A Review of the National Scene in K12 Online Learning

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TxDLA 2007 Conference, Galveston Island Thursday,
March 29 11-1145 am
A Review of the National Scenein K-12 Online
Learning 
Alese Smith Raymond Rose Rose Smith Associates
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Quick History

• Correspondence Courses (snail mail)
• 21-inch Classroom
• ITV courses
• Technology enhanced Correspondence courses
  (email)
• Lectures / books on line (web pages)
• Online courses delivered on the Internet
• Course Management Systems

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Goal and Audience for Virtual Schools
Home-based Students
Provide a high school diploma
Support F2F Courses
School-based Students
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Online Service Providers

• LEA
• Other school districts offering online learning
  courses
• Charter schools within a district
• Charter schools outside of a district
• State supported virtual schools within a state
• State supported virtual schools outside of a
  state
• State technology service agencies
• Colleges and universities
• Consortial agencies
• Private, for-profit entities that offer selected
  courses
• Private, for-profit virtual schools

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Virtual School Providers
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Scope of Virtual Education

• The 40 virtual school programs profiled in the
  2002 PEAK Report reported a total of 85,500
  students in (2002). Projections for a broader
  spectrum of virtual school programsestimate the
  total number of students at the 88 identified
  K-12 virtual schools to be 275,000 in 2001-2002.
• PEAK report Virtual Schools Across America
  Trends in K-12 Online Education 2002

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from www.apexlearning.com

• Apex Learning has supported students from 4,000
  school districts in all 50 states with more than
  400,000 enrollments in its online courses, in its
  7 years of existence.
• Apex Learning press release
• 2005

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from www.mivhs.org
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from www.goVHS.org
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from www.flvs.net
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Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary
and Secondary School Students 2002

• For this study, distance education courses were
  defined as credit-granting courses offered to
  elementary and secondary school students enrolled
  in the district in which the teacher and students
  were in different locations
• courses could originate from the respondents
  district or from other entities, such as a state
  virtual school or postsecondary institution
• could be delivered via audio, video (live or
  prerecorded), or Internet or other computer
  technologies
• could include occasional face-to-face
  interactions between the teacher and the
  students.

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from the NCES Report

• 36 of public school districts had students
  enrolled in distance education courses.

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Distribution of DL Technologies Usedfrom NCES
report
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New state-led programs and/or laws

• Michigan a law creating an online learning
  experience requirement for high school
  graduation.
• Georgia a law allowing cyber charter schools.
• North Carolina created the North Carolina Virtual
  Public School.
• Missouri law to create a new state-led program
  to open Fall 2007 that will include both
  full-time and part-time students in grades K-12.
• Washington guidelines for its alternative
  learning experience policies, which govern most
  online learning programs in the state.
• South Carolina 3.1M to create statewide
  virtual school available to students in public
  and private schools. (passed 2nd reading in
  Senate this month.)

Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning 2006
Available on NACOL.org
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National Snapshot
24 (now 25) states with state-led online programs
26 states with significant online learning
policies
12 states without
Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning 2006
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2005-2006 School Year

• LEAs reporting students in fully online courses
• 57.9
• Planning 24.5
• LEAs reporting students in Blended/Hybrid courses
• 32.4
• Planning 27.1

source Sloan-C -- K-12 Online Learning
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Perceived Importance
source Sloan-C -- K-12 Online Learning
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Key points

• Distance Education
• all inclusive
• Virtual Schools
• Not one model
• Growing
• Big programs prepare teachers

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Preparing to Teach Online

• Be a student online first!
• Teachers learn to teach an Internet NetCourse by
  participating in a NetCourse
• Learn to use the CMS
• Learn to design a NetCourse
• seminar-based
• project-based
• Understand issues of online assessment

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Teachers Succeed Online if

• Prepared online to teach online
• Know the course content
• Dont have technology problems
• Including access problems
• Not limited by assumptions about
• Students
• Online course design
• Access

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Issues to Watch

• Access issues
• Universal design
• Requiring students to own computers and Internet
  access
• Data collection
• Disaggregated student performance data

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Research Directions

• What can we learn about online interaction
  patterns to improve communications?
• Whats the most effective F2F model?
• Whats an effective online synchronous learning
  model?

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Policy Concerns

• Funding requirements
• Teacher Certification
• Who Owns the Students (ADA)
• Seat-time as a measure of learning
• Restrictions on progress and development of new,
  potentially more effective learning due to policy
  reinforcement of School, Building, Course, and
  Classroom model

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Future Directions

• Open Source
• CMS
• Applications
• Learning Objects
• Standards for use of content
• The Sharable Content Object Reference Model
  (SCORM)
• Small portable devices
• SmartPhones

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• Remember
• Not all virtual schools are the same, dont paint
  them with the same brush.
• Virtual schools arent automatically second best
  to the brick and mortar alternative.

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Resources

• Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning
• NACOL.org
• K-12 Online Learning A Survey of US School
  District Administrators
• SLOAN-C.org

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Contact Information

• Rose and Smith Associates
• http//home.austin.rr.com/roseandsmith
• Alese Smithalese_at_rose-smith.com
• Raymond Roseray_at_rose-smith.com
• 512-494-6356