Why is my grade a 47%? With the uncertain future of school and a fear of repeating last spring, Edgenuity is a new program that has been added to this year’s covid curriculum.

“Edgenuity is a beneficial tool for remote learning. The online platform it provides has benefits like ease of access for students, automatic storing of student work, attendance tracking, and family access,” said Assistant Principal Mrs. Grantz.

Although this program may be beneficial, not everyone is a huge fan of it.

“It is either all review work or work to take up time. In school is the majority of where I learn, and Edgenuity feels like a waste of time. I would just much rather be hearing teachers and doing worksheets than listening to a monotone voice recording,” said junior Brooke Lassinger.

Now, you may be asking, what do some teachers even assign on there? Or, does this have anything to do with what we’re learning in class? The answer to that is most likely no.

“[I have been assigning] random unrelated assignments that might have skills loosely connected to what we are doing in the building,” said English teacher Mrs. West.

At first, teachers and students struggled a little bit getting used to the program.

“Many teachers, students, and parents are all just learning how to use the program. Each day users are becoming more familiar with it. If we have to switch to a remote model, I think it will help the transition process and allow students to have a successful cyber experience,” said Grantz.

Edgenuity may be more common to us all now, but it still has flaws.

“It would be nice if Edgenuity allowed for more flexibility on the teacher’s end when it comes to adding original materials and setting due dates,” said Grantz.

One of the main reasons some teachers are not so fond of Edgenuity is because they are not able to make a customized course that’s similar to their class, and students don’t have much flexibility on the program.

“Over quarantine when teachers recorded videos of themselves giving lessons, I would always put it in two times the speed to get the work done faster. I wish I could speed up the lessons in Edgenuity. 45 minutes of note taking staring at a computer is painful,” said Lassinger.

Other students agree that they wish there was a way to speed up the videos because everyone wants to get their work done as fast as they can.

“I wouldn’t use [Edgenuity], but develop a real cyber platform similar to a legitimate cyber school.  Edgenuity lessons might be incorporated for review, but students would interact with a real person for instruction,” said West.

The switch from Google Classroom to mostly Edgenuity was a big step for students and teachers, but they were both designed for different types of classrooms and learning environments.             

“Google Classroom was created as a supplemental tool for brick and mortar classrooms, whereas Edgenuity was created with a full time cyber model in mind. There are pros and cons to both platforms, depending on what they are being used for,” said Grantz.

“[I prefer] Classroom. It is me, trying to pull the most essential skills and content as opposed to presenting someone else’s work,” said West.

Google Classroom is definitely more personal and set for a specific classroom, but in the case of everyone having to go completely cyber again, Edgenuity gives teachers a guide for their classes.

“I prefer Google Classroom because the teachers directly assign your work to you and are more familiar with it,” said Lassinger.

Edgenuity is a very guided program that holds your hand throughout the course you are taking and can be easier for cyber students.

“[Edgenuity] makes everything easier to understand,” said senior cyber student Dalton Reed.

No one knew how school would start this year, and if we’d even be allowed to be in the building, so the teachers needed to have a plan incase we had a repeat of last spring.

“Edgenuity courses have been edited to align to the scope and sequence of the courses that are taught in brick and mortar. We wanted the cyber program aligned to meet the same standards online as when we were meeting them in the building to make the transition, when/if necessary, easier for students,” said Grantz.

We all know students don’t really enjoy Edgenuity, but has anyone heard of parents thoughts about our education?

“Teacher West and Parent West are united in thinking it is a poor excuse for education. The content is fine, but simply presenting information and clicking through screens to fill in the blank on the final screen isn’t learning,” said West.

At the start of school, learning was not easy because we would go to school for two days and then do unrelated busy work for three more days, so a lot of teachers felt like their classes were so behind.

“I have kids in the district and made the decision with my family to send them to back school.  For all of them, it was the best possible choice, considering all options. My thinking is that if kids are here, they want to be doing “here” activities and an online, unrelated, canned curriculum shouldn’t affect what I do in the building,” said West.

So many students were stressed out by the amount of work assigned because there were so many assignments to do in such a short period of time.

“It is very overwhelming. I still take hours in singular classes just to complete one lesson. I know with online health I waited until the LAST minute, but surprisingly I am not behind in any of my classes,” said Lassinger.

Luckily for the students who don’t like Edgenuity, now that we’re back to school full time, the work assigned on it will hopefully be a lot less.

“I’m glad we are back to five days. I have zero motivation to do any more Edgenuity,” said Lassinger.