Your teachers will provide feedback on any assignments or projects you complete. You can also contact your teacher via email or by phone. In addition, each teacher has regularly scheduled online office hours. During the scheduled time, students interact with the teacher and other students in a virtual classroom.

Progress is measured through quizzes, exams, written essays, assignments, projects and semester exams. Grades and additional course progress information are readily available by using your assigned Observer access to the gradebook and by viewing the weekly emailed progress reports.

Course pace charts are provided in each course. These charts will help you plan your work so that you are able to stay on pace each week and will complete the course by the end of the school year. Pace charts are typically found in the Course Information tab.

A full-year course is designed to take 36 weeks or about 180 hours. As a general guideline, in addition to the time you spend online, you should also count on spending time reading, completing assignments, and studying for tests and exams. Therefore, you may need to spend approximately 180 hours to complete a course. This time is a guideline and will vary according to course, study habits, etc. You should assume that a half-year course will take half as much time as a full-year course, and needs to be completed in one semester.

The teachers play an important role in the iQ Academy program, just as they do in traditional schools. In iQ Academy, however, teachers do much more individualized one-to-one instruction and support, allowing them to meet individual learning needs of the students enrolled in their courses. Teachers have "office hours" and hold weekly sessions during which students can ask questions and have discussions with their teacher and classmates. Teachers are also available by phone and email, and students are encouraged to contact their teachers with questions.

As long as internet access is available, students can log into iQ Academy and get to their courses. For trips during which internet access may not be available, students can print off their assignments ahead of time and work from those in order to keep up with their work. Students should notify their teachers and the school office by email if they will be unable to access the Internet for a period of time. You must, however, have a valid Texas address in one of the approved attendance school districts to qualify for enrollment.

Some of the qualities that we have seen in our most successful students are:

• The ability to work independently.
• A willingness to seek out answers to their questions, or to move on to a different subject until the necessary help is available.
• The willingness to ask for help when needed. There are many opportunities to get help from teachers, from other students, or from technical support. Students have to be willing to make use of those resources and let someone know if they don't understand something.
• Some internal motivation to succeed in the program. Students who are forced into an online learning environment will be less likely to be successful.

There are some things that you can do as a parent/guardian to help your child to be successful in iQ Academy Texas:

• Help them set up a schedule for school to follow every day. Students should plan on approximately one hour of work per day for every class they are enrolled in, plus some extra time for outside readings or projects.
• Provide an area for them to work that has limited distractions and where all their materials are available to them.
• Encourage them to discuss their work with you. These discussions can give you clues as to whether they understand the materials and the assignments, and potential problems can be headed off before they turn into bigger problems.
• Help them understand when it is appropriate to ask the teacher for help. It is good to encourage students to work through struggles and seek out answers themselves, but teachers are there to help. If students are spending more than a few minutes trying to understand what an assignment is asking, they should ask for more direction from the teacher.

It is not necessary or even desirable for parents to "hover" over their student while they are working online, but being present and near by will likely be necessary for many new online students. In addition to the need to provide support, parents of students in the elementary and middle grades have varying comfort levels with leaving their children at home for even short periods of time. Parents are the best decision-makers for the safety of their own children.

In addition to safety, students will need parental supervision to create and stick to a school schedule, to help them identify when to contact their teacher for help, and to enjoy the experience with them. The iQ Academy program does not require students to do all of their coursework during the traditional school hours, so it may be beneficial for some families to schedule some of their school time at non-traditional times of the day if it best fits their family.

The main content of all of the iQ Academy courses is available directly through our secure, online student classroom area. In some cases, links provided by teachers direct students to other websites so students can take advantage of the wealth of educational information available online. In addition to limiting the sites to which students must visit to do their coursework, we have added a piece of software on all student laptop computers that filters out sites that are not appropriate for elementary or middle school-aged children to view. Beyond that, good parental supervision and setting some guidelines for internet use that match with your family values will go a long way in protecting your children from unwanted information on the internet. iQ Academy has guidelines available for parents to help them appropriately monitor their child's internet use.

No, although high speed Internet access definitely makes the experience of learning online much more satisfying, it is not absolutely necessary. Some areas of Texas unfortunately do not have high-speed access available yet. For those areas that have high-speed access available, however, it is definitely the preferred type of internet access for the program.

Yes! Every full time iQ Academy student has the option to use one of iQ Academy's computers while enrolled full-time in our program. Parents are required to sign a Technology Use Agreement and become liable for any loss or damage to the computer while it is assigned to their student.