After years of using the program Connexus, a digital class for students at Manhattan High School, this year the Digital Learning Lab adopted the new program Acellus, a video based program.
“Instead of students reading the information, and then doing the work, they will be watching lessons taught by teachers,” Rodney Robison, Digital Learning Lab teacher, said. “I think it’s a better way of learning for students.”
The DLL class is used for students to recover credits in the core classes such as English, math, social studies and science along with a variety of offered electives.

“I had some students start working on it and trying it out and we decided that we’d like the program so we actually put students in this program throughout summer school, and had a pretty good success rate with the program through summer school,” Robison said. “Students that had started on the old program continued on it, new students worked on the new program, Acellus, and then starting this semester, all students will be in Acellus.”

Statistics show that the completion rate has improved within the new program.

“It’s a big improvement on the way students will learn and complete classes,” Robison said.

With Acellus students and teachers outside of DLL will be able to access the program and gain the benefits of video lessons. 

“But one nice thing about this program is before in the old program, I had to set up each individual student an account,” Robison said. “We used Infinite Campus and uploaded every single student into Acellus and so every single student in our high school has an account. It’s already set up.”

The ability to use preexisting videos for lessons would allow teachers to use it in their own classrooms.

“Unlike the old program, any teacher in a building could use it to teach their class. It’s not just credit recovery,” Robison. “If a math teacher wanted to use [Acellus] they could use it as a teaching tool and use it in what I call a blended classroom.”