CareerForward™ Course Empowers Students

Last year, Michigan became the first state in the nation to require all students to take an online course or have an online learning experience in order to graduate from high school. This year, with financial support and assistance from Microsoft Corporation’s U.S. Partners in Learning Program, students in Michigan now have access to a powerful free online course dealing with globalization, career planning, and entrepreneurship. Online delivery of this new course, called CareerForward™ (cFWD), is provided by Blackboard, Inc.

CareerForward empowers students to take charge of their own career path while meeting the new state requirement for online learning. Designed primarily for ninth graders, it is relevant for any grade in middle or high school and is available to all Michigan K-12 students and schools.

CareerForward was developed through a unique public-private partnership between the Michigan Department of Education, Michigan Virtual University, and Microsoft Corporation. The online delivery component of the course allows Michigan students to connect to this newest form of education and learn about the most rapid changes in the global economy.

CareerForward is a media-rich online course from Michigan Virtual School that helps Michigan’s secondary school students wrestle with some of the burning questions about their futures: What am I going to do with my life? What is the world of work like? What will I need to succeed? What’s next for me? Using a variety of multimedia, course topics explore these questions and more. Throughout the course, students are asked frequently to reflect on what they are learning; to write their thoughts down as a continual refinement of their thinking; and to discuss their thoughts with other students, either in-person or online. Key benefits of this free course include learning about the world of work, gaining experience with online resources, and satisfying the new high school graduation requirement for online learning.

Michigan students can work with local educators to access the online course, which takes approximately four to six weeks to complete. The course is designed to be facilitated by a local teacher and can be used independently or as part of an existing face-to-face course in career planning, business, or global studies.

For more information, contact: (800) 393-6052, careerforward@mivu.org or visit www.mivhs.org/careerforward. To view a short trailer of the course, click on “cFWD Trailer” in the “More Information” menu at the top right.