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Students attending Coulee Region Christian School this year are going to experience a real explosion of course offerings in their school’s curriculum.

“Overnight, we are going to be able to offer more than 100 new courses,” said Dan Odenbach, the school’s principal. He was talking about the school’s new Coulee Christian Online Academy that’s set to debut next month. The academy’s classes — available to sixth graders through seniors and beyond — will not only be open to CRC students but eventually to anyone in the Coulee Region.

Odenbach is no stranger to the Internet. Before coming to Coulee Region Christian School he was an online administrator for virtual classroom education in Minnesota’s Houston School District. And he admits to a longtime interest in the benefits of technology.

“My thesis was on the utilization of technology in public schools,” Odenbach noted.

“I’ve been working on this all summer and I’m excited about what this brings to CRC,” he said. “It’s very progressive as far as how we look at education. I’m also excited about what this brings to families — it gives them more opportunity to participate in the educational process.”

He expects many of the online learners to be youngsters who are being home-schooled. “It’s tough to teach your kids higher level math or science courses at home,” he said.

Another area of focus Odenbach thinks is likely to interest home schoolers is foreign language. The online academy will offer an introduction to world languages, plus courses in Spanish, French, German Japanese, Latin and even Mandarin Chinese.

Such courses, good for college credit, are likely to prove attractive to students in smaller school districts where language offerings may be limited and even to adults who always wanted to learn a foreign language.

“I’ve heard a few adults say they’d love to take Spanish courses,” Odenbach said.

While community-based education or outreach won’t be the primary focus at first, he added, it will be increasingly available.

“As the program grows we can add staff, but in theory the expansion can be accomodated because we’ve created the proper infrastructure, Odenbach said. He drew on his years at Houston to put together the program, hoping to replicate what was good there while avoiding some of the pitfalls on online learning.

“Poor customer service is where problems usually turn up,” he said. “but we’ve assembled a top notch staff and our online coordinator, Cindy Moses, has a wealth of traditional learning experience that will help as she works with students on a daily basis.”

Off-campus students will be encouraged to come in to CRC’s computer lab one day a week to get some face-to-face time with Moses. That lab will have 20 computers available at first, with the capacity to add more if needed.

Coming to the building might open other doors to online students, too.

“We’re hoping they will take advantage of all that CRC has to offer — maybe try out for the drama team or the speech team, participate in math competitions, spelling bees and geography bees,” Odenbach said. “We want them to learn, grow and enjoy themselves.”

Odenbach is a big fan of online learning and said it has come a long way since the early days.

“It’s a whole new way to learn. In the past it was really just reading online,” he said. “Today it’s become much more interactive. The companies we’re working with make the curriculum come alive in a lot of different ways

“And once kids get the hang of online learning they seem to explode in their passion for learning and in taking responsibility for what they learn,” he continued. “Pair that up with a master teacher and online coordinator and it just amplifies the learning experience.”

Odenbach noted that, contrary to traditional lectures, if you’re watching a video feed and miss something you can go back to the part you were unsure of before moving on. He said it’s possible to sit down with a ninth grader at the beginning of the school year, ask some probing questions and then customize his or her education.

“The more technology we can bring kids, the better off they will be. Employers tell us ‘Give us grads and we will train them,’ but if we can provide graduates who already have skills, they can hit the ground running,” Odenbach said.

And, for those students going on to college, the advanced placement courses available through the academy can give them a jump start. Some students might be able to enter college as sophomores — a savings of $20,000 to $30,000 at current rates.

All in all, Odenbach thinks the virtual school will be a huge plus for Coulee Region Christian School.

“This (the online learning academy) is the only one of its kind in the La Crosse area — there’s no other Christian online program in the Midwest and no one will offer support services like we do,” he said. “From Camp Douglas to Brownsville, Minn., CRC has a great reputation. This is a creative way to expand our borders and meet the area’s educational needs.”

The Online Academy will be up and running on Sept. 2 and can be accessed from a link at the Coulee Region Christian School’s Web site: www.couleechristian.org