Implementing Online Learning to Create New Revenue Streams

Implementing Online Learning to Create New Revenue Streams

As a Christian school administrator you understand the importance of being a good financial steward. Every decision made in your school must be balanced against a budget. And as a private school, you don’t have access to the same state resources as your public competitors. Often, raising tuition is just not an option—your school families are working within tight budgets, as well. Large donations are also hard to come by. That is why it is so important the keep your eye out for new sources of revenue.

One emerging opportunity for Christian schools to create new revenue streams is online christian learning. Schools that implement online learning programs can charge tuition for their courses, offer online courses to students outside the school, and even launch an entire school online. Online learning programs allow a school to cater to students well outside of their geographic limits, expanding their reach to the entire world.

Charging Tuition for Online Courses

Most Christian schools cannot afford to go it alone when they decide to offer online courses. Typically, schools choose to partner with an online learning provider that delivers the course content online and often facilitates the courses with its own teachers. This provides a high level of flexibility for students and schools. Students can start courses at any time and complete them at their own pace, while schools can scale courses easily to fit any class size.

Schools can choose to charge no tuition to attend their online courses, they can choose to charge just enough to cover their costs, or, if they are in search of new revenue streams, they can charge a reasonable amount above their costs. Many parents are willing to pay these fees in exchange for allowing their children to have access to a deep course catalog and a flexible learning schedule.

Reaching Students Outside Your School

Homeschoolers and Christian students who attend public schools need not be considered lost opportunities for revenue. Sometimes, these students (or their parents) are in search of just one or two course options to either:

• Supplement their homeschooling.

• Add a Christian element to their public school education.

Your school’s online courses could be the answer to either of these needs. Outside students do not need to arrange transportation or find time during school hours to attend online courses, yet, with the right Christian online learning provider, they will still receive high-quality, accredited courses integrated with the Christian message.

Online courses also offer a great opportunity to impress homeschool or public school families with your school’s dedication to academic rigor and Christian values, potentially inspiring them to start thinking about enrolling their children at your school full time.

Starting an Online School

Once Christian schools realize the revenue advantages for offering classes online, they often decide to take it to the next level and build out an online Christian school, giving students across the country and around the world the opportunity to attend their high-quality, Christ-focused classes for a complete course of education. With the right online learning partners, this is possible, too. At the higher levels of partnership, Christian online learning providers will work with Christian schools to customize courses, train teachers, create branded marketing material, and anything else required to translate their educational expertise, experience, and spiritual commitment into the online domain.

Discover what many Christian schools already know: online learning is the way to grow your school and its revenue while maintaining Christian values and expanding course offerings. Download our free white paper for Christian school educators, “How to Thrive Financially: Christian Schools, Finance and Online Courses Guide," to learn more.

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An Affordable Solution for AP Programs

Advanced Placement (AP) courses are an important factor for many parents and students who are considering enrolling in a Christian School. AP courses provide the highest achieving students the chance to study college level material. Parents and students see AP courses as an academic challenge, a way to better prepare for college, and an advantage on college applications. Yet many Christian schools trail their public school competitors in AP course offerings. Larger, well-funded public schools have the competitive edge among families with high academic standards because these schools can provide students a broad AP curriculum. How can Christian schools maintain their small class size and value-driven curriculum while competing with public and large private schools that provide a wide range of AP courses? Increasingly, Christian schools are looking online for the solution to this problem.

Online Advanced Placement courses allow Christian schools to easily expand their curriculum. Through online learning, courses can be tailored for the individual student. If you have a student interested in engineering, but your school does not provide an AP calculus course, online learning can be an efficient solution. Instead of losing that student, your school could provide a flexible and affordable online option for that student. Online learning keeps the education within your school. There  is no need to construct complicated relationships with public institutions in order to serve single student needs.

Online AP courses are the most affordable solution for Christian schools in many situations.

Who pays for it? The cost of offering AP courses can be covered through tuition and additional fees paid by families. Schools can provide access to the online course, but students and their families pay the fee. Under some arrangements, the family also pays an extra fee that can help a school pay for administrative overhead and other programs.

What about faith? Online AP courses are now offered to meet the educational goals of a Christian education. As a Christian school you strive to offer all your students a well-rounded and rigorous education. Offering an expanded range of AP courses online helps you achieve that with your most gifted students. You are helping them shine their light in the world.

How will it fit into the student's schedule? Online learning is flexible and allows schools to set their own start and end dates for an AP course. With the AP exam in May, students can start the online course as early as June to prepare for the next yearís exams. The summer months will provide your students ample time to prepare and increases their chance of securing college credit.

A Christian School Educatorís Guide to Online AP courses

AP Online courses put a Christian school on equal footing with its public counterparts without placing additional strain on the school's resources. Learn more about it in our new white paper, ìOnline Opportunities for Christian Schools.î Download this free resource for Christian educators using the link below.

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This is a personal blog, and the opinions expressed here reflect those of the author, not those of their employer or any affiliated organization. As a life-long learner, my thoughts and opinions may evolve over time. While I strive to provide accurate and authentic information, this blog may contain errors or omissions. The content is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered professional advice on health, finances, or any other topic. This disclaimer is subject to change at any time without notice.