The Virtual High School

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The Virtual High School

• Liz Pape, CEO
• VHS, Inc.
• http//www.goVHS.org

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Imagine.

• A low cost way to vastly expand course offerings
• world class teachers teaching online courses that
  meet high standards
• access to unlimited educational resources
• Imagine No Longer.

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Purpose of Todays Meeting

• Learn about online education
• Learn about the Virtual High School model of
  online learning
• Learn how to participate in VHS

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The Future Job Market

• 60 of jobs in new century will involve
  dissemination of information - people as
  knowledge workers
• Numbers of virtual organizations will increase
• Work will become project-based
• Increase in contract workers

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The Future Job Market

• Presently 23 of college grads have necessary
  skills to become knowledge workers

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Virtual High School

• 10M and 5 years of RD effort
• VHS offers innovative high school courses over
  the Internet

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Why VHS?

• Opportunities for
• on-line skills development for students and
  teachers
• enhanced curricular offerings
• developing the integration of educational uses of
  the Internet and groupware into curriculum
• participation in a virtual community of peers

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VHS NetCourses

• Scheduled Asynchronous Instructor-Led
• Interactive
• student to student
• student to teacher
• Threaded discussion groups
• Project-based in instructional design

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What NetCourses Are Not

• Not a correspondence course
• Not CBT
• Instead
• students interacting with other students
• scheduled activities
• team-work
• culminating activities

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NetCourses Foster

• Teacher presence, involvement and online
  communication from design through delivery and
  assessment
• in Internet time
• using high tech to foster high touch

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NetCoursesCLASS

• Curriculum content from teachers
• Learning designstudent engagement
• Accountability of VHS, Inc.
• Standards
• VHS design and delivery standards
• national curriculum standards
• Structure scheduled asynchronous

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The VHS Environment

• Teachers remain at the sponsoring school
• Site-based management decisions about extent of
  participation
• Centralized services through VHS, Inc.
• training
• administrative servicesgrades, recommendations
• evaluation of teachers and courses
• technical services servers, server/log-on admin

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How VHS Operates

• Participating schools provide NetCourses,
  students, VHS personnel, Internet access
• Schools provide 1 NetCourse teacher _at_ .20 FTE
• 1 NetCourse 20 students per semester
• Schoo1 VHS Site Coordinator _at_ .20 FTE

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Role of VHS Site Coordinator

• Participates in Site Coordinator Orientation
• Provides technical support to VHS students and
  teachers
• Serves as physical link to VHS teacher for
  students
• Serves as teacher presence to parents of VHS
  students

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Role of VHS Teacher

• Participate in VHS online training
• Teacher Learning Conference (TLC) 26 week online
  PD NetCourse teaches design and teach skills
• NetCourse Instructional Methodologies (NIM) 15
  week online PD NetCourse teaches revise and teach
• Teach VHS NetCourse
• as many as 20 students across 20 states
• entirely online

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Format of Training

• Model the Model format
• Teachers learn to teach an Internet NetCourse by
  participating in a NetCourse
• Work entirely online 10-20 hours per week

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What about Quality Control?

• VHS Design and Delivery Standards
• TLC Evaluation Criteriadefines structural
  standards for courses in development
• NetCourse Evaluation Board Standardsdefines
  content, pedagogy and delivery standards for
  NetCourses

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What about Quality Control?

• VHS evaluation staff - Faculty Advisors
• evaluate teacher and student attendance
• drop in on NetCourses throughout delivery
• evaluate NetCourse against all design and
  delivery standards

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2001/2002 Statistics

• 170 participating schools
• 126 high schools across the U.S. offering
  NetCourses or in training
• 115 course sections offered this fall
• 1800-2000 students enrolled this fall
• Average class size 17 students

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Sample NetCourses

• 101 Ways to Write a Short Story
• Aeronautics and Space Travel
• AP Statistics
• Astronomy Stars and the Cosmos
• Constitutional Law
• Genes and Disease

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Sample NetCourses

• Folklore and Literature of Myth, Magic and Ritual
• Fractals
• The Holocaust
• Introduction to Programming in VBasic
• Music Appreciation and Composition

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Sample NetCourses

• Number Theory
• Photography as Visual History
• Pre-veterinary Medicine
• Rising Entrepreneurs
• Screenwriting Fundamentals
• The Vietnam War

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Sample NetCourses

• Twentieth Century Women Authors
• Visual Basic 6.0
• Web Design Artistry Functionality
• World Conflict, a UN Simulation
• World Religions

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2002-2003 Course Offerings (a sampling)
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How to Join

• VHS training fees
• 3500 teacher training
• 1500 SCO
• VHS fees to participating schools
• 6000 annual membership fee to sponsor NetCourse,
  in exchange for 20 student seats
• 4000 for additional sponsorships, 20 more seats
• student only schools 8000 for 10 student seats

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Next Steps

• Visit us at http//www.goVHS.org
• Go to Main Office Want to Join? For
• Guidelines for Participation
• Administrative Policies
• Go to Academics
• Explore a Class
• Submit Course Applications and MOUs

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Dates to Remember

• NIM training starts mid-January 2002
• TLC training starts first week October 2002
• Site Coordinator Orientation starts end March
  2002 and Summer 2002
• NIM applications for Spring NIM until
  mid-December 2001

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Contact Information

• Liz Pape, CEO, VHS Inc.
• lpape_at_goVHS.org
• Kristin Barr, VHS Operations Administrator
• kbarr_at_goVHS.org

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A peek inside a current VHS course

• Using the Welcome Screen
• Getting Assignments in the Schedule
• Posting Discussions in the CourseRoom
• Pop Quiz use of required check-ins
• Students are Students ( same assignment,
  different reactions)

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The Welcome Screen
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The Schedule
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Teachers use the Weekly Overview to give students
an idea of the plan for the week, including
objectives and activities.
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How Students View Assignments
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Clicking on the assignment itself gives the
students the information they need on how and
where to complete the work.
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Students then post their work in the CourseRoom
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A sample course management techniqueUsing
required check-ins as a pop quiz
Some teachers post a brief activity with a short
( 2-3 day) window in which the students must
respond. This way the teacher knows who has been
to class daily and who hasnt!
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Here are the postings that the required
check-in generated
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Students are Students - both virtually and f2f
Note the difference between the postings of two
students to the question asked in the Required
Check-in Is the assignment clear?
Jenn responds Our group is coming along quite
nicely. Yes, the assignment is very clear. We
have, imaginatively, come up with our own ideas
for the project within your limits.
Hannah responds Personally, I don't think the
assignment is too clear. I mean, I know we're
supposed to complete a project on the novel
"Firestarter" but being from different schools
and in different states prohibits some ideas that
there may be.