Building a web-based distance learning initiative isn’t about publicity or a digital-centric appearance — it’s about tailoring a solution precisely for the needs of your school district.

Web-based education systems have come a long way since their inception in the early 2000s. Around the same time that school systems began incorporating the internet in teaching, many for-profit educational enterprises cropped up seeking to compete with brick-and-mortar schools for students. Unfortunately, many of these early distance learning programs — focused more on profit than on advancing students’ education — did an inadequate job of preparing students for academic competence.

Clearly, the system of enticing students away from school systems and providing them with a sub-par education had to change. In the time following the distance learning boom, the number of for-profit schools has been whittled down to a few key players, and their relationship with school systems is what has set them apart from the rest. Instead of competing with preexisting systems to poach students, the remaining distance learning systems now partner with schools to provide supplemental web-based learning to students.

Eye on the Prize

There are many reasons why a brick-and-mortar school might want to partner with a distance learning system. Whether it’s offering exciting electives or preparing students for reentry into the school system, distance learning extends a school’s educational reach and capacity.

The first step to installing a successful distance learning program in a school, however, is realizing that partnering with a distance learning system is not as simple as purchasing and installing software. There’s no “one size fits all” distance learning system. Instead, with the help of the distance learning provider, the school system must envision and execute the web academy’s very own mission, vision statement, curriculum, policies, staff, and brand.

Before proceeding with logistics or enrollment, a school must first address a big question: what’s the goal of a web academy? Is it to dissuade students from leaving the district? To increase its graduation rate? To serve students unable to attend school physically because of injuries or other extenuating circumstances? Or is it to entice students into the school district by offering interesting and valuable electives?

Once the purpose of the distance learning is established, a school can determine details like their IT budget, class level offerings, rules for attendance and grades, and an admissions policy that, taken together, will facilitate the achievement of the goal.

Executing the Vision

After the distance learning system has been narrowed to align with the school district’s needs, the district has to communicate the new opportunity and its value to potential students. The enrollment process should communicate the academy’s goal in an appealing manner to the right audience.

Keeping the goal in mind, the distance learning academy should be targeting specific audiences. For example, should they be going after students who need supplemental learning, or students who might be interested in taking coding as an extra course? From there, it’s a matter of explaining how the academy will serve that demographic. With the help of informative literature and thorough presentations, an open house and orientation should answer all questions and address expectations of both students and parents.

It’s important of all, however, to establish in-person contact from the open house onward so that students learning in their homes know there’s a system in place for aid and communication.

A Student-Centered Solution

Web-based learning allows for a flexible, hybrid system, where schools can have their needs met in a way that’s impossible to do when they are restricted to the resources contained within the borders of their district. This fruitful collaboration provides limitless opportunities to expand the educational system and reach as many students as possible.

Since its inception, web-based learning has shifted to place students, not profit, at the center of the conversation. Now both distance learning facilitators and school districts can go about achieving an end goal that they have worked to create together.