Following up on the direction of Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran to continue education for Florida students, Florida Virtual School (FLVS) announced on Monday that it will provide up to 100 free digital courses to all Florida schools for students across the state through the end of the school year.
These courses are available to students in Kindergarten through 12th grade and will be hosted through select Learning Management Systems (LMS). An LMS system is a software application that many school districts throughout Florida utilize for the delivery of educational courses and training programs, such as Blackboard or Canvas.
The courses are developed by FLVS and include Mathematics, English Language Arts, History, Science, diverse electives, Advanced Placement and Career & Technical Education courses that will be provided for free from March 25 through June 30, 2020.
“I applaud Governor Ron DeSantis for ensuring students have the ability to continue their education as we work together to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. I am proud of the work our team is doing to provide school districts, charter schools and private schools with solutions and resources to keep Florida students on track with their education as we all navigate these unprecedented times together,” said Dr. Louis Algaze, the president and CEO for FLVS. “FLVS is ramping up its platforms to make digital courses available to Florida districts and schools. The schedule for ramping up includes providing course access immediately to an additional 170,000 students; 320,000 students by March 31, 2020; 470,000 by April 17, 2020; and 2.7M students by May 4, 2020.”
“The most important thing we can do to help children through COVID-19 is to keep them safe, healthy, and give them the best possible education we can during these times. As the state turns to online learning, it is imperative that we work together to provide resources that support our families, teachers and school leaders. I want to thank Dr. Algaze and his team for providing solutions that ensure students have the least disruption to their education,” said Corcoran.
FLVS digital courses will be made available on the following LMS platforms: Blackboard (Ultra and v9.1), Buzz, Canvas, Brightspace (v9, v10), Moodle and Schoology.
Each Florida school district, charter school and private school can select up to 100 digital courses to serve their students. This emergency service is only valid for new student enrollments related to COVID-19 school disruptions. The service is limited to course content only and does not include course assessments. Public school districts, charter schools and private schools must contract with FLVS prior to May 31, 2020. Additional service fees and restrictions may apply to services beyond access to digital courses.
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