Marcia’s notes
How to Start a Virtual School
November 5, 2006 1:00-5:00 PM
Dave Glick—
Keith Oelrich--Founder/CEO Insight Schools
Howard Liebman--School mgmt and budgeting
Bruce Friend—North Carolina Virtual School, now NACOL
Vito Amato-ed tech consultant
Kay Anderson—virtual campus curriculum coordinator
George Williams policy development
Kim Ross—Houston, Minnesota special education
Todd Hitchcock—Florida Virtual school
Kimbell Kenner, virtual campus
Lisa McClure—School Dist. Of Waukesha student characteristics
Jim Barnes—Curriculum
Marketing for Online Schools
Keith Oelrich— Insight Schools
Insight Schools are online fulltime school w/fulltime students
Statewide, tuition free for students in the state
Bridling the online public high school
Insight Schools are a full time alternative for the students who are not thriving in regular school
When planning, fund the creation of the school, then collect FTE dollars.
Create nationwide network.
Marketing important
need a way to reach kids who are not currently in school (the Insight program is for kids who are not in school)
Raise enrollment
Expensive
This program is for kids who are around the “edges”—gifted, teen parents, drop out to work, kids with careers, those who struggled with traditional school, homeschool, retakes, course access to AP
What kind of model is yours?
Full time or supplemental?
State funded or locally funded? Private?
How do you reach families to recruit students?
School officials—email, direct mail, conferences, word-of-mouth
Direct market to families—web marketing, also same as above (email, etc.)
50% of students find the info on web
market to centers that provide youth services
School Management and Budgeting
Howard Liebman— U of Miami
Create an “Enrollment Management Team” and an “Instructional Team” and keep them separate
Enrollment Team can handle all leads, course analysis, and placement
Instructional Lead person for each core subject (Language Arts, Social Studies )
They prepare pace charts.
Student info system helps with administrative duties-- teachers are spending 75% of time on administrative data instead of curriculum
How do other budget?
10% lease online courses
Bruce Friend—Curriculum
“They will come back to you if you are good.”
Quality content is key.
3 Questions:
1. What will you offer?
Once you know what you will offer, what will you look for in an online course?
How will you acquire that?
1. What will you offer?
This may not be a choice, depending on individual school parameters.
What does customer base want? NACOL can help with this.
Needs Assessment (seminar tomorrow) will help
2. Once you know what you will offer, what will you look for in an online course?
Currently there is everything from online textbooks to video-game styles-
Instructional model=--is teacher in control and based on teacher, or is it online controlled?
Consider target customer (remediation, credit recovery etc)
How will you acquire online content?
Develop it yourself
--do you have the bandwidth—the staff—to develop and maintain it?
Purchase it
--Is the content portable? Usable in a variety of tech systems
--what is necessary to change it?
Lease it
--How are upgrades handled?
--Long-term—is it sensible to lease or purchase?
Vito Amato CISCO
Pro bono consulting for customers prospective customers
Theme—Understand your business requirements
How will the technology be used?
Tech and staff need to get together and agree—Vito moderates this
Lack of understanding of IT people—do not understand what you are trying to accomplish instructionally
Articulate the business requirements clearly to all involved
Will you use vender specific or open tech stuff?
LCMS and LMS have research available to NACOL members
We have learned--
Don’t build your own Learning Management System.
Find out the difference CRM/LMS
Building vs. buying
Scaling program—make it a plan for growth
Think about it—end user wants interactive --video
The technology can be very expensive and require bigger bandwidth--telepresence, high definition video conferencing needs 10 mig pipe
Collect business requirements and balance needs and implementation
Determine what you actually need (may think you need one thing when actually you need something else or something less)
Kay Anderson—Staffing And Staff Development
Efacilitated course for teachers –training for teachers to teach online
Limited amount of staff development available
Her office creates materials for BEST Practices in online classroom, 2nd part of staff development
College credit for these courses for teachers
Course tools—successful teacher will be very skillful using the tools your system has
Threaded discussion: how do you get all to participate? Rubrics?
Directions for students must be very specific because instruction is not face-to-face
Staff development must be ongoing and constantly changing
George Williams--Avoiding Policy Hazards and Creating Online K12 Courses
Pressure to offer online courses
A myriad of online obstacles challenge traditional K12
--contracts for teachers don’t work hourwise
--what are the qualifications for teaching?
Parent/student contacts necessary—how will you do it?
Will you charter or not?
ADM
Looks like good classroom—how do you assess/measure success? How are tests administered?
What is your age/grade minimum
What will you do about orientation/passwords/expectations?
Tech problems on either end—what do you do?
What will you do about extracurricular activities?
Online schools—state run, private, college run?
Superintendent needs to be champion
Need a steering committee—teacher, parent etc
Charter—see $ from state?
Unions, teachers, administrators must get together
Students—how many?
Research based field study important—define policy from data
Monday, November 06, 2006
Sunday Notes by Marcia
Marcia’s notes
How to Start a Virtual School
November 5, 2006 1:00-5:00 PM
Dave Glick—
Keith Oelrich--Founder/CEO Insight Schools
Howard Liebman--School mgmt and budgeting
Bruce Friend—North Carolina Virtual School, now NACOL
Vito Amato-ed tech consultant
Kay Anderson—virtual campus curriculum coordinator
George Williams policy development
Kim Ross—Houston, Minnesota special education
Todd Hitchcock—Florida Virtual school
Kimbell Kenner, virtual campus
Lisa McClure—School Dist. Of Waukesha student characteristics
Jim Barnes—Curriculum
Marketing for Online Schools
Keith Oelrich— Insight Schools
Insight Schools are online fulltime school w/fulltime students
Statewide, tuition free for students in the state
Bridling the online public high school
Insight Schools are a full time alternative for the students who are not thriving in regular school
When planning, fund the creation of the school, then collect FTE dollars.
Create nationwide network.
Marketing important
need a way to reach kids who are not currently in school (the Insight program is for kids who are not in school)
Raise enrollment
Expensive
This program is for kids who are around the “edges”—gifted, teen parents, drop out to work, kids with careers, those who struggled with traditional school, homeschool, retakes, course access to AP
What kind of model is yours?
Full time or supplemental?
State funded or locally funded? Private?
