Online courses and credits, grades, GPA's, placement and other dreadful topics

[Sarah Hanawald]

The world of online learning is exciting, controversial (see last night's ISED chat about leveraging Khan Academy) and dynamic.  So--I have a mundane question--how do we handle all this in terms of documentation and transcripts?

 

We at Cannon School are discussing how to handle credits for courses students take online.  Previously, courses taken "elsewhere" were eligible for student acceleration/placement decisions, but not for course credit. Now, with the availability of high quality online courses (thinking of the Online School for Girls, among others), we're revisiting that stance. 

For example, we have a junior who is new to our school/area this year.  He arrived with two years of German under his belt.  We require three years of study of the same language to graduate and do not offer German.  We came up with a solution--he is happily succeeding in an online German course and we are delighted to have him here.  (It doesn't hurt that we have three exchange students from Germany this year who enjoy helping him with colloquial German).  

As we move forward, I know such situations will continue to arise and I'd like to do some planning and make sure we are adapting well to this changing landscape.  What are other schools doing with credits, placement, transfers, GPA's etc with online courses?

[Sarah Hanawald]

Adding another thought: what about the college profile?  Would you list online providers with which  you are affiliated