South+East+Cornerstone



=Online Learning in SECSD=

2012 - 2013

 * Cyber Stone, our virtual school, is now registered as it's own school. We are moving towards a model where all Cyber Stone teachers will teach 100% online. Within 3 years we plan to expland our offerings to offer a complete high school program, including all required courses for graduation, all sciences, and enough electives to provide some programming options for our students.
 * We've upgraded to Blackboard 9.1 (not without a few growing pains)
 * See also []
 * Semester 1**
 * Food Studies 30
 * History 30
 * IP 10
 * Life Trans 30
 * Psych 30


 * Semester 2**
 * Accounting 20
 * Accounting 30
 * Interior Design 30
 * IP 20
 * Psychology 30
 * Entrepreneurship 30
 * Flex Intake - Anytime Enrollment**
 * Accounting 10
 * ELA A 10
 * ELA B 10
 * ELA 20
 * ELA A 30
 * ELA B 30
 * Law 30
 * Foundations & Pre-Calc 10
 * Foundations 20
 * Foundations 30
 * Pre-Calculus 20
 * Pre-Calculus 30
 * Calculus 30
 * Work Place & Apprenticeship 10
 * Work Place & Apprenticeship 20
 * Work Place & Apprenticeship 30

Delivery Methods

 * Asynchronous recorded
 * Primarily for math classes. Teacher records F2F lesson using SMART Board & Adobe Connect; recordings posted in Blackboard & available to online & F2F students.
 * Asynchronous
 * Online teachers are regular classroom teachers with some release time for online instruction; our 2 flex intake teachers are the exception

Delivery Tools & Other Supports

 * SECSD Blackboard as LMS
 * Adobe Connect for synchronous & asynchronous recorded classes
 * SMART Boards, Sympodium as required for course delivery
 * Synchronous classes - webcams, podcast microphones, large LCD TV's as monitors, caliphone headsets (1 classroom for both F2F delivery of a course to 1 group of local students while other students receive distance instruction)
 * Variety of other software & web 2.0 tools as required, including Camtasia, Voicethread, Google docs
 * Fall and spring workshop/networking sessions for online teachers
 * F2F visits of online teacher to student schools encouraged as are synchronous teacher/student meetings via Polycom

Successes

 * Student success in terms of course completion is generally high for those who complete a course
 * New flex intake courses highly subscribed
 * Schools report high level of satisfaction overall; synchronous offerings in particular
 * Greater flexibility for students

Challenges

 * Insufficient local facilitator support - a critical factor for student retention & success
 * Time challenges for online teachers, esp during early years when course development also required
 * Schools enroll students in classes who have poor chance of succeeding as a "last chance"
 * Administration (enrollments, tracking, etc.) becomes more challenging as number of course offerings & students increases; flex intake courses in particular
 * Planning for new math streams
 * Special challenges in synchronous delivery - time-tabling; 4-day school weeks and modified school years
 * Determining course offerings; some course offering poorly subscribed (e.g. AP ELA)
 * Bandwidth

Moving Forward

 * Increase focus & support for course development
 * Shift in online teacher development from primarily technology training to best pedalogical practices; move more towards learner-centered constructivist courses
 * Continuing to develop strong corps of online teachers in a variety of subject areas, for core classes & electives
 * Potential for sharing development with other divisions a la WBLRD-like mini projects?
 * Monitoring for course quality