Alamo Schools District officers introduced the creation of a stand-alone Faculty of On-line Studying, which is projected to surpass 25,000 college students enrolled by 2029.
The web faculty was authorised by the Alamo Schools Board of Trustees throughout a board assembly in October, and officers anticipate to completely launch it by fall of 2026.
“With the Faculty for On-line Studying, we’re making a extra cohesive expertise for our college students, one which displays the identical high quality and assist they might anticipate from any classroom throughout our schools,” mentioned Mike Flores, Alamo Schools District chancellor, in a written assertion.
Enrollment of scholars who solely take on-line programs all through the 5 Alamo Schools — Palo Alto School, Northwest Vista School, Northeast Lakeview School, San Antonio School and St. Philip’s School — has steadily elevated over time, going from an enrollment of 16,473 college students final educational 12 months, to only over 18,300 this fall.
This explicit effort to enhance on-line entry started in 2018, when the universities had about 7,000 enrolled on-line. The primary steps concerned hiring a web based studying officer, designing what the net companies would appear like, and creating micro-credentials that may very well be earned totally on-line.
“It’s a vital dedication by the board, our chancellor, by our faculty presidents to say, ‘We perceive that entry seems to be completely different to completely different components of our neighborhood. We perceive that what we provide in our face-to-face lecture rooms… is prime of the road and we are able to do the identical factor and are doing the identical factor on-line,’” mentioned Luke Dowden, Alamo Schools vice chancellor for digital studying and transformation.
The universities now supply 164 packages developed for fully-online college students — together with packages for bachelor’s and affiliate levels, certificates and occupational abilities awards. These have attracted a pupil inhabitants that’s on common 27 years outdated, with a majority being persevering with training college students attending on a full-time foundation at a better price than in-person college students. This group is basically feminine, with a better variety of pupil dad and mom than the general Alamo Schools inhabitants.
“I by no means anticipated the variety of full-time college students that we’ve,” Dowden mentioned in an interview. “As a result of in case you have a look at Alamo, the bulk [81%] of our profile is part-time… of our totally on-line college students, 30% are full-time.”
On-line college students are a part of the general progress that every one 5 schools have skilled over time. This 12 months Alamo Schools reached practically 88,000 college students enrolled, and its projections point out the universities are on the best way to succeed in 100,000 by 2030.
Course credit and levels will nonetheless be issued by the person schools, Downen mentioned, with the faculty’s college persevering with to show these programs, Dowden mentioned. However the companies themselves might be coordinated by the Faculty of On-line Studying, to evaluate the packages’ high quality, consistency and efficiency.
“We had been actually centered on the right track design, actually good course design,” mentioned Dowden. “We’ve been shifting to give attention to packages … taking a look at which packages have probably the most college students enrolled.”
Competitors for on-line college students can also be prime of thoughts, Dowden mentioned. 4 new rivals — Southern New Hampshire College, Arizona State College, Grand Canyon College and Abilene Christian College — are among the many prime 10 schools and universities providing on-line levels within the area.
Three out of those 4 newcomers occur to be giant nationwide universities, Dowden advised the board of trustees throughout a gathering final week. However Alamo Schools and the College of Texas at San Antonio, had been nonetheless attracting the vast majority of native on-line college students.
“We’re actually centered on the net learner,” Dowden mentioned. “We speak about our rivals as a result of we all know we wish to be an possibility. We expect we’re probably the most reasonably priced possibility.”
The San Antonio Report companions with Open Campus on larger training protection.
