BJU Press Distance Learning DVD versus Online Option

hello everyone in this video I'm going to be talking about BJT Press distance learning and comparing two of the options that you have to choose from which is the online option and the DVD option this is a video that many of you homeschool moms have requested you've asked me what is the difference between the DVD and online option for the distance learning program and which one do I like better which one would I prefer and suggest to you so that is what we're going to do we're going to look at both of them compare them and hopefully by the end of this video you will have a better idea of which option is going to work best for your family so I've got all my notes here written down so I make sure that I cover everything let's go ahead and jump in and get started the first difference between the DVD and the online version is that the DVD version comes with DVDs and the online version is accessed on-line and the DVDs you actually are leasing for 13 months so I believe the time starts ticking when you make your purchase and they have to be returned in the mail to BJ you press within 13 months now the online you have access to the videos from July 1st of that year to December 31st of the next year so for example if I was going to purchase an online program from BJ you press this year I would have access from July 1st 2018 all the way to December 31st 2019 so that means that if I actually start school on July 1st when that axis starts I really have a year and a half access to the videos now the thing that you need to keep in mind is that the online access that is the time frame no matter when you purchase it so if you're coming in in the middle of the year and you're purchasing the access to the online program maybe in December you still have till the next December like you only have a year now if that makes sense because access to the videos for each school year is from July 1st of that year to December 31st of the next school year and make sure to check out their website because you know their policies could change after I make this video so make sure to check out their website before you actually purchase and decide which option to use so the DVD option you get 13 months from whenever you purchase it the other thing to mention about the DVD option is that you do have to return the DVDs but bju makes it so simple to do this when you make your purchase your textbooks are going to come in a separate box your DVDs are going to come in one box all of their own and it's going to come with a packing slip to return it so all you do is you take the DVDs out of that box and you save the box you save the packing slip when you're ready to return the DVDs you put those DVDs back in that exact same box you peel off the back side of that packing slip you stick it on and you're ready to mail it they've really made it super simple you don't have to go online and print out a packing slip you don't have to dig around for a box they just made it super easy for you to return the DVD so if you decide that the DVD option is best for you but you're a little worried about getting them back in the mail they've as long as you save the box it is really easy to return them another difference between the DVD and online program is that the DVDs when you get them in the mail they are going to come with tests and quizzes and you know like a packet of tests and quizzes they're going to be in paper form your child is going to take the tests and the quizzes with pencil and paper the online option the tests and quizzes are taken on line now one thing that I want to point out about this is that I believe and again check the website just to make sure but I believe it is fourth grade and older so it's fourth grade like through high school they have them take it online the tests and quizzes do not you don't get the paper version of them but third grade and below you still get paper tests and quizzes I think they know that younger children still need to take tests with pencil and paper and just not do as well taking it online so they do send those tests and quizzes to you in paper form and your kids would take the younger kids would take that test at home with pencil and paper the older children I think it's fourth grade enough if somebody from bju is watching this correct me if I'm wrong but I believe fourth grade enough all their tests and quizzes are done on line now here's the great thing about BJ you press they want you to succeed and so I actually asked if they would send me the tests and quizzes in paper form for some of my older kids who I thought would do better using pencil and paper to take the test and they just included that in my order for free so I absolutely love that but come to find out my kids my older kids actually like taking it online better than pencil and paper so we actually are just using the online tests and quizzes so just something to be aware of when you're thinking about which option you want the DVDs your child would be taking you know the test pencil paper online version the older kids will be taking it online but again you can ask BJ you press and they will most likely be willing to send you a packet of tests and quizzes for you to use at home with your student if you don't want them to take them online so the biggest difference for me I think between the DVD option and the online option is that the online option comes with a lot of other features that you might want to use or you might not want to use them and the DVD option might be a great fit for you guys so when you get the DVD option you do get I forget what it's called I want to say like a lesson plan guide or something so you and your student can look and see what video they're supposed to watch each day what you know work text pages they're supposed to do what pages they're supposed to read what activities all of that is really clearly outlined in a little packet that you will get with the DVD program when you get the online program all of that is online so your student goes online and then they can go to that subject and then to that day and they can see exactly what they need to do and check things off online as they complete them so that is a nice feature the other thing that I'm really liking about the online option is because those that lesson guide is online I can access my sum from my you know teacher portal or whatever my the section that I have I can go to each of my kids each of their individual subjects and if there's a video or an assignment or you know some kind of project or read anything or work text page or whatever that I want them to skip