A lot of institutions have recently converted back to virtual learning for the fall semester. Some of their offering will be fine, but many faculty are still new to online teaching. Plus many of these institutions are still charging full price.
Online courses have the potential to be great–think Star Wars the movie. But what many places will be offering is emergency remote teaching–think Star Wars the high school play. It is not quite the same thing. Here is a brief list of other options for virtual gap years and other virtual educational options.
Virtual Semester from Verto and Minerva
Virtual Gap Year – College Programs
Chamblain College Virtual Gap Year
Adelphi University Virtual Gap Year
Park University $2250 Flat Rate Tuition Virtual Gap Year
Virtual internships, outdoor experiences and study abroad programs
GoOverseas Virtual Internships
https://www.unitedplanet.org/virtual-gap-year
UMass Lowell Virtual Study Abroad
https://www.globalcitizenyear.org
National Outdoor Leadership School
Study Abroad Association Virtual Study Abroad
Exotic Campus-like environments (mountains and beach) providing dorms and services to support virtual classes at your home institution: “keep your college education on track AND be based somewhere beautiful with freedom to explore, study, and be surrounded with awesome like-minded people.”
https://www.pacificdiscovery.org/programs/discovery-campus/#e745%23program-info
High quality free online courses from the best brand-name institution’s (often with optional pay certificates)
Online providers of high quality courses that should transfer
https://outlier.org (only Calculus and Intro Psych so far but $400 for 3 credits)
Lots of cheaper NFP online options, from places that specialize in online education
Plus the large “Global Campus” units many campuses
U Texas https://global.utexas.edu Maryland global campus
U Arizona https://global.arizona.edu
Arizona State https://go.asuonline.asu.edu/brand-nwt/
U Maryland https://www.umgc.edu
Johns Hopkins https://www.jhu.edu/academics/online/