With a surge in online classes nationwide, many students, including sophomore Sophie Leszczynski and junior Caitlin Magnan, are replacing desks with computers.

Students in Michigan can take online classes through The Michigan Virtual School, a non-profit launched during the 1999-2000 academic year, and received funding from Michigan legislature starting the year after. MVS allows high school and middle school students to register for more than 200 unique classes, including 22 Advanced Placement courses and seven foreign languages.

Because the GPPSS foreign language department only offers multi-level language programs for students taking French, German, Italian, Spanish and Latin. Leszczynski and Magnan signed up for an American Sign Language class through MVS.

Both had the opportunity to dual enroll in the class at Macomb Community College, but chose the online version. According to MVS, there are other advantages to online classes, including flexible scheduling and studying, recovering credits, personalizing curriculum, accelerated learning, expanded course offerings and amplified twenty-first century learning.

Leszczynski said she finds merit in her ASL class because her foreign language graduation requirement will be fulfilled once she takes two full credits of it, and it will give her a foundation for an anticipated future in sign language education.

“There’s not a lot of sign language teachers out there, and I think there should be more, so that’s why I wanted to take sign language to be a teacher,” she said. “It’ll help me for college … and then I won’t be struggling in the sign language that I’ll be taking.”

Although there weren’t many students interested in ASL, Counselor Milissa Pierce said there is more interest now. In addition, she said MVS gives students a chance to explore classes not offered in GPPSS.

“The biggest obstacle to success in an online class is devoting the time necessary to be successful. For some reason, many believe that it will be easier to take a class online and that is not always the case. There are no short cuts,” Pierce said via email. “I think it’s nice for students who otherwise could not take the class. Taking it online is hard work, but it is at least a chance to learn about this subject.”

Pierce also said if the class is approved by the district, students can receive around $500 for tuition. The application process can take two to three months.

Under Section 21B of the State School Aid Act and Public Act 160 of 1991, a high school-age student may attend their high school and concurrently enroll in a public or private Michigan postsecondary institution, which is commonly referred to a dual enrollment, if the student has taken the High School Michigan Merit Exam prior to applying and has earned at least an endorsement on the test in the area of postsecondary study.

According to the GPPSS Program of Studies, students who are not yet eligible for dual enrollment can apply for credit for online courses that are offered for non-accelerated credit under programs from accredited universities or colleges that accept it for college credit. But, the district won’t help cover the cost of the tuition.

On the other hand, students who are eligible for dual enrollment can receive credit for online courses that are offered for regular credit under programs by accredited universities or colleges that accept it for credit by their own instructional programs. In this instance, the district will pay “some” of the fees for the class. For credit recovery, the school district isn’t expected to pay anything.

Magnan said she hopes to take another ASL class next year, however, plans to do it at Macomb Community College. Like Leszczynski, Magnan also aspires to teach ASL, and said having a teacher in front of her could be beneficial.

“Sign language I believe is important because I mean you never know who you’re going to run into. There could be somebody that’s hard of hearing and not have an interpreter with them,” she said. “I’m going to start looking into more classes once I hit college after next year, and I kind of want to continue throughout life and teach people and keep it going.”