Web Based Learning for the Adult Credit Diploma Program
Web Based Learning for the Adult Credit Diploma Program
Academic Year 2003-2004
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Goals and Activities Report
Prepared by
Gretchen Hayden
Project Manager, CTDLC
Table of Contents
Project Description ……………………………………………………… 1
Goals and Activities …………………………………………………….. 3
Orientation to Online Learning …………………………………. 5
Academic Courses ………………………………………………. 6
Course Evaluations …………………………………………….... 9
Training with Web Based Modules for Teachers ……………….. 10
Student Support Services ……………………………………….. 10
Program Assessment Plan ………………………………………. 11
The Roadmap ………………………………………………….... 11
Future Investigations …………………………………………..... 12
Other National Virtual High School Programs …………………. 13
Attachment 1: American Government Evaluation ……………………… 15
Attachment 2: Physical Science Evaluation …………………………….. 22
Attachment 3: Orientation to Online Learning Evaluation ……………… 29
Attachment 4: Algebra I Evaluation …………………………………….. 39
Attachment 5: Contemporary Literature Evaluation ……………………. 47
Attachment 6: Aggregate Evaluation …………………………………… 54
Exhibit A: Roadmap for the CT Adult Virtual High School …………… 73
Exhibit B: Financial Report …………………………………………...... 101
Exhibit C: Virtual High School Research ………………………………. 103
The second year of the Web Based Learning for the Adult Credit Diploma Program kicked off in September, 2003. It began with the continued participation of the original four Local Education Agencies (LEAs), New London, Vernon, Hartford and Middletown. The structure and mission remained in place from the previous year and is described below.
Project Description
The Web Based Learning for the Adult Credit Diploma Program was created to offer a web- based alternative to earning credit for adult students who have not completed their high school diploma. The CTDLC is working collaboratively with four LEAs who offer the Adult High School Credit Diploma to develop a comprehensive model for a web-based adult high school credit diploma program.
This comprehensive model includes the development of:
• A web-based Orientation to Online Learning course which provides an orientation to the technical, learning and time management skills necessary to be a successful online learner.
• Four (4) web-based high school courses which meet CT Frameworks, CAPT, and CASA standards. These courses are created as re-useable learning objects.
• A training program, including web-based modules, for online teachers, advisors, and student service providers.
• A collaborative plan for providing web-based student and academic support services, based on a model which we have piloted with higher education, to promote economies of scale and prevent duplication of services.
• Suggestions for and proposed changes to state and local policies and budgeting processes as well as legislative amendments to facilitate the feasibility and success of this model.
• An assessment plan to provide formative evaluations of all aspects of the model designed to foster improvements throughout the entire process.
• A dissemination plan for informing adult educators throughout Connecticut and the nation about this project including acting as a resource for the Bureau of Early Childhood, Career and Adult Education’s sponsoring of a training institute.
This design requires the active paid participation of four LEAs in the form of assisting on the Advisory Board and three committees, selecting teachers, piloting courses, piloting student and academic support services, supplying data, and disseminating information about the project. Working closely with the BCAE, the CTDLC is coordinating the project; facilitating of the Advisory Board and committees; researching the current best practices nationally; designing, developing, and hosting of the courses; providing a 7-day a week help desk; training teachers and student service staff; providing formative evaluations of every aspect of the project and a dissemination plan.
Project Management: Coordinates the fulfillment within deadline of the Project Components with the respective committees. The primary contact to field questions, concerns and suggestions from project committees or outside organizations in the appropriate direction.
Adult Education (AE) Project Liaison: Communicates with the LEAs and the Adult Education population in order to distinguish and meet the needs, requirements and standards around this collaborative effort. Serves on the Advisory Board and sits on the three committees.
Advisory Board: One of the first tasks of the CTDLC was to form an Advisory Board of approximately 10-12 members to be responsible for advising the CTDLC on all aspects of the project. The Advisory Board consists of the directors of the four participating LEA’s, at least one BCAE representative, the AE Project Liaison, three or four additional adult education experts, and is chaired by the Executive Director of the CTDLC. The Advisory Board is primarily responsible for developing recommendations for:
• Adoption of standards that will enable course content to correlate with CAPT, GED, EDP, CT Frameworks and CASAS.
• Development of state and local policies and practices that promote inter-district cooperation, promote efficiencies of scale and cost, and reduce duplication of services in the provision and hosting of web based courses.
• Proposed legislative amendments.
• A model for delivery of Connecticut’s adult high school credit courses.
Three advisory committees—made up of staff from the participating LEAs, volunteer staff from other LEA’s, as well as several outside experts—report and make recommendations to the Advisory Board. CTDLC Project Management coordinates the activities of the three advisory committees while the AE Project Liaison communicates the overall project mission among the committees.
Content Committee: The Content Committee, chaired by the CTDLC’s Learning Designer, includes but is not limited to professionals who hold Connecticut Certification for the Adult High School Credit Diploma and teach in adult credit diploma courses in Connecticut. The AE Project Liaison also sits on this committee. This group is responsible for review of curricular content development, advising on the selection of Content Experts, and for course development review.
Research and Evaluation Committee: The Research Committee, chaired by the CTDLC, consists of representatives from the participating LEAs, a CTDLC Instructional Designer, the AE Project Liaison, and representatives from interested LEAs. The Research Advisory Committee is responsible for providing advice on developing research models for best practices and for evaluating online courses and support services.
Student Support Services Committee: The Student Support Services Committee, chaired by the CTDLC, consists of representatives from the participating LEAs, the AE Project Liaison, and representatives from interested LEAs. The committee is responsible for providing advice on developing support services for online students which promote inter-district cooperation, promote efficiencies of scale and cost, and reduce duplication of services.
Content Experts: Content Experts hold appropriate certification in adult education and have initial responsibilities for curricular content identification, development, and review in designated academic subject areas. Content experts provide appropriate curricular content material to the Content Advisory Committee.
Local Education Agency: With the advice of the Bureau for Career and Adult Education, four LEAs have been selected to receive a two-year grant to participate in this project. The LEAs are responsible for:
• Having their Director serve on the Advisory Board of Directors.
• Having designated staff or teachers serve on each of the advisory sub-committees.
• Piloting one of the four credit courses to be developed as part of this project, including paying the instructor to teach it during both the fall 2003 and the spring 2004 semesters.
• Enrolling students in the pilot orientation course and the four credit courses.
• Providing support services for students in the online courses using the model developed by the Student Support Services Committee.
• Providing staff to review existing online courses and models for support services as part of determining best practices.
• Sending a staff member one of the two years to the Virtual HS Symposium for K-12 Educators.
• Providing appropriate data as required by the evaluation and research models.
Other LEAs may be asked or may volunteer to participate on the Advisory Board of Directors or Committees, but there will be no monies for their participation.
Goals and Activities for 2003-2004
Orientation to Online Learning Course
Orientation to Online Learning was developed with the purpose of assessing a student’s knowledge and comfort with the online learning environment and to provide some exercises and activities that would reinforce the tasks that an online learner must become proficient at in order to become an effective online learner. The Research and Evaluation Committee, the Student Support Services Committee and the Content Committee were all active participants in the assessment process and made revision recommendations that led to the current version of this course. Student and teacher surveys and assessments of the Orientation to Online Learning helped to bring forth a clearer, more focused version of the course that was launched in September 2003. It was determined by these committee members that Orientation to Online Learning should be a prerequisite for all students who would be enrolled in one of the online courses offered in the Web Based Learning for the Adult Credit Diploma Program.
This course was designed to allow students to ‘test out’ of lessons that they were proficient at and move on to activities that would engage them in their learning.
So each lesson has a pretest that can be taken only once. If the student does not earn at least 70%, then the course sends the student back to complete the relevant assignments and activities for this lesson. The test at the end of each lesson can be taken as many times as the student needs. A student must earn a passing score on one lesson before moving on to the next one.
The LEAs each had a different plan for how they would deliver Orientation to Online Learning and for how it would be credited. Hartford and Vernon chose to incorporate the Course into their Computer Science curriculum and granted a full credit. Middletown and New London offered the course ‘as is’ for a half credit. Students took the course at- their-own pace, some finishing days before others. The recommendation for the course is for teachers to add assignments on an ‘as needed’ basis to engage students in additional practice with their typing and technological skills. Recommended in particular were cutting and pasting, attaching and saving files, and maintaining personal file folders for remote use.
Each LEA was provided with the course to offer as often as they wished over the course of their calendar year. There was some initial failure with course delivery early in the first semester as the LEAs figured out the best times and ways to offer this course at their locations. By the end of June 2004, the server had approximately 300 students registered in the course. Data is still being collected on the credits awarded, but we estimate that approximately half of these students received credit.
Academic Courses
By January 2004, enough students had completed Orientation to Online Learning that there were several candidates eager to take one or more of the online courses. In January two courses US Government/Civics and Algebra I were launched. Two more courses, Physics and Contemporary Literature launched in March 2004. Maximum seating for each course was established at 20. Each LEA had five reserved seats in each course. If these five seats were not occupied, they were filled on a first come, first served basis from a wait list. In March, seats available as a result of students dropping out of the course were filled to accommodate a maximum of 20 in US Government/Civics and Algebra I. Teachers were therefore teaching two cohort groups or sections of the course with students achieving at various paces.
The concept of cohort groups was agreed upon by the Advisory Board to accommodate the rolling enrollment requirements of semester and trimester calendars at the LEAs. It meant that teachers would start students in the second cohort group at the beginning of their courses, while continuing to teach other students who would be a month or two into the curriculum.
Course delivery and results are as follows:
Algebra I
Teacher: Denise Spellman; New London Adult Education part time staff member. Denise was given release time from her regular schedule to teach this course.
Course: Selected materials taken from BoxerMath software, delivered through the BlackBoard course management system.
Cohort 1 in January began with 17 students. Eight students received credit.
Cohort 2 in March began with 8 more students. Four students received credit.
