Homeschool Computer Curriculum
Solid computer skills are so important in this modern age of technology and the new Digital Savvy course from CompuScholar, Inc. provides excellent instruction in fundamental computing topics.
CompuScholar, Inc.
CompuScholar, Inc. formerly Homeschool Programming, Inc. offers a variety of computer science and computer skills courses. The online courses can be completed by the student on their own and at their own pace or you can choose the teacher led option. If the teacher led option is chosen a teacher is available to grade student projects and provide feedback. The student led option requires a parent to grade the hands on projects only, the quizzes and exams are graded upon completion.
All the courses available from CompuScholar, Inc. include:
- Step-by-step self-study lessons
- Integrated instructional videos
- Automatically graded lesson quizzes, chapter tests and an electronic gradebook
- Hands-on programming and computing projects with easy-to-follow solutions
- Teacher’s guides, project grading rubrics, fully coded activity solutions
Digital Savvy
Out of the variety of courses to choose from CompuScholar, Inc. we chose their newest course Digital Savvy. This seemed like the best choice for us to start out with, giving us an understanding of all the ways the computer can benefit us if we are aware of all that it can do.
Some of the topics included in this course:
- Hardware, software, and operating systems
- Managing files and folders
- Basic networking
- Online safety and computer security
- Using Word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation programs
- Creating simple databases
- Image editing
- Using social media and email communications
- Introductory website design
- Simple computer programming concepts
- Exploration of computing careers
There is a full Course Syllabus available on the CompuScholar, Inc. website.
Our Thoughts
I consider myself somewhat computer savvy, learning by trial and error over the years since we purchased our first computer in 2000. However I still have a lot to learn and I was super excited to get the opportunity to review Digital Savvy from CompuScholar, Inc. I have two boys using this homeschool computer curriculum, one in 8th grade and one in the 10th. They have had some experience with a computer but desperately needed a course just like this.
I went through some of the lessons and took some of the quizzes and exams myself and found it very engaging and easy to use. My boys have made it through 6 chapters and I am very pleased with their progress. Each Chapter has several lessons where they watch a video, read the text and then take a quiz. If they do poorly on the quiz, they can watch the video again go through the text and retake the quiz up to 2 more times. There are about 3-6 lessons for each chapter ending with an activity and a chapter exam. The activity gives the students a hands on project to complete, which is then submitted and reviewed by the parent. I found the hands on projects very helpful in encouraging them to use what they had learned in the chapter.
I was impressed with everything in the course being up to date, which is extremely important when learning about technology which is always changing and advancing.
The videos are interesting and have lots of effects to engage my visual learners. Much more than someone giving a lecture, they hold your attention and aid in the learning process. Below are some screen shots taken of the videos.
We have already learned so much from this course. I highly recommend Digital Savvy for your homeschool and look forward to learning even more with the other courses from CompuScholar, Inc. in the future.
