Global Online Academy (GOA) is built on the belief that learning is fueled by curiosity and interest, and features over 60 semester and year-long interest-based electives that students can choose from. Global Online Academy’s learner-centered approach empowers students to do cognitively complex, meaningful and relevant work in a relationship-based environment, which is key to learning and engagement.
GOA offers pathways to high school students in public, independent, charter, and international schools to learn in a highly collaborative, global community that expands their perspectives and empowers them to meaningfully connect and learn from others. Asynchronous self-directed learning, collaboration with peers around the globe, one-on-one meetings with teachers, and a capstone project and exhibition allow students to connect to relevant academic content and engage them in rigorous work that deepens understanding and builds skills that matter in school and in life.
Schools interested in the GOA model can become a member school, joining a group of 145 member schools in 31 countries and 34 U.S. states. Member schools have access to student courses and professional learning to develop leader and educator competencies. GOA Student Program Course Preview
What Makes This Model Innovative?
High Expectations with Unlimited Opportunities
Anytime, Anywhere Learning
Active Self-Direction
Goals
Global Online Academy’s mission is to reimagine learning to empower students and educators to thrive in a globally networked society. Their competency-based approach to online learning seeks to provide high-quality learning that is relationship-based, skills-driven, and global in representation and design. GOA Core Competencies and Outcomes
Collaboration
Share ideas and resources, actively listen and respond, demonstrate flexibility in revising ideas based on others’ input, contribute original thought, and practice teamwork.
Communication and Empathy
Understand and address audience needs and perspectives, articulate personal perspectives, consider viewpoints, and acknowledge the impact of cultural and historical factors.
Content Creation and Curation
Exhibit creativity and responsibility by taking action to address and improve local, regional, and global situations. Address the impact of actions using evidence and results, and exhibit scholarly integrity.
Reflection and Taking Responsibility
Reflect on one’s learning and that of others in order to deepen understanding; provide feedback that includes actionable suggestions for improvement.
Organization for Self-Directed Learning
Demonstrate time management by organizing tasks, coordinating appointments across time zones, and proactively anticipating and solving problems.
Utilization of Digital Tools for Learning
Leverage digital tools to enhance learning, adapt by acquiring new skills, form connections for collaboration, and demonstrate media literacy by assessing relevance, authenticity and credibility.
Experience
GOA courses allow students to dive into a topic they want to learn more about; have flexibility in how, when and where they learn; develop skills to prepare them for college and career; connect with peers who share their interests; and personalize and define their learning journey. These courses are primarily asynchronous, with interaction taking place through discussion tools, email, and video, as well as synchronous meetings.
All courses follow a similar set of intentional design and pedagogical choices that drive a set of clear student outcomes. Competency-based learning places students at the center of their learning and empowers all students to learn the skills they need to thrive both in and outside the classroom. GOA’s competency-based learning framework informs the student experience, including assessment practices, grading policies, learning-experience design and cultural competency. Students practice these core competencies through coursework as they move toward mastery as “modern learners.”
GOA’s diverse set of offerings are led by expert teachers who are committed to knowing students, connecting them to relevant academic content, and engaging them in rigorous work that deepens understanding and builds skills that matter in school and in life. Students in member schools can enroll in semester-long, credit-bearing elective classes to be completed during the school day.
Students seeking to demonstrate depth of interest and expertise in a single field can take three or more courses in a single pathway to pursue a Pathway Certification for their transcript. When a student earns a Pathway Certification, the certification is highlighted on their GOA transcript, which provides additional context and description of a student’s GOA experience. GOA’s eight pathways are:
- Art, Media & Design
- Business, Economics & Finance
- Computer Science & Engineering
- Global Studies
- Health Sciences
- Justice, Ethics & Human Rights
- Mathematics & Quantitative Reasoning
- Psychology & Neuroscience
In addition to the 18:1 student-teacher ratio, GOA courses share commonalities across classes to ensure students engage deeply with the content.
Students actively engage in a dynamic online learning environment that empowers them to explore and experience their learning in various ways. Using a well-designed online space as the central hub for classes, students access learning at any time and from almost anywhere. Students can leverage pre-recorded videos and multimedia resources to customize their learning experience, pausing, speeding up, or rewatching as they absorb content at their own pace. Having the option to read, watch, or listen to content creates the conditions for more self-directed learning.
