Best Practices and Lessons Learned: Developing, Implementing and Delivering Successful Distributed L

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• Best Practices and Lessons Learned Developing,
  Implementing and Delivering Successful
  Distributed Learning Environments For Your
  Students.
• Dr. Elizabeth Childs, Lara Jongedijk

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Agenda

• Connected Learner (CL) Technology Projects
• Project Overview
• Research Approach
• Research Results to date
• Best Practices
• Lessons Learned
• Summary
• Questions

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CL Project Overview

• The 2006-2007 BC Connected Learners (CL)
  Technology Grants
• are government grants of 75,000, given to each
  of 9 school districts, to develop projects which
  enable technological innovation in rural
  schools.
• Purpose of the CL projects
• 1) To increase educational opportunity and
  access to rural students using ICT solutions
• 2) To research the development, implementation
  and delivery across the projects to develop
  a model of Best Practices of ICT
  integration for Canadian Rural Schools.

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CL Project Overview

• Where are the CL projects?
• SD 5 Southeast Kootney
• SD 6 Rocky Mountain
• SD 22 Vernon
• SD 23 Kelowna
• SD 48 Howe Sound
• SD 59 Peace River South
• SD 72 Campbell River
• SD 91 Nechako
• SD 93 Francophone Authority

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CL Project Overview

• Technology
• ICT solutions researched in CL projects involve
  three key mediums of ICT integration
• Online learning (virtual schooling)
• Video conferencing
• Virtual tutoring

• DL Course Content
• Courses included in the CL projects
• BC First Nations 12
• Calculus 12
• Chemistry 11
• Communications 12
• English Lit 12
• Essentials of Math 10/11
• Geography 12
• Principals of Math 10/11
• Science 8/9 (French)
• Video Production 12

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Research Approach

• The Research Data
• Data is being collected on the following 7 key
  metrics
• Student Satisfaction
• Parent Satisfaction
• Teacher Satisfaction
• Teacher Professional Development
• Return on Investment (ROI)
• Lessons Learned
• Student achievement
• 16 months of Data Collection
• Round one (Jan-June 2006)
• Round two (Sept 2006-Jan 2007)
• Round three (Feb-June 2007)
• The Data Collected Qualitative and Quantitative
• Series of online surveys
• Focus group interviews

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Research Approach

• Research Goals
• 1) An individual summary report for each of the 9
  individual projects.
• 2) A meta-analysis of global themes that emerge
  as shared results across the nine CL projects.
• 3) Derive a list of model of Best Practices for
  ICT Integration as observed across the CL
  projects.

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Research Results

• Round 1 Data Results General

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Research Results

• The CL Student Demographics to Date

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Research Results

• The CL Student Perceptions to Date

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Research Results

• Round 1 Data Results

• Results to date across the seven key metrics

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Research Results

• 1. Student Satisfaction

• Very positive student support for online
  learning as a course delivery method.
• 74 of students were first time learners in an
  online environment, all of these 74 indicated
  that they would take another course online
• a further 80 said they would recommend online
  learning to their peers.
• After one semester students are choosing online
  learning as a desired method of taking
  coursework

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Research Results

• 1. Student Satisfaction

• Focus on Student Orientation
• Great need for students to have training and
  orientation in both the technology and the
  methodology of learning online.
• Only 67 indicated that online learning suited
  their learning style and only 50 indicated
  having more than one hour of orientation
  training.
• 5 hrs of orientation F2F orientation best
  results.
• Develop a district wide mandatory orientation
  min 5hrs
• Teach both technology involved and how to
  best learn online

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Research Results

• 2. Parent Satisfaction

• Very strong parental support
• 100 of parents surveyed indicated their belief
  that online courses represent an essential tool
  for providing educational access to rural areas
  where regular classes can not be held.
• Living in a small community means fewer course
  options. These courses allow my child to stay in
  the community longer without suffering
  educationally

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Research Results

• 2. Parent Satisfaction

• Need for Parent Orientation
• Great lack of understanding amongst parents
  regarding ICT.
• Parents view online learning as an alternative
  form of learning to be used only when F2F
  options are not available.
• There was a discrepancy between the perceived
  workload of the online course by the parents and
  the students. Parents felt that online courses
  had less of a workload than F2F courses while
  the majority of students found online courses to
  require an equal or greater amount of time and
  effort.
• Parents are not familiar with the technology
  their children are using
• Need for schools to hold parent orientation
  sessions to discuss expectations, the realities
  of DL and to demonstrate the technology.

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Research Results

• 3. Teacher Satisfaction

• Very strong teacher support
• 85 of teachers were new to online teaching.
  After one semester, 100 of all project teachers
  communicated the desire to continue teaching
  online
• 100 of teachers indicated that they would
  recommend teaching online to colleagues and
  peers.
• Schools and teachers in many schools were
  skeptical about the program when it was first
  proposed. Now we have no problem recruiting
  teachers. As a result, all schools will be
  offering at least one online course next year.
  The tremendous success we have enjoyed has
  marketed the program far more effectively than we
  could have.

