5 Best Online Course Providers for California Districts

Choosing an online course provider for a California school district requires that you consider a variety of features including viability of curriculum, flexibility of program, cost, and so on. Below I have listed the five course providers I would consider (and have considered) for a large school district in this state.

If you are a smaller district or not in California, your selection could be quite different. 

With online courses in the K-12 sphere, you have two basic options:

1. ​Create the courses yourself using a Learning Management System (LMS) like Moodle or Canvas; and/or
2. Purchase online courses from one of the many providers out there.

Here's where I would draw the line: If I am creating a course that will be used in *a* classroom for a particular content area, it can make sense to create your own course. You have then created a course that works for your specific needs and aligns to your Scope & Sequence and your Pacing Guide.

However, if you are looking at courses to be used across classrooms, schools, and/or districts, it may make more sense to purchase online courses. This allows you to have consistency across all of those environments. 

So which online course providers do I recommend that you consider? I have looked at quite a number of them over the past decade. Most have their strengths and their weaknesses. You need to choose the ones that will work the best for your environment.

Ones? Yes, if you are a larger district, it is entirely reasonable that you have more than one provider. In my work environment, we have two providers. We have one provider that we use for credit recovery and another for original credit, variable credit, and for competency-based education.

I can tell you, though, in California (and the reason why the title is so specific), we have what is called a-g requirements for students who wish to attend the UC or the CSU systems. Online courses must also be approved for a-g. If you are an online provider and your courses are not a-g, I won't even schedule a meeting with you. Yes, it is that important here.

Both of the providers we use meet a-g for their online courses. And, yes, part of my job is submitting online courses each year (if they are new for us) to UCOP (University of California Office of the President) to get a-g approval.

Again, which online course providers would I recommend? I should start with the two providers we use and add the three others that have most impressed me of late.

1. Apex Learning. We are in our seventh year of using Apex Learning and it has worked well for us. The price point for an online seat works for school districts and it has allowed us great flexibility in how we offer courses. It is our sole provider for credit recovery online courses.
2. Edgenuity. This is, I believe, our third year using this product and it has worked well for us. We use it for original credit/acceleration courses, for variable credit (.5 - 4.5 credits for a course), and for competency-based education
3. Scout. Scout is a product of the University of California. I have recently had the opportunity to see some of their new work. While UC has had challenges getting this initiative off the ground (in years past), a recent infusion of cash from the Governor and a plan to move forward has made it one of the more exciting options for California students. Add to that the cost for many/most students is zero and it becomes more interesting.
4. Florida Virtual School. This course provider has been around for quite some time, longer than most providers, but has only recently begun to make inroads into California. Given its history and quality of product, it is very much worth considering by school districts.
5. Pearson Gradpoint. It would be hard to ignore the very large publishing company, Pearson. In addition to its own Gradpoint product, it also owns the Connections Academy chain of online schools. While it has been a couple of versions since I have evaluated the product, I have spoken with districts who swear by it.

It is important that you understand that this is my personal opinion and each of these companies and companies not on this list are just one version away from either dropping off it or landing on it.