Oregon Online
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Wednesday, Sep 20, 2000
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Participants: Salem - Jim Saffeels, Mary Jean Sandall (S-K Online)
AGENDA ** REGIONAL PROGRAMS UPDATE Regional Updates: Portland CyberScholars: A successful Summer CyberScholars Pilot Program at Benson High School. Ninety-three students registered for on-line classes. Seventy-three completed coursework and received a passing grade (78%). Students were required to meet with their instructor(s) at the Benson High School site and come into the computer lab for proctored tests. Courses offered were: English 1-2; English 3-4; Pre-Algebra; Algebra 1-2; Algebra 3-4 (all Academic Systems) and Health 1-2. Students paid tuition of $150 per semester course. The CyberScholars Program ran six weeks, July 10 – August 18th. This program is scheduled for expansion during Summer Scholars 2001. Currently, we are looking for Board approval and funding for distance education classes for second semester (February 2001). Eugene CyberSchool continues to work with OPEN to establish stable funding sources. There are 110 students enrolled in the Fall 2000 Program (50 students outside Oregon). A total of 45 classes are offered online with 36 teachers involved. A special arrangement through ODE allows small schools with less than 300 students to receive a 2 for 1 tuition sponsorship. CyberSchools has contacted ten schools in the John Day School District to join this project. CyberSchools is currently working on a Teacher Learning Challenge Grant to develop 10 new courses. September 1st CyberSchool posted a new website format with more photographs of students and staff. Jackson ESD: Southern Oregon Online is in its final editing stages for the 8 courses developed this summer. Eight teachers and four writers designed the new courses for posting on Blackboard.com. The interaction between the work teams was positive and inspiring. Students will be enrolling this week in the courses created. An evaluation Rubric for assessing the new courses will be shared with others when completed. Chemeketa Community College: the college’s online course are popular (6,000 enrolled Fall 2000). The focus of many of the courses is providing licensure training and certificate renewal classes. The college is also offering a one-year Business Software certificate which it is marketing statewide. Courses which have room are offered to students throughout Oregon through their local college/university. Chemeketa is also working with high schools on a 2+2 program and offering advanced placement classes for students. Mollala SD e-school is garnering strong district support for its programs. Focus is on drop-out prevention rather than just retrieval. Currently students are involved in making an interactive CD for OSHA demonstrating safety and workplace regulations. This may be a model for other projects in the future. S-K Online enrolled 400 students for online classes this summer! Special attention was paid to developing a sense of community, support systems and keeping students connected. These methods paid off with a 70-85% completion rate in the courses offered. Ten teachers and support staff are ready for the fall course offerings in 17 courses. The struggle to provide online instruction that can pay for itself continues.
October 13 Conference in HillsboroMarcia Arganbright is coordinating the conference and workshops with the assistance of Roy Bunch. Most online schools represented at this V-Tel meeting will be participating in some capacity during the October 13-14 conference. S-K Online will be presenting at the Oregon Alternative Education Association (OAEA) conference in Seaside (Oct 13&14), but may also present at the Hillsboro conference. Other Distance Learning ConferencesDrop-out prevention Conference - Baltimore Connected University Conference European Schools Conference – Germany (April 2001) NSCA Conference K-12 Distance Education Council Some conflicting loyalties between supporters of SB 622 (build V-Tel and they will come) and pragmatists of asynchronistic distance learning education were noted in the council proceedings. The battle for scarce funding resources requires that all distance learning groups providing direct services to students be represented before the legislature. A major concern is that after using close to 50 million dollars to provide the hardware and equipment for the V-Tel system, additional amounts will be solicited from the legislature to create the curriculum/courses for the V-Tel system. This could seriously undercut asychronistic distance learning program funding. Other BusinessCyberSchool received Technical Learning Grant funds to develop ten more cybercourses. The courses will belong to CyberSchool when completed. CyberSchool is now raising their tuition to $350 a course and will consider renting and selling courses they own. Jackson ESD and others expressed an interest in developing ways to exchange course curriculum that is fair and equitable. This issue has been addressed in past sessions