Exeter Collaborates To Develop Online Interdisciplinary Courses

The Academy might soon be reaching into classrooms in other New England prep schools via online measures.The Eight Schools Association, which consists of Deerfield Academy. Choate Rosemary Hall, The Lawrenceville School, The Hotchkiss School, Phillips Academy Andover, Northfield Mount Hermon School, St. Paul’s School, and PEA, is currently planning to develop an interscholastic hybrid interdisciplinary online course.“The hope is to get one teacher from each school to work as a group to develop a course,” Director of Studies Laura Marshall said.  “This course may be offered on one or some of our campuses.  Students on those campuses would work with a teacher a few times a week and then would connect with other students on other campuses at some point.”This idea of interscholastic courses is still a preliminary one, Marshall said.  Only one course is currently being imagined for implementation, and the hope is that it may be developed in time to be offered in fall 2015.  In addition, if the course comes to fruition, it would need to be approved by a full faculty vote.“[The course] would be interdisciplinary, that is, part history, part science, part religion, etc.; therefore it would likely not satisfy a diploma requirement within a department at any school,” Marshall said. “The schools are viewing this as a potential elective course.”Students had mixed opinions about the issue of implementing interscholastic online classes.Senior Scott Heston said that he preferred real classes to online classes, based on experience with online classes. “My old school had online classes, and I can't say that I ever knew anyone that found them as rewarding as the real thing,” he said. “Exeter's unique faculty and extensive class offerings themselves are what make courses fun here, so I would caution against the element of direct communication lost through online classes.”On the other hand, lower Peter Christie fully supported the idea of interscholastic online courses.  “I think that our school learning and teaching with other schools is only an opportunity for us both to become better,” Christie said. “Being together in a class and seeing how the different schools teach and the different students learn will be beneficial for everyone involved.”Marshall said that the implementation of interscholastic hybrid online courses would be a golden opportunity for teachers, as well as students.  “This is really an opportunity for one of our teachers to work with teachers from other disciplines at other schools to develop a course focused on a global issue.”