Denise was initially provided release time of one class period that met twice/week for 90 minutes to teach this online course. It quickly became apparent to her that she was not going to be able to teach the course in this scheduled period. She learned that she needed to make some time each day to tend to student emails and assignments. The adjustment, which was not anticipated by the local director, caused the need for staff shuffling, flexibility, along with some additional support and encouragement. The staff and Denise were great! They remained enthusiastic and positive through the duration of the course!
Here is a small anecdote that speaks to the convenience of taking online courses. Denise had a student in this course that moved out of state. He was almost finished with his credit and was able to complete it from a distance!
US Government/Civics
Teacher #1: January, 2004 Scott Reece, hourly employee hired by Vernon Adult Education.
Teacher # 2 Joan Donoghue; full time teacher from New London Adult Education given release time to teach the course. Joan took the course a few weeks after the start date when it became apparent things were not working out for Scott.
Course: This course was created by Florida Virtual High School/ Orange County Public Schools. It was a special edition developed with revisions to adapt the curriculum for the adult credit diploma students in Florida.
Cohort #1 in January began with 20 students. Four students received credit
Cohort #2 in March began with 8 more students. Six students received credit.
Course curriculum, the syllabus and assignments as offered were adjusted by the teachers as to further accommodate the students in their online class.
Though course reviewers from the Adult Education community approved the course curriculum from this Orange County Public Schools course, it contained assignments that were deemed by our teachers to be much too difficult for CT’s community of adult credit diploma students. Though FL Virtual provided training and an experienced teacher mentor through course delivery, Scott struggled with his sense of having to teach the curriculum as it was written in the course. He also had not had the same preliminary training as the other teachers coming into this online teaching experience. His communication style, personal time commitment and understanding of his responsibilities, along with the difficult curriculum, turned out not to be a good match for this pilot launch. Joan, having completed an online teacher training program, and belonging to one of the project committees, had a clearer idea of the project scope. She was comfortable modifying or eliminating inappropriate assignments and she successfully taught the course. The Orange County Public Schools course was designed a half credit course in FL; however, this project’s course development team decided that the CT ACDP students would receive a full credit.
Physics
Teacher: Renata Kaluzny-Blaszczyk; hired as an adjunct by Hartford Adult Education.
Course: Created by a committee of Adult Education Science teachers using Beyond Books software as the text based curriculum resource.
Cohort #1 began with 20 students. Seven students received credit.
This course curriculum was selected by a science teacher in the CT Adult Credit Diploma Program. When Renata evaluated this teaching opportunity, she saw the need to further adapt and modify the course material. Her ongoing preparation made this course a success. She hand selected reading materials from Beyond Books, created and delivered assignments, activities and quizzes that met the requirements and CT Frameworks. Renata also worked with the CTDLC learning design office to develop some labs that could be delivered online and done from home. They were tested for use, and some of them video taped for playback in the course. Students were not able to access them because of some technical questions regarding the playback of the video that still needs to be resolved.
Contemporary Literature
Teacher: Jim Tallmadge; hired with release time by Middletown Adult Education
Course: Developed by Jim Tallmadge from scratch. There were four books selected for reading with websites referenced for assignment resources.
Cohort #1 began with 20 students. Ten students 10 received credit.
Jim Tallmadge hand selected books that he felt would be appropriate to stimulate meaningful thinking, research and discussion. He also scoped out some great websites that offered supporting materials about the issues raised in the books the students were asked to read. With the requirement of so much reading and writing, it became apparent the students’ attention was dropping off with the assignment of each new book and sets of relevant assignments. The course curriculum was engaging and the teacher’s style and comfort with the online format was and overall success.
Course Evaluations
Course Evaluations were required as a final assignment of each student completing the course. The Evaluations collected information on the courses, teachers and mentors, as well as student participation and the time students spent online. Detailed Course Evaluations can be found in Attachments 1-6.
Aggregate data indicated that students had a positive overall experience. All of the questions had 40% or more of the students selecting a score of ‘agree’ and /or ‘strongly agree’ as their response to such questions as:
• “Was the course interesting?”
• “Was the teacher clear and helpful?”
• “Did required readings help you to learn?”
Neutral and negative ratings were generally in the 20th percentile or lower.
Student comments were also very positive. Though most comments were very general and not of a constructive nature, there were a couple of constructive comments mentioned in more than one class. One was that students need better access to computers; and the other was that students expressed a need for weekly meetings to help them if they are falling behind or don’t understand.
In response to this, the Student Support Services Committee formalized student and mentor Weekly Roles and Responsibilities documents. In the future, each student will be assigned to a personal mentor who will be responsible for this weekly support. Also an Online Learning Coordinator role will be implemented in each location to assist with the logistical and administrative needs of the online program. This person will take on responsibilities to include signing students up for computer lab time, coordinating mentor assignments, and enrolling students in the courses. The Online Learning Coordinator is someone who is already on staff at the Adult Education site. Guidance counselors and technology coordinators were typically selected to fill this role.
Evaluations were not filled out by students who dropped the course or did not complete. This, though difficult to collect, would be interesting data for the quality assurance process.
Training with Web Based Modules for Teachers
An Orientation to Online Learning training module was created. The CTDLC held a workshop with practice time between two full day classroom sessions, where teachers gained hands-on experience with the delivery of online courses, both in the formal classroom and on their own. Teachers representing 13 Connecticut districts that have Adult Credit Diploma Programs attended. These districts are: EastConn, Education Connection, New Britain, Newington, Plainville, Stamford, Wallingford, Waterbury, Enfield, ERACE, Norwich, Valley Regional and WERACE. Teachers in these districts are now prepared to deliver the Orientation to Online Learning course to their students in the fall of 2004.
Teacher training for delivery of the academic courses continues to be refined.
LEAs in the first year of this grant project were provided with the funding to enroll a select number of teachers into a twelve week online teacher training course. Best practices nationwide include this type of extensive training for their teachers to prepare for the transition to the online classroom. Because the funding for this kind of professional development is, at best, difficult to acquire, and was not scalable within the grant budget, the CT Virtual Adult High School Roadmap (Exhibit A) outlines a process where teacher and mentor trainees shadow the professionals currently delivering the courses for some direct exposure to the online learning environment. In the next year, we will work to gather teacher’s experiences, their feedback regarding how prepared they felt, and to identify what further training they would find beneficial. Training modules can then be modified accordingly.
Student Support Services
Online Tutoring Platform
The state department agreed that the grant would fund access to a newly developed eTutoring platform. This platform, under new development by the CTDLC for its higher education community allows for a collaborative staffing model that increases tutoring time online for all students while cutting the cost for individual sites. Tutors would be hired and trained with district resources. The platform can be modified to accommodate a look and feel that is audience appropriate.
A question exists in the community as to whether the typical adult credit diploma student would find an electronic tutoring mechanism helpful, since it necessitates an independent learning style. There have been quite a few students in the online courses that have demonstrated enthusiasm and comfort with online learning. There will be an opportunity to explore this further as the platform is put to use.
Technology Assessment Tool
The CTDLC had also been in the process of developing an online technology assessment, allowing the identification of basic technology functionalities. If they were to go out a build these resources on their own or purchase them in the competitive market, access would be cost prohibitive. But by gaining access to these online student services while they were still in their development phases, the state department of education saved a considerable amount of money.
Program Assessment Plan
The Research and Evaluation committee created a comprehensive course evaluation survey. It included student feedback on the courses, teachers and mentors. More work must be done to complete a program assessment plan. This plan would include peer and self-evaluations of teachers, teacher evaluations of the courses, and an evaluation of the administrative process as well as the student’s evaluations.
Because there was a lapse in the grant funding year, the academic term ended in June with staff going off for the summer and a new grant application process in place for the continuation of the project. This timing did not allow for a complete assessment cycle. We received and processed course evaluations from students but did not complete a teacher evaluation process. The process of completing evaluations, as well as arriving at decisions for improvements and a timeframe for implementation, needs to be planned in an uninterrupted year.
Though all the courses delivered have been aligned with CT frameworks, some basic standards for the development of new courses needs to be documented in the Roadmap and used as a guide for future course development and evaluation. This standardization of the course development process will assist with quality assurance as the CT Adult Virtual High School grows. In addition, there is a need to evaluate teachers’ performance in the online environment. Strategies and measures for evaluating and documenting these standards need to be established for this program. There are many national examples that may serve as instruments for useful comparison. These programs, for the most part, have been created for the delivery of standard high school credits. There are also programs designed specifically for ‘at risk’ high school students, as well as advanced placement high school students.
The Roadmap
In response to the grant’s charge to develop a scalable model for the development of the CT Virtual Adult High School, a Roadmap for CT Virtual Adult High School was developed (Exhibit A). From this point forward the project, originally called The Web-Based Learning for the Adult Credit Diploma Program will be referred to as the CT Virtual Adult High School. Developed by the Project Committees and Advisory Board, the roadmap lays out a plan for successful resource sharing in the development of a statewide program. It clearly defines roles and responsibilities of the Central Management unit and its constituents. Administrative, teacher, mentor and student roles and responsibilities are detailed. Program policies, processes and implementation plans are specified. Academic year 2004-05 will allow the test of this model for efficiencies of scale in a statewide program.
Future Investigations
Efficiencies of Scale
Teachers of the four courses and their administrators noted that the time that was taken to teach the four courses far exceeded the state minimum of 48 hours. A 72 hour agreed upon time block for the courses, though not tracked in seat hours, is what it takes to earn a credit in the CT Adult Credit Diploma Program. Teachers did not keep track of all of the hours they worked, nor was student seat time tracked, but rather the success was measured in the outcomes.
Accountability for efficiency of scale is something that will need to be worked out in the coming year. As more LEAs participate and the Web Based Learning for the Adult Credit Diploma Program evolves into a working test model (referred to as the Connecticut Adult Virtual High School), scalability issues will be a primary focus.
The cost of teachers will need to be addressed in the efficiency of scale dilemma. As noted above, there were folks on both relief time and adjunct time; questions are being raised about how to adjust for someone hired on an hourly basis if their time goes beyond the allowance for the course.
