EDMOND—Imperial Academy Online officially opened its “doors” to 141 students on August 19. Sixty-six online students are enrolled in the full curriculum: The rest are enrolled solely in the Bible class. Thirty international students hail from six countries: Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, the Philippines, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Planning started in 2008 just after the first year of Imperial began when Pastor General Gerald Flurry set the goal of offering Imperial Academy on the Internet.
Administrators began looking for suitable software for the endeavor in September 2008. They watched demos, contacted providers, and looked at pricing for several weeks before the decision was made after the Feast to use Moodle (an online distance-learning product). A six-week training program for the teachers was conducted in January and February. Some administrators visited other schools and spoke with faculty that used Moodle.
Each teacher will spend an average of 100 hours to put supporting material for one semester of his or her class online. Some took the whole summer to load homework, assignments, quizzes, tests, pictures, diagrams, examples and videos for their classes. Science teacher Colleen Winn spent six months putting Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy, Algebra, Advanced Math and Geometry courses online. In general, for every hour a teacher prepares for the classroom, he has to invest two hours to put his class online.
Teachers have faced many other challenges while transforming their courses from “brick and mortar” classes to online, such as learning how to use Moodle, filming science experiments, working with telescopes and microscopes and learning how to create, edit and upload videos. In the first two weeks after IA Online went live, some teachers were forced to re-record classes because of video problems, dead batteries and rattled nerves.
IA administrators and technical assistants quickly ironed out many of these technical road bumps. Other obstacles were tackled by purchasing equipment such as digital whiteboards, VisTablets (tablets linked to a computer that shows what is written on them) and a digital-film-enabled microscope. For astronomy, Mrs. Winn purchased software and camera adapters for the telescope.
Besides the many miracles that took place to make ia available online in just a year’s time, families also experienced their own miracles. For example, before classes began, God blessed eight students in the Northwest region with full-size laptops (15.4-inch screen) for $299 each. Local Church Elder Darren Verbout called the deal “unheard of in the industry.”
Parents are excited that their children’s teachers instruct according to God’s standard.
“I know that the education [my child] will be receiving is from teachers who are following God’s way of life,” Abigail Ferguson, from Nassau, Bahamas, said, expressing excitement at being more directly involved in her daughter’s education.
Education at Imperial has many parents and teachers looking forward to the World Tomorrow.
“IA requires an elevation of educational and behavioral standards, which helps its students prepare for World Tomorrow-level responsibility,” Local Church Elder Iain Harper said.
“It links us all together more closely as we carry out the planning for the World Tomorrow,” Geometry teacher Mark Nash said.
The Heermas in Northampton, UK, felt Imperial was the “best option” because their local school, poor even by government standards, pushes political agendas to the detriment of basic education. Mr. and Mrs. Heerma wanted to reduce negative peer pressure on their children. Many other parents of online students expressed the same desire.