How do you reach families to recruit students?
School officials—email, direct mail, conferences, word-of-mouth
Direct market to families—web marketing, also same as above (email, etc.)
50% of students find the info on web
market to centers that provide youth services
School Management and Budgeting
Howard Liebman— U of Miami
Create an “Enrollment Management Team” and an “Instructional Team” and keep them separate
Enrollment Team can handle all leads, course analysis, and placement
Instructional Lead person for each core subject (Language Arts, Social Studies )
They prepare pace charts.
Student info system helps with administrative duties-- teachers are spending 75% of time on administrative data instead of curriculum
How do other budget?
10% lease online courses
Bruce Friend—Curriculum
“They will come back to you if you are good.”
Quality content is key.
3 Questions:
1. What will you offer?
Once you know what you will offer, what will you look for in an online course?
How will you acquire that?
1. What will you offer?
This may not be a choice, depending on individual school parameters.
What does customer base want? NACOL can help with this.
Needs Assessment (seminar tomorrow) will help
2. Once you know what you will offer, what will you look for in an online course?
Currently there is everything from online textbooks to video-game styles-
Instructional model=--is teacher in control and based on teacher, or is it online controlled?
Consider target customer (remediation, credit recovery etc)
How will you acquire online content?
Develop it yourself
--do you have the bandwidth—the staff—to develop and maintain it?
Purchase it
--Is the content portable? Usable in a variety of tech systems
--what is necessary to change it?
Lease it
--How are upgrades handled?
--Long-term—is it sensible to lease or purchase?
Vito Amato CISCO
Pro bono consulting for customers prospective customers
Theme—Understand your business requirements
How will the technology be used?
Tech and staff need to get together and agree—Vito moderates this
Lack of understanding of IT people—do not understand what you are trying to accomplish instructionally
Articulate the business requirements clearly to all involved
Will you use vender specific or open tech stuff?
LCMS and LMS have research available to NACOL members
We have learned--
Don’t build your own Learning Management System.
Find out the difference CRM/LMS
Building vs. buying
Scaling program—make it a plan for growth
Think about it—end user wants interactive --video
The technology can be very expensive and require bigger bandwidth--telepresence, high definition video conferencing needs 10 mig pipe
Collect business requirements and balance needs and implementation
Determine what you actually need (may think you need one thing when actually you need something else or something less)
Kay Anderson—Staffing And Staff Development
Efacilitated course for teachers –training for teachers to teach online
Limited amount of staff development available
Her office creates materials for BEST Practices in online classroom, 2nd part of staff development
College credit for these courses for teachers
Course tools—successful teacher will be very skillful using the tools your system has
Threaded discussion: how do you get all to participate? Rubrics?
Directions for students must be very specific because instruction is not face-to-face
Staff development must be ongoing and constantly changing
George Williams--Avoiding Policy Hazards and Creating Online K12 Courses
Pressure to offer online courses
A myriad of online obstacles challenge traditional K12
--contracts for teachers don’t work hourwise
--what are the qualifications for teaching?
Parent/student contacts necessary—how will you do it?
Will you charter or not?
ADM
Looks like good classroom—how do you assess/measure success? How are tests administered?
What is your age/grade minimum
What will you do about orientation/passwords/expectations?
Tech problems on either end—what do you do?
What will you do about extracurricular activities?
Online schools—state run, private, college run?
Superintendent needs to be champion
Need a steering committee—teacher, parent etc
Charter—see $ from state?
Unions, teachers, administrators must get together
Students—how many?
Research based field study important—define policy from data
How to Start a Virtual School
November 5, 2006 1:00-5:00 PM
Dave Glick—
Keith Oelrich--Founder/CEO Insight Schools
Howard Liebman--School mgmt and budgeting
Bruce Friend—North Carolina Virtual School, now NACOL
Vito Amato-ed tech consultant
Kay Anderson—virtual campus curriculum coordinator
George Williams policy development
Kim Ross—Houston, Minnesota special education
Todd Hitchcock—Florida Virtual school
Kimbell Kenner, virtual campus
Lisa McClure—School Dist. Of Waukesha student characteristics
Jim Barnes—Curriculum
Marketing for Online Schools
Keith Oelrich— Insight Schools
Insight Schools are online fulltime school w/fulltime students
Statewide, tuition free for students in the state
Bridling the online public high school
Insight Schools are a full time alternative for the students who are not thriving in regular school
When planning, fund the creation of the school, then collect FTE dollars.
Create nationwide network.
Marketing important
need a way to reach kids who are not currently in school (the Insight program is for kids who are not in school)
Raise enrollment
Expensive
This program is for kids who are around the “edges”—gifted, teen parents, drop out to work, kids with careers, those who struggled with traditional school, homeschool, retakes, course access to AP
What kind of model is yours?
Full time or supplemental?
State funded or locally funded? Private?
How do you reach families to recruit students?
School officials—email, direct mail, conferences, word-of-mouth
Direct market to families—web marketing, also same as above (email, etc.)
50% of students find the info on web
market to centers that provide youth services
School Management and Budgeting
Howard Liebman— U of Miami
Create an “Enrollment Management Team” and an “Instructional Team” and keep them separate
Enrollment Team can handle all leads, course analysis, and placement
Instructional Lead person for each core subject (Language Arts, Social Studies )
They prepare pace charts.
Student info system helps with administrative duties-- teachers are spending 75% of time on administrative data instead of curriculum
How do other budget?
10% lease online courses
Bruce Friend—Curriculum
“They will come back to you if you are good.”
Quality content is key.
3 Questions:
1. What will you offer?
Once you know what you will offer, what will you look for in an online course?
How will you acquire that?
1. What will you offer?
This may not be a choice, depending on individual school parameters.
What does customer base want? NACOL can help with this.
Needs Assessment (seminar tomorrow) will help
2. Once you know what you will offer, what will you look for in an online course?
Currently there is everything from online textbooks to video-game styles-
Instructional model=--is teacher in control and based on teacher, or is it online controlled?
Consider target customer (remediation, credit recovery etc)
How will you acquire online content?
Develop it yourself
--do you have the bandwidth—the staff—to develop and maintain it?
Purchase it
--Is the content portable? Usable in a variety of tech systems
--what is necessary to change it?