Teacher training is an important factor when considering the cost of the teacher’s time (hours per week) to teach a course. The cost of a teacher delivering an online course for the first time is going to be higher than that of an experienced online teacher. The more training and the more familiarity with the Learning Management System and course materials, the more efficient a teacher will be.
Administrative Challenges
There was a labor union grievance filed against Hartford because teachers assigned to students from a distance were taking away local teacher opportunities. Though the CTDLC was not directly involved in this, our awareness of the issue and how it was resolved would help in the formulation of statewide procedures. It is not clear to the CTDLC if there will be further implications for Hartford or other districts regarding staffing and labor union issues.
Developing procedures that will work for all districts is challenging because each LEA operates a little bit different from the others. The four LEAs worked out their administrative details as each felt would work best at their sites. As a centralized collaborative unit, the Student Support Services Committee really did not have much success with their local staff and administrative leaders. The administration seemed to already be in place, and there were instances where the committee members did not feel they could exert the authority to enforce procedures established outside of their posts.
This dynamic has a stronger pull as Committee work begins to subside and processes agreed upon by the Advisory Board and CT Adult Virtual High School begin to ‘go by the wayside’ at locations where there are circumstances that make compliance challenging. Project management will work hard to understand these unique situations as they occur and to collaborate with the Committees and Board of Directors to arrive at solutions for the Program.
Full Credit vs. Half Credit
Currently all of the courses that have been offered by the CT Virtual Adult High School are full credit courses. Two of four programs that have participated in the CT Virtual Adult High Schools offer half credit courses. Students from these programs are not accustomed to the length of time the full credit courses are requiring them to stay on task. Administratively, we have been asked to consider offering partial credit for the courses in the future.
Creating half credit segments of these courses would allow the student population to experience a more immediate accomplishment, working over 8 week segments rather than 15 week segments. The shorter course schedule would also eliminate the cohort groups, since there would not be enough time to start another group.
Financial
Refer to Exhibit B for a financial report and narrative.
Future Goals
Automated Enrollment System
An automated enrollment system is planned for the 2004-05 academic year. This will facilitate participating programs across the state enroll their students into these online courses.
Structure the Development and Delivery of the courses
Standards for the development and delivery of online courses will help to ensure consistency of quality. These standards will address guidelines for the creation and delivery of online courses. Issues to be addressed will include operations, curriculum, teachers and quality assurance.
Other National Virtual High School Programs
Though there are many Virtual High Schools cropping up around the country, the focus tends to be on courses for advanced placement, at risk students or for electives and alternative access for general high school credits. The CT Adult Virtual High School is unique because here we are focusing on the Adult Credit Diploma student, and we are adapting the course curriculum not only for the student, but for the unique schedule of the adult education programs in the state. Courses offered for full credit are taken in a 15 week period, and half credit courses are taken in an 8 week period. By contrast, courses offered in standard virtual high school environments are year-long.
The time crunch for the delivery of the CT Virtual Adult High School courses has posed additional challenges for course development and delivery; teacher training, preparation, and response time; student acclimation and response time; and administrative planning, enrollment, and program integration. At the same time the option for online course credits has allowed students the benefits of access and the state programs the benefits of curriculum standardization and resource sharing.
Though there are best practices that can be adopted, the needs of this population require curriculum and schedule modifications that make this program different from the other programs being developed across the country. Strategies have been established to address some of these needs as follows:
We are exploring the possibility of having a reading level score assigned to courses so that students can be placed into courses that are appropriate to their reading levels. Most students who are enrolled in Adult Credit Diploma Programs (ACDP) in CT have had difficulty in the traditional school environment or they are dealing with personal or family issues that require flexible schedules. Students often ‘stop-out’ of an on ground ACDP course for a period of time and then return to pick up where they left off. This does not work in an online course that is only eight or fifteen weeks long. Care needs to be taken when enrolling students that they understand the time and work commitment that they are undertaking. The Student Support Services Committee created a Student Weekly Activities list that outlines the required weekly activities for a successful online student. Each student must read and sign this before they are enrolled in a course. As well, mentoring is a more challenging task with the adult education population. ACDP students are accustomed to continuous encouragement and support in a face to face classroom so the lack of immediate teacher response in the online environment can be discouraging for many of them. Additional care needs to be taken by teachers and mentors to clearly define online response expectations, as well as other way that students can get answers to their questions. An FAQ page on the course cuts down on excess emails; and scheduled ‘office hours’ listing when students can contact their teachers or mentors also help. As well, instructions on assignments need to be presented in clear steps and they need to appear frequently throughout each exercise in the course in order to cut down on confusion for students over what they should do next.
An overview of current Virtual High Schools making strides in their development are described in detail in Exhibit C.
Attachment 1
Online Course Evaluations
Joan Donoghue: American Government/Civics
Spring 2004
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|What could be done to improve this course? |What could be done to improve services to |Comment |
| |online students? | |
|To not switch the teachers mid stream |More interaction with the students |I like the online courses because you|
| | |can go at your own speed. |
|Less technical problems. A little more |You could try to be a little more clear |I think this was a great way to learn|
|information. |about where to find the information some |Government courses, and i think with |
| |students have a hard time with going |a little more work it will be a great|
| |online. |way to do courses. |
|I wouldn't really do anything to improve this |Ease of use around the site might be | |
|course, its either you do the work or don’t. |helpful. It was hard to learn, but once I | |
| |did it was easy | |
|To improve is course you should make the |The service in the online course is |None. |
|assignments more clear and to the point. |excellent. | |
|Put naked ladies on the web pages |i wouldn’t worry too much about that | |
|I thought that the coarse was great. It was |Keep it the way it is. |Thank you Joan and i can't wait to |
|easy to follow and Joan Donoghue was a great | |take another online coarse. |
|teacher and mentor. | | |
|Make the course more specifically user | |i was very grateful to have the |
|friendly. The contemporary literature example | |opportunity to take this course so i |
|taught by Jim Talmadge would be beneficial to | |could graduate on time. |
|study when revamping this course. | | |
|put naked ladies on the website |don’t worry, its all good | |
|I think if it could be changed a little bit so|I think that for the most part the course | |
|you’re not all over the site. |was not bad if you read what your suppose | |
| |to do. It was a little confusing at first | |
| |because assignments were emended. | |
|is ok the way it is |nothing, its fine |the course was good |
Attachment 2
Online Course Evaluations
Renata Kaluzny-Blaszyczyk: Physical Science
Spring 2004
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|What could be done to improve this |What could be done to improve services |Comments |
|course? |to online students? | |
|Hints to help you with problems. |Have meetings once a week to help | |
| |students with what they don't | |
| |understand. | |
|I think it could show easier work since|It should be a lot simpler and provide |I learned a lot form the course, but found it to|
|It was my first science and the words |easier information to some of us who |be to advanced to us high school students. Some |
|seemed a little hard. |are new. |people haven’t been to school in years and this |
| | |would make it hard for them to finish on time. |
| | |In my opinion, it should just be a little |
| | |easier. |
|easier lessons |more sources | |
|Making sure time is set for it. | | |
| | | |
|Sometimes I could not log on for a long| | |
|time or not at all. It was something | | |
|to do with Blackboard. | | |
|more information | | |
Attachment 3
Online Course Evaluations
Local Staff: Orientation to Online Learning
Spring 2004
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|What could be done to improve this course? |What could be done to improve services |Comments |
| |to online students? | |
|Some of the assignments couldn’t be done because they |its fine the way it is |I enjoyed the course |
|weren’t up | | |
| | |thanks |
| | |thank you very much for |
| | |offering this to Middletown |
| | |students |
|I think that the course was fine I learned something |I think that everything is okay | |
|new | | |
|You could do more work online and not have to print out|Nothing. everything is good |none |
|so much stuff. and write so much | | |
|Nothing should be done because i think the course is |Everything was good for me. |i like the course. |
|perfect. | | |
|more work online |none |none |
|no improving needed |nothing | |
|I wouldn’t improve this course its awesome. | | |
|more writing online |none |none |
|Its a little jumbled in together so if there were less |less of a mess....its complicated to get| |
|things on the course then it wouldn’t be as messy. |through it a little bit | |
|more practice on word processing | | |
|Everything is clear... |none... | |
|maybe certain parts of the modules could be explained a| |I think that this course is |
|little bit more in detail | |very interesting I have learned|
| | |a lot of new things and got my |
| | |computer skills refreshed. |
| Nothing really, I really enjoyed this course, I wish |I wasn't sure if the teacher got my |I really liked this course. |
|that it didn't end. |assignment so that made me a little |I would like to take a typing |
| |jittery. Maybe just a confirmation |course, just to polish up my |
| |sometimes would be helpful. |typing skills. |
|i dunno |i dunno |It was Ok |
| | | |
| |different hours to use computers | |
|Nothing. |made it easier | |
|online orientation.... make it shorter | | |
|not doing it at all |nothing |this course sux |
|Need to fix some of your test having extra click |You could make some kind of book mark so| |
|bubbles without anything at them for answers cause’s |students know where they left off last. | |
|wrong answers. This is in the overview for the end of | | |
|mod.2. | | |
|What could be done to improve this course? |What could be done to improve services |Comments |
| |to online students? | |
|I got A little confused with the pre course at the end | | |
|of mod. 3 Under the first assignment it says something | | |
|like... List items from the two sites posted and list | | |
|or use a table of what they carried | | |
|and But there was no | | |
|link. Where was I supposed to go???? If you make | | |
|things more clear about this It would improve the end | | |
|of the module. Thank you. | | |
|more music |unknown | |
|Keep the sound and continue to keep the visual clear. |You are doing a great job. |See you May 26, 2004 |
|You need to make it easier to get to where you left | | |
|off, and also get into the activities with less running| | |
