Craft Category: Artifacts

As the fifth edition in the State of the Nation: K-12 Online Learning in Canada series, author Michael K. Barbour investigates policies that govern Canadian K-12 distance education. Because Canada was one of the first countries to deliver distance-learning courses, Canada proves to be an interesting and compelling exemplar to study.

Through analyzing its thirteen provinces and territories, Canada offers a wealth of relevant comparisons with other countries/regions of similar population. View this report to survey the level of K-12 distance education across Canada and learn of unique trends, challenges, and current issue briefs.

This report provides a detailed look at how mentoring occurs in various virtual school business models. All 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, have supplemental and/or full-time K-12 online programs, and teacher mentoring structures exist in many of these.

The mentoring strategies vary based on specific school criteria. For example, if the virtual school is a supplementary, district-run program, the teachers might be full-time, face-to-face teachers who are teaching one online course per semester. This mentoring program may not be as extensive as one for a teacher who is 100% full-time in a fully online school.

Read this book now to discover specific teacher mentoring strategies for your K-12 online learning environment.

The case studies shared in this report seek to highlight the experiences of leading blended learning practitioners, in particular, those implementing “lab” or “station” blended rotation models. The case studies were designed to address the following areas:

• Journey to Blended Learning
• Instructional Model
• Operational Model
• Financial Model
• Lessons Learned

Use this resource to discover the strengths, challenges, and lessons learned by practitioners in the field of blended learning.

Globally, the highest performing nations have competency-based education systems – not systems based on seat time. iNACOL believes in student-centered learning and makes policy recommendations based on doing what is right for kids to have greater access to a world-class education. Authors of this report encourage legislators to adopt the following principles into their education policy:

• Shift to competency-based education from seat-time.
• Increase access for each student and permit the entire continuum of student-centered, online and blended learning.
• Design outcomes-based accountability and funding incentives.
• Increase access to excellent, effective teachers.
• Provide room for innovation.

This report summarizes recommendations for policymakers to transform education into highly personalized, competency-based systems.

The Art and Sciences of Designing Competencies paper discusses how innovators in competency education develop competencies. Often this is referred to as a tuning process or reengineering process – mapping from what we want students to know and be able to do all the way backwards to the choices for curricular tasks and assessments.

This paper provides insights into the orientation and processes that innovators use in designing competencies. Download your version of this report now and explore the reengineering process of developing competencies.

iNACOL released this policy brief providing federal legislators with background information and concrete, actionable recommendations on 5 key issues within student-centered, competency-based education. Online Learning: Top 5 Federal Policy Issues advocates for the following key policy takeaways:

• Base accountability on individual student growth models to support student-centered, competency-based learning.
• Support performance-based systems of assessments.
• Support federal research for high-quality online learning.
• Support human capital development through redesigned pre-service/in-service training for online and blended learning.
• Ensure reliable and ubiquitous student access to the Internet and quality learning materials.

These federal policy recommendations are designed to transform the learning environment toward competency-based systems, where each student has access to a world-class education.

The purpose of this report is to support administrators and policymakers in becoming informed consumers of information about online learning and its potential impact on productivity. It provides foundational knowledge and a conceptual framework, drawing specifically on cost-effective analyses. Literature suggests 9 ways in which online learning can improve productivity:

• Broadening access
• Engaging students in active learning
• Individualizing and differentiating instruction
• Making better use of teacher and student time
• Increasing the rate of student learning
• Reducing school-based facilities costs
• Reducing salary costs
• Realizing opportunities for economies of scale

Read more to discover how technologies can transform traditional education processes, leading to productivity improvements.

Four themes that Keeping Pace 2011 introduced largely hold true a year later, with some updates for 2012:

Many states have created or allowed some online and blended learning opportunities, but no state has yet created or allowed a full range of online learning options for students—with one exception. Florida in 2012 has passed laws that, in theory at least, make a full range of supplemental and full-time online options available to all K-12 students. At the other end of the spectrum, in many states at least some students still have few or no online options; their educational opportunities continue to be determined by their zip code.

Innovators sometimes overlook the benefits, and challenges, of “traditional” online learning such as single online courses that are made available to students in physical schools. These courses and programs continue to deliver new opportunities to hundreds of thousands of students across the country. They are increasingly being offered by individual districts, often working in conjunction with private providers and/or public agencies such as state virtual schools.

Developing an online or blended program requires a high level of investment to be successful, or a willingness to work with an experienced partner. Expecting positive student results without the necessary investment is unrealistic. In the “Planning for quality” section we highlight key issues and suggest timelines for implementation under different program development scenarios.

States must invest in data systems, student tracking, and new accountability measures to ensure that online and blended learning provide both opportunities and positive outcomes, and that all stakeholders can accurately assess student and school performance. As of 2012, robust measures of student achievement do not exist in most states.

Beyond these themes, discussion of the landscape in late 2012 can be divided into categories of growth, important developments, and trends to watch for in 2012-13.

Online and blended learning are educational innovations that provide courses, teachers, and opportunities for students who may not otherwise have access due to geographic isolation. Canada was one of the first countries to embrace technology and the Internet in order to deliver distance learning courses to students in remote locations. Now, countries around the world are providing these opportunities for all students for a variety of reasons, including the following:

• To avoid scheduling conflicts.
• To provide access for hard-to-staff courses.
• To allow credit recovery.
• To offer dual enrollment with local colleges and universities.
• To supplement the face-to-face classroom.

In 2006, iNACOL conducted its first international survey, titled An International Perspective of K-12 Online Learning: A Summary of the 2006 NACOL International E-Learning Survey. Since the growth of online and blended learning has grown at an annual rate of over 30% for the past 10 years across the United States, iNACOL responded to requests to update the first survey. By replicating the 2006 International Survey, with the help of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, education researchers in over 60 countries answered questions regarding online learning policy and practice for K-12 students in each country.

The survey included 23 questions thematically arranged on the following areas:

• Government involvement in online learning areas such as planning, finance, and leadership
• Number of students taking courses online and the geographic areas served
• Instructor professional development
• Quality standards for courses and supportive services
• Challenges for online learning
• Technology used by students

We invite you to take a “trip around the world” to gain a better understanding of the complex nature of online and blended learning around the globe.