Heritage Christian Online School is happy to begin signing up students from Grades 5 to 12 for their online courses. The list of all our courses with descriptions and necessary resources is available at http://www.onlineschool.ca/courses/. You can view samples of our courses at http://www.onlineschool.ca/samples/.

Course selection is done through our new upgraded student information system called Encom. For returning families, your old Encom username and password remains the same. For new families, you have received an Encom username and password in the e-mail announcing your student’s acceptance into HCOS. Clicking this link (http://encom.onlineschool.ca/) will take you to the login screen, where you enter your username and password. From there you will be able to see your students' profiles where you have the new and exciting opportunity to sign up for Online Courses. The sooner you are able to sign up, the sooner we will be able to order and ship the course materials to you.

We are constantly adding enhancements throughout our curriculum, and are working through several specific changes for this year:

• We have upgraded Moodle (the place where the students take their courses online) which will greatly improve your student’s online experience. Some of the new features include: a new ability to instant message in Moodle removing our old Bitwise program; new reporting features that will give up-to-date student reports and grades; students can upload assignments directly into Moodle, avoiding the hassle of e-mailing their teacher; a built in school calendar, and many other enhancements.
• We have entered into a partnership with United Streaming that gives us access to over 40,000 educational video clips that are being added to our courses.
• We are improving and rewriting several of our courses to focus more on Christian content, removing "busy work", and enhancing the online experience.
• We are writing a number of new courses which include: English 5, Computer Business Applications 8/9, French 9/10, French 11, Studio Art 6/7, Studio Art 8/9, Studio Art 11, Marketing 11, Business Applications 11, Civics 11, Communications 11 & 12, Chemistry 12, Entrepreneurship 12, Law 12, Geography 12, and Journalism 12.

For students in Grades 5 through 9, remember that they will need to have all five core subjects in their program, which are Bible, English, Socials Studies, Science, Math and, for Grades 5 to 8 students, a second language such as French or Spanish. If you choose to do any of these subjects Individualized, your homeroom teacher will be in contact with you in early September. Students who choose to take all their courses online will still have to do an "Individualized" approach to PE, Fine Arts and Personal Planning.

For students in the graduation program, Grades 10 through 12, please consult our Guidance Counselor Room at http://www.onlineschool.ca/rooms/guidance_counselor/. You will find specific tools that will help you understand what courses are necessary for completing the Graduation Program (specifically: the Graduation Worksheets). If you have specific questions as to which courses to take, please contact our Grad Administrator, Chris McGrath at cmgrath@onlineschool.ca or contact our office during normal business hours. Mr. McGrath or our Grad Program Teacher will be contacting you in August and September to ensure that your student is choosing the right courses for their graduation, and future plans beyond high school.

If you need technical help in the course sign-up process, call us during normal business hours at 1-877-862-2375 (in Kelowna 862-2376).


Blessings,

Greg Bitgood
Superintendent, Heritage Christian Schools
gbitgood@onlineschool.ca
www.onlineschool.ca