Acquiring GED Skills Online

BY GINA BENNETT

For three years now, College of the Rockies has offered GED-level Math and Writing Skills over the Internet. As expected, this project has increased access to basic education resources for learners in our community. We have also experienced a number of unexpected results with this type of delivery.

Inside this issue. . .

Although the “GED Online” project was officially launched in the spring of 1998, I had actually begun teaching over the Internet a year earlier. As part of a professional development activity, I created and uploaded a collection of GED Math and Writing Skills lessons. The collection was uploaded to a private, unadvertised website. Although a number of colleagues had suggested that a GED-level audience would have neither the Internet access nor the technical skills to benefit from online delivery, I had over 300 inquiries from interested students. Clearly, the interest was out there!

College of the Rockies’ Access Education department was interested in adopting this project for a number of reasons. Registration for GED classes was often so light that a regular face-to-face class wasn’t feasible. In addition, the College had started to use WebCT (an online course development tool) and was encouraging experimentation.

WebCT proved to be a good platform for the GED Online project. It was relatively easy to alter our existing material to fit the WebCT format and easy to add additional resources. Once students had a rudimentary understanding of how to use a web browser, they were able to navigate the WebCT interface very quickly.

In fact, dealing with the technology was the least complicated aspect of GED Online. As with any adult “returning-to-learning” audience, providing comprehensive, personal support was the greatest need. Each student was first interviewed to ensure that this program would meet his or her educational needs. Next, we asked the student to try a reading assessment. (Since most online delivery is text-based, basic reading skills are a must.) Finally, we helped the student learn the computer skills required to navigate the GED Online website.

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