One of the ways students actively engage in their learning is through the creation of screencasts, allowing them to present their work and articulate their thinking. By showcasing their projects and explaining their thoughts, students actively participate in the learning process and develop their presentation and communication skills.
In addition, students curate digital portfolios that emphasize the process rather than solely focusing on the end product. They have the opportunity to showcase their growth, reflections, and iterations, and their learning journey over time.
Interactive asynchronous elements such as discussion boards, online quizzes and polls offer students a variety of ways to reinforce their understanding of the subject matter while accommodating their individual learning preferences and schedules.
Students utilize online project management tools to monitor their work, taking on the responsibility of tracking their own progress. These tools provide transparency to both students and teachers, allowing teachers to understand where each student stands and provide targeted guidance and support as needed.
GOA teachers make targeted support in online courses more accessible and flexible for students through the use of video conferencing tools, whether that’s via teacher-hosted office hours or individual conferences or small discussion groups. Approximately every two weeks, teachers offer set office hours in several different blocks that students can choose from based on their global time zone. Teachers also offer targeted feedback through one-on-one meetings that either the student or the teacher schedules.
Teachers purposefully set up time blocks for synchronous learning and collaboration among students. Students make connections and form relationships with classmates through partner work, group projects, and discussion forums. Students can ask a peer for support and input, or just strike up a conversation via a live video chat feature or through instant messaging.
When paired with their synchronous interactions in class or on video, students use asynchronous interactions for more time to reflect on, compose and express their thoughts, which can shift the power dynamic in discussion from favoring the extrovert or more verbose. For asynchronous collaboration, teachers drive students to discussion boards to share and comment on each other’s work and encourage the use of the product, Twist, to communicate and coordinate in and out of class. Twist Using online spaces not only makes collaboration and project management easier for students, it exposes them to some of the ways people work and collaborate in the world beyond school.
All GOA courses have a capstone project to demonstrate how they have applied the skills and concepts learned in their course. Often defined by the teachers who bring in their prior experiences and expertise, this culminating project for each course asks students to apply the concepts from the course to their context and challenges in their community; e.g., an environmental science class might work on solving an environmental problem in each student’s community. Students choose a topic of interest to demonstrate how they have applied skills and concepts learned in their course to the real world.
The Catalyst Exhibition, the culminating learning event for all GOA courses, allows students to participate in an online learning event where they display their work and explore capstone projects from GOA peers around the globe. Teachers determine whether their course class will participate in the Catalyst Exhibition.
Supporting Structures
GOA gives students from member schools access to high-quality, engaging courses that build core competencies inside and outside the classroom. A variety of supporting structures—across areas like curriculum, adult roles, scheduling, space, and more—will help make implementing this model a success.
GOA’s model entails offering courses from their centrally developed course catalog and supporting the implementation of these courses as designed.
A robust course catalog intentionally focused on non-core content enables students to pursue interest-based areas of study. GOA offers emerging current topics such as Medical Problem Solving and Neuropsychology, and some more traditional topics such as Multivariable Calculus and Abnormal Psychology. Courses follow a similar set of intentional design and pedagogical choices that drive a set of clear student outcomes and support competency-based learning. GOA Student Course Catalog
GOA teachers’ online gradebooks allow enrolled students the opportunity to monitor their coursework in real time and understand how different learning outcomes and assignments contribute to their success. These online gradebooks are aligned to course learning outcomes, prioritize mastery over completion, and emphasize learning over compliance.
GOA seeks to create small courses for students from different schools and diverse backgrounds.
To ensure students receive personalized support, the average teacher-to-student ratio of GOA online classes is 1:18. Individual schools can enroll as few as one student in a course. To create unique opportunities for collaboration and perspective-sharing beyond the school community, classes are designed for students from a variety of backgrounds, typically from different schools across the United States and abroad. While there is no minimum or maximum number of students from a given school that can enroll in GOA courses, GOA encourages at least 5 students from a school to participate in GOA courses, so that they can have a shared experience. Schools on average have 10% of a grade level taking GOA courses, but this is not a requirement.
While GOA trains and provides faculty for each course, schools must identify and support a Site Director to oversee the program’s success.
