Calendar

Our semesters follow the Olathe schools calendar, with our semesters aligning with those of our five high schools. The summer term is eight weeks in length. Click here to see specific eAcademy semester schedules.

Course Design

• eAcademy courses utilize the Olathe School Board adopted curriculum and instructional materials for each subject area, and mirror the same course taught in the traditional classroom.
• Courses are reviewed by District Curriculum Coordinators, who assure content is aligned to district and state curriculum standards.
• Courses are taught or supervised by experienced teachers certified in the content area by the Kansas State Department of Education.
• All courses can be accessed from any computer with Internet access. eAcademy is not accessible on mobile devices.
• Teachers will conduct a required startup Zoom meeting and additional, optional, weekly or bi-weekly Zoom meetings. There are no live lectures.

Commitment and Attendance

eAcademy courses are equivalent to regular classroom courses, and the amount of time a student would be working on a classroom course (room time + homework) is the amount of time students should expect to work on their online course. On average, this is a minimum of one hour per day during the school year and two hours per day during the summer session, plus possible additional study time. Students should expect this to vary by course, by the unit they are working in at the time, and by each student's personal learning habits.

Courses will begin with a required startup meeting via Zoom on the first day of the term. After that, instructors will offer optional scheduled weekly or bi-weekly class sessions for review, assignment instruction, student questions, and other course functions. Courses do not have live lectures or scheduled class time. Students work independently in Moodle (or Edgenuity). There is not a daily attendance requirement, but students should work on their course daily in order to maintain consistent progress. They may also work ahead as much as they like, but instructors may not grade particular assignments until the due date.

Students in our summer program often have scheduled vacations, camps, etc. that cause them to be away from eAcademy for a brief period of time. Absences should be communicated to the instructor in advance. We ask that students work ahead in order to meet the published schedule of course deadlines, and not just try to catch up when they return. Students will not be able to work online when traveling outside of the United States due to district cybersecurity safeguards. More information about travel can be found under the Technical Support menu.

Learning Management Systems

eAcademy uses Canvas, a web-based course management system, to deliver content for most courses. Courses are designed by Olathe teachers certified in the subject content area, and are maintained by the instructors of the various courses. Courses are aligned with the Board-adopted Olathe Public Schools’ traditional classroom curriculum and contain content that has been modified for electronic instruction. eAcademy may also integrate online course content provided by textbook companies and other sources using supplemental course management tools.

Occasionally, the district will adopt a textbook that has the majority of activities built into the textbook site. Turn-It-In is a plagiarism prevention tool used in Olathe and some instructors require students to submit all assignments in TII where grades and feedback are then posted. Edgenuity, a web-based automated curriculum, is used for the health course. These are some specific examples of eAcademy's use of supplemental course management tools.

Grading

eAcademy follows the Olathe Public Schools secondary grading guidelines. All courses are graded using the standard scale: 100-90% = A; 89-80% = B; 79-70% = C; 69-60% = D; an F will be transcribed for students who achieve below 60% or fail to complete their online course. School-year course drops may be allowed for serious family life events that would be considered hardship situations. Summer courses may be dropped at any time but with no fee refund.

Courses use online gradebooks (not in StudentVue) and that is where students will find assignment and assessment grades as well as any grading feedback from their instructor. Parents may view the gradebook and teacher feedback by having their student log into their course and show them the gradebook.

Physical Education

Students taking online physical education must wear a Polar heart monitor, provided, to complete required workouts which are uploaded to their PolarFlow account on the web. Students are responsible for returning the Polar monitor, undamaged, at the conclusion of the course to avoid replacement fees. There are also additional required textbook assignments in Canvas. Click here to visit our PE page for more PE information.

Final Assessment

Each course has some form of final assessment. These range from tests to projects to final papers, reflection papers, and other options that allow each student to demonstrate their cumulative course knowledge.

If a state assessment is part of a particular grade level course offered by eAcademy, students are required to complete that assessment. This is usually completed at the high school of attendance.