Virtual High School Courses

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Virtual High School Courses

• How One District Built Their Own
• Robert T. Gulick, EdDParma City School District

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Background

• 19 years in education
• 7 years in elementary
• 12 years in IT as trainer, developer (programmer,
  DBA, Web, Moodle, etc.)
• Doctorate is in Instructional Technology and
  Distance Education
• Train and support virtual teachers

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Overview

• Why Build Your Own? Or Not?
• Gaining Consensus (Contract Language)
• Technical Side
• Teacher Training
• Preparing Students
• Results

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Why Build Your Own? Or Not?

• Many prepackaged services out there
• Most have wide course selection
• Most provide teachers
• Some allow you to use your own teachers
• Some allow you to customize courses

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Why Build Your Own? Or Not?

• We wanted
• Our students to take
• Our courses using
• Our Teachers
• District strives for
• Articulation between courses (content)
• Consistency of evaluation

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Why Build Your Own? Or Not?

• Goal of Virtual Instruction
• Equivalent educational experience
• Regardless of path taken experience is equivalent
  (not identical)

English 9F2F
English 10F2F
English 11F2F
English 12F2F
English 9Virtual
English 10Virtual
English 11Virtual
English 12Virtual
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Gaining Consensus - Expectations

• Save NOT!
• Training Teachers costs
• Course Development costs
• Equipment costs
• Student Teacher Ratio 251 per section max

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Gaining Consensus - Expectations

• Keep students from dropping out NOT!
• Virtual courses are hard
• Unmotivated, undisciplined, ill-prepared students
  will not make it
• Give students another option to complete courses
  / open schedules / explore options YES!

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Gaining Consensus Contract

• For the teachers
• 251 student / teacher ratio max
• A virtual course section is no different than a
  F2F session
• Virtual course is scheduled for the teacher at
  the start / end of the day and they can leave
  (pending meetings)

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Gaining Consensus Contract

• For the administrators
• Virtual course can not be an extra-pay course it
  must be part of a normal teacher load
• Once a teacher is paid for the development of a
  course the course is the property of the
  district any teacher can be assigned to teach
  that course
• All contract language, board policies, standard
  practices, etc. apply to virtual courses

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Gaining Consensus For Both

• JVIC
• Joint Virtual Instruction Committee
• Meets 10 times a year
• Half during day, half after school
• Eight members
• Half from union, half from administrators
• Stipend paid for after school meetings
• Control course offerings
• Review / approve / guide all virtual matters

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Technical Side

• Moodle
• Moodle.org
• Virtual Server
• Moodle.parmacityschools.org
• Student accounts based on existing student home
  gradebook accounts
• Course registration automatic based on student
  information system

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Selecting Courses

• JVIC requested one course suggestion from each
  department
• Make up for a lost credit
• Tended to have a high degree of interaction /
  discussion as opposed to presentation
• Have a teacher willing to explore 'virtualizing'
  a course they have already taught a few times

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Teacher Training

• Six weeks, three hours a week plus homework
• Teachers loaned
• Laptop
• Microphone
• Digital audio recorder

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Teacher Training - Books

• Essential Elements Prepare, Design, and Teach
  Your Online Course
• Engaging the Online Learner Activities and
  Resources for Creative Instruction
• Moodle Teaching Techniques Creative Ways to Use
  Moodle for Constructing Online Learning Solutions

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Teacher Training - Overview

• One Moodle course for the teachers as students
• Each teacher had their own course as developer
• The goal of the six-week course was to develop
  the first chunk of the course they hope to
  fully develop for students

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Teacher Training Main Topics

• Virtual Instruction Methods
• Instructional Design
• Moodle Environment
• Converting F2F to Virtual

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Preparing Students

• Counselors were given information on the courses
• Needed to give counselors more information on
  logistics, student traits, technical
  requirements, student expectations
• Met with all virtual students after school at
  start of year. After general meeting broke into
  actual class groups.

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Support During Course

• Teachers had their own Teachers Lounge Course
  to share QA, Resources, Commiserate
• Both Teachers and Students had e-mail support for
  technical issues. Phone call support was used on
  occasion.

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Results Four Courses Delivered

• U.S. Government
• Year Long Course
• 11 Students Enrolled
• 7 Active Students
• Health Education
• Semester Long
• 17 Students Enrolled
• 14 Active Students
• 12 Students Passed

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Results Four Courses Delivered

• Math Topics 1
• Year Long Course
• 8 Student Enrolled
• 4 Students Active
• Digital Photography
• Semester Long Course
• 8 Students Enrolled
• 6 Active Students
• 5 Students Passed

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Results Unintended

• F2F with Virtual Extensions
• Teachers were trained but course did not have
  enough students
• Three Teachers created virtual activities to go
  along with their F2F course

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What We Would Do Differently

• Teacher Training
• 10 meetings, 2 hours each
• 3 hours too much
• Counselor / Student / Parent Information
• More on what students will be expected to do on
  their own
• More on who would be a successful virtual student

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The End

• Questions?
• Contact Dr. Bob
• GulickB_at_ParmaCitySchools.org
• 440-885-7099
• Presentation
• www.ParmaCitySchools.org/Presentations