Online Education: Collaborating to Succeed

Susan Patrick President & CEO

Former Director, Office of Educational Technology, United States Department of Education

World Future Society

Top 10 breakthroughs transforming life over the next 20-30 yearsBest forecast data ever assembled

1. Alternative energy

2. Desalination of water

3. Precision farming

4. Biometrics

5. Quantum computers

6. Entertainment on demand

7. Global access

8. Virtual education or distance learning

9. Nanotechnology

10. Smart Robots

Collaboration Trends

• Higher Education & K-12 Online Learning– Online dual enrollment (NC), AP, Gifted (CA)– Online open courses

• MITE – 14 open courses, Hippocampus, Math project• Student Aid Financial Responsibility Act $500M

– Online tutoring (University of Hawaii)– State virtual school (Montana)– Teacher professional development and pre-service

(BSU/ID)– Advocacy & eLearning SIG (CUE & iNACOL)– Digital content and open content (CA)

– UCCP, CA Community College System, CK12, Riverside, OER Center for California w/CC Consortium for OER and CC Open Textbook Collaborative to maximize use and availability of open teaching and learning resources

Trends: Higher Ed Online Learning Growth

• Sloan-C “Survey of Online Learning” titled, “Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States in 2009” studied higher education online enrollments:– 4.6 million online course enrollments in higher education– 1 in 4 college students take an online course– 17% increase from 2007 to 2008 study– 73% of institutions had increased demand for existing

online courses• Growth from economy and H1N1 flu outbreak

– Use of online education was strong for H1N1 contingency plans

• 20% of schools not offering online classes were introducing online courses as part of H1N1 (academic continuity) contingency plans

– 74% of public higher education institutions view online education as critical for long-term strategy

Virtual Schools & K-12 Online Learning

• Meet the needs for diverse groups of students (urban, suburban, rural):– Expand access to courses otherwise unavailable– College-readiness

• Increase access to AP, IB, dual-enrollment to improve “college-ready” courses and curricula

– Help at-risk students• summer school redesign, retake online courses, online

credit recovery to meet academic requirements– Increase access to Highly qualified teachers

• re-distribution of best teachers through online teaching– Gifted students

• Teachers– Providing new professional opportunities to teach online

and blended instruction

Summary of key online learning activity

State Online Learning Trends & Examples

• Florida: Pre-service internships with UCF and FLVS• Idaho: endorsement for online teaching at the SEA

– Boise State University Ed Tech – online teaching• Michigan/MSU: pre-service internships; online teacher

training; online learning HS graduation requirement• Montana: new state virtual school

– managed by the University of Montana’s College of Education

Trends

• Advocacy is needed in all 50 states• California: eLearning SIG (CUE & iNACOL)• New School Models

– School turn arounds– Credit recovery– More course options– Change distribution of teachers– Dual-enrollment for college– College readiness and career readiness– Competency-based pathways for learning– Blended learning

21st Century Instructional Materials Should...

• Be aligned with state standards and with the state accountability system.

• Allow for flexible use and control over content by users to meet a range of instructional approaches and modalities and the individualized needs of all students, including access by students with disabilities.

• Be accessible "on demand" at the time and place of learning in and out of school.

21st Century Instructional Materials Should...

• Be cost-effective and represent good value for the investment of public dollars.

• Be able to be supported by or grow from voluntary, collaborative inter-state efforts.

• Engage learners through multimedia (in print, online, audio, video) and interaction and simulation.

• Be vetted by subject matter experts and educators to ensure academic quality.

• Be updated frequently to reflect new developments in the content areas and consistent with the development of new standards and assessments.

• Potential cross-sector collaboration opportunities, including between K-12 and postsecondary education.

- Instructional Materials: Rethinking the State Role in Instructional Materials Selection: Opportunities for Innovation and Cost Savings by NASBE (2009)

21st Century Instructional Materials Should...

National Drivers

• Context:– CCSSO & NGA Common Core – Next Generation Learners

• Innovation Labs• Competency-based pathways

12

Learning Beyond Textbooks

Better Content. Better Schools. Better Results.

