College Prep in Online High School
byAllison Brubaker
5 min to read
At the start of their senior year, high school seniors are preparing to face their last nine months before they enter the “real world.” Whether your student is preparing to go to college or enter the workforce, it’s important to leave high school with essential life skills.
Life skills are important for all stages of life, but particularly when graduating high school and entering college or the workforce. Life skills help people to build healthy relationships with themselves and others, navigate life’s challenges, solve problems, and achieve their goals
Essential Skills in Online Learning
To build the life skills that students need for college, virtual courses can be an enriching resource.
Online high school students have a unique opportunity to equip themselves with essential academics and personal skills learned in college—skills that will help them prepare for both college and career. This includes learning skills like time-management, planning, technology, and more.
Here are some of the essential skills that online learning can help high schoolers achieve for college and their future careers:
1. Time Management
Quality online learning programs provide the flexibility to structure the school day according to each student’s individual needs. Thanks to this flexibility, students learn to manage their time responsibly and juggle extracurricular activities. Real-world time-management skills can enhance productivity for online students who are on a college prep track, as well as for those who plan to enter the workforce immediately after high school.
“One of the most important skills for success in a college setting is being able to appropriately manage your time,” says Rebecca Schuster Kyazimzade, a school counseling consultant for Pearson Virtual Schools. “Many students struggle during their first year (and beyond) in college because traditional brick-and-mortar high schools manage time for students by creating their schedules and dictating when they should be in each assigned class.”
In a virtual school setting, the unstructured learning time often requires students to determine how much time to allot for each course on their own and with their Learning Coach—one of the same skills learned in college when navigating coursework.
2. Independent Study Skills
Most online high school students learn how to set their own goals, which teaches responsibility. Opportunities for self-paced learning teaches students how to be independent in their studies—an important college prep and life skill to have for the more self-directed life ahead of them.
Because online teachers aren’t physically present with their students, online courses offer another level of college prep for high school students. Many college professors are lecturers who make classroom presentations but leave it up to the students to ask for help if they don’t understand the content.
Like college students, virtual learners must be able to work independently and develop the critical thinking skills necessary to determine whether they are learning the course material adequately or need to reach out for support, Kyazimzade says.
3. Planning and Preparation
With access to online college planning resources and licensed school counselors, online school students can plan and prepare a custom, four-year college preparation program before graduating.
Students at a Connections Academy-supported school have a wide variety of elective courses to choose from outside of core subjects. It is typically mandatory for students to take a certain number of elective courses to graduate (exact requirements differ by state). Connections Academy® students can choose from electives in disciplines such as:
- Arts
- Humanities
- Foreign language
- Career
- Technical education
- Health and P.E.
- Social sciences
Online school counselors help guide students to complete graduation requirements and assemble a college portfolio that highlights their accomplishments. Counselors also help students understand how to prepare for college admissions and complete financial aid applications.
4. Virtual and Online Skills
Virtual college prep courses foster learning, communication, and technology skills that are must-haves for life in the 21st century. When online school students enter their virtual classrooms, they find that using online and virtual technology is an essential part of completing schoolwork, researching and organizing information for coursework, and communicating with teachers and classmates.
After the COVID-19 pandemic forced many traditional secondary and post-secondary schools online, schools continue to offer both remote and online course options even after their campuses have reopened and operations resumed. Your student can advance in many of these skills learned in college by enrolling in virtual courses in high school.
5. Online School College Preparation
When it comes to essential skills, online learning supports success. Some Connections Academy online schools offer freshman and senior Student Success courses. These courses are uniquely set up to prepare students for the future—starting from the beginning of their freshman year through to their senior year.
Senior Success focuses on the opportunities students have beyond high school, but Freshman Success focuses on important topics relevant to the high school years, such as:
- Four-year course plans
- Graduation requirements
- Grade-point averages
- State testing requirements
Online, collaborative, and self-paced learning environments teach students to manage their own learning careers, laying the foundation for a life full of learning. When our online high school students graduate, they have much of the experience, skills, and academic knowledge needed to map out their own roads to success.
Life Skills to Prepare for College Courses
The advantages of virtual courses, like those offered by Connections Academy, provide innate college preparation to online high school students. In addition to offering a more personalized learning approach, virtual courses encourage students to take responsibility for their education and provide essential skills through online learning.
To learn how you can be more involved in your student’s education, visit Connections Academy, for resources to enroll in a tuition-free online public school.
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