I don't want them to do that there's a little option for me to check skip and then when my students see it on their screen they don't even see that assignment anymore and so they don't even know that that assignment or that video even existed they just see what they need exactly what I want them to do on that given day and so I feel like I have a little bit more control over what they the options that they have now obviously if you do the DVD program you can just cross out an assignment or video and tell your kids you're not going to do that but I just found it really easy for me just to go several weeks advance as I'm kind of lesson planning and look through what my kids are doing online and just check that skip box if that's something that I don't think that they need to do so that just makes it really easy another thing that the online option does is it grades the tests and quizzes for you so since your child is taking the tests and quizzes online it automatically grades them which saves me as a parent a big step I'm not that spoke my least favorite thing is grading papers and tests and quizzes so I love that it grades it and it stores the grade as well and kind of keeps a you know a cumulative grade for my student for each subject the other thing is that you can go in on the online version and change the grade scale so if you they have it set that an a you know is you know a certain percentage and B's a certain percentage but if you want to adjust that and change that you can do that as well a few other things that are on the online option that I think are really helpful is there is a calendar you can add just you can add anything on to your personal calendar and on to your kid's calendar so even outside activities if my kids have track-and-field or a different PE class or piano lessons we can add that onto our calendar and so they know that on a particular day not only do they have to get these assignments done but they have these other activities so that's kind of a nice feature as well another feature that they have online is a parent community and I love this because I think when we homeschool sometimes we can feel so isolated and this is just a great way to connect with other homeschool moms and dads that are using the bju Press distance learning program online you can ask questions in the beginning of the homeschool year I swear I could not find where the answers to one of my students work text pages was I I was just like looking and looking and looking and I finally thought why don't I just ask and I did I asked another parent responded and it saved me a whole lot of time trying to you know find the answer key that I was looking for now I'm more familiar with the system and how it all works I can find things pretty easily myself but that's just really nice to be able to ask questions to other parents and the bju Press staff also responds to those as well so if you have a question that you know that you want bju press to answer they are a part of that community as well so that is really nice one last feature that I have written down here is that you can set the grading periods and so if you want your kids grades to be semester like at the end of each semester they get a grade or you want to do quarters or you want to do is it called like try misters however you want to set that up you can put that in to the online program instead then it will generate a grade for you for those different time segments that you have established for your homeschool so that's a nice feature as well I believe that there are a lot of other features online I just have not discovered or used all of them because I'm just learning one one little new thing at a time but there are a lot more features with the online option than with the DVD option now you might not want all of that that might all the online stuff might seem overwhelming to you and you just want to keep it simple and put a DVD in and do the lesson and not have all of this extra stuff so when it comes to deciding which is going to be a better fit for your family you kind of got to think about which features you want and that you really care about and that are important to you but also you got to think practically what you actually have for your kids to do the videos on for me I had to have three kids doing the online version and one doing the DVD because that's what we had we had one DVD and we had three different devices that they could do online so I couldn't have all my kids doing online I couldn't have them all doing DVD I just had to think practically so that's why I ended up going with the online version I probably would have originally got all DVDs but we didn't have four DVD players we only had one at the time and so I said well I guess we're doing one DVD and three online now that I've used the DVD and the online options I would have to say that I really like the online option better for my family I think it's just been a really good fit for us next year when we use bgu press distance learning again I will probably have all four of my kids do the online option we just invested in another device as a kind of a Christmas gift for the kids so that we could do that next year have all four kids doing online I don't necessarily think one is better than the other it really is just what is the best fit for your family what's going to fit your family's needs in your child's needs and practically speaking what devices DVD players do you have that you can use for your kids I hope this video was helpful to you I know that a lot of you had requested it and so I wanted to make sure I got it out to you if you have comments or questions or ideas for other videos leave those in the comments below if you have used bj oppress distance learning online or dvds share your experience with the other homeschool moms this is just my experience and my thoughts about it but they're just mine and you know what works for me might not work for another homeschool family so I would love if those of you have used bju press materials in the distance learning program comment and share your experiences below that will really help benefit some of my viewers who are watching who are trying to decide that this would be a good fit for their family make sure to subscribe so you'll be notified of new videos in the future and I look forward to seeing you guys again really soon in another video bye bye

Channel: Janelle Knutson

Views: 16,881

Keywords: homeschool, homeschooling, homeschool curriculum, bju press, bju press distance learning

Id: BsktAIFf0_g

Length: 13min 53sec (833 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 28 2018