|around. | | |
|As is the case in most opportunities we are given for |Same as above, but I would add that with| |
|workshops or conferences, there is never enough time to|more confident teachers, you might have | |
|really get a good grip on the materials or the |more able mentors. | |
|technology. This was an excellent training, but | | |
|personally, I would have liked it to have been a week | | |
|long, not just two days. | | |
|not having it so boring and easier to understand.......|nothing.......... | There were a couple of times I|
| | |didn’t understand a part and |
| | |neither did the teacher........|
Attachment 4
Online Course Evaluations
Denise Spellman: Algebra 1
Spring 2004
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| |What could be done to improve |Comments |
|What could be done to improve this |services to online students? | |
|course? | | |
|GIVE YOU YOUR WORK BASED ON YOUR MATH |GIVE FREE LAPTOPS. |I REALLY ENJOY THIS MATH COURSE VERY INTERESTING |
|EXPERIENCES. | |BESIDES HAVING A WONDERFUL TEACHER AND MENTOR. |
|the grading shouldn't be 80% and up |the service was ok, needs no | |
| |improvement | |
|Nothing I can think of. |nothing I can think of |It was a good course. It made it easier to learn the |
| | |lessons. |
|EVERYTHING IS FINE. | |Mrs Spellman help me a lot during this course. When I |
| | |was having difficulties. I called her and she was |
| | |always there for me. When I didn't understand a |
| | |problem I called her and she would help me over the |
| | |phone. |
| | | |
| | |Rosa Rivas. |
|I did not like the fact that boxer |I think that someone should meet |Mrs. Spellmen was the reason I finished this course if|
|math had different problems when it |with the students once a week to |it was not for her I would not have finished. Mrs. |
|came to the test. I also would of |see how and where they are and if |Spellmen is a saint and should be reconized for all |
|liked more examples for the different |they seem to be behind get them the|the hard that she has done. Math is not the easist |
|word problems. |help they need. I would also |subject and she knew that and helped each of us pass |
| |suggest that the course be |to the best of her ability. She had to help me over |
| |available to all computers. |the phone for a few nights and would not let me off |
| | |the phone until she knew that everything was okay |
| | |with. MRS. SPELLMEN IS THE BEST!!! |
|The only thing I can think of would be|More computer availability- In my |I think that the program as a whole was perfect for a |
|to have more online chats with the |case it was HTFD Adult Eds mistake |student such as myself do to the fact that I like |
|rest of the students involved in the |that the class was not scheduled in|doing thing at my own pace with only certain |
|online program |my second semester- besides that |guidlines. As a whole the program was very |
| |nothing! |interesting and I learned alot thanks to Mrs. |
| | |Spellman(teacher) and Mrs. Rodriguez(mentor) |
|to me when a stundent taking atest the|work on boxer |i enjoyed better than board work to me i like to no |
|boxer just stops sometime . that | |that if i did the problem wrong it tells me but if i'm|
|would help if that didn't happen and | |lost if gives you a hint . my teacher she helped me |
|you can't get into bbl all the time | |understand more mrs .spellman i think you need more |
|from different computers that doesn't | |math teachers like her who understanding to students. |
|work if your away. | | |
|I think the material should be eaiser |There should be less technical |Overall the work was a bit hard to understand. It |
|to understand because it was a little |problems. |should relate alot better to the test itself and it |
|hard to do the test. | |shoul be a little clearer. |
|Nothing, its already great. |Nothing, its already great |Mrs. Spellman is a really good teacher. |
| |What could be done to improve |Comments |
|What could be done to improve this |services to online students? | |
|course? | | |
|I think that the tutorial could be a | I think that if we each had a |I like this course. It was very good to learn. I |
|little more easier to understand. |mentor, it would be easier. |learned a lot. I also think that the teacher made it a|
| | |lot easier for me. She is a very good on-line teacher.|
|more explation |class time | |
|i can't think of anything that would |i can't think of anything that |it was fun and i would like to do more online courses |
|imporve this course. |would improve the sevices | |
Attachment 5
Online Course Evaluations
Jim Tallmadge: Contemporary Literature
Spring 2004
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|What could be done to improve this course? |What could be done to improve |Comments |
| |services to online students? | |
| | | |
|Please put your comments here |A little more organized, it was a | |
| |little confusing sometimes | |
|I would like to see material kept neutral, which | |I think Jim is a wonderful teacher, and |
|means this is not black American literature. I was | |I like the fact he stays in contact with|
|put off by one book in the course which was reflected| |you, and answers all emails quickly. He |
|by my grades. Lets keep these courses balanced but | |is an asset to your program. |
|also non racial, if you were to put books about white| | |
|people only or what blacks have done to whites for | | |
|years, people would be up in arms. Well I feel the | | |
|same way the blacks would feel. Now that being said, | | |
|your asking yourself I am sure ? Is she a racist, No.| | |
|I was raised in a white/black/Puerto Rican family. | | |
|Which taught me not to view race, that’s why my | | |
|feelings are so strong about books that promote | | |
|feelings of hostility amongst the races. | | |
|I think the course was set up really good. I think it|I also think this was set up good.|I got a lot out of this course and am |
|should stay the same because I could have gotten a | |grateful for it being available to me. I|
|lot more out of it if only I spent more time working | |also think that my instructor was a |
|on it. | |really big help to me because if it |
| | |weren't for him "nagging" me every day i|
| | |would most likely not be finishing the |
| | |course on time. |
|I would make it less work. | | |
Attachment 6
Online Course Evaluations
Aggregate Data for All Courses
Spring 2004
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Exhibit A
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A Roadmap for
Connecticut’s Virtual High School
Produced by the
The Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium
With the CT Adult Credit Diploma Programs
April 2004
85 Alumni Road
Newington, CT 06111
(860) 832-3888
Contents
Purpose of the Roadmap
Roles and Responsibilities
• Centralized Roles and Responsibilities
• Local Education Agency/District Roles and Responsibilities
• Administrative Roles and Responsibilities
a. Local Administration
b. Registration/Enrollment Process
• Student Roles and Responsibilities
• Teacher Roles and Responsibilities and training
• Mentor Roles and Responsibilities and training
Curriculum Selection
Technology Specifications
Lessons Learned
Appendices
Instructor’s Role
Mentor/Facilitator Guidelines
Mentor Facilitator Training Curriculum
Blackboard Contingency Planning
Purpose of the Roadmap
This document is written with the intent of outlining the processes for successful resource sharing in the development of a statewide Virtual High School. Initially, this program is designed to provide the Adult Education Community with another option for offering ACDP courses.
Roles and Responsibilities
1. Centralized Roles and Responsibilities
o Learning Management System hosting
o Help Desk
o Enrollment Management (maintain a statewide online registration system
o Grade transfer to partnering districts/LEAs for credit awards
o Faculty Training/Faculty Management (hiring/firing, receiving and vetting concerns and criticisms, initiating retraining)
o Work with SDE and LEA Directors to create working policies for the extension across districts of a statewide virtual high school.
2. Local Education Agency/ District Roles and Responsibilities
o Criteria for partnership
▪ Provide faculty to
• train and teach an online course
• mentor online students
• shadow/mentor new teachers
▪ Provide and Online Learning Coordinator
▪ X number of students who meet the criteria for taking an online ACDP course.
3. Administrator Roles and Responsibilities (shared role)
o Each Local Education Agency/District must provide an Online Learning Coordinator to coordinate eligible faculty/staff and students into the online program. This person is the local point of contact to the Central Management Group, and liaison for all communications regarding the online program.
▪ The DL coordinator will coordinate registration and course enrollment for each student, including the verification/validation of each student's e-mail address. This may involve establishing student e-mail accounts with providers such as
▪ The DL coordinator will coordinate technology needs for running the online courses and communicate that information to appropriate staff and students. Such technology needs may include but are not limited to: details of web browser requirements, browser plug-ins, sound cards, etc.
▪ The DL coordinator will work with the center Director and the center Technology Coordinator to establish and coordinate technology literacy training and triage of the center's staff.
▪ The DL coordinator will work with mentors and students to establish and coordinate mentor support of students. In case of absence of a mentor, the DL coordinator will also coordinate continuing support of students served by the absent mentor.
▪ The DL coordinator is an essential communication liaison between the Connecticut Virtual High School Executive staff and the AE center staff.
▪ The DL coordinator needs to be empowered to implement and communicate news and directions from the CT AVHS Executive Board.
o Online Registration Specifications & Procedures
An Online Registration System (ORS) will provide:
• A transparent tool set for statewide online enrollment management including:
o Course registration (student name, email address, course, instructor)
o Waiting List Management
o Process for the creation of additional “sections”
o Add/Drop Process
o Grade Reporting to CARS
Student Registration Procedures
• Students successfully complete the Online Orientation course
• LEA advisors select prepared students and recommend appropriate online courses
• Students are added to the Course Wait list in the ORS
• New cohorts of students begin at regular intervals (e.g. September, November, January, March)
• LEA advisors receive Drop information from ORS
• New enrollees are added from Wait List to replace Drops (during a period to be defined)
New Section Creation
• When the Wait List reaches an agreed upon number (to be determined), a New Section is created.
o An Instructor is identified and enrolled in the course*
o LEA Mentor identities are enrolled in the Section
o Students are enrolled from the Wait List
Operating Principles
• Sections will have student enrollment limits (to be determined)
• Students will NOT receive partial credit for online courses
• Enrollment from the Wait Lists will be on a first come, first served basis
• Enrollment credit will remain with the LEA from which the student comes
• A cost/enrollment will be assigned (to be determined)
• The ORS will track “charge backs” as determined by the Adult Credit Diploma Program (to be determined)
4. Student Roles and Responsibilities (Student Prerequisites)
• Before students are allowed to enroll in an online course, they must first complete the Online Student Orientation Course which is a rigorous exposure to online learning. If they make it through the orientation course, not only will they be fully informed as to what to expect, they will also know what is expected of them.
• Students must have met with an advisor before being enrolled (i.e., they can’t enroll themselves)
• Students must have already completed at least one AE course at their local LEA so that they will be apprised of local policies and be familiar with people and procedures.
• Students must have achieved a minimum of (to be decided) CASAS score.
• Students must agree to adhere to the following weekly activities:
▪ A student will meet with a local counselor, review and agree to follow the Weekly Activities required of them in order to take an online course.
▪ A student will be assigned a local Mentor who will work with him or her to help fulfill the course requirements, but who will not do any of the student’s work for him or her. The student will be contacted by the Mentor and will arrange for a mutually convenient time, format (phone, email or face to face) and schedule for regular contact.
