PROVO, Utah (ABC 4 News) - There is an aspect to the success story of the NFL's Michael Oher that was omitted from the new movie, "The Blind Side." It does not mention the role played by Brigham Young University.
The movie tells the story of how Oher was "adopted" off the streets of Memphis by a family that helped turn his life around. One of the keys to that turn around was getting him up to speed in academics. He would never have been allowed onto the high school football team without adequate grades. He could not have gotten a football scholarship to the University of Mississippi without adequate grades. And by extension, Oher would never have been taken by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the NFL draft.
To help him with his class work, the family hired a tutor. That tutor used course work from BYU Independent Study.
The Independent Study program at BYU is based largely online. Each lesson plan is both demanding and flexible -- allowing the student to master the material at his own pace and on his own schedule.
It goes beyond just text and tests. For example, a chemistry class online utilizes a virtual lab. Unlike physical labs on a campus, there are no limitations on how much work a student does in the virtual lab. Nor for that matter, is there any risk of blowing up anything. "It is a little safer," said Steven Park, the Associate Director for Productions with BYU Independent Study. "But still it has the aspect of exploration that you want in an educational experience."
In an online physics course, students can get a CD with a recorded lecture that is as much demonstration as lecture. In the video, a cartoon version of the professor is dropping a coin in the ocean to show the characteristics of waves. In another section, he's standing on the roadside as a car flies past with it's horn blowing -- an illustration of the Doppler Effect.
There are even quizzes disguised as games. It all sounds fun, but Director of Independent Study, Justin Johansen said it is also effective learning. "The courses are challenging. They're engaging. They're able to bring together the right tools to teach the right principles and concepts."
Johansen dismisses any notion that such courses were chosen for Oher because they are easy. "They align carefully with courses that are taught on campus or with state published standards."
The university does not offer online degrees. Rather, it's program is used by students and teachers to fill gaps in their own studies. Any degrees are offered by partner institutions that make their own decisions on the amount of credit given for any particular course from BYU Independent Study.
Johansen said it is a program that has helped lift many lives out of poverty, "If we had some role in this young man bettering his life, I'm absolutely proud of that."
For more on the movie, "The Blind Side"
click here.
