Usage of online curriculum resources provided by the Cherokee County School District continue to exceed officials' expectations.

Various services, many of which are new to the district and are funded by Special Purpose, Local Option Sales Tax funds, have seen high usage since being implemented.

BrainPOP, an animated, standards-based educational program that provides materials in science, social studies, math, English, arts and music, health and technology, garnered 35,514 logins from district computers.

The program, which is available to all district middle schools, provides about 1,500 educational videos to students and teachers, according to Jackie Hopkins, district assistant superintendent of accountability, technology and strategic planning.

Programs such as BrainPOP and others, Mrs. Hopkins said, are "tearing the classroom walls down" by allowing students to explore the world from their desks.

"It makes the classroom come alive," she said.

The days of flipping through bulky reference books are nearly gone for district students.

With the use of Grolier, students have online access to seven reference tools: New Book of Knowledge Encyclopedia, Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Americana, New Book of Popular Science, Lands and Peoples, America the Beautiful and Amazing Animals.

The program, which was rolled out in 2001, continues to remain popular among students.

Last school year, 389,155 searches using the database were performed by district teachers and students.

Debbie Childress, district supervisor of instructional technology, said with the tool, the district can streamline which sources students are able to use.

"We're assuring the validity of the information they are getting," she said.

Perhaps the biggest success is the district's online credit recovery program Apex, the district's online comprehensive curriculum that's aligned with Georgia standards.

During last school year, 814 students recovered credit by taking classes through the program and 641 earned new credits. The number of students who graduated as a result of using Apex was 194.

During the summer school session, 350 courses were recovered by students.

As of September, 1,325 students were enrolled in the program.

"Its use is growing," said Rebecca Amerson, district teacher-on-special-assignment for online/virtual courses. "The whole idea is to keep kids on track for graduating."

The district is in the process of tweaking a new online service that will cater to county high school seniors.

The E-Locker project, which was piloted last school year with Creekview High School's first senior class, provides students an opportunity to store and view documents related to their senior project online.

Students will have at their fingertips school resources, Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds for research, Career Pathways program information, announcements from their school and links to clubs and organizations.

The program has not yet been rolled out for all district high schools, as the technology department still is tweaking the service for maximum performance.

Teachers as well as students have raved about the program, district technology officials said.

Mrs. Childress said teachers feel encouraged by the diverse offerings of resources.

One Freedom Middle School teacher who had the goal of reducing paper usage has found a way to do so by using a new resource offered by the district. Quia gives teachers the opportunity to create, customize and share learning activities.

Instead of students doing homework the "old-fashioned way" of using pencil and paper, Freedom seventh-grade science teacher Patti Dunnavant types up the activity or questions on Quia.

She can set a time span during which the assignment is available for students to complete, and she can check from home at anytime to see her students' progress, when they logged in to do the homework and to see their answers.

She even can send e-mails to the parents of children who have not completed their homework.

Mrs. Dunnavant said the program not only cuts down on the amount of paper being used, but it also allows her to monitor each student's progress more easily.

All five of her classes are using the resources, and students are given a user ID and a password to participate.

Last school year in the district, there were 15,288 teacher-created activities on Quia, and there were 795,644 student-activity hits. There were 13,636 quizzes created by teachers and 243,842 student quiz submissions.

While these tools have made it easier for teachers in some respects, more importantly, they keep students engaged, Mrs. Dunnavant said.

"They think it is so cool to do homework online and submit to me instead of doing it the old-fashioned way with paper and pencil," she said. "I have seen the greatest success with students who may struggle in school."