▪ Students will be in contact with their Mentor at least once per week. This is a time to review the student’s progress and work schedule and discuss/initiate strategies for effectiveness. The Mentor will also answer logistical questions, tutor the student or assist with appropriate learning resources as is necessary and provide encouragement.
▪ In their initial meeting, the Student and Mentor will visit the course calendar and the syllabus to establish a workable schedule for completion of the course requirements.
▪ The student will also review the assessment rubrics with the Mentor.
▪ Students will log into the course and follow the course readings and complete course assignments every week, for the 12 week period that the course is offered.
▪ Students will keep up with the course by:
• Emailing the teacher to let him/her know they are beginning the course. (Identify themselves by name in all emails and homework)
• Logging into the course and checking for announcements at least every other day. (If Tuesdays and Thursdays, a day in the weekend is also recommended).
• Checking for course email at least every other day. (If Tuesdays and Thursdays, a day in the weekend is also recommended).
• Replying to course email and the teacher’s discussion questions promptly – making sure to include their electronic signature with each communication.
• Completing assignments that their teachers post to the course on time every week.
• Asking the teacher questions when they are unsure about an assignment. Sending email or calling the teacher if the phone number is listed on the course.
• Sign up for regular times to attend their local computer lab. Notify the lab proctors if they will not be attending because they are working on a computer elsewhere.
• If they have any technical questions about where or how to submit their online assignments or how to save their work in electronic files, contact their Mentor immediately.
• Have a backup plan for access to a computer.
5. Teacher Roles and Responsibilities (Prerequisites in order to teach successfully online)
Candidates for online instructional roles should have the following qualifications:
• CT Certification in the subject area they will teach.
• Experience with Connecticut Adult Credit Diploma Program students & programs.
• Demonstrable competence with standard Internet tools (i.e. e-mail, web searches, Word processing, file organization, and anti-virus procedures).
• Home computer with a robust Internet connection.
• Strong writing skills combined with a commitment to non-verbal communication with students.
• Time (not measures in standard course block)
Training Process (may be concurrent)
• 3 months service as an observer in a master teacher’s online course.
• 3 professional development workshops (see below and see Instructor’s Role).
Professional Development
Workshop 1: What’s expected of an online instructor?
• Instructor Role
• Supporting Students
• Student Prerequisites
• Communication with Mentors and Students
Time needed: Approximately ½ day
Workshop 2: Course Management System: Blackboard
• Organizing your course
• Communication Tools
• Assessment Tools
• Faculty Information
• Changing your course
• Digital Drop Box?
• Grade book?
Time needed: Approximately 1 day
Workshop 3: Online Orientation Course
• Module 1: Orientation to Online Learning
• Module 2: Getting to know your computer
• Module 3: Orientation to Blackboard
• Module 4: Teacher/Mentor/Facilitator Discussion
Time needed: Approximately 2 days
Deliverables
• A report on the teacher-student interactions observed in the Master teacher’s course. This discussion should focus on how the teacher created community, interacted with mentors, solved learning problems, encouraged student commitment, adjusted the curriculum, and managed the technology.
• A personalized syllabus for the course to be taught. This document should include any changes in resources, assignments, assessments or discussion prompts, along with a justification of each.
• A personal time management schedule identifying when you will:
▪ Check email, answer questions, communicate with mentors
▪ Assess assignments
▪ Create new/modify assignments
• Successful completion of the Professional Development sequence.
6. Mentor Roles and Responsibilities
Mentor’s Weekly Activities
The Mentor works with the student to help him or her to fulfill the course requirements, but will not do any of the student’s work for him or her.
When a student is enrolled in an online course, the local Online Learning Coordinator (OLC) will assign a Mentor to that student.
The Mentor will be notified by the local Online Learning Coordinator that a new student has been enrolled.
The Mentor will contact that student immediately to arrange for a mutually convenient time, format (phone, email, or face to face) and schedule for regular contact.
Mentors will be in contact with students at least once per week. This is a time to review the student’s progress and work schedule and discuss/initiate strategies for effectiveness. The Mentor will also answer logistical questions, tutor the student if possible or assist with appropriate learning resources as is necessary and provide encouragement.
Mentors will log into the Course and become familiar with the navigation of the course and the course requirements.
In their initial meeting, the Mentor and Student will visit the course calendar and the syllabus to establish a workable schedule for completion of the course requirements.
Mentors will also review the assessment rubrics with the student. (Teachers must communicate to the Mentors where the rubrics have been placed in the course.) Mentors will provide any additional course supplies to the student, i.e. books, binders, handouts, etc.
The Mentor will track the student’s progress regularly by:
• Checking email, course announcements and the teacher communication forum at least every other day. The Mentor must log into the course to check the announcements and the teacher forum. (If Tuesdays and Thursdays, a day in the weekend is also recommended).
• Replying to email and the teacher forum questions promptly – making sure to include your electronic signature with each communication.
• If emailing a student, cc the teacher on important communications.
• The Mentor will contact the course teacher immediately when it is clear that the student is not going to continue in the course and when there are student issues that the teacher should be aware of. The OLC will be cc’d.
• The Mentor will visit the student grade book and corrected assignments, teacher comments with the student weekly.
o Mentor Preparation for Online Courses
Prerequisites
Candidates for mentor roles should have the following qualities and experiences:
• CT Certification or paraprofessional status.
• Experience with Connecticut Adult Credit Diploma Program students & programs.
• Demonstrable competence with standard Internet tools (i.e. e-mail, web searches, Word processing, file organization, and anti-virus procedures).
• Tutoring experience (working with students taking courses led by someone else).
• Completion of the Orientation course.
• Access to the Mentor e-mail and log in identity for the LEA.
• Familiarity with Blackboard and the various online courses.
Process (may be concurrent)
• 3 months service as an observer in an experienced teacher’s online course.
• 1 professional development workshop (see below).
Professional Development
Workshop 1: Facilitator Mentor Training
(see Mentor Agenda for detailed description of workshop)
• Using the Technology
• Mentor-Student relationship
• Mentor-Teacher relationship
• Case Studies
• Mentor Profile
Time needed: Approximately ½ day
Deliverables
• A report describing how previous student support experiences can be used to support online students. Specific sections on strategies for communication with online teachers and strengthening student commitment are required.
• A signed copy of the Mentor Guidelines.
• A case study due after the first semester of mentoring.
Selection of New Online Curriculum
Team Prerequisites
Participants in a Curriculum Selection team should have the following:
• CT Certification in the subject area they are investigating.
• Demonstrable competence with standard Internet tools (i.e. e-mail, web searches, Word processing, file organization, and anti-virus procedures).
• Previous experience with online course selection OR online teaching experience.
• Experience with the Connecticut Curriculum Standards for the discipline in question.
Process (est. time = 60 days)
• Identify sources for the subject in questions (these may be commercial, local, or new)
• Review the materials to see which best meet the selection criteria (see below)
Selection Criteria (in descending order of importance)
• Meets Connecticut Curriculum Standards.
• Reading level and approach are appropriate to Connecticut Adult High School students.
• Flexibility (can instructors add, subtract, and re-purpose the materials?).
• Interactivity (the course will engage students in individual and group activities that foster learning).
• Technical features
o Graphical appropriateness (multimedia elements, effective use of fonts, white space, images, video, etc.).
o Web references (online resources, stable providers, unbroken links, etc.).
o Adaptability to Connecticut’s Learning Management System (can the course be delivered by or through Blackboard).
o Content is re-organizable (sections can be moved, deleted, or expanded).
• Commercial content can be leased at rates and for time periods appropriate to Connecticut’s purposes.
• Local courses can be provided at affordable rates and without copyright entanglements.
Deliverables
• The team will deliver a report on the curriculum they recommend, detailing its strengths, weaknesses, provider, and financial particulars. This report will serve as the basis for the purchase/lease of the course, so it should contain all the necessary contact information, version information, pricing, access codes, etc.
• The team will provide a syllabus for the course (this may be supplied by the content creator).
• The team will document the curriculum’s alignment with the Connecticut Curriculum Standards.
Technology Specifications for Online Learning
A Course Management System (CMS) should provide:
• An integrated tool set for online learning including:
o Communication tools (e-mail, discussion board, chat)
o Content controls (web files, syllabus, navigation options)
o Assessment tools & Grade book.
o Backend database for student progress & SIS integration
• SCORM and AICC compliance
• Licensing model that works for a statewide initiative.
Application Service Provider/ Help Desk
• Data Center for CMS hosting with procedures for backup, automated server monitoring, professional technical support (see Contingency Planning for sample).
• 7x24x365 support for the CMS.
• 7-day support for student and teachers using the courseware with system for tracking issues and solutions.
• Online documentation for standard user issues (passwords, browser compatibility, CMS issues, frequently asked questions, etc.
Student Computing
• Access to an LEA provided resources.
• LEA labs meeting the specifications for online courses.
o Internet access
o Software: compatible browser, MS Office
o Hardware: printers, microphones, scanners, digital cameras.
o Current Plug-in availability (e.g. Adobe Acrobat, Flash, Windows Media Player, Real Player, etc.).
• Specifications/documentation for student “home” computers.
• Portable media (floppies, zip disks) for transport of student work.
Instructor computing
• Technology certification (see Prerequisites in Teacher Preparation for Online Courses)
• At work (see Student Computing).
• At home (Internet access for monitoring student communication).
• Certification in using the CMS (see Teacher Preparation…)
Appendices
Instructor’s Role
Mentor/Facilitator Guidelines
Mentor Facilitator Training Curriculum
Blackboard Contingency Planning
The Online Instructor’s Role
What is it like to teach online? Can I do it? Will I like it? Will my students learn? Who will help me?
These are just a few of the questions that leap to mind when teachers are asked to imagine teaching an online course. This document is an attempt to de-mystify that activity.
First, online teaching requires the same skill set as on-ground teaching. In other words, the abilities that make someone a good teacher—content expertise, strategies for facilitating student learning, communication skills, and nurturing—are also required for the online teacher. We can’t make an online teacher out of anyone who is not already a skilled teacher.
