Managing Growth in Online & Blended Learning Programs (It’s not about how much to buy!) Thomas...

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Managing Growth in Online & Blended Learning Programs

(It’s not about how much to buy!)

Thomas Nixon, Fresno Unified School District Twitter: @tcnixon

2 Contact Information

Tom Nixon (Thomas.Nixon@fresnounified.org)

Twitter: @tcnixon

Facebook: Facebook.com/FUSDOnline

Managing Growth in Online/Blended Learning Programs

3 What will I be talking about?

Fresno Unified School District and what it looks like.

Describing our current programs

Analyzing our mistakes

What have we learned

4 What does Fresno Unified look like?

72,000 students

3,200 teachers

106 schools

5 What does Fresno Unified Online Learning look like?

A variety of programs including: Online credit recovery (w/ some original credit)

Virtual School (in pilot stage; very small)

Expanded Learning Summer Program

6 Online Course Providers

Apex Learning

Edgenuity

Compass Learning

7 Completed Enrollments Since Fall 2010

8 Completed Enrollments 2013-2014

9 Credit Recovery

At any given time we have 800 students taking online courses.

What does that look like?

10 Online Learning Seats*

2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2013-2014 2014-2015

250 400 800 1000 1000

*Apex Learning

11 J.E. Young Virtual School

2014-2015

Why so few?

12 Expanded Learning Summer Program

Three potential times for summer school Day (8:00-1:55) Mid-Day (2:30-6:30) Evening (4:30-8:30)

How did this look early on?

How successful?Managing Growth in Online/Blended Learning Programs

13 Should you buy in early and large?

Have you done your due diligence?

What policies do you have in place?

Where does it live and with whom does it live?

14 Should you pilot small groups first?

Have you done your due diligence?

What policies do you have in place?

Where does it live and with whom does it live?

15 How many online seats should you purchase this year?

This is the wrong question (or probably the wrong question).

Show me the data!!!

16 Mistake #1: Be careful what you wish for!

Or “What not to say to your superintendent”

17 Mistake #2: It’s not about saving money

Why are you doing this?

Why should you be doing this?

How does that relate to managing growth?

18 Mistake #3: It’s not about fewer teachers

Most common teacher question.

Reality in many cases.

19 How do you decide which schools will get online seats?

Does everyone get the same number of seats?

How does this relate to equity and access?

Do you manage growth by site, by district, or by something else?

20 How do you decide where students will work?

Will they work at home?

Will they work at school?

(And how does that affect the design and growth of your program?)

21 How do you select students?

The “M” city in the Valley

Do you have a process?

What have we found is the best indicator for success?

22 Confess Your Sins Article: http://

edsource.org/2011/making-online-learning-work-fresnos-tale-of-trial-and-error/1336

23 Continuing to confess sins

24 CTA Magazine

25 5 Things I have Learned: #1

Decide who is in charge for the district

When you decide who is in the charge, let them run the program.

How and who selects teachers is incredibly huge.

What do sites use to select teachers?

How important is teacher training?

How much time does the coordinator need to devote to the program with site visits?

Sell your program.

30 Contact Information

Tom Nixon (Thomas.Nixon@fresnounified.org)

Twitter: @tcnixon

Facebook: Facebook.com/FUSDOnline

Managing Growth in Online & Blended Learning Programs (It’s not about how much to buy!) Thomas...

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