Christy T.
My kids have taken several courses....
My son took 3 of the Middle Grade courses and my daughter took 3 of the Elementary Grade courses. It was highly suggested by our charter school to take these courses but to be honest I have never been very impressed with them. Personally I feel the platform they teach on is greatly lacking in interaction with and for the parent. If I want to access feedback or course history I need to sign into my child's acct to do so. There is very little, by way of the parent's acct, to track their child's work/feedback/log in and out times. I find it so frustrating! They advertise that the student can work at their own pace however that's extremely misleading. Each course is designed to last 8 weeks, they will extend by a week for free but after that they charge you an additional fee and that's on top of the $120 already paid, it can really add up. Another frustrating feature is the 24 hrs it takes to get a grade back, I totally understanding the theory on this (the teacher needs time to correct) that's not the part that bothers me, its the fact that if there is a redo on an assignment then its another 24 hrs to grade it, meanwhile my child can't progress onto the next assignment till they have received a grade on the previous assignment, so it can take a couple days just to accomplish one assignment....you're now behind on the time frame schedule. In short, I always feel like we are "racing the clock" to get these courses done on time, and half the time my kids didn't make the cutoff date, which is discouraging for a child. I think T4W has the potential to have a good writing program but I just feel they come up short in a few vital area as I previously mentions.
Response from Time4WritingMar 4, 2021
Hi Christy, We like to encourage families to try to log in daily (Monday through Friday), at about the same time each day. Teacher feedback opens 23-24 business hours after a submission has been made, and if a student logs in at about the same time each day, the feedback should be there waiting for them -- allowing them to make a revision or move on. Once a written submission has been made, lessons and quizzes can be done up to the next written assignment, but the next assignment cannot be submitted until a grade has been given for the first. This is to ensure that students do not continue to make the same mistakes over and over. We have found that short increments at regular intervals create the best learning experiences, and this is how the Time4Writing site has been set up. We do have an internal process where reported issues are passed over for a thorough review process before any decisions are made. We appreciate your feedback, and have escalated it for further review.