Two years ago, Drew Hayes couldn’t have predicted his taking the lead of Forsyth County Schools’ Virtual Academy would make him the go-to guy for online learning. But now in the world of COVID-19 classrooms, Hayes and his team find themselves teaching instructors from kindergarten on up how to effectively perform jobs from cyberspace.
The Virtual Academy has been a part of the district’s learning options for about 10 years, but when Hayes took over, it was offered only on a small and specialized scale to about 250 students in grades six through 12. The majority of learners were enrolled full time but needed a non-traditional schedule.
“For instance, we had an actor who was trying out for different roles, a student who ran a successful business and wanted to do that full time, and a softball player who always had to leave at noon to go to a game,” said Hayes. “With virtual classes, they had the option to control their situations. And our success rate has been high across the board, very comparable to [graduation] rates in the county, which are very high.”
Hayes revamped the program to make it more accessible to all students, allowing them to take some courses online and some face-to-face. Before the pandemic shut down traditional classrooms, the academy counted about 2,500 students taking about 4,000 classes.
“We grew 10 fold in about 2.5 years by providing flexibility depending on what students needed,” said Hayes. “They could take classes all the way through with usor they could remain in their base school as much as they wanted. That enabled kids to still participate in sports and extracurricular activities with a traditional school experience.”
When COVID-19 forced schools to shift to emergency distance learning, the academy sessions continued uninterrupted.
“One thing I’m really proud of is that our kids didn’t miss a beat,” said Hayes. “They knew what to do; they’d already chosen virtual.”
Since the shift, Hayes and his academy team have been working with teachers across the system to enhance their distance learning skills. Over the summer break, the team also consulted on creating a virtual option for kindergarten through fifth grade.
“For me, the big thing we talk about is user experience,” said Hayes. “What does this look like for a kid? Is it engaging? Will they understand what you want them to do? If they’re engaged, they’ll be more successful.”
Families and students were offered the virtual option, and currently about one-third of the district has chosen to be online this fall.
“I feel fortunate that [Superintendent] Dr. Jeff Bearden and our board saw this is the direction education is going and that we needed to be in a place where everyone in our system understands how to do it,” said Hayes. “It’s a learning opportunity that happened a lot faster than we expected, but this is our world.”
SEND US YOUR STORIES. Each week we look at programs, projects and successful endeavors at area schools, from pre-K to grad school. To suggest a story, contact H.M. Cauley at hm_cauley@yahoo.com or 770-744-3042.
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