Lease it
--How are upgrades handled?
--Long-term—is it sensible to lease or purchase?
Vito Amato CISCO
Pro bono consulting for customers prospective customers
Theme—Understand your business requirements
How will the technology be used?
Tech and staff need to get together and agree—Vito moderates this
Lack of understanding of IT people—do not understand what you are trying to accomplish instructionally
Articulate the business requirements clearly to all involved
Will you use vender specific or open tech stuff?
LCMS and LMS have research available to NACOL members
We have learned--
Don’t build your own Learning Management System.
Find out the difference CRM/LMS
Building vs. buying
Scaling program—make it a plan for growth
Think about it—end user wants interactive --video
The technology can be very expensive and require bigger bandwidth--telepresence, high definition video conferencing needs 10 mig pipe
Collect business requirements and balance needs and implementation
Determine what you actually need (may think you need one thing when actually you need something else or something less)
Kay Anderson—Staffing And Staff Development
Efacilitated course for teachers –training for teachers to teach online
Limited amount of staff development available
Her office creates materials for BEST Practices in online classroom, 2nd part of staff development
College credit for these courses for teachers
Course tools—successful teacher will be very skillful using the tools your system has
Threaded discussion: how do you get all to participate? Rubrics?
Directions for students must be very specific because instruction is not face-to-face
Staff development must be ongoing and constantly changing
George Williams--Avoiding Policy Hazards and Creating Online K12 Courses
Pressure to offer online courses
A myriad of online obstacles challenge traditional K12
--contracts for teachers don’t work hourwise
--what are the qualifications for teaching?
Parent/student contacts necessary—how will you do it?
Will you charter or not?
ADM
Looks like good classroom—how do you assess/measure success? How are tests administered?
What is your age/grade minimum
What will you do about orientation/passwords/expectations?
Tech problems on either end—what do you do?
What will you do about extracurricular activities?
Online schools—state run, private, college run?
Superintendent needs to be champion
Need a steering committee—teacher, parent etc
Charter—see $ from state?
Unions, teachers, administrators must get together
Students—how many?
Research based field study important—define policy from data
BreakOut#1- Virtual Veterans Top Ten by Janel
Florida Virtual School-
market to parents and students right away, publicize in relocation packages, eliminate waiting lists, online teacher training requirement, public relations a crucial part of teacher job descriptions, refer a freind program, outsourced more, methodical teacher oversight is key
Plano School District-
Streaming media issues in sending and receiving work, all teachers must take an online course, sell locally developed courses, use open source, collaborate for materials with other areas
Colorado Connections Academy-
This school is younger students. Working with families and family dynamics so different support is needed, close ties between teachers and families, evaluate written and oral communication sills of the teachers, testing is a challenge,
Colorado Online Learning-
policy makers don't all use email, concentrate on LEARNING not the medium, think BEYOND the book
Connections Academy-
don't spend too much time differentiatingbetween full time and supplemental time students, this is not a cost saver, shows just how important teachers are, let parents teachers and students tell the story adn successes when at all possible, embrace the power of data- data accountability is a unique strength, homeschool families have the idea that the online schools are a plot to get those kids back in public schooling-they picketed this academy in Wisconsin at their informational sessions, your ablest competitors are your best allies.
Open Questions
Integrity, honesty and acceptable use policies. Most people are concerned about who is doing the work. This can be addressed through specialized teacher training. Vary interaction with physical portfolios, webmail, phone calls and more and standardized tests, they put in external checks and measures. When push comes to shove, this is a very small problem. Some have an academic integrity committee that they form and make sure that there are tools in place. Turnitin.com will check items. The students have to load everything into turnitin.com to help check. High school is a much larger problem. Wikipedia is not in turnitin.com. There are cheating rings that they create so they built randomized test bank. Teachers must then call students and give an oral quiz every month based upon where the student is. Also talking to parents because then they will literally have to lie to you. Check email and papers are written at the same level.
market to parents and students right away, publicize in relocation packages, eliminate waiting lists, online teacher training requirement, public relations a crucial part of teacher job descriptions, refer a freind program, outsourced more, methodical teacher oversight is key
Plano School District-
Streaming media issues in sending and receiving work, all teachers must take an online course, sell locally developed courses, use open source, collaborate for materials with other areas
Colorado Connections Academy-
This school is younger students. Working with families and family dynamics so different support is needed, close ties between teachers and families, evaluate written and oral communication sills of the teachers, testing is a challenge,
Colorado Online Learning-
policy makers don't all use email, concentrate on LEARNING not the medium, think BEYOND the book
Connections Academy-
don't spend too much time differentiatingbetween full time and supplemental time students, this is not a cost saver, shows just how important teachers are, let parents teachers and students tell the story adn successes when at all possible, embrace the power of data- data accountability is a unique strength, homeschool families have the idea that the online schools are a plot to get those kids back in public schooling-they picketed this academy in Wisconsin at their informational sessions, your ablest competitors are your best allies.
Open Questions
Integrity, honesty and acceptable use policies. Most people are concerned about who is doing the work. This can be addressed through specialized teacher training. Vary interaction with physical portfolios, webmail, phone calls and more and standardized tests, they put in external checks and measures. When push comes to shove, this is a very small problem. Some have an academic integrity committee that they form and make sure that there are tools in place. Turnitin.com will check items. The students have to load everything into turnitin.com to help check. High school is a much larger problem. Wikipedia is not in turnitin.com. There are cheating rings that they create so they built randomized test bank. Teachers must then call students and give an oral quiz every month based upon where the student is. Also talking to parents because then they will literally have to lie to you. Check email and papers are written at the same level.
Tom Carroll Keynote Address by Janel
Responsible for starting many of the Ed Tech programs at the federal level. See no Dream Denied magazine collected from conference.
Teaching and America's Future
We have moved from individual to team mentality. Learning environments need to become increasingly collaborative. Teaching also needs to be collaborative.
Teachers are expert learners. They are learning leaders.
Edutopia
Designing for the future of learning
great schools by design
school works
www.nctaf.org- speakers affiliation
Teaching and America's Future
We have moved from individual to team mentality. Learning environments need to become increasingly collaborative. Teaching also needs to be collaborative.
Teachers are expert learners. They are learning leaders.
