Dear Partner Schools:
As I write this, schools around the world are hurrying to respond to the far-reaching effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Just yesterday, the governor of my home state (Ohio) ordered all schools closed for three weeks; many predict that more will follow. Given that Sevenstar is an online provider, we are not facing many of the difficulties that you, our brick and mortar counterparts, likely are. Our full-time academy and school partnership divisions are operating as normal. However, there is still a possibility for this unprecedented crisis to impact your students' ability to complete their online courses— especially since we serve schools on six continents.
At this time, there are no known issues with any of our systems or those of our business partners and service providers. However, as schools throughout the world move to remote instruction in the coming days, we anticipate an increased demand placed on the technological resources commonly employed in the education industry. Although we have high confidence in the providers with whom we partner, it is feasible that the additional stress on delivery platforms may present unanticipated issues. Unfortunately, there is no way for us to plan for the unknown, but we want to assure you that we are monitoring relevant platforms and will communicate contingency plans should those be required.
More importantly, we know that families throughout the world are facing a host of factors that may impact their students' ability to complete coursework as planned. If, throughout this pandemic, a family from your school experiences any extenuating circumstance inhibiting their ability to complete Sevenstar courses, please know that we stand ready to accommodate their needs for extensions, delays, and grace-filled grading practices. Our focus is on helping students succeed and master the subject matters they are studying with us.
Finally, we recognize that there is an opportunity for us to help our partner schools that may be tasked with providing remote instruction in the coming days. Since we have been a leader in online education for 14 years, we have developed expertise in disciplines such as:
- teaching online,
- supporting students remotely,
- monitoring student progress, and
- starting/implementing remote instruction.
Therefore, we want to help resource you with some best practices and recommendations for making the most of any missed classroom time. In the weeks ahead, we will be releasing some information to that end that you may find helpful. As always, we are here to support you in any way that we can. We are honored to be your online learning partner.
In Him,
