By: Sharon Aron Baron
Florida Virtual School is providing up to 100 free digital courses to all Florida schools through the end of the school year.
This follows the direction of Governor Ron DeSantis and Commissioner Corcoran to continue education for Florida students.
These courses are available to students in Kindergarten through 12 grade and will be hosted through select Learning Management Systems. 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.
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.
Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said 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.”
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 before May 31, 2020. Additional service fees and restrictions may apply to services beyond access to digital courses.
Tamarac parents can learn more about enrolling at FLVS.net.