More schooling alternatives are being offered to students every year.

With the growing commercialization
of online school, students are more aware of opportunities they can take to
attain their education. Online education provides a different way to understand
material than in a traditional public school setting and it gives students a
chance to move at their own pace.

Former Marshfield High School
student and junior Alissa Fitzgerald said her online school program has
benefited her overall.

“I just find it easier to balance between all
the school and homework and extracurricular activities and health issues and
work,” Fitzgerald said. “I just found it to be too much and switching gives me
more time.”

Fitzgerald uses an online
system called CBD9. Most of the work is online, but once a week Fitzgerald
meets with and advisor at Harding to discuss her progress. She said it is
helpful because she can do the work on her own time and meet with an advisor to
see the progress she is making.

“It’s really cool because even though it’s
online, you get that one-on-one individual thing where you go at your own pace
and you make sure your work is good,” Fitzgerald said.

Some say online school can be
less beneficial to students. They voice concerns of the quality of education
compared to public school. Spanish teacher Floyd Montiel said public school
provides students with a better social outlet.

“I’m not a big fan of online
things just because I’ve seen some of the online programs and they’re just just
missing that human element,” Montiel said.

Montiel also said students
may not receive the best education through an online school program.

“It just really depends. It’s hard to say what
kind of instruction you’re getting,” Montiel said. “I mean, do mom and dad
really know how to teach trig? Do they know how to teach Spanish? Do they know
how to do physics?”

Gypsy Warrick is the program coordinator for
the Coos Bay school’s online program. According to Warrick, she registers and
enrolls students into the CBD9 online program and monitors student progress,
such as grades and making sure the students stay on track. She helps make sure
students and online teachers are able to connect to each other. Warrick meets
with the students once a week to go over their progress. If a student is not
making adequate progress then Warrick and the student discuss what needs to be
done. She said she calls parents if the student is getting behind and she
oversees the students to make sure everything runs smoothly with the program.

Warrick said for a student to benefit in the
online school program, they must be self motivated.

“There’s not somebody there,” Warrick said.
“It definitely helps to have a support system, a learning coach at home.”

Warrick said the classes in the online school
program are not simple.

“This schooling is geared toward college
prep,” Warrick said.

An advantage of the program is that students
have the ability to do their work anywhere, according to Warrick

“Those kids that are bed ridden or have social
anxiety or other issues that prevent them from being in school, this gives them
the opportunity to have a full education,” Warrick said.

Freshman Shelby Armistead is enrolled in another
program available at the Harding Learning Center called Resource Link and said the
experience has been mostly positive.

“I don’t think that I’ve talked to anyone who
thinks Resource Link hasn’t been beneficial to them,” Armistead said

According to Armistead, who completed the
first semester of this school year at Marshfield, she made the switch to better
her education.

“I definitely feel like I’m getting more out
of my education,” Armistead said. “I’d much rather go more in depth in what I
am learning than quickly go through everything.”

She said other students have different reasons
for being in the program.

“I know some of them weren’t getting enough
help,” Armistead said. “I know some kids with anxiety problems and everything
weren’t having a good time at Marshfield. They weren’t feeling included because
they were so anxious about everything.”

Students, families and staff are becoming more
aware of alternative schooling. Public school is no longer the only option and
according to Armistead, Harding helps students follow their career paths.

“There’s nothing that’s going to hold you back
because you go to Harding,” Armistead said.