This document discusses Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD's efforts to enhance existing online and traditional curriculums to better meet the needs of K-12 learners. It outlines how the district has embraced online technology as a tool to support student achievement by integrating teaching strategies with new technologies. The district provides online courses and tools to extend learning beyond the classroom using its virtual campus platform Moodle. It details the district's process of enhancing online courses, training teachers on Moodle, and its goal of having all teachers make their course resources available online to increase learning opportunities for students.

1. Enhancing Existing Online and
Traditional Curriculums to Meet
the Needs of K-12 Learners
Dr. Andrew Berning - Chief Technology & Information
Officer
Rich Lewis - Instructional Technology Specialist
Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD
Technology Services Division
2009-2010

2. Online Technology
Acceptance
 In the K-12 environment, we are now embracing
Online technology as a tool to support student
achievement.
 Our approach is to integrate time-honored
teaching strategies with the latest available
technologies.
 It is imperative to remember that while technology
allows us to make learning opportunities available
beyond the traditional school day, K-12 students
require rich interaction (student-content, student-
student, student-teacher) and ongoing instructor
support to be successful in the online environment.

3. What is the “Virtual
Campus”?
 Mission Statement
 To promote student achievement at the
highest levels through flexible, online learning
opportunities that meet C-FB ISD, Texas and
national standards.
 We provide and support online courses for
acceleration and to enhance course
availability
 We support tools for use by traditional
classroom teachers to extend educational
opportunities to their students beyond the
four-walls of the classroom.

4. Virtual Campus Details
 Online Courses: Online and Campus
Based
 Health, P.E. Foundations, BCIS, Comm.
Apps.
 Other Courses based on Campus Request
○ Foreign Languages, AP Courses
 2008-2009- ~400 enrollments
 Blended Model Courses
 UT-ASKME / Moodle online Algebra I,
Geometry
 1-to-1 Wireless Laptop Classroom
Environments
 160 middle and high school students

5. Enter
 Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Dynamic
Learning Environment).
 Introduced to the district via staff at our
Alternative High School.
 Identified as a solution for making content and
learning activities available to students who
struggle with traditional high school
environments.
 We saw possibilities beyond serving more than
just the “non-traditional” students – to meet all
students where they are… the Internet.

6. We have the right tool, but how
do we effectively implement it?
 Targets
 Improving our existing online/blended
offerings
 Enhance and increase flexibility of our
Professional Development programs
 Opportunity for teachers to expand the reach
of their classroom resources and curriculum
beyond the classroom
 Act as a repository for digital textbooks

7. 2007-2008 Laying the
Foundation
 Examining our blended and online courses, we
discovered that many did not meet the
interactivity standards of iNACOL.
 Most courses were singular learning experiences.
 The most interaction they afforded was direct
feedback from the teacher.
 Our first opportunity would be to enhance our
existing online-based programs.
 We, in effect, wrapped existing online curriculums
with Moodle. Created pass-thru sign-in to external
curriculums and linked directly to them from the
Moodle course. Moodle was the one-stop course for
the students.

8. 2007-2008 Laying the
Foundation
 Examining our blended and online courses, we
discovered that many did not meet the
interactivity standards of iNACOL.
 Most courses were singular learning experiences.
 The most interaction they afforded was direct
feedback from the teacher.
 Our first opportunity would be to enhance our
existing online-based programs.

9. Synchronous
Collaboration…
 Wimba Classroom
and Pronto
integrated into
Moodle
 Used for bridging gap
in video conferenced
classes
 Virtual Tutorial
sessions.
 Sessions are archived
for future reference.

10. Asynchronous
Collaboration…
 Discussion Forums
 Used for general or
focused discussion.
 Student-to-student,
student-to-instructor
interaction
 Q & A Forums used for
Group Guided Practice
 Wikis
 Used for group projects
 Class ownership of
shared resources such
as a Glossary

11. Sharing Student Creativity and
Problem Solving Approaches.…
 Student
created
problems…
 VoiceThread

12. 2008 TAKS Performance –
District/Campus/Hybrid
 Of 137 total students in Hybrid Model
classes (HS and MS), we had a 97.1%
completion rate.

13. “High Tech, High Touch”
Vision
 It is our vision that all teachers will make their
course resources available online.
 Further, we envision teachers utilizing the
evolving online tools available to them to
increase the learning opportunities for their
students.
 Want to create learning opportunities that reach
beyond the classroom and that are available
24/7/365.
…. so how do we get there?

14. 2008-2009 Grassroots Effort
 Began offering voluntary training to early
adopters.
 Rationale was that the best promotion would
be to seek out tech savvy teachers who
would voluntarily experiment with integrating
Moodle into their classrooms.
 Teachers take more note of what works for
other teachers than what the technology
groups says will work for them.

15. Leveraging Moodle features
 Like our enhancements of our online
and blended courses, teachers
immediately began using…
 Discussion forums
 Chats
 Questionnaires
 Journaling (via online text assignments)

16. Extend courses by providing
automated Feedback
 Automating
specific,
meaningful
feedback on
student
performance…

17. 2009-2010 Mass
Penetration
 We have the experience and knowledge
now to make the vision a reality.
 C-FB Moodle University
 Online, On-demand source for all things
Moodle.
 Both a reference site, and a formal training
course.
 District Q&A
 Best Practices Podcast

18. Future Content Area
Portals
 Expanding the idea of a blended model
 Create content area portals that make
existing curriculum content and activities
available online, then extend the portal
to include additional collaborative
resources for dynamic support,
enrichment, or remediation at a campus
or district level.
17

19. Dr. Andrew Berning
Rich Lewis
Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD
Technology Services Division
berninga@cfbisd.edu
lewisri@cfbisd.edu
Thank you!!!