Edutopia
Designing for the future of learning
great schools by design
school works
www.nctaf.org- speakers affiliation
Opening Remarks-NACOL by Janel
World is Flat- Singapore, China, India further ahead than we are.
CQ+PQ is greater than IQ (Curiousity and Passion).
Online Learning: First impetus- providing equal access and providing opportunities for growth, its growing, its effective research and meta analysis shows that it is better than traditional learning, improves teaching.
CQ+PQ is greater than IQ (Curiousity and Passion).
Online Learning: First impetus- providing equal access and providing opportunities for growth, its growing, its effective research and meta analysis shows that it is better than traditional learning, improves teaching.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
How To Create a Virtual School Session- by Janel
Expensive- need to reach students and increase student enrollments.
Types of students- wide range of student needs. Gifted students, move at a faster pace, teen parents, drop outs, family income job issues, athletics and entertainment careers, struggling kids for academics and social reasons, supplementing traditional students taking courses in a regular school (make-up work, course is not offered), homeschool families (record keeping, parents don't understand higher content),
Talking to parents- Has sessions about the virtual school
Reaching Families Through school officials to describe program offerings and pricing, helping to identify kids, OR reach and market to families directly (web marketing- found on web through search engines, buy lists to contact,)have a marketing budget. Purchased lists of homeschool kids, families that have purchased home school materials, PR- getting attention on the program and more through speakers, network outreach and networking with organizations like youth services and teen outreach centers. Educators are not trained in marketing and it is becoming more important in how schools are progressing and how they will be set up in the future.
Managing Virtual Schools School management and budget. See outline on second page of packet. Enrollment management is the biggest pain point. Entirely different ways of management. Separate enrollment and instructional. Orientation process. Instructional leadership team with a lead person from each of the core areas. Get the subject area people. Online teachers spend 75-80% of their time on administrative functions. Instructional Staff should not be more than 65% of budget. Cost Guidelines from the SREB. Click here for link.
Marketing NACOL has resources to find out what the customers actually want. Doing a needs assessment. Has some information on this activity to find out what the customers want and need as far as curriculum goes(parents, students, teachers, etc).
Types of courses- textbook online through to a highly interactive gaming environment. Budget is a huge factor in this. Instructional model will also have an impact here.
Communication between IT and educational processes Important to make sure that the communication is clear. Articulating the business requirements. Have to have a clear vision of what the technology infrastructure needs to do. Need to make sure that open source is considered. Moodle, Cyki, LCMS, LMS need to understand the business requirements. Have a lot of info and research available from Cisco. Don't build your own Learning Management System. Prepare for growth. Implications for future growth. Video capabilities on the network. Planning for growth is key.
Staff Development
e-Facilitator course. Has them go through to get professional development so that they are able to utilize their own teachers. South Dakota Virtual Schools has a lot of experience with staff development.
K12 Education
Online for K-12 schools, not just a high school thing anymore. Contracts are a bit of problematic because it is not based upon contiguous hours. Determining eligibility to teach (qualifications and prerequisites), parent and student contacts, how will you measure success, how are tests administered, who plays well in the virtual sandbox, how do you orient kids, technical problems and back up plans (student computer is down, what do you do), eligibility for sports, need a district office champion must step up, do a field study on the types of students, ELL
Policy Stuff Roundatable
Need to make sure there is enough money up front. The first year will be the most expensive right away. SREB has some great publication information. See link above. Important NOT to sell yourself short with timing. Many really good teachers are not able to effectively transition to online without training specifically for online teaching. Teacher supervision and training policies. Easy for teacher to kick back and walk away if there is no one looking. Many unions want to get involved with this. Certain policies affecting students who don't meet requirements or who drop out consistently. They have to be expelled through the legal process, you can't just drop them from your classes if you are taking state funding. You have to set our policies and let everyone know what it is right up front. Summer school is the most successful program because they are self paid. Students need to pass a student orientation course before they are able to complete an online course. It is a minicourse, 2 hours, all software and plug ins tha they could possibly need, walked them through all the steps, etc. Misunderstand that online courses are going to be easier and had unrealistic expectations and are not academically prepared. Need to have a self assessment available and determine academically readiness. They equate with correspondence courses and that is NOT the case. See if existing schools have existing policies in place. Check the ones that are presenting at the conference.
++NOTE++ The principal (Poemerring?) from New London is here because they are looking to create a hybrid virtual school.
Technology Outsourcing or Insourcing Roundatable Generally outsource the learning management system (blackboard, ecollege, D2L, Moodle, ucompass, WebCT) some provide hosting services for you- generally don't want to host your own- the focus should be on the education aspect NOT the technology side of it IT people should be managing relationships with the technology service providers instead of maintaining their own infrastructure, student information management system, and content, business process outsourcing. Skyward may not be able to handle SIS needs due to contact students (student log ins, pace measurement, teacher flags as far as when they are contacting, student questions, email settings, etc) Best question to ask any company is to build your exit strategy- if company goes out of business or is purchased. Need to know how you are going to get out. SCORM (sharable content object reference model) out of military standards that the providers should work to in order to provide the correct information and services that you need. Growth rate. Wait lists? Registration starts and endings. They outsource PR. They use sharepoint.
Student Recruitment Roundtable
KC Distance Learning. Waukesha iQ Academies. Training guidance counsellors on the online possibilities. the guidance counsellor should not have to be the gate keeper. They should be aware of these things to offer the students, but primarily the recruitment and information should be given to students and parents from a different method. Waukesha has most students full time from other schools in the state. Utilizing the guidance counsellor is not the way to go. Guidance counsellor services within the virtual school itself. A lot of it educating people on what the school can offer. Who the most appropriate students are. Independence with students is a big thing. Creative ways where they need to check in and be successful. Attracting students who can most benefit from your program so that they can have the most success. Formed virtual school think tank with TAG, ELL, Spec ed, administration, tech savvy, tech people, help to write the proposal. Data analysis project on students who are not on track for graduation and what class it is and what kind of kid it is and they create the program for that. Reading level is an important consideration.
