Switching from a traditional to digital high school classroom can be daunting. In particular, losing clubs, sports, and other extracurricular opportunities can make the learning experience feel very lonely for some high school students.

Here's how online high school programs offer their students ways to feel more connected, even when they're compelled to learn remotely.

Academic Mentorship

Student engagement can be enhanced when they feel more connected to their peers. Online high school programs foster academic connections for students to improve learning outcomes.

• Peer Tutoring: When students are empowered to teach, they learn at greater rates. Online high school programs offer peer tutoring to their students. This peer tutoring allows students to learn from each other by teaching one another. Peer tutoring is student-driven and can also count for community service hours.
• Artistic Collaboration: As technology continues to evolve, students can now collaborate with one another in ways that might have seemed inconceivable just a few years ago. For instance, an online high school might create a collaborative movie project instead of a traditional theater production. Your high school student can collaborate on the production, editing, producing, and publishing stages of the production while also building relationships with their peers in the process. Artistic collaboration has also been utilized to create musical productions, web design, game making, and computer coding.

Competitive Outlets

Competition is often another important part of the high school experience for many students. Just because they're learning remotely, however, doesn't mean that they can't still find competitive opportunities through their high school.

• Sports: In order to compete for a high school program, your student must be enrolled in that school or at a nearby school that does not offer the sport they want to play. This generally allows your high school student to pick where they want to play. Many online high school programs will help your student file the requisite paperwork to allow them to compete for a local high school offering the sport they want to play.
• Contests: Not all high school competitions are related to sports. Some online high school programs offer their students chances to compete in academic contests, even when they're learning remotely. For instance, your high school student might join the chess or rocket design club and compete in contests throughout the year. These competitive opportunities won't just build interpersonal connections for your high school student, but they'll also look great on their college applications.

For more information, contact an online high school program, such as Jordahl Academy.