Every GOA member school must designate one on-campus person to act as the GOA Site Director, the primary point person for students and the school’s academic leadership team. The Site Director maintains a student-facing role and may hold an academic program position such as administrator, academic advisor, or classroom teacher. The Site Director is responsible for enrolling students, receiving and acting on the weekly student performance report that GOA sends, and communicating with and supporting students. GOA provides the Site Director with 3 hours of training in the summer, ongoing bi-weekly email and Zoom opportunities, and access to the portal to monitor courses and access resources. Schools must give the Site Director time to complete the role. Site Director Job Description
GOA provides an expert teacher trained on GOA’s five educator competencies for each course. GOA’s Educator Competencies Teachers from member schools have the opportunity to become a GOA course teacher.
In addition to course teachers, GOA provides a Student Support Associate who surfaces any issues with students in the course and flags them for the Site Director at each school. They also work directly with students as needed.
Schools must dedicate time during the school day for students to take GOA classes.
Typically, students take GOA courses in place of elective courses at their school and schools must allocate time in a student’s instructional schedule to enroll in a GOA course. Students are expected to commit 5–7 hours of work per week for a GOA course; semester courses are 15 weeks. Students are expected to do classwork during their scheduled class time but may have additional work to complete outside of class.
Family engagement is critical to ensure students have the support they need to successfully engage in the GOA model.
Supporting students across time zones and locations requires a Student Support Team, including families, the school Site Director, a GOA student support associate, and the GOA course teacher. Schools must work in partnership with families to help students take responsibility for their learning and develop as independent learners. Communication is the cornerstone of this work.
Schools have flexibility in determining the space in which students will take their GOA courses.
GOA gives schools lots of flexibility to schedule classes, as long as classes are held during the school day. Schools take various approaches to ensuring students have space to take the course. For example, some schools offer GOA courses during a scheduled elective period for all students, while others may schedule students to take their course in the school library or computer lab.
Students must have access to a computer or tablet with a reliable internet connection.
Students take courses online using a laptop or tablet through GOA’s learning management system, Canvas.
Schools must budget for annual membership fees and student enrollment costs.
Member schools sign a membership agreement and pay an annual member fee, plus a per-student instructional fee for each course enrollment. It is up to member schools whether that fee is covered by the school or the student. Summer courses, which are available to all students, carry an enrollment fee for both member and non-member school students.
GOA uses a feedback ecosystem to inform and improve course development.
GOA employs a feedback ecosystem that uses learning experiences as feedback. Teacher-student and peer interactions, student self-assessments and reflections, and broadcast feedback allow GOA to serve as a “lab school” and stay current on student needs and how various teaching practices affect student motivation and success. Students taking coursework directly contribute to GOA’s feedback system through completed work and other data collection. How to Design a Feedback Ecosystem
GOA’s model entails offering courses from their centrally developed course catalog and supporting the implementation of these courses as designed.
A robust course catalog intentionally focused on non-core content enables students to pursue interest-based areas of study. GOA offers emerging current topics such as Medical Problem Solving and Neuropsychology, and some more traditional topics such as Multivariable Calculus and Abnormal Psychology. Courses follow a similar set of intentional design and pedagogical choices that drive a set of clear student outcomes and support competency-based learning. GOA Student Course Catalog
GOA teachers’ online gradebooks allow enrolled students the opportunity to monitor their coursework in real time and understand how different learning outcomes and assignments contribute to their success. These online gradebooks are aligned to course learning outcomes, prioritize mastery over completion, and emphasize learning over compliance.
GOA seeks to create small courses for students from different schools and diverse backgrounds.
To ensure students receive personalized support, the average teacher-to-student ratio of GOA online classes is 1:18. Individual schools can enroll as few as one student in a course. To create unique opportunities for collaboration and perspective-sharing beyond the school community, classes are designed for students from a variety of backgrounds, typically from different schools across the United States and abroad. While there is no minimum or maximum number of students from a given school that can enroll in GOA courses, GOA encourages at least 5 students from a school to participate in GOA courses, so that they can have a shared experience. Schools on average have 10% of a grade level taking GOA courses, but this is not a requirement.
While GOA trains and provides faculty for each course, schools must identify and support a Site Director to oversee the program’s success.
Every GOA member school must designate one on-campus person to act as the GOA Site Director, the primary point person for students and the school’s academic leadership team. The Site Director maintains a student-facing role and may hold an academic program position such as administrator, academic advisor, or classroom teacher. The Site Director is responsible for enrolling students, receiving and acting on the weekly student performance report that GOA sends, and communicating with and supporting students. GOA provides the Site Director with 3 hours of training in the summer, ongoing bi-weekly email and Zoom opportunities, and access to the portal to monitor courses and access resources. Schools must give the Site Director time to complete the role. Site Director Job Description
GOA provides an expert teacher trained on GOA’s five educator competencies for each course. GOA’s Educator Competencies Teachers from member schools have the opportunity to become a GOA course teacher.