Types of students- wide range of student needs. Gifted students, move at a faster pace, teen parents, drop outs, family income job issues, athletics and entertainment careers, struggling kids for academics and social reasons, supplementing traditional students taking courses in a regular school (make-up work, course is not offered), homeschool families (record keeping, parents don't understand higher content),
Talking to parents- Has sessions about the virtual school
Reaching Families Through school officials to describe program offerings and pricing, helping to identify kids, OR reach and market to families directly (web marketing- found on web through search engines, buy lists to contact,)have a marketing budget. Purchased lists of homeschool kids, families that have purchased home school materials, PR- getting attention on the program and more through speakers, network outreach and networking with organizations like youth services and teen outreach centers. Educators are not trained in marketing and it is becoming more important in how schools are progressing and how they will be set up in the future.
Managing Virtual Schools School management and budget. See outline on second page of packet. Enrollment management is the biggest pain point. Entirely different ways of management. Separate enrollment and instructional. Orientation process. Instructional leadership team with a lead person from each of the core areas. Get the subject area people. Online teachers spend 75-80% of their time on administrative functions. Instructional Staff should not be more than 65% of budget. Cost Guidelines from the SREB. Click here for link.
Marketing NACOL has resources to find out what the customers actually want. Doing a needs assessment. Has some information on this activity to find out what the customers want and need as far as curriculum goes(parents, students, teachers, etc).
Types of courses- textbook online through to a highly interactive gaming environment. Budget is a huge factor in this. Instructional model will also have an impact here.
Communication between IT and educational processes Important to make sure that the communication is clear. Articulating the business requirements. Have to have a clear vision of what the technology infrastructure needs to do. Need to make sure that open source is considered. Moodle, Cyki, LCMS, LMS need to understand the business requirements. Have a lot of info and research available from Cisco. Don't build your own Learning Management System. Prepare for growth. Implications for future growth. Video capabilities on the network. Planning for growth is key.
Staff Development
e-Facilitator course. Has them go through to get professional development so that they are able to utilize their own teachers. South Dakota Virtual Schools has a lot of experience with staff development.
K12 Education
Online for K-12 schools, not just a high school thing anymore. Contracts are a bit of problematic because it is not based upon contiguous hours. Determining eligibility to teach (qualifications and prerequisites), parent and student contacts, how will you measure success, how are tests administered, who plays well in the virtual sandbox, how do you orient kids, technical problems and back up plans (student computer is down, what do you do), eligibility for sports, need a district office champion must step up, do a field study on the types of students, ELL
Policy Stuff Roundatable
Need to make sure there is enough money up front. The first year will be the most expensive right away. SREB has some great publication information. See link above. Important NOT to sell yourself short with timing. Many really good teachers are not able to effectively transition to online without training specifically for online teaching. Teacher supervision and training policies. Easy for teacher to kick back and walk away if there is no one looking. Many unions want to get involved with this. Certain policies affecting students who don't meet requirements or who drop out consistently. They have to be expelled through the legal process, you can't just drop them from your classes if you are taking state funding. You have to set our policies and let everyone know what it is right up front. Summer school is the most successful program because they are self paid. Students need to pass a student orientation course before they are able to complete an online course. It is a minicourse, 2 hours, all software and plug ins tha they could possibly need, walked them through all the steps, etc. Misunderstand that online courses are going to be easier and had unrealistic expectations and are not academically prepared. Need to have a self assessment available and determine academically readiness. They equate with correspondence courses and that is NOT the case. See if existing schools have existing policies in place. Check the ones that are presenting at the conference.
++NOTE++ The principal (Poemerring?) from New London is here because they are looking to create a hybrid virtual school.
Technology Outsourcing or Insourcing Roundatable Generally outsource the learning management system (blackboard, ecollege, D2L, Moodle, ucompass, WebCT) some provide hosting services for you- generally don't want to host your own- the focus should be on the education aspect NOT the technology side of it IT people should be managing relationships with the technology service providers instead of maintaining their own infrastructure, student information management system, and content, business process outsourcing. Skyward may not be able to handle SIS needs due to contact students (student log ins, pace measurement, teacher flags as far as when they are contacting, student questions, email settings, etc) Best question to ask any company is to build your exit strategy- if company goes out of business or is purchased. Need to know how you are going to get out. SCORM (sharable content object reference model) out of military standards that the providers should work to in order to provide the correct information and services that you need. Growth rate. Wait lists? Registration starts and endings. They outsource PR. They use sharepoint.
Student Recruitment Roundtable
KC Distance Learning. Waukesha iQ Academies. Training guidance counsellors on the online possibilities. the guidance counsellor should not have to be the gate keeper. They should be aware of these things to offer the students, but primarily the recruitment and information should be given to students and parents from a different method. Waukesha has most students full time from other schools in the state. Utilizing the guidance counsellor is not the way to go. Guidance counsellor services within the virtual school itself. A lot of it educating people on what the school can offer. Who the most appropriate students are. Independence with students is a big thing. Creative ways where they need to check in and be successful. Attracting students who can most benefit from your program so that they can have the most success. Formed virtual school think tank with TAG, ELL, Spec ed, administration, tech savvy, tech people, help to write the proposal. Data analysis project on students who are not on track for graduation and what class it is and what kind of kid it is and they create the program for that. Reading level is an important consideration.
Virtual School Conference
Deb Gerard, Marcia Bleck and Janel Bedor attend NACOL Virtual School Conference in Plan, TX. November 5th-7th.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Charter School Planning Meeting #6
October 10, 2006
The entire meeting was spent in a conference call with Sue Steiner from Kiel e-school. It was extremely helpful and we learned a great deal-we especially learned how much we still have to learn!
Questions for Conference Call
Are your online courses bought or do you use your own staff?
Ans: They do some of each with 90% of their current classes taught by their own staff. This has occurred as a result of a great deal of staff training initially and ongoing!
Are you an instrumentality or noninstrumentality school?
Ans: Instrumentality in that there are teachers who have not bargained into the union contract
How many courses must a student take before he/she counts as a Kiel district student?
Ans: A student is considered a Kiel student if she/he is fulltime or almost fulltime. However, “fulltime” is a term that each district defines for itself
Can a current Kiel student choose to take classes from the charter school only if it is not already offered in the curriculum?
Ans: A Kiel student can take any online course even if it is offered traditionally in the district. However, all their e-school students have to go through an application and screening process so you don’t get students just trying to find an easy way through (e-classes are NOT easier!) or get out of having a particular teacher
Has the district lost a large number of its current students to the charter school?
