What started as a statewide correspondence course nearly 20 years ago has grown into a multimedia distance education program. Today, programs are also offered as newspaper courses and through interactive television and video. Correspondence Students electing to study through correspondence receive a packet designed to assess their reading, writing, and mathematics skills as well as their interests and needs. Based on the assessment, the teacher plans assignments and sends the student lessons pulled from the files. Over 10,000 materials have been developed and indexed, enabling instructors to individualize lessons based on students' goal, interests and needs.
Instruction continues until a student's goals have been met.
The need for a correspondence course was great at the time the course was first developed, because there were only a few study options in the state. After completing a newspaper assignment, learners wrote to the Vermont Basic Education central office to receive the answers. Along with the answers, learners were sent a friendly letter explaining other ABE study options. Two follow-up letters and a GED practice test were also sent to learners throughout the course. Newspaper is an especially good way to reach a lot of students in both urban and rural areas very quickly.