Did you know that you can crunch the numbers taking AP Statistics without even stepping foot on the Parkway campus?

The Parkway school district now offers virtual classes in many subject areas including: Health, Personal Finance, Video Game design, AP Art History, AP Statistics, and Japanese 1.

These classes offer students an online platform for learning including a teacher who posts class material and other classmates to converse with virtually.

Business teacher John Heath is a virtual teacher at South High, and teaches Video Game design.

“I piloted the first online class last year, but this is the first time Parkway as a district has offered virtual classes,” Heath said.

A South High counselor, Stacy Morgan, explained how the students are chosen to participate in the virtual classes.

“It is a random lottery done at the district level between all students who apply for the virtual classes. Some virtual classes are open to 9-12, others have pre-requisites and are only open to those who meet those,” Morgan said.

There are also two different ways a student can incorporate this virtual class into their academic schedule.

“Students can take them either in place of [a class] or as an additional [class]. If it is in place of and the student wants to leave campus, they must have their own transportation and a be a junior or senior,” Morgan said.

Virtual classes can also allow students to complete required classes or a class that they wish to take does not fit into the standard seven hour school day.

Sophomore Natasha Goel is taking virtual AP Statistics.

“I didn’t have space [in my class scheduling] and I wanted to keep one of my fun classes,” Goel said.

Another student, sophomore Leiana Bolden, took a virtual Health class.

“I took Health online so that I could get a required credit out of the way,” Bolden said.

A Parkway Central health teacher, Terri O’Leary, taught a virtual Health class last semester and is teaching one now.

O’Leary said that teaching online classes is much different than face-to-face teaching, but she likes the challenge of trying to get to know the students in a virtual setting.

O’Leary also said that a lot of time goes into planning a virtual class.

“We took workshops, had to take a course to learn how to use Blackboard (the

managing website), and then countless hours each week creating everything that I would do in class in a ‘virtual’ format,” O’Leary said.

Discussion between other classmates and the teacher is another part of a virtual class.

“We talked to other students through a discussion board about topics we were learning about. I could e-mail my teacher through the Parkway e-mail system,” Bolden said.

Teachers also communicate with their students in various ways.

“There are lots of tools. Google Hangout, Remind 101, Parkway Gmail, and through our management system, Blackboard,” Heath said.

Students taking or who have taken an online class gave their opinions on the class as a whole.

“[The class] was time consuming but still informational. I wasn’t prepared for it at first and sometimes felt overwhelmed but it was interesting. The work was a lot of typing, similar to an English class,” Bolden said.

Sophomore Nicole Caldwell took Personal Finance online.

“I like [online classes] because it’s a decent amount of work but not overwhelming and I don’t have to spend time during school doing classes I could take online,” Caldwell said.

Natasha Goel also offered her opinion.

“[The class] isn’t too difficult. It was a balanced amount of work. The workload is manageable,” Goel said.

Heath said that he believes that virtual classes are positive thing for the Parkway district.

“It gives students more opportunities for careers that a block schedule doesn’t allow. It gives curriculum to other kids in the district,” Heath said.