Ans: No, not at all!
Even though students aren’t really “lost” to the district, what happens to the teachers if their own classes are smaller?
Ans: No teacher has lost a job because of the e-school (some from declining enrollment or class reductions, but not as a result of the e-school)
How do they get a diploma from Kiel?
Ans: e-school students get same diploma as traditional students-DPI is moving toward recommending an option of an e-school diploma
Do charter school students take the state tests?
Ans: Yes, required
How did you develop coaches and how much of their time was devoted to that?
Didn’t ask
What are the main lessons you have learned-what should we do? What shouldn’t we do?
Ans: Start small and do a lot of homework and early investigations-maybe try out having some students participate in an established school. Be customer service orientated! Go the distance to help students! Kiel has a 92-94% course completion record
Why did you choose to go all year around?
Didn’t ask
You indicate that the key is the local mentor/teacher-tell us about this and what makes it so successful
Ans: This person gets students into courses, orientates them, keeps tabs on progress, and notifies sending school if student isn’t progressing or working.
Interesting that your e-students have access and can participate in all other aspects of your services and district activities-how does that work?
Ans: If counted as a Kiel student, as per district definition, they can participate in everything and WIAA has agreed-If student is from another district and only taking one class, he can’t participate
Explain how you link online learning experiences to life skills and employment opportunities to ensure real world application-was this a foundational decision?
Didn’t ask
How many in your planning team were parents?
Ans: Planning team of 18 with 5 parents (some of whom also represented business, labor, etc-dual role!)
Marcia’s questions:
How is the school paid for classes taken by students?
Ans: Outside schools pay $330 for each student for each class and the home school gets the state aide
Can students drop classes at any time or is there a time restriction?
Ans: 3 weeks to drop
Are classes independent with work to be completed independently or does the student have specific assignments to be completed at regular intervals?
Ans: Lots of variety in assignment and students can operate at a traditional, accelerated or enhanced pace-again, e-school is NOT easy. Note: Currently, 11 semester classes are being offered here through CESA 9’s virtual academy and they only allow 5 months for a student to complete a course!
Rich’s Questions:
How has the “virtual” charter school option affected standard school enrollment?
Ans: There has been no real impact. Most students in e-school are part-time, taking some e-classes along with regular classes and some even above and beyond normal load. There are only 2-3 full-time online Kiel students (usually for extenuating circumstances-health, pregnancy, home school). Only a handful of students come from “open enrollment” as Kiel’s philosophy is that they want to work WITH districts rather than compete with them. Kiel is partnered with Appleton and provides services for 15 other districts and draws students from these districts.
I understand that curriculum software can be purchased and teachers don’t have to be involved in instructional preparations, but rather can act as tutors. If this is correct, approximately how many hours of tutorial support can teachers be expected to be involved in?
Ans: Many of Kiel teachers teach online and it initially takes 40% more time, but it’s just like using a new textbook or having a new course to teach traditionally-the longer you do it, the less extra time it takes. Staff training is a huge component.
Regarding staff response to virtual instruction, are your teachers in favor of this approach or do they see problems looming on the horizon! Specifically, what positives do they see and what problems are they encountering or anticipating?
Ans: There was some concern initially of lost jobs and feeling they were not appreciated for the job they were doing, but what has occurred is that the students and teachers have both benefited. The teacher doesn’t have to deal with a student who has trouble in a traditional setting and the student gets the option of the e-school setting. Some students who do very poorly in traditional setting do very well in e-school.
What has been the response relative to college entrance?
Ans: Many colleges now have online courses and students who have had experience with online prior to college adjust so well. Online classes are not identified on the transcript, but read just like a traditional class
Other points made:
Kiel is a year round school and this allows not only flexibility in the day in terms of when students are online, but also flexibility as to what time of the year classes can be taken
Schools sending students have a supervisory teacher in charge of their students to which the online teacher can have contact
Kiel e-school used Florida Virtual School for many of its initial courses on a contractual basis and now has many of its teachers either using that curriculum or, in some cases, even designing their own! Kiel checked out many vendors before choosing Florida and have had great success with this program. Note: buying a curriculum is VERY expensive as in $36,000-$44,000!!
Have taken expelled students on a case by case basis or offering the e-school as one more chance before expulsion
The best classroom teacher may not make the best online teacher nor does the best classroom student necessarily make the best online student!
Teachers all get calling cards to have more contact with students. They can even arrange face to face and oral tests and lots of communication
Kiel now has over 400 semester course enrollments!
Sue reminded us several times that we are there to help students and she believes this really is a win-win as both teachers and students benefit
Sue is willing to work with us anytime!
Note: I have tried to capture most of what was discussed, though it was all new and fast! If I have written any of this up inaccurately, please let me know and I will make the corrections and send it out again!
Cheerfully submitted: deb Gerard
The entire meeting was spent in a conference call with Sue Steiner from Kiel e-school. It was extremely helpful and we learned a great deal-we especially learned how much we still have to learn!
Questions for Conference Call
Are your online courses bought or do you use your own staff?
Ans: They do some of each with 90% of their current classes taught by their own staff. This has occurred as a result of a great deal of staff training initially and ongoing!
Are you an instrumentality or noninstrumentality school?
Ans: Instrumentality in that there are teachers who have not bargained into the union contract
How many courses must a student take before he/she counts as a Kiel district student?
Ans: A student is considered a Kiel student if she/he is fulltime or almost fulltime. However, “fulltime” is a term that each district defines for itself
Can a current Kiel student choose to take classes from the charter school only if it is not already offered in the curriculum?
Ans: A Kiel student can take any online course even if it is offered traditionally in the district. However, all their e-school students have to go through an application and screening process so you don’t get students just trying to find an easy way through (e-classes are NOT easier!) or get out of having a particular teacher
Has the district lost a large number of its current students to the charter school?
Ans: No, not at all!
Even though students aren’t really “lost” to the district, what happens to the teachers if their own classes are smaller?
Ans: No teacher has lost a job because of the e-school (some from declining enrollment or class reductions, but not as a result of the e-school)
How do they get a diploma from Kiel?
Ans: e-school students get same diploma as traditional students-DPI is moving toward recommending an option of an e-school diploma
Do charter school students take the state tests?
