Therese Paczkowski sometimes goes to class at midnight, sometimes at 2 a.m., and often times, even during school hours.

Paczkowski, 17, a senior at Albert Lea High School, is one of a handful of students participating in FAN online, a joint project among Faribault, Albert Lea and Northfield schools which allows students to take courses on the Internet.

&uot;I get the chance to take a wider variety of classes that they don’t offer here at school,&uot; Paczkowski said, who is taking World Religions this semester as an online course. &uot;It gives me an opportunity that I might otherwise have not had.&uot;

The FAN online project was started last summer and will last until the end of the current school semester. The program is fully funded by state and federal grant money, so it is no extra cost to the district.

&uot;We benefit greatly from this,&uot; Neal Skaar, who teaches Western World Culture online, said. &uot;We received very nice computers that the district will get to keep, but we also get the training, which we will be able to incorporate into future class experiences.&uot;

Each school in the program has teachers who teach the online courses. A total of 12 students from all three districts are allowed to be in each class. Students in the program are given assignments and readings over e-mail. They do their assignments and send them back over e-mail, or sometimes they talk with other students in the class on an online discussion board.

&uot;Teachers assign you to discuss things with the other students,&uot; Paczkowski said, &uot;which I really like because I get to interact with people from other communities.&uot;

Skaar said he uses e-mail and chat rooms as well for discussion. &uot;I like the chat rooms, because unlike in the classroom, when a students begins to dominate a discussion, I can push a button and shut them out for a while,&uot; he said.

The online format allows teachers to delve into subjects that aren’t as practical for the traditional classroom.

&uot;It is nice because you get to have a course with a very specific focus, that might not be justified for having a course at the high school,&uot; Skaar said. &uot;But when you have three districts to work with and not a high number of students to teach, it becomes plausible.&uot;

Mike Sundblad coordinates the program for Albert Lea High School. He said it isn’t what a lot of students expect it to be.

&uot;You get students who want to be in the program expecting that because it is an online class it will be a sluff-off class,&uot; Sundblad said. &uot;A lot of those same kids end up dropping it after a short while because they find out these courses are as tough or tougher than the classes they are taking at school.&uot;

He said that the dropout rate for college online courses is about 40 to 50 percent and that the students at the high school are at about the same level.

Sundblad said the FAN online program isn’t for every student. &uot;You have to be self-motivated and be willing to work on your own,&uot; he said.

According to Skaar the courses have a much more one-on-one feel to them. &uot;It can be a bit more intimidating for some. It’s both an advantage in terms of accountability and a disadvantage for those students who don’t like to be put on the spot.&uot;

&uot;Usually these people (in the program) are of an intense self-motivational personality,&uot; he said.

Paczkowski is that kind of student. Last summer, she took two course at Riverland Community College. She also took another FAN online course, Art Appreciation.

&uot;I really enjoy the online classes. With Art Appreciation I found out how to look at art and enjoy it,&uot; she said. &uot;In all the art classes here we just learn how to make it.&uot;

Paczkowski said she enjoys the class because she gets the freedom to be able to schedule it around her day instead of her day around it.

The students in each class usually meet each other before they begin, so they have an idea of who they are talking to and in class with. But the program definitely does not fit the more familiar daily face-to-face classroom experience.

For some though, getting out of that model is a positive step.

&uot;I’d just rather take all my classes online,&uot; Paczkowski said. &uot;I just like studying and working more on my own.&uot;