Fredericksburg High School offers AP and dual credit courses, but they also offer something very unique, the OnRamps program. OnRamps is a program offered by the University of Texas.

It is a very unique learning opportunity at FHS that has been adopted by the science and social studies departments. OnRamps is a flipped classroom style with a UT professor performing the actual lectures, and a high school teacher helping to fill in the gaps that are bound to occur.

In reality, there are too many gaps and without a steady flow of communication between all 3 parties-student, teacher, and professor- OnRamps leaves many students unsatisfied with the education they received.

OnRamps is the same as dual credit in the sense that you are taking a college and high school course simultaneously. Because of this, there are usually gaps in student knowledge because they are taking a course that is traditionally taught after more foundational knowledge is set. A high school teacher’s job is to fill those gaps.

A flipped classroom is when the learning is done at home. Its purpose is for students to be able to spend more time asking questions in class and explaining homework assignments.

OnRamps is set up to login at home and listen to a lecture or read specific passages in a textbook almost nightly. To do this students must be proactive and ready to devote up to an hour each night learning. Most nights, students spend much more time than anticipated watching videos and taking notes.

Any student who procrastinates until the last possible second is probably not ready for the OnRamps program. Anyone can participate, but these courses require a lot of dedication and drive. 

The biggest difference between OnRamps and dual credit is how grades work. At the end of the year in dual credit, students see both the high school and college scores and those are both final grades. In OnRamps high school teachers may give extra assignments or the opportunity to raise their grade which makes the high school and college grade different. With this being the case, students have the opportunity to deny their college grade and keep the high school grade, so students can then retake the class in college.