This year almost 12 million post-secondary students in the United States will take some or all of their classes online.

That is approximately four out of 10 college students.

New research data indicates that by 2014 – when this year’s high school seniors are in their fourth year of college – 19 million, or seven out of 10 post-secondary students, will be taking some classes online.

Another 3.5 million, more than 10 percent, will be taking all their courses online.

This same research indicates that there will be a 20-percent increase in online learning in K-12.

What this tells us at Dowagiac Schools is that in order to effectively prepare our students, we must recognize that online learning will be part of their educational future.

There are, of course, advantages to online learning.

Most notable of these is flexibility.

Courses can be customized to student needs and work can be done at any time and any place where the student has Internet access.

But there are drawbacks as well. Students must be self-motivated and disciplined to progress through courses in a timely manner.

For many high school students, the ability to work unsupervised and solve problems independently is just developing, yet these are the very skills which will be required to be successful in tomorrow’s universities as well as workplaces.

In Dowagiac Schools, there are approximately 100 students working towards high school credit online.

The Pathfinders Alternative Education program offers high school credits online.

The Credit Recovery program at the high school gives students who have failed classes and gotten off-track for graduation a chance to catch up using online courses.

Some who are working to improve their English are better able to earn credits in a self-paced, online environment.

All of these programs employ somewhat of a hybrid approach to online learning, providing direct teacher assistance and varying degrees of classroom time for the computerized courses.

There have been the inevitable bugs and glitches as these programs evolve, but we are committed to working through them as we prepare our students for a changing academic environment.

This week’s column is by Randy Yoder, Union High School student advocate.