Ans: Yes, required
How did you develop coaches and how much of their time was devoted to that?
Didn’t ask
What are the main lessons you have learned-what should we do? What shouldn’t we do?
Ans: Start small and do a lot of homework and early investigations-maybe try out having some students participate in an established school. Be customer service orientated! Go the distance to help students! Kiel has a 92-94% course completion record
Why did you choose to go all year around?
Didn’t ask
You indicate that the key is the local mentor/teacher-tell us about this and what makes it so successful
Ans: This person gets students into courses, orientates them, keeps tabs on progress, and notifies sending school if student isn’t progressing or working.
Interesting that your e-students have access and can participate in all other aspects of your services and district activities-how does that work?
Ans: If counted as a Kiel student, as per district definition, they can participate in everything and WIAA has agreed-If student is from another district and only taking one class, he can’t participate
Explain how you link online learning experiences to life skills and employment opportunities to ensure real world application-was this a foundational decision?
Didn’t ask
How many in your planning team were parents?
Ans: Planning team of 18 with 5 parents (some of whom also represented business, labor, etc-dual role!)
Marcia’s questions:
How is the school paid for classes taken by students?
Ans: Outside schools pay $330 for each student for each class and the home school gets the state aide
Can students drop classes at any time or is there a time restriction?
Ans: 3 weeks to drop
Are classes independent with work to be completed independently or does the student have specific assignments to be completed at regular intervals?
Ans: Lots of variety in assignment and students can operate at a traditional, accelerated or enhanced pace-again, e-school is NOT easy. Note: Currently, 11 semester classes are being offered here through CESA 9’s virtual academy and they only allow 5 months for a student to complete a course!
Rich’s Questions:
How has the “virtual” charter school option affected standard school enrollment?
Ans: There has been no real impact. Most students in e-school are part-time, taking some e-classes along with regular classes and some even above and beyond normal load. There are only 2-3 full-time online Kiel students (usually for extenuating circumstances-health, pregnancy, home school). Only a handful of students come from “open enrollment” as Kiel’s philosophy is that they want to work WITH districts rather than compete with them. Kiel is partnered with Appleton and provides services for 15 other districts and draws students from these districts.
I understand that curriculum software can be purchased and teachers don’t have to be involved in instructional preparations, but rather can act as tutors. If this is correct, approximately how many hours of tutorial support can teachers be expected to be involved in?
Ans: Many of Kiel teachers teach online and it initially takes 40% more time, but it’s just like using a new textbook or having a new course to teach traditionally-the longer you do it, the less extra time it takes. Staff training is a huge component.
Regarding staff response to virtual instruction, are your teachers in favor of this approach or do they see problems looming on the horizon! Specifically, what positives do they see and what problems are they encountering or anticipating?
Ans: There was some concern initially of lost jobs and feeling they were not appreciated for the job they were doing, but what has occurred is that the students and teachers have both benefited. The teacher doesn’t have to deal with a student who has trouble in a traditional setting and the student gets the option of the e-school setting. Some students who do very poorly in traditional setting do very well in e-school.
What has been the response relative to college entrance?
Ans: Many colleges now have online courses and students who have had experience with online prior to college adjust so well. Online classes are not identified on the transcript, but read just like a traditional class
Other points made:
Kiel is a year round school and this allows not only flexibility in the day in terms of when students are online, but also flexibility as to what time of the year classes can be taken
Schools sending students have a supervisory teacher in charge of their students to which the online teacher can have contact
Kiel e-school used Florida Virtual School for many of its initial courses on a contractual basis and now has many of its teachers either using that curriculum or, in some cases, even designing their own! Kiel checked out many vendors before choosing Florida and have had great success with this program. Note: buying a curriculum is VERY expensive as in $36,000-$44,000!!
Have taken expelled students on a case by case basis or offering the e-school as one more chance before expulsion
The best classroom teacher may not make the best online teacher nor does the best classroom student necessarily make the best online student!
Teachers all get calling cards to have more contact with students. They can even arrange face to face and oral tests and lots of communication
Kiel now has over 400 semester course enrollments!
Sue reminded us several times that we are there to help students and she believes this really is a win-win as both teachers and students benefit
Sue is willing to work with us anytime!
Note: I have tried to capture most of what was discussed, though it was all new and fast! If I have written any of this up inaccurately, please let me know and I will make the corrections and send it out again!
Cheerfully submitted: deb Gerard
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Charter School Planning Meeting #5
September 6, 2006
I. Update on planning team membership
A. Team to include: Rich T, Marcia B, Doreen K, Jenice W, Janel B, Don A, Nick A and deb G
B. Nick will contact parent for involvement (Lennae Wudstrack)
C. Discussion as to why this is being attempted-a way to keep the district solid and address needs of various disenfranchised students
II. Information from other virtual schools
A. Information has been received from several schools with more coming
III. Answers to questions from last meeting (see minutes)
A. Questions still need answers relative to:
1. how students count for graduation,
2. what constitutes a full-time student,
3. how do we count a part-time student and
4. do charter students take the state tests
IV. Next steps
A. In light of insufficient understanding of this process and lack of parent involvement, district will postpone grant application til June, 2007
B. The next steps will involve conference calls with other charter schools starting with Kiel
C. The DPI has also been contacted to determine if there are workshops or conferences we can attend to prepare for writing this grant
D. Some team members will go to the Virtual School Conference in Plano Texas Nov 5-7 (Nick will invite all team members and get list of who is going)
V. Next meeting will be on Tuesday, October 10th at 3:30 –intended to be a conference call with Kiel (waiting on confirmation!)
Note: Anything in italics was added AFTER the meeting
I. Update on planning team membership
A. Team to include: Rich T, Marcia B, Doreen K, Jenice W, Janel B, Don A, Nick A and deb G
B. Nick will contact parent for involvement (Lennae Wudstrack)
C. Discussion as to why this is being attempted-a way to keep the district solid and address needs of various disenfranchised students
II. Information from other virtual schools
A. Information has been received from several schools with more coming
III. Answers to questions from last meeting (see minutes)
A. Questions still need answers relative to:
1. how students count for graduation,
2. what constitutes a full-time student,
3. how do we count a part-time student and
4. do charter students take the state tests
IV. Next steps
A. In light of insufficient understanding of this process and lack of parent involvement, district will postpone grant application til June, 2007
B. The next steps will involve conference calls with other charter schools starting with Kiel
C. The DPI has also been contacted to determine if there are workshops or conferences we can attend to prepare for writing this grant
D. Some team members will go to the Virtual School Conference in Plano Texas Nov 5-7 (Nick will invite all team members and get list of who is going)
V. Next meeting will be on Tuesday, October 10th at 3:30 –intended to be a conference call with Kiel (waiting on confirmation!)