and needs further consideration. This will become more germane as members of this partnership develop duplicate online courses. A statewide repository for courses developed with public monies and sharing of CIM benchmark materials/curriculum were mentioned. An organized presence before the legislature will be coordinated by Dave Moore of Willamette ESD. All members of this organization are encouraged to support these efforts to the extent possible. Meeting was adjourned at 11:30. Minutes submitted for review by Steve Rutherford. AddendumAt our recent online meeting, I promised to share two documents generating out of the newly created Oregon K-12 Distance Ed Council which met with Stan Bunn in Salem on September 13th: 1) meeting notes from Supt. Bunn's charge to our committee; See Below for the two documents, FYI __________________________ Notes from K-12 Distance Education Council Meeting. 9/13 at ODE * Stan Bunn asked the group to look at their efforts through the lens of-- "As we look back at the conclusion of the Council, what difference do we want our work to have made?" * Stan suggested the following as deliverables: 1) Identify how distance learning fits into enhancing student success. 2) Identify barriers to distance learning and how to remove them. 3) Identify what needs to occur in the next 5/ next 10 years in capacity building for content, delivery and presentation. 4) Make recommendations regarding the role of ESDs in the implementation of distance learning 5) Determine how distance learning can assist in CIM/CAM delivery--particularly in the endorsement areas. 6) Make recommendations on how teachers will receive appropriate training? 7) Identify ways in which distance education can strengthen connections between teachers & parents, between home & school. 8) Recommend ways that distance learning can help bridge student opportunities between high schools and the community college & university system. 9) Identify all of the issues---for example: costs, time, training, personnel, etc. Lay the issues out on the table and list the pros & cons of various possible solutions. * In response to a question from Ron regarding blending SB 622 efforts with the Internet opportunities, Stan advised the Council not to focus on the v-tel/SB 622 system only--but work on how to integrate all forms of distance learning such as CyberSchool, etc. * Stan advised the Council to keep their plan simple! * Stan suggested three tests for any work/recommendations of the Council: 1) Does it enhance opportunity for student success? 2) Does it strengthen or weaken the public schools? 3) Is there good communication about what is being done in distance learning, or is there confusion in the field? *At the end of the meeting, in response to a question from Camille regarding deliverables, Stan listed the following areas: --Identifying barriers & solutions for removal --Laying out all the issues --Identifying partners in funding, delivery, content, etc. --Strategies for capacity building _________________________________ Oregon K-12 Distance Education Council The Oregon Distance Learning Plan Introduction The Oregon K-12 Distance Education Council was appointed by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop an Oregon Distance Learning Plan to support remote teaching and learning opportunities for K-12 students. Research over the past several months by various statewide committees in distance education focused around the implications of SB622 has provided a solid basis for making an initial strategy recommendation to the State Superintendent, along with a recommended implementation approach. The Council will make a series of Strategy Recommendations that will ultimately constitute the Oregon Distance Learning Plan. Strategy Recommendations Strategy Recommendation I This first strategy is one of many that will be made to insure quality delivery of quality instruction for all students, K-12. Strategy Recommendation I begins the steps toward a comprehensive K-12 Plan that looks to the needs of students and educators over the next five to ten years. The Distance Education Council makes this first strategy recommendation based upon the existing strong partnerships and alliances within the State in each ESD. I. Authorize the Educational Service Districts across the state to implement existing Technology Plans and create a distance education support system within each region that connects to the Oregon Access Network. Implementation Steps: A. Hire a minimum of .5 fte support staff to provide instructional assistance in the expansion of Oregon Access Network opportunities for instruction and other uses. B. Establish a regular and ongoing plan for professional development in alignment with the guidelines and requirements of SB622 and existing State and regional Technology Plans. C. Establish an instructional focus for distance education across the ESD that, in some part, addresses the need for instruction aligned with Oregon State Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM) and Certificate of Advanced Mastery (CAM) requirements. |