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Research Results

• 3. Teacher Satisfaction

• Strong perception of value
• 100 of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that
  online learning offers access to important
  opportunities for students, enhances learning for
  students and is important for students to be able
  to achieve educational goals.
• Online courses are essential in this rural
  board where declining enrollment means that
  courses like Lit12 cant run because there are
  usually only seven to eight kids signed up for
  them. Next year, we cant offer Geography,
  Current Events, First Nations, Law, etc, etc...
  because we just dont have the numbers. With
  online courses, the kids can still take all these
  valuable courses, and they also get to work with
  kids outside their own small area.

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Research Results

• 3. Teacher Satisfaction

• Fostering higher level thinking
• Online learning has encouraged a higher level of
  thinking and interaction among classes despite
  the geographical separation.
• I saw a lot of benefits that you dont get in
  the regular classroom. For example Discussion
  forums! Students have time to read each others
  ideas, plan and organize their thoughts, edit
  their postings, and research their support before
  participating in discussion. I have seen
  remarkable evidence of the improved quality of
  discussion that this allows. Shy kids are more
  involved, theres less showing off and ego
  involved, and the result is a much more
  intelligent and productive academic environment
  for discussion.

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Research Results

• 3. Teacher Satisfaction

• Strong use of the technology both within and
  outside of the DL courses
• The recorded notes and the archived lessons have
  been ecstatically accepted by both students and
  teachers.
• The online notes have been so popular that DL
  students felt they had an academic advantage over
  F2F students and the school felt they had to open
  up access to online archives for all students to
  promote equity

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Research Results

• 4. Teacher Professional Development

• 100 of DL Courses being facilitated by Subject
  matter expert (SME)
• Rural areas IT solutions offers sole access to a
  subject matter expert (SME) for senior level
  courses.
• One of the great benefits of providing
  technology solutions for educational access is in
  ensuring that students are being taught course
  material via subject matter experts.

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Research Results

• 4. Teacher Professional Development

• Focus on Constructivism
• The teachers facilitating the online course have
  a gap in knowledge concerning the implementation
  of constructivist practices to facilitate
  effective online learning.
• While 100 of teachers surveyed indicated the
  perceived importance of interactivity less than
  50 of teachers indicated that they were
  integrating constructivist pedagogy in their
  planning for implementing online courseware.
• Focus on mandatory teacher PD/ orientations
  involving constructivist pedagogy.

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Research Results

• 5. Return on Investment (ROI)

• Results are pending

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Research Results

• 6. Lessons Learned

• Strong use of the technology both within and
  outside of the DL courses
• The recorded notes and the archived lessons have
  been ecstatically accepted by both students and
  teachers.
• The online notes have been so popular that DL
  students felt they had an academic advantage over
  F2F students and the school felt they had to open
  up access to online archives for all students to
  promote equity

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Research Results

• 6. Lessons Learned

• Informed Administrative support for DL courses
• DL courses require extra prep time for teachers
• Prep time needs to be given to teachers at least
  1 semester prior to implementing new technology.
  Stability and reliability of technology is
  essential.
• DL courses require an onsite facilitator in each
  location specialized in both the technology and
  in the pedagogy of effective online learning.
• Pilot courses and materials in classes prior to
  full scale implementation.
• Design an implementation plan for your district.
  Your plan should include training,
  implementation and continued support for DL
  facilitators.

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Research Results

• 7. Student Achievement

• While the data is preliminary, the perception at
  the school level indicates that students
  completion rates and level of academic
  achievement for online learning are similar to
  that of F2F courses.
• The overall view is that there was no
  perceptible difference in student achievement
  when learning in this way.
• Projects have noted that the highest rates of
  student achievement result when a blended model
  of delivery is used to facilitate online learning
• All of the nine projects are now combining
  some F2F time (orientation, retreat, exam
  preparation).

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Research Results

• 7. Student Achievement

• Need to focus on interactivity
• All of the districts involved recognized that
  interactivity in online courses was one of the
  single most important factors for student
  success.
• The vast majority are moving toward
  implementing increased interactivity into their
  previous online learning content (ie adding
  synchronous time, more threaded discussions,
  live video feed, increasing the amount of
  student interaction in the course weightings).
• Focus on interactivity make an informed
  distinction between
• Distributed Learning (highly interactive) and
• Distance Education (completed in isolation).

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Research Results

• 7. Student Achievement

• Focus on Online Communities
• There is a great need to promote the idea of
  online communities.
• Only 50 of students surveyed, indicated that
  they connected regularly with other students
  online. Many students indicated that they never
  interact online with other students
• Focus on the creation of community develop
• and promote participation in an online community
• and build participation into your DL program.

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Research Results

• Summary/Conclusion

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Summary

• Conclusions to Date
• The results from this summary of the 2006 CL
  Round One Summary Report are preliminary however
  they are useful in highlighting a practical list
  of lessons learned for educators to use when
  developing, integrating and delivering technology
  solutions in your schools.
• Next steps

• We will be finalizing the last round of data
  collection (November 07)
• We will be formalizing a list of Best Practices
  observed across the entire project.
• We will be comparing the emerging themes with
  related Literature
• We will be completing a Best Practices model of
  implementation for integrating ICT solutions
  in schools based upon informed research
  across the CL projects.

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Summary

• Dr Barry Carbol
• Research Director
• bcarbol_at_telus.net
• Dr Elizabeth Childs
• Lead Project Researcher
• echilds_at_telus.net
• Lara Jongedijk
• Project Researcher
• lmjonged_at_ucalgary.ca

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Summary

• Questions?