Note: Anything in italics was added AFTER the meeting
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Charter School Meeting #4: Expanded Team
August 15, 2006
Present: Lori Rowe, Wanda Minniecheske, Jenice Wiesensel, Don Aanonsen, Nick Alioto, Pat Brietenfeldt, Doreen Kakes, Janel Bedor, deb Gerard
Note: Most in attendance, with exception of Nick, Don, Janel and deb, were here to get information prior to deciding whether to be part of the planning team.
Nick presented an overview of the charter school plan to date followed by discussion resulting in the following:
There is a lot of money out there for charter schools so we are likely to get the planning grant
Plan is for a K-12 Virtual Academy-nothing unique, but filling a needed role
Targeting homeschool students-a fast growing population
Research indicates that parents are homeschooling for a number of reasons and not just for religious reasons anymore
Our teachers would provide mentoring/tutoring and a level of accountability for students taking these online courses
This is a “win-win” situation as students get an opportunity to learn in a different way and this district is able to utilize current staff in additional ways in light of declining enrollments which would otherwise eventually require staff cuts or partial contracts.
Tigerton would be offering an instrumentality charter school which means we would be utilizing our own teachers as opposed to a noninstrumentality school that uses teachers from somewhere else.
Initially, the district would be buying curriculum and using our staff as mentors/tutors with future plans to possibly develop courses using our own teachers
Initial cost depends on where the district gets the curriculum
The Charter School is funded first by grants in the planning and initial implementation stage and then by charter school students being counted as Tigerton students and thereby qualifying the district to claim state aide for them.
Research shows that students need mentors/tutors while attending virtual school
Vocational/noncore classes are already at risk from competition and that would remain the case should Tigerton offer a charter school (though it might not increase that level of competition now present)
Tigerton teachers would remain under same contract with the Tigerton District even though mentoring for the charter school students.
There is a bill now in the legislature requiring all students have at least one online course in order to graduate.
Students who chose, for example, to attend ½ day in Tigerton and ½ virtual school would have to find own transportation
Janel indicated that there is a foundation that is designing a cheap but effective laptop to make available to homes without computers-some would be needed for students in this district
Several questions need answers including:
How many courses must a student take before he/she counts as Tigerton student?
Would district consider moving to a 6 hour teaching day utilizing the remaining 2 hours for mentoring and professional development/collaboration?
Can current Tigerton student choose to take classes from charter school? Yes, but not a course that was currently offered in the Tigerton School?
Would the district lose a large number of its current students to the charter school?
How do we count students who only take some credits-are they “nongraduates”? How do they get a diploma from Tigerton? What are minimum requirements?
Do charter school students take the State tests?
The meeting ended with Wanda indicating she would like to be a part of the planning committee. Others will let Nick know ASAP. Everyone was asked to think of names of parents who might be interested in being involved and submit those names to Nick or Don.
Next meeting will take place Wednesday, September 6th at 3:30 in the district office.
Present: Lori Rowe, Wanda Minniecheske, Jenice Wiesensel, Don Aanonsen, Nick Alioto, Pat Brietenfeldt, Doreen Kakes, Janel Bedor, deb Gerard
Note: Most in attendance, with exception of Nick, Don, Janel and deb, were here to get information prior to deciding whether to be part of the planning team.
Nick presented an overview of the charter school plan to date followed by discussion resulting in the following:
There is a lot of money out there for charter schools so we are likely to get the planning grant
Plan is for a K-12 Virtual Academy-nothing unique, but filling a needed role
Targeting homeschool students-a fast growing population
Research indicates that parents are homeschooling for a number of reasons and not just for religious reasons anymore
Our teachers would provide mentoring/tutoring and a level of accountability for students taking these online courses
This is a “win-win” situation as students get an opportunity to learn in a different way and this district is able to utilize current staff in additional ways in light of declining enrollments which would otherwise eventually require staff cuts or partial contracts.
Tigerton would be offering an instrumentality charter school which means we would be utilizing our own teachers as opposed to a noninstrumentality school that uses teachers from somewhere else.
Initially, the district would be buying curriculum and using our staff as mentors/tutors with future plans to possibly develop courses using our own teachers
Initial cost depends on where the district gets the curriculum
The Charter School is funded first by grants in the planning and initial implementation stage and then by charter school students being counted as Tigerton students and thereby qualifying the district to claim state aide for them.
Research shows that students need mentors/tutors while attending virtual school
Vocational/noncore classes are already at risk from competition and that would remain the case should Tigerton offer a charter school (though it might not increase that level of competition now present)
Tigerton teachers would remain under same contract with the Tigerton District even though mentoring for the charter school students.
There is a bill now in the legislature requiring all students have at least one online course in order to graduate.
Students who chose, for example, to attend ½ day in Tigerton and ½ virtual school would have to find own transportation
Janel indicated that there is a foundation that is designing a cheap but effective laptop to make available to homes without computers-some would be needed for students in this district
Several questions need answers including:
How many courses must a student take before he/she counts as Tigerton student?
Would district consider moving to a 6 hour teaching day utilizing the remaining 2 hours for mentoring and professional development/collaboration?
Can current Tigerton student choose to take classes from charter school? Yes, but not a course that was currently offered in the Tigerton School?
Would the district lose a large number of its current students to the charter school?
How do we count students who only take some credits-are they “nongraduates”? How do they get a diploma from Tigerton? What are minimum requirements?
Do charter school students take the State tests?
The meeting ended with Wanda indicating she would like to be a part of the planning committee. Others will let Nick know ASAP. Everyone was asked to think of names of parents who might be interested in being involved and submit those names to Nick or Don.
Next meeting will take place Wednesday, September 6th at 3:30 in the district office.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