So what is different? Well online instruction involves the substitution of written feedback for most, although not all, of the teacher-student interaction. And that is an area where teachers new to online instruction will benefit from some instruction and some direct exposure to an online class. These skills are learnable, and most online teachers report that they bond with their online students at least as strongly as they bond with their on ground charges. So while the interaction is written more than verbal, the result can be the same—students learn and the bond with each other and with their instructor.
Second, online courses arrive fully designed for the instructor to use. In other words, teaching online does not require building a web site any more than teaching on ground requires writing a textbook. The typical online courses are built through a collaboration of content experts, instructional designers, graphic arts, and assessment specialists. Online instructors take this work and add their special materials, insights, and personality. The result is a “customized” course built on quality pre-existing materials.
And finally, the scariest question: what technical skills are necessary to teach online? The answer is that a good online instructor will be comfortable with the standard Internet tools—email, web searches, word processing, and attaching files to email. In addition, online instructors need to learn how to protect themselves and their students from viruses, how to deal with multiple file types (e.g. changing a Word document into at RTF file or into an HTML file), and how to post to a threaded discussion. These final three areas may require a couple of hours of training, but they aren’t difficult.
Most online courses are delivered within an application called a Course Management System (this project uses one called Blackboard). The online instructor needs to be familiar with how this application works, and that will also take a few hours of training and some practice.
But online instructors are NOT programmers, graphic artists, or help desk support. These responsibilities belong to others.
Content Clarifier
While content is already provided, you as instructor get to decide the best activities and pacing for your class. What has already been done for you is the “lecture”; it’s the online teacher’s job to help individual students understand concepts that they don’t understand, just as you would help individuals during class work time.
You can answer students’ questions via email, phone, or live chat. It’s a good policy if you have release time to work on this class to establish at least one office hour per week in which you’ll be available live time online (we’ll learn how to use the tool this afternoon) in which students can communicate with you. It is also important to establish an email response time. A good response time is this: 8 hours for the first week (check your email several times each day), 24 hours thereafter. Be sure to give yourself some leeway on the weekends, as well. Make sure you tell your students what your boundaries are!
For phone calls, let students know when it is appropriate to call you (if at all). If you don’t want to receive calls at home, don’t give out your home number. Do, however, provide your office phone number with a good time to call. Some students have a really hard time communicating online. They need to know they can talk with a live human being. Again, set the boundaries: when can they reach you?
The Online Instructor role is really a switch from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side”; this role has two meanings. The first is class-wide. You watch for trends in class errors or successes and encourage or re-teach as necessary. You might find it advisable to schedule a class tutoring session (you can archive this session for students who can’t make it or you can use a discussion board). Or you might want to start an asynchronous online discussion to help students articulate their understanding of a concept that they seem to be missing. Perhaps you’ll want to bring in an activity you’ve used in the classroom that has helped you teach a particularly difficult concept. For example, the Algebra teachers we worked with when we were deliberating on what content to use for the Algebra class all different metaphors for teaching the distributive method of multiplication had. Please bring your expertise into the online classroom! Don’t feel restricted by the content—it’s there to take a lot of the burden of instruction off your shoulders, not to stop you from teaching.
Another aspect of being an online instructor is making sure that students overcome obstacles of online learning. The Online Student Orientation Course should do a thorough job of preparing them, but there are bound to be some psychological and technological hurdles that will need to be overcome in order for certain students to have a successful learning experience. If a student is not turning in assignments or hasn’t logged in for 2-3 days, it’s a good idea to be proactive and contact their onsite mentor. Find out what’s happened. In many instances, the student has become frustrated by some aspect of the class and has, for one reason or another, simply failed to ask the right questions. If you ask probing questions, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to find the reason and help the student get back on track.
Just as in a face-to-face environment, your students thrive on the verbal and non-verbal cues of encouragement and support; online students need to feel that you support them and are on their side. Given the environment, these evidences need to be overt. They can range from positive comments on assignments, to email reports (this is how you’re doing, good job on this, you can improve on that), emails or phone calls commending them for specific achievements (it’s also nice to copy these praise messages to the onsite coordinator/mentor).
Student Support System
Though you may be your students’ first point of contact, you are not alone in helping the students in your online courses to succeed. Other resources include the onsite mentors for counseling, advising, encouragement, and helping to bridge communication gaps between you and the students. Ideally, you’ll keep in contact with the onsite mentor—report progress, problems, and successes on a regular basis. If you lose track of a student, ask the onsite mentor to help you track him/her down and find out what is going on.
In addition, you do not need to know all the answers to your students (or your own!) technical questions. The CTDLC tech support can be accessed by both teachers and students (860-832-3887) or support@.
Start Dates and Enrollments
One of the primary goals of this project is to create an option for students who do not come in at the beginning of the school year to get started without having to wait for the next semester. To accommodate these students and to retain the benefits of a group learning environment (which ranges from critical in an English class to optional but handy in a Math class), we have created a rolling enrollments system. This system says that cohort groups will start every September, November, January and March, and progress through the course at a given rate. If a student needs to drop the course for a month to deal with family or work issues, he or she could rejoin his or her cohort where he or she left off 6-8 weeks after he/she dropped.
What this means for you… You’ll probably start out with a fair size cohort that will dwindle as life catches up with students. These students will hopefully rejoin the class during later iterations. You will, therefore, conceivably be answering questions and grading assignments on two or three different topics at any given point in the class.
Virtual High School Mentor Guidelines
The Mentor Role- What is the purpose of the Mentor role, and why has it developed into a critical factor for success in Virtual High School programs nation-wide?
Working from a knowledge base drawn from the experiences of accomplished online instructors, as well as the most current research coming out of the distance learning community, and the wisdom of the adult education community, the following guidelines for Mentors are offered.
The three areas of focus for these guidelines are:
1) Procedures
2) Technology
3) Relationships
Procedures
How often do Mentors communicate with students?
• Each student should have contact with his/her Mentor at least one time a week, either face to face or virtually.
• If a student is having difficulty, more frequent contact is recommended.
This weekly meeting will facilitate two processes:
1) Documenting student progress
• A form for documentation that can be used electronically or in hard copy will be provided. It is primarily a check off list with an area for comments.
• This form can be edited by adding student tasks to the list as necessary. Please do not delete the tasks that are listed in the original.
• Student documentation will be collected by the CTDLC research team for project assessment and reporting purposes.
We recommend weekly documentation for several reasons:
• To identify those students who require extra attention, and to respond by creating a plan of action with these students (to be proactive rather than reactive).
• To keep students secured and anchored, providing a record that facilitates consistency should there be changes in personnel.
• To be accountable. We can use data provided in student documentation to report on how students did in the program overall, and to identify factors that influenced student success and failure.
2) Help students articulate their plan of study
• Some students require assistance organizing their schedules. Online courses require even more deliberate structuring of one’s time. Therefore, it is recommended that the Mentor Facilitator help the student create a weekly study plan, identifying for example, when to study, when to complete assignments, when to log into a discussion group, etc.
• An online Student Study Plan has been created to facilitate this process. This information will not be collected by the CTDLC.
Preparing for Technological Challenges
The following issues have been identified as potential technological challenges students might experience in an online classroom format. Responses to each challenge are listed in italics:
❖ The server goes down and students cannot access the course.
▪ Develop a relationship with the local library and encourage students to use the library’s computers.
▪ Identify alternate computer sites with students.
▪ Remind the students they can work at a later time if necessary.
❖ Dealing with security issues/Facilitating internet access at each site
▪ Advise students not to use AOL at all.
▪ Help Students set up email through or an equivalent service
▪ .
❖ Online distractions can make it difficult for students to stay on track. This is not something that can be easily controlled by the Mentor.
▪ When reviewing a student’s study plan, use this time as an opportunity to discuss how the student is using his/her scheduled study time, particularly if the individual’s goals are not met.
▪ Discuss the impact internet distractions could be having on these study sessions.
❖ How can I help a student make sure s/he has the required computer settings to access the course and all course materials?
▪ Mentors need to help students to access technical support, using email and/or using the phone. Help students articulate their questions and have them email, or call CTDLC support.
▪ Consider having a student who is reluctant to contact support help independently, actively practice calling CTDLC support (phone # 860-832-3808).
▪ CTDLC will provide each LEA with a list of the necessary computer and browser requirements to run Blackboard.
▪ Identify your own local technological resources. Who is your LEA’s computer guru? Having local access to technical support would helpful.
❖ Some students do not like to read from the monitor.
▪ Use the audio feature (this will require students having access to headphones when they are not studying at home).
▪ Each LEA will need to establish their own protocol for addressing student access to printers and paper.
The Mentor Relationships: Students and Teachers
How is the student Mentor relationship different from the relationship between a student and Teacher? And what relationship does the Mentor have with the Teacher?
The Online Teacher is responsible for:
❖ Course Content
❖ Grading
❖ Evaluation/Assessment
❖ Sequence/Time Line
❖ Creating a Learning Community/Establishing a sense of Community/Creating a Space where Students feel safe and secure
❖ Communicating with Students (timely feedback…within 24 hours)
❖ Maintaining the course (i.e. updating links)
The Mentor’s role is:
A. To act as the Teacher’s eyes and ears, providing:
❖ Direct reporting to the Teacher, when necessary, that a Student is frustrated, angry, or in distress.
❖ A resource to help the Teacher problem solve when addressing an individual student’s needs.
❖ Another person to help the student develop the skills required to communicate, organize and succeed in the online classroom.
B. To be the student’s face-to-face resource for:
❖ Emotional support
❖ Technical guidance
❖ Communication facilitation
❖ Program documentation
Below are ideas and suggestions for developing effective practices:
1. The Mentor provides the “personal” touch. Be available to the student as an emotional support person. Calm a student when angry and help him/her explore his/her feelings when upset.
2. Having clear expectations from the onset of all classes regarding the Teacher’s expectations, perhaps in the form of rubrics, will help Mentors provide appropriate and effective guidance to students in completing their assignments.