Digital Content

• Today’s education system is outdated.• Transforming beyond textbooks through Open Educational

Resources (OER) is a pathway to deliver engaging, customized, and up-to-date content to students much faster and more cost effectively than today. 

• Open Educational Resources (OER) carry unobstructed licenses that permit educators to share, access, and collaborate so they can customize and personalize content and instruction.

• Today's textbooks are obsolete and the acquisition process is broken. OER and unobstructed licenses are a ready solution that permits delivery of customized content to students much faster and more cost effectively than today. Unobstructed licenses unlock educational content and provide students with access to the information they need to succeed.

The Problem

• Today's current system is broken. Students lose because few schools have high-quality, engaging, customized, and up-to-date content they need to learn effectively.

• Students cannot prepare for 21st century challenges using obsolete textbooks. Why force our students to wait years to learn Pluto is no longer a planet when solutions exist to update this content today?

• Despite being purchased with taxpayer dollars, textbook content is locked up, preventing sharing and customization.

• Most students already do much of their work, play, research, and learning through engaging technologies. Limiting students to antiquated textbook models in the classroom limits their growth and achievement potential. There is a solution.

The Solution

• A lasting solution to the antiquated model must move beyond traditional textbooks to transform how content can be created, shared, and customized; how teachers teach; and how students learn.

• OER simply applies an unobstructed license to educational materials to protect the integrity of the original content while permitting sharing and customization.

…the Solution (cont’d)

• Unobstructed licenses unlock educational resources that are developed using taxpayer dollars so they can be shared, customized, and improved, yielding a far greater return on investment to the public.

• Open educational resources with unobstructed licenses are the path forward to ensure every student has access to high-quality, engaging, personalized, and up-to-date content.

• Ultimately, open educational resources with unobstructed licenses can help transform our schools by producing better equipped teachers, better prepared students, and better education outcomes.

The Recommendation

• Any textbooks and related content developed using public, taxpayer dollars should carry an unobstructed license to permit schools to access, share, collaborate and customize to move us toward better schools and better results.

eLearning Ontario

• Ontario Ministry of Education - eLearning Ontario– Provides LMS for all 72 district school boards– Funds and oversees the development of eLearning courses – When courses are written, two versions are written; one for the

LMS and one for the face-2-face classroom– The face-2-face versions are then uploaded into the Ontario

Educational Resource Bank (OERB) which all Ontario teachers, students and parents can access• Solutions for credit recovery, differentiated instruction and as

a study tool for students– Online courses at day schools funded at the same level as

face-2-face day school courses • The eLearning Ontario website is

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning    

Ontario

• 2006-07  - 2,058 enrollments (excluding summer school and continuing education)

• 2007-08  - 7,700 enrollments (excluding summer school and continuing education)

• 2008-09  - 22,000 enrollments (including summer school and continuing education)

New Reports

• February 2010 -- Governor Bob Wise, Alliance for Excellent Education– Online Learning Imperative: Solution to the

3 Looming Crises in Education• Global competitiveness• Teacher shortages• Economic downturn

– Governor Wise: “If you think about how much the world around us has changed just in the last twenty years, it becomes clear that the education sector is like a massive mainframe computer trying to fit itself into a smartphone world.”

iNACOL Resources

• iNACOL Virtual School Symposium – 1,500+ attendees– November 14-16, 2010

• Monthly Webinars: Leadership and Teacher Talk• K-12 Online Learning Reports

– Promising Practices for K-12 Online Learning• Funding and Policy Frameworks• Management and Operations of Online Programs

– National Standards for Quality Online Programs (2009)• iNACOL Continuity of Learning website: www.inacol.org/col

• iNACOL - C.A.V.E. Island on Second Life– Community of Academic Virtual Educators (C.A.V.E. Island)

in partnership with Boise State University’s ED TECH program

• iNACOL Membership Committees:– Research– Program/VSS planning committee– Western States; Midwestern, etc . . . and other geographic

committees

“The age of true personalization is now upon us.”

Thank you!Susan Patrick

spatrick@inacol.org

Request for Presentation Proposals opens April 2010 Come present to an international audience of 1600+

attendees . . .

www.virtualschoolsymposium.orgwww.inacol.org