Interview with NHEG Founder/Director
By: Khrista Cendana
You’re a parent thinking about enrolling your child in an online learning system, or you’re an adult wanting to learn a new subject or field and have questions about how it all works and how to get started. I was able to speak with the founder/executive director of the New Heights Educational Group and ask these basic questions to offer essential information to those that have concerns about enrolling.
Q: What are the cheapest and most expensive costs of classes?
A: NHEG does offer some free classes; the most expensive one that we have is $300, which is for the animation and drawing classes.
Q: Do you teach by grade level?
A: It depends; most classes are covered by topic for the online classes, except for spelling, which is by grade level. If it isn’t an online class and is in-person tutoring, NHEG has to evaluate to find out the student’s educational level and then is taught according to his/her grade level.
Q: What grade can the student enter the online learning?
A: Students and adults can enter the online learning at any grade.
Q: How long do the students stay in a grade level before moving on?
A: The students are evaluated and placed at their learning level, and how quickly they progress depends on each student. The NHEG offers tutoring services to help in subjects where the student is struggling. Some students have shown great progress within nine months of tutoring and are able to jump two grade levels.
Q: Do the students earn any awards?
A: Everyone that enrolls into the program will be able to get a certificate of achievement. If they volunteer in our student groups or in any other leadership role, they are always recognized.
Q: What kind of resources do the teachers/tutors have besides the teacher online resources master document filled with helpful educational resources?
A: Besides having access to the master document, the teachers/tutors are able to access GoToMeeting for virtual meetings with students; they have help with building documents; NHEG researchers help them find lesson plans and other resources; and they receive monthly feedback from class monitors and the founder/director.
Q: How do the teachers communicate with the students if the students have questions?
A: The teachers/tutors regularly interact with the student. They have one-on-one classes, both virtual and/or in-person, along with the pre-recorded classes. Teachers/tutors are free to use other options (such as Skype or FreeForums.net as long as they include the feature to record sessions) but mostly rely on GoToMeeting to communicate and interact with the students.
Q: Do the students have deadlines for their assignments?
A: This is up to the teacher/tutor and the students’ individual needs.
Q: How do you know the student is doing the work and not the parent?
A: The one-on-one class session is hard to fake if it were the parent doing the work and not the student. You can easily tell if the parent is doing all the work from the students’ online sessions. If they choose to be dishonest, the families are just doing a disservice to themselves. NHEG is simply here to help children with their education and to help break generational illiteracy. NHEG doesn’t support dishonest behavior.
Q: Is there a policy against copying someone else’s work?
A: NHEG makes it clear to everyone that they always have to list their sources if they want to use a quote from someone or information from someone else’s website. NHEG requires this for its contest:
NHEG Contests Open to the Public.
Q: Can the student quit the online learning if the parent feels there’s no accomplishment?
A: Anyone is able to quit the online learning at any time; however, no refunds are given for fee-based classes.