3. Encourage students to communicate with their Teachers, helping them as they articulate their thoughts and questions. Help students to appropriately use email for communication.
4. Facilitate student and Teacher communication so they are in contact with each other as much as possible. Intervene on the student’s behalf only when necessary.
5. Never make derogatory remarks about the online Teacher no matter what you think or feel.
6. Be very careful not to create a good Teacher/bad Teacher dynamic, where the student sees you as the able person and the Teacher as less than.
7. The Mentor should primarily be the “Process Person,” facilitating the work of the student and Teacher, but not getting actively involved in teaching any of the courses.
8. The content of the course and how it is taught should be left to the Teacher to design and control.
Finally, the roles of the Mentor and the Teacher need to be clearly delineated and conveyed to the students.
Some suggestions for accomplishing this are:
1. Make it clear to students that the Mentors will not do any of their work.
2. Create a space on ground that will support the online Teacher’s task of creating an effective online learning environment (This requires further clarification. Consider how you do this and share your ideas and insights with your peers).
All Instructors and Mentors are encouraged to actively use the Online HS degree program discussion room CTDLC has created in BLACKBOARD. This is a place where you will be able to ask questions, post your ideas, or report on a best practice as it is discovered, and where you will be able to learn from and support one another. Timberley Barber, a CTDLC Instructional designer is the online mentor for this room, facilitating discussions, offering advice, etc. To get registered to use this Discussion room, please email your request along with a valid email address to Gretchen Hayden, Project Manager, at ghayden@.
Name Date
District/Program
Agenda
Virtual High School Mentor Training
Note: Prior to training, participants need be familiar with the program to date, including both the technology and the structure and goals of the project. The technology preparation is addressed in this training, requiring mentors to have access to a demo of an existing online ACDP course which they are prompted to review prior to this training.
9:00-9:15am Refreshments
9:15-9:30 Review AGENDA on flipchart/Introductions-
Who is in the room? What is your name, where are you from, and what do you hope to learn this morning?
The Mentor Role- Why does this role exist? Why are we here today?
In Virtual High Schools across the country, the mentor/facilitator has emerged as a vital member of the online teaching community, providing students with the support they need to flourish and succeed in an online learning environment.
9:30-10:30 Procedures
The following procedures for mentors are based on our experience, research, and best practices drawn from other online learning programs:
How often to communicate with students?
It is ideal if mentors touch base with students once a week to:
1) Document progress
2) Help students articulate their plan of study
How this happens at your site is up to you to determine. Similar to on-ground classes, these students need help with structure. We need to keep in mind that online courses usually require more structuring of one’s time. The need for this type of assistance is highly individualized. Some will need assistance to follow course instructions. Others may simply need your encouragement.
• Documentation To track students’ progress, we need to develop a system to capture what students are doing within the course. We do this for several reasons:
1. To identify those students who require extra attention, and to respond by creating a plan of action with these students (to be proactive rather than reactive).
2. To keep students secured and anchored, providing a record for consistency should there be any changes in personnel.
3. To be accountable. For the grant, we need to capture what is happening within the entire pilot project. We need to report on how students did overall in the program. We need to be able to look at factors that led to success and factors led to failure.
**Transparency: Review Documentation Template
• Student’s Study Plan- Help students identify a work schedule for the week…they should have identified available time in their schedule. Some might do this on their own, others might need more assistance:
When to Study
When to complete assignments
When to communicate with the instructor
**Transparency: Student Online Study Plan
Using the Technology (Break into groups, 5-6 people)
Homework: Prior to training, provide trainees with access to sample course, preferably one of the courses students are using, and have them practice navigating through parts of the course.
Start this session by viewing an existing online ACDP course. The focus of this session is not technology training…we want to consider what we need to know to be prepared for the students. We will be learning along with the students in this process.
Attempt to anticipate the challenges that they might have with the technology. What do we need to know to be prepared to answer their questions?
“Using the Technology” Activity:
Break into groups of 4-6 people.
One person recording on flipchart…take 5-10 minutes to brainstorm:
1. What were the challenges for you using the format?
2. What problems do you anticipate students will have with the format?
Now take 10 minutes to brainstorm problem solving strategies.
• What can you do to support the student through these challenges?
Examples:
• Know the local resources available
• Have the tech support phone number readily available
• Help students articulate the problem they are having; then the student contacts the appropriate people
• Have the student practice contacting support even if they do not yet have a problem
Each Group Reports out: Trainer collects on flipchart at front of room.
Share the following information at the end of this activity:
You will have a Mentor in the person of Timberly Barber who will be available via a discussion area that has been created in BLACKBOARD. You and the instructors will be able to ask questions or post your ideas or your best practices as they are discovered. This is a venue for all of you to use for communication and support. Initially, many of these might have to do with the technology.
Please contact Gretchen Hayden, Project Manager, at ghayden@ to register for this discussion board.
10:30-11:00 Break
11:00-Noon The Mentor-Student and Mentor-Instructor Relationships
Role Exploration Activity:
Break into groups, making sure they are different from last discussion.
Student- how is your relationship as a mentor to the student different from that of an instructor?
Instructor- what is your relationship with the instructor?
Ask the group to identify: “What is the Online Instructor’s Role?” (Trainer collects on flipchart).
Examples:
• Course Content
• Grading
• Evaluation/Assessment
• Sequence/Time Line
• Creating a Learning Community/Establishing a sense of Community/Creating a Space where Students feel safe and secure
• Communicating with Students (timely feedback…within 24 hours)
• Maintaining the course (i.e. updating links)
Pass out Case Study:
How does a mentor interact effectively between the student and instructor?
Ask each person to read the case study. Trainees discuss the case study questions in their small groups for approximately 10 minutes. Each group reports back and trainer collects responses on flipchart at front of the room.
If appropriate, trainer could distribute the following handout:
Mentors role is:
• To support the Emotional well being of the student
• To guide the student through the format
• To Bridge the communication gap between student and teacher
• To support the work of the Teacher in the class
**Transparency: Suggestions for Mentor Role
12:00-12:30 Mentor as Advocate and Champion-
“What makes a Mentor” Activity:
Turn to the person next to you and take 2 minutes to talk about one person who was a mentor to you. How was that person effective? Switch and other person shares his/her mentor story.
What are the 2 most important qualities that made that person a great mentor?
List Qualities on the board…past the technology and pedagogy, these qualities underscore all of what you do to facilitate students’ success.
It’s what you do every day, I am sure…in this role it is more exclusively what is important…a RELATIONSHIP that grounds the student, helps the student FOCUS, when necessary, GIVES the STUDENT HOPE.
In the end, it’s the relationship that is most important in this role.
Tell origin of mentor story, quotes. You might be the person with the answers, but you absolutely need to be the person with the inspiration.
CTDLC Blackboard® Contingency Planning
Blackboard Reliability Expectations
The CTDLC Strives for 99% uptime with all of its mission critical servers. The Blackboard Server itself utilizes multiple processors, hard-drives, network cards, and power supplies to provide automatic fail-over and redundancy in the event of component failure. The Blackboard Server resides in the BSAA Data Center. This facility provides power, HVAC Controls, battery backup, tape and disk backup. In addition, the Data Center is equipped with redundant HVAC systems and an 85Kw generator in the event of power failure.
The Blackboard Software and operating system are monitored 24x7x365 using industry standard performance monitoring tools. These tools alert both Blackboard and Network administrators to potential problems and failures of the Blackboard application should they occur. In addition, the Blackboard application and server is protected with Symantec Corporate Anti-Virus software.
The CTDLC staffs the Tier I help desk seven days a week. Additionally, there is an emergency services team (two tiers) to provide on-call backup and support in the event of a mission critical problem with the Data Center services (including Blackboard). In addition to the CTDLC team, we contract directly with the Blackboard “services” department for emergency and on-call support.
Technical Support Provided
The CTDLC provides two aspects of technical support, as detailed below.
CTDLC Help Desk
The CTDLC Help Desk provides technical support for students and faculty. The support available through email and phone communications encompasses course login issues, browser issues, and problems specific to accessing sections of courses (quizzes, mail, discussions, etc.). It is recommended that students refer course content issues to the course instructor(s). Course content issues that are presented by instructors/designers are referred to the CTDLC Instructional Design Department, when applicable.
The CTDLC Tech Support staff will escalate issues to Blackboard’s Tech Support Team when deemed necessary (for example, issues concerning student account/Blackboard database synchronization). Student enrollment issues are handled by the Connecticut Community College Systems Office. Blackboard Tech Support is also contacted for specific Banner event issues, should they be encountered.
Blackboard Application Administration
CTDLC provides Blackboard application administrators to service the needs of the server. This includes research, testing, and application of appropriate service patches and hot fixes available from Blackboard, as well as research, testing, and application of appropriate service patches of Microsoft Windows available from Microsoft. Updates, patches, and upgrades to server hardware (bios, network cards, and storage devices) are also performed by the application administrators, in addition to updates, patches, and quarantine management of Symantec Anti-Virus.
Connectivity and Points of Failure
To date, the CTDLC has built a robust client/server network. As a distance learning delivery agent, we strive to harness the power of technology and recognize the critical role that technology can play in improving the quality of our student’s lives. The CTDLC utilizes the Internet and web services to facilitate our distance learning instruction.
The CTDLC information technology system is based on an “enterprise” infrastructure model, designed to maintain a robust, reliable, and secure platform for the communication and exchange of information between staff, administrators, and faculty. This system allows us to build on both modular and automated systems to provide redundancy, maximum up-time, and unparalleled performance.
The Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium maintains a data center at 55 Paul J. Manafort Drive in the Charter Oak State College facility. This data center offers industry standard data center services such as:
• UPS Backup System
• Backup Generator
• A/C System
• Security System
• Rack Enclosures
• High bandwidth
The datacenter is protected by Nokia Checkpoint firewall appliances and backed-up with Veritas Backup Exec / LTO 2 architecture. Backups are stored off-site at a remote storage vault and cycled weekly. VPN tunnels have been created with clients and client databases to facilitate the secure interchange of information.
