The 2020-21 school year allowed students the option to take some online classes, or go fully online. It has now been a full year and some students are still taking online classes. 

   The Online Counselor, Todd Mincks, personally monitors the online students by the use of an online provider. 

   “Nixa primarily uses Launch as our provider for online coursework,” Mincks said. “We do have a few virtual courses developed and taught by Nixa teachers. These include Art Appreciation, Drivers Ed, Health, PE, English I, II, III, IV, Government, Personal Finance, and Child Development. Students will work with counselors beginning in January and can indicate their interest in online learning at that time. The students would be monitored by me, the district’s online counselor.” 

   There are more students taking some online classes rather than going fully online. 

   “We have 50 full-time online students and 180 students who are taking at least one virtual class,” Mincks said. 

   Not every class from Launch is offered for regular seated classes. 

   “We have several Launch classes that aren’t even offered seated,” Mincks said. “Those would obviously have more. Of the classes we have both, the seated numbers are way higher than virtual.”

   For a student to go online or get offline, they can transfer at the start of the semester. 

   “Movement from seated to online (or vice-versa) happens primarily during the first two weeks of each semester,” Mincks said. “It is possible to move from one to the other.” 

   The high school’s principal, David Kelly, explains penalizations for having online students. 

   “The school district only receives 94% attendance for a virtual student, however, our attendance rate as a building is a little higher than that so we do take a small hit as a result,” Kelly said.            

   Teachers at the high school have now experienced online teaching, they can decide if they will continue online teaching. 

   “Last year it all happened fast and some teachers found they are not interested in the online teaching,” Kelly said. “This year has been much better because teachers have experience teaching online. Additionally, teachers who did not enjoy the online teaching have not had to do it because our number of online students is smaller.”

   There is another drawback to using online teaching. 

   “Unfortunately, we have a higher failure rate with our online classes,” Kelly said. “Students need to be self-directed.”