3. Framework for Our Model Legislation and policy Equitable funding model Accountability: Audits Evidence of student achievement: Data Student services and coordination: LearnNow BC
4. Characteristics of Our Model DL = student learning at a distance from teacher Any student can access DL Any student can enrol anytime throughout the year Choice to take courses from anywhere: even more than one school/board/authority
5. The Virtual School Partnership Ministry School Boards Policy, Legislation Funding Delivery - Quality services to students Coordination of Technology and Support Structures Virtual School Society
6. DL by the Numbers Public Boards of Education Number of DL Schools: with DL Agreements: 06/07: 46 51 schools 07/08: 46 51 schools 08/09: 46 50 schools 09/10: 47 53 schools Independent DL Schools: 12 Enrolments: 07/08 48,941 students 15,956 FTEs ~125,000 courses 08/09 59,345 students 20,570 FTEs ~164,000 courses
8. DL Continuum in BC Homebound Learner-centric Blended Community-centric Virtual Provincially -centric Provincial Local Geography Size Small Large Site attendance Required Optional Primarily local Primarily at a distance Instruction
17. DL equivalent to attendancePlanning Parent Commitment Communication Marked Assignment K-9 10-12
18. Grades K-9 Funding Bricks and Mortar September 100% FTE Aboriginal – 100% ESL – 100% Supplements -rural, teacher salary, etc February Count June Sept Distributed Learning September 100% FTE Aboriginal - 100% ESL - 100% Supplements – rural, teacher salary, etc February 50% FTE Anytime- School Year May 33% FTE June 30 * 2009/2010: FTE base is $5,851
19. Grades 10 - 12 Bricks-and-Mortar Enter September FTE: (1/8 FTE/course) Aboriginal – 100% ESL – 100% Supplements - rural, teacher salary, etc July Summer Learning February Count June Sept Distributed Learning September 1/8 FTE/course Aboriginal – 100% ESL – 100% Supplements - rural, teacher salary, etc February 1/8 FTE/course Anytime May 1/8 FTE/course * 2009/2010: FTE base is $5851; 1/8 is $731
20. Adults Adults funded as Grade 10-12 students ~$500 per course Meet Active criteria Throne Speech commitment: “Education Guarantee” Provincial or approved courses listed on LearnNow BC Different than CE tuition free courses
27. BC’s DL Standards The DL standards are intended to: Make DL a credible option Clarify roles and responsibilities Identify the elements of quality programs Provide a framework for accountability and continuous improvement
28. Digital Learning Content Standards The digital learning content standards are intended to: set out how to develop course materials suitable for distributed learning guide development of new content, and the evaluation of existing content
30. Audits Main Focus areas: Evidence of compliance with funding policy, including Active student participation Teacher supervision and teacher-led assessment Students must be ordinarily resident Required Areas of Study are met Education programs are secular
34. Emphasis on Quality and StandardsAchievement Engagement Professional Development Support
35. Achievement Data Collection Ability to monitor basic student achievement at the course/program level Continuous collections to reflect continuous entry Evolving view versus single snapshot SADE: Student Achievement Data Exchange 4 collections/year
QRs, started in 2007-2008, has three stages: Internal Review, QR Site Visit, and Post-QR. In the Internal Review, administration and staff are invited to evaluate their program and practices, and identify the strengths and challenges. The Quality Review team reviews this information prior to the site visit. The Quality Review Site Visit involves conversations by a Ministry-appointed team with the DL school’s administration, teachers and clerical staff. The goal is to identify areas of strength and challenges in all areas of the educational experience: operations, professional development, technology, content development, and other. Typically, observations by the Quality Review Team are congruent with the input by staff and administration from the Internal Review. A Quality Review Report, signed off by the Manager of the e-Learning Programs Unit, contains details about the school, observations about practices, operations and facilities, and provides recommendations. In the Post-QR, the DL school reports on the measures they have taken to address the Quality Review Team’s recommendations. Reports from the 2007-2008 Post-QRs indicate that the DL schools have taken active and significant steps to address their areas of challenge. The table below indicates the areas of recommendation by school; each school provided evidence of how they had addressed these issues.
Professional Development:Clarifying roles, providing professional development and creating stronger linkages and supports through professional learning communities (across school and district boundaries) Technology:Implementing or increasing use of web 2.0 tools (Elluminate, video blogs, wikis, discussion boards, smart boards) in the DL classroom, and/orstandardizing the learning management system (Moodle) Other:Creating opportunities for increased use of DL, and making connections to the wider DL communityDeveloping a community advisory report to support the distributed learning model, increasing the use of support blocks for cross-enrolled students, and creating a community of learners in a grade 10 to 12 self-paced environment. developing connections with other SDs, provinces and countries. Content Development:Dedicating DL teacher time to developing content (in schools and across districts) lessons will be incorporating programming languages for robotics, 3-D modeling and web design. Operations: creating extra staff positions to support their DL programs: creating a clerical/registrar position, and DL department head and administrator, coordinator, technician, video support and clerical positions.
We have arranged for the Open School BC to continue to host CEET on their server for another year.We are upgrading to the latest and greatest version of Elgg (1.6).We are improving the look and feel of the site.Not one, but two moderators (Sandy Hirtz and Randy Labonte), will shepherd the community alongWe will provide simple tutorials to give teachers a quick sense of what a given tool is all about.A special guest-speaker will be featured in an Elluminate session re-launch of CEET in October.Subsequent special guest-speaker events will be held regularly, in addition to any that you facilitators might like to arrange.Our initial focus will be on Distributed Learning educators, but that will be broadened to include all K-12 educators in the province over time.We will use CEET as a test-bed for research into the usefulness of the Elgg community platform for educators and students.
