taken
• Important District announcements are delivered
• Student expectations and due dates are reviewed
• Weekly one-on-one progress meetings are conducted with the Homeroom Teacher to review individual performance and set goals for areas of improvement
• Students have the opportunity to ask questions related to teacher support, orientation, technical concerns, etc.

Live Lessons & Elementary Office Hours (Grades K-3)

Live daily lessons provide K-3 students with an opportunity to work through concepts from their weekly lessons with the teacher and ask questions about their assignments. Students may also attend elementary office hours for additional help and support throughout the week. 

Office Hours and Labs (Grades 4-12)

Daily Office Hours enable students to ask questions about their coursework and receive one-on-one assistance from a content area teacher. Office hours are available Monday through Friday from 10:00AM-11:00AM and 12:30PM-1:30PM on a first come, first serve basis.

A secondary level of support and remediation is also available through our Writing Labs and Math Lessons, which help students to develop essential skills in these specific content areas.

Resource Room

For students with an IEP or 504, additional synchronous support is available via the daily online Resource Room where students may go for extra help and where many SDI accommodations can also be provided.

Weekly Progress Reports

Awareness is vital to the success of students in online learning programs.  With that in mind, students, parents and district administrators receive weekly Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) Reports that provide a snapshot of a student’s current performance in their coursework.