In addition to course teachers, GOA provides a Student Support Associate who surfaces any issues with students in the course and flags them for the Site Director at each school. They also work directly with students as needed.
Schools must dedicate time during the school day for students to take GOA classes.
Typically, students take GOA courses in place of elective courses at their school and schools must allocate time in a student’s instructional schedule to enroll in a GOA course. Students are expected to commit 5–7 hours of work per week for a GOA course; semester courses are 15 weeks. Students are expected to do classwork during their scheduled class time but may have additional work to complete outside of class.
Family engagement is critical to ensure students have the support they need to successfully engage in the GOA model.
Supporting students across time zones and locations requires a Student Support Team, including families, the school Site Director, a GOA student support associate, and the GOA course teacher. Schools must work in partnership with families to help students take responsibility for their learning and develop as independent learners. Communication is the cornerstone of this work.
Schools have flexibility in determining the space in which students will take their GOA courses.
GOA gives schools lots of flexibility to schedule classes, as long as classes are held during the school day. Schools take various approaches to ensuring students have space to take the course. For example, some schools offer GOA courses during a scheduled elective period for all students, while others may schedule students to take their course in the school library or computer lab.
Students must have access to a computer or tablet with a reliable internet connection.
Students take courses online using a laptop or tablet through GOA’s learning management system, Canvas.
Schools must budget for annual membership fees and student enrollment costs.
Member schools sign a membership agreement and pay an annual member fee, plus a per-student instructional fee for each course enrollment. It is up to member schools whether that fee is covered by the school or the student. Summer courses, which are available to all students, carry an enrollment fee for both member and non-member school students.
GOA uses a feedback ecosystem to inform and improve course development.
GOA employs a feedback ecosystem that uses learning experiences as feedback. Teacher-student and peer interactions, student self-assessments and reflections, and broadcast feedback allow GOA to serve as a “lab school” and stay current on student needs and how various teaching practices affect student motivation and success. Students taking coursework directly contribute to GOA’s feedback system through completed work and other data collection. How to Design a Feedback Ecosystem
Supports Offered
Global Online Academy offers the following supports to help implement their model. These resources and services may be purchased separately or in combination to meet an organization’s needs.
Partnership to Become a Member School
Cost Associated
Member schools are accredited public, independent, charter, and international schools that are interested in providing their students with an array of courses to explore their interests and pursue their passions. Member school students have full access to GOA’s course catalog. Member school teachers have the opportunity to design and teach student courses and have access to GOA’s professional learning courses and programs.
Professional Learning Courses and Workshops
Cost Associated
GOA’s professional learning offerings—for individuals, small cohorts, or large groups—are grounded in experience, facilitated by expert educators, and developed in response to timeless concerns and current needs. Programming covers topics from competency-based learning to cultivating belonging. Member schools can access professional learning courses for free.
GOA also offers one-hour online workshops and longer courses to develop the educator competencies necessary for student-centered learning in a modern world with practical strategies and engaging opportunities to apply learning with a GOA coach.
Reach
In SY22–23, GOA had the following reach:
Impact
GOA has identified impacts of the model on students, observing that students’ experiences highlight the effectiveness of GOA’s online learning experience in several key areas: GOA Impact Report GOA Student Learning Impact (Survey Data)
Students enrolled in GOA courses report greater access to areas of interest.
- 95% of respondents agree or strongly agree that their GOA course enabled them to delve into areas unavailable at their school.
Students report greater opportunities to learn from their peers’ diverse perspectives.
- 94% of students agree or strongly agree that the perspectives shared by their peers contributed to their understanding of course topics.
Students report having multiple opportunities for increased agency.
- 92% of respondents agree or strongly agree that their GOA course provided more opportunities for student-led learning compared to other courses they take.
Students feel a sense of belonging in their GOA courses.
- 90% of respondents agree or strongly agree that they feel a connection in their online courses.
Students receive better and more effective feedback in service of their learning.
- 82% of students reported that they always or almost always receive feedback from their teachers that effectively contributes to their learning process.
- 70% of students believe that the feedback they receive in their GOA courses surpasses the quality of feedback they receive in other classes.