The Potomac School is a member of Global Online Academy (GOA), a not-for-profit consortium of leading independent schools from around the world that imagine a future where all students acquire and practice modern learning skills to be global citizens.

GOA offers diverse, intellectually rigorous, relationship-based courses to students in over 125 member schools representing 30 countries and over 30 states. Courses are designed, developed, and taught by teachers from member schools and meet the standards of rigor and high quality for which these schools are well known. Class size is limited to 20, and a single course typically has representation from at least 15 schools, 8 states, and 5 countries, thus providing students with a truly global experience. Coursework takes place asynchronously--via blog posts, voice streams, and independent projects--and students also engage synchronously in real-time discussions with teachers and classmates via video conferencing software and other technologies.

At Potomac, seniors and second semester juniors may elect to take a GOA class for one semester as one of their 5 or 6 academic classes. Students who take a GOA course will earn Potomac graduation credit (.5 credits per course), but GOA courses do not satisfy Potomac’s departmental graduation requirements. GOA courses will appear on students’ transcripts along with the final course grade.

CurriculumAll GOA courses are developed and taught by teachers who work at one of the member schools. Teachers are coached to think differently about how they design student learning experiences. GOA works with educational leaders to ensure that GOA teachers have the strategies and tools to lead innovation and change.

• Teachers create their own materials for classes and connect students to curated material gathered from a variety of sources.
• Just like in brick and mortar classrooms at the member schools, in GOA classrooms emphasis is on engagement, interaction, and collaboration among students and with the teacher.
• GOA classes are teacher-paced, meaning students are assigned work throughout the week rather than given assignments to complete over a large block of time.
• All classes contain both synchronous and asynchronous components, giving students the opportunity to connect in real time but also providing them with the flexibility to work when and how they would like.

Through their curricula, teachers aim to meet three main goals: to create and maintain meaningful relationships with, and among, students; to create opportunities for students to share their local and personal perspective on global issues; and for the work to be meaningful and rigorous.

Course Spotlights