As senior Evan Payne reached his senior year, it came to his realization that he had failed to take oral communications, a course required for graduation. He was unable to fit it into his schedule due to being a part of the Springdale Public School Television program. Payne panicked, but then he remembered that online classes were available for students to take. Luckily for Payne, oral communications was one of the online courses offered.

“I couldn’t opt out of any core classes, so I had to take it online,” said Payne. “Without it I wouldn’t be able to graduate.”

Thanks to online classes, Payne will now be able to graduate. Senior Morgan Prince also took online classes this year, but for a different reason.

“I took online classes so that I could fit more advanced placement courses into my schedule,” said Prince. “I like them much better than school because you get to go at the pace you like and you don’t lose assignments or have to deal with weekly or daily homework.”

Payne disagrees on the matter of whether online classes or taking courses at school is better.

“School is much better because the course online dumbs down the material to practically a fifth grade level,” said Payne.

The online classes Payne and Prince are currently taking cost approximately $120 each and are offered through Brigham Young University.

“For oral communications you record yourself giving a speech and send it off to BYU,” said Payne.

To check on the student’s work in an online course, the student is occasionally called to the office to talk about their progress to make sure they are the completing the course as scheduled, according to Payne.

“Credit recovery, setting the pace a student learns at, and being able to graduate on time are all benefits of online courses,” said counselor David Clouse. In order to take an online class, “students and their parents visit with their counselor to explore their options.”

If a student does not have access to the internet and needs to take a class, packet courses are available as well.