The Manafort Drive Data Center is relatively new, opening in June 2003. All of the components in the data center including auxiliary systems are also new. We have attempted to leverage recent technological advances in our data center including Cisco gigabit over copper networking, APC infrastructure battery and rack enclosures, Checkpoint AI firewalls, etc. Security for the data center is provided by CCSU State Police.
As part of our research and development in learning management systems, we currently maintain three pre-production environments. These environments are used to simulate student draw, test patches and tweaks, and also to test Student Information System (SIS) to Learning Management System (LMS) functionality.
The data center sits on the Connecticut Education Network (CEN). This dark fiber network connects our data center at gigabit speed to many colleges and universities in Connecticut. In addition, the data center offers a public internet connection to facilitate student at-home connectivity. The CEN offers public internet connectivity through both Qwest Internet and AT&T. These two organizations represent Tier I (biggest) internet providers in the world. The CEN has a built-in failover for all of its connections. In the event that one service provider becomes unavailable, all internet connectivity (including Blackboard data) will be ported to the backup internet connection automatically.
While the CEN provides a robust platform to deliver Blackboard content, student and faculty members must also maintain an internet connection to receive the data. Blackboard end user problems that are a result of local campus internet failures, DSL/cable modem failures, or dial-up problems can’t be addressed by the CTDLC. Those problems should be directed to the end users ISP or the local Campus Network Administrators.
Blackboard Contingency Planning
We see the Blackboard contingency planning as follows:
Full Server, Application, and Database Recovery
A backup of the Blackboard server is performed nightly. This backup is rotated weekly to an onsite storage vault and then moved off-site to a separate storage facility. We currently keep one month of historical Blackboard data files in storage. Blackboard Campus Edition application uses a file dense architecture to store student, faculty, and course information. Due to the density of the storage, the current mean time to restore for a catastrophic data failure is approximately 12 hours.
The CTDLC currently has a partnership with another State Agency to utilize their current Data Center in the event of catastrophic failure. The current time to restore from a catastrophic “data center” failure (fire) is approximately 36 hours. This restore would involve acquiring hardware for Blackboard, migrating firewall rules and VPN (Banner) connections, and restoring data from the tape medium.
Point in time corruption recovery
In the event of a point in time corruption (Banner Sync issues, Script malfunction, etc.) the CTDLC can use the nightly tape backup to restore to the “last known good” version of the system. The CTDLC would expect a data loss (student, faculty, and course content) from the time that the problem was identified back to the point in time when the backup tape completed. Mean time to recovery approximately 6 hours.
Specific Course or transaction recovery
Although the CTDLC does perform regular backups of the Blackboard system, faculty are advised to backup their own courses using Blackboard’s built-in course backup utility. While faculty have the option of saving the backup to the Blackboard server itself, the CTDLC recommends that for redundancy, the courses be downloaded to the faculty member’s computer. This provides an alternative location in the event of a Blackboard server problem.
Adult Education Program Improvement Project Grant for
CT Adult Virtual High School
Exhibit B
FY 2004 Budget Narrative
June 30,2004
Grantee: The Connecticut Distance Learning
Consortium
Budget Total: $289,000
Line 111A $40,000
• Project Management has included the time of both the Executive Director of the CTDLC and CTDLC’s Project and Business Manager. Work includes the ongoing coordination and orchestration of the Project Components as described in the proposal portion of this document, with a proactive eye on timeliness, delegation and communication of schedules, events and processes. This includes any costs associated with enrolling and supporting students in the Orientation and credit courses
Line 119 $57,186
• The CTDLC has provided Instructional Design support for $50,000 per year. This includes supervising the Course Content consultant(s), chairing the Content Committee, advising about the pedagogical and logistical elements of the successful conversion of on ground curricula into an online format. The ID department is responsible for the production of the Orientation course and the creation and revision of the four one-credit courses. Benefits are matched.
• Assessment includes evaluation of the orientation course, content courses, and student services. This also includes any costs for supplying required data.
Line 322 $32,125
• Content Experts were hired to create, review and modify curriculum for the four disciplines. This included confirming material met CT frameworks criteria.
• Professional Development related to the delivery of online courses.
Line 330 $104,000
• Four LEAs were selected to receive a grant of $20,000 per year for two years, contingent on the institution meeting the agreed upon requirements and goals for each year. The institution was responsible for:
• The costs of hiring and training instructors to teach one of the four credit courses.
• The cost of one staff member traveling one of the two years to the VHS Symposium for K-12 Educators Any costs for staff to participate in the project
• The institutions established their own budges for the expenditure of the money
• A Project Liaison was hired on a consulting basis. This person communicates needs, requirements and standards required of the SDE, LEAs and the adult education population throughout the course of this project.
Line 580 $1,223
• The cost for one state education administrator to travel to the 2003 VHS Symposium for K-12 Educators
Line 590 $53,625
• This includes full year subscriptions to Beyond Books’ science curriculum; BoxerMath; FL Virtual High School’s US Government; and BlackBoard Learning Management System.
• An online tutoring platform purchase for statewide access of shared tutoring resources for unlimited use.
• A technology assessment simulation tool purchase for statewide access.
Exhibit C
The Growth of Distance Learning in US High Schools
Compiled by: Timberley Barber, CTDLC Staff
High School Goes the Distance: Burck Smith
Virtual High School Consortium (VHS):
• 30 Schools spanning 13 time zones in 3 countries with 21 programs providing courses over the Internet.
• Funded by a 5 year $7.2 million grant from the Department of Education plus in-kind contributions from Lotus and Digital
• Estimate that each school’s contribution will be somewhere between $4000 and $8000 plus personnel costs.
Principles for creating a statewide online learning organization: The Process and decisions underlying the creation of Colorado Online Learning: Stevan Kalmon
• Enrollment fees of online high school courses have been quoted from $300 to $795 per course. Through state and grant funding Colorado Online Learning will reduce the price of online learning, charging a basic fee of $100 for every course enrollment.
ABCs of the Virtual High School: Kathryn Winograd
• 14 states have “a planned or operational state-sanctioned, state-level virtual school in place” (Clark, 2001). Clark estimates that 40,000 to 50,000 K-12 students will become “virtual” in the next year.
• FLVS (Florida Virtual High School) began in 1998 with approximately 1,400 student enrollments in 33 course offerings. FLVS anticipates over 7,000 student enrollments in 62 courses by the close of the 2001-2002 school year.
High Schools Turning to Online Courses: CyberAtlas staff
• More than 50% of US high schools are currently offering online courses or exploring them for the future…
• More than 40% of all public high schools are already using online courses or planning to use them during this school year.
• 17% are interested in offering online courses in the future.
• 32% of public school districts will adopt and use an e-learning platform for the first time in 2002.
• Factors for selecting a vendor for online courses:
1. accredited/approved curriculum
2. affordability
3. configuration for needs of grades 9-12
4. ease/speed of implementation
5. reporting of student progress and outcomes
6. realistic time/training demands on district and school staff
Reading, Writing, Pointing-And-Clicking: Robyn Greenspan
• Brandon-Hall estimates the e-learning sector will grow from $10.3 billion in 2002 to $83.1 billions in 2006, and eventually swelling to over $212 billion in 2011. The trend is evidenced by an 80% growth increase from the University of Phoenix Online – whose virtual campuses boasted 72,230 students as of may 2003
• 1/3 of public schools are already offering some distance learning programs for their students with 53% offering such programs to students in rural areas where students do not have access to specialized teachers
• 36% of schools reported having distance learning programs for their teachers.
Virtual High School – tidbits from their website at
• 95% of students taking VHS courses complete their course
• 76% of students taking a VHS course receive a C or better
• 81% of students taking a VHS Advanced Placement course receive a 3 or higher
• Average VHS class size: 17 students
• Number of VHS students: 2,200 per semester
• Number of VHS classes: 125
• Teacher Stats: 85% of VHS teachers hold master’s degrees
19% of VHS teachers hold master’s plus additional credits or doctorates
VHS teachers have an average of 16 year teaching experience
• Size of member schools: between 60-3,771 students
• Students by gender: Female: 58%; Male: 42%
• Number of Participating Teachers: 126
• Number of Member Schools: 183
• Number of Participating States: 21
• Participating Countries: Brazil, Dominican Republic, Malaysia, Peru, South Korea, Trinidad, Uruguay Venezuela, Japan
Seven Things you should know about virtual high schools: from
• Schools in the VHS cooperative contribute a “netcourse” and in return receive 29 student enrollments in any of over 100 VHS courses
• The most frequently cited one-semester tuition was $300
• In a survey of 44 online schools, 2 reported that only about 1/5 of the schools offered high school diploma programs as an option for study. A majority indicated that a primary focus was on providing supplemental high school curriculum. Over 70% offered remedial or makeup high school courses.
• Courses typically offered:
1. Calculus AB (33.3%)
2. English (30.3%)
3. Government & Politics (30.3%)
4. US History (30.3%)
5. Economics-Macroeconomics (27.2%)
6. Economics-Microeconomics (24.2%)
7. Physics B (24.2%)
8. Statistics (24.2%)
9. Chemistry (21.2%)
10. Biology (15.1%)
REFERENCES
[pic]
Butler, David W. (2003, March 17). Seven things you should know about virtual high schools. : Education: Distance Learning. Retrieved October 10, 2003 from:
[pic]
Greenspan, Robyn. Reading, writing, pointing-and-clicking. (2003, July 18). CyberAtlas: Education. Retrieved October 9, 2003 from:
[pic]
High schools turning to online courses. (2002, February 19). CyberAtlas: Education. Retrieved October 9, 2003 from:
[pic]
Winograd, Kathryn. ABCs of the virtual high school. (2002, March/April). Technology Source. Retrieved October 9, 2003, from:
Quoting from:
Clark, T. (2001). Virtual schools: Trends and issues. Phoenix, AZ: WestEd/Distance Learning Resource Network.
* A process for “standby” instructors will be required. Payment of these instructors will require “special arrangements” as this work will most likely be beyond their current contract (adjunct or overload).
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Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium
Board for State Academic Awards
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