www.inacol.org

Dr. Allison PowellVice President, State and District Services

A National Overview of K-12 Online Learning

International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL)

• iNACOL is the premier K-12 nonprofit in online learning• 3700+ members in K-12 virtual schools and online learning

representing over 50 countries• Provides leadership, advocacy, research, training, and

networking with experts in K-12 online learning.• “Ensure every student has access to the best education

available regardless of geography, income or background.” • Conference – Virtual School Symposium (VSS): Indianapolis,

IN on November 9-11, 2011

What Students Need to Know: 21st Century Skills and ICT Literacy

The future will demand people who can express themselves effectively with images, animation, sound, and video, solve real world problems that require processing and analysis of thousands of numbers, evaluate information for accuracy, reliability, and validity; and organize information into valuable knowledge, yet students are not learning these skills in school.

Who Are Our Students?• Largest generation (36% of total population).• In 2000, 100 million between ages of 0-24 years old• 31% are minorities; more diverse than the adult population.• Have come of age along with the Internet.• Growing up in challenging times: 60% of teens feel it is harder being a

young person today than in parent’s time (up from 35% in 1966)• Information has been universally available and free to them;

community is a digital place of common interest, not just a shared physical space.

• Some employers & educators have labeled this generation the “entitlement generation”

Students: Born in 19921. Few in the class know how to write in cursive. 2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail. 3. They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of

day. 4. DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed. 5. Czechoslovakia has never existed.6. A quarter of young people under 18 have at least one immigrant parent, they aren't

afraid of immigration...unless it involves "real" aliens from another planet. 7. The first home computer they probably touched was an Apple II or Mac II; they are

now in a museum. 8. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry. 9. Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.10. Potato has always ended in an “e” in New Jersey per vice presidential edict.11. They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.

-From the Beloit College “Mindset List 2014”

Today’s Student Demographics• Studies show that they are a capable, conscientious, concerned

and optimistic generation, determined to succeed:– 96 percent say that doing well in school is important to their

lives.– 94 percent say they plan to continue their education after

high school.– 90 percent of children between 5-17 use computers.– 94 percent of teens use the Internet for school-related

research.– More than 3/4 are creators of content on the Internet– Teens spend more time online using the Internet than

watching television.

Obsolete Life Concepts

• Education K through 20• One career per lifetime• Retirement at age 65• “Leisure” from retirement to death

Source: Business Week, October 24, 2005. The Futurist, Nov-Dec 2005

New Life Concepts

• Lifelong Learning• Working in “stints” • Becoming a “portfolio of skills”• Cycling between work, education, and

leisure from birth to deathSource: Glen Helmstra (www.futurist.com)

Millennial Mindspace: Iconoculture’s Nancy Robinson

• Global outlook at a younger age• Mobile multi-media, more interactive and community-

building, socially networked environments to live, play and learn

• TiVo: time-shifting, on-demand, customization• “TV is boring, you can’t customize it.”• Demand an unprecedented amount of control of media and

they “are not going to give it up”• “It’s not about being anaesthetized, it is about being engaged.” • Internet as a creator of community

Millennial Values: Implications for Education

• Today’s students value:• Freedom and choice• Customization and personalization• Ability to scrutinize and provide feedback for

improvement• Integrity and openness• Want collaboration and “serious play” in their

education (project-based, real-life experiences in learning)

• Ability to move fast, at their own pacing• Constant innovation

Expectations of Education• Millennials want:

• Clear guidelines, rules and goals

• Responsiveness and fast feedback

• Customization and interactivity when learning in a community where open, inclusive and diverse thinking is encouraged

• Project-based, team-oriented learning

• Involvement in community and volunteer opportunities

• “Stand up talking is deadly for this group”

Recommendations from Generational Learning Styles

1. Develop online learning communities, online discussion boards, social networking for discussion and analysis.

2. Develop opportunities for experiential learning, field experiences, simulations and case method approaches.

3. Provide lots of structure.4. Provide lots of feedback.5. Use technology, blended classes and online learning.6. Allow for creativity.7. Recognize the need for social interaction and ultra-communication.8. Allow focus time, reflection time and discussion time; Give these

multi-taskers structure through course design.- Julia Coates

Offering Academic Options Provides educational options to students unavailable at local school Provides equal access to educational opportunities regardless of

location, socio-economic status, etc. Allows for scheduling flexibility (Students have access 24-7 from any

Internet-connected computer.) Provides an NCLB highly qualified teacher in every classroom Meets the specialized needs of students (hospital/homebound, special

education, student athletes, etc.) Personalizes education to address specific learning styles and student

educational needs Multiple assessment types Content differentiation

Providing Opportunities to All Students

Need to work and/or support family

Credit Recovery

Aspiring athletes and performers

Medically Fragile

Home Schoolers

Accelerated Students

Traditional Public/Private

Special Education and ELL

Rural Students

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US Online Learning Facts• 32 states have state virtual schools (KP 2011)• 8 state have online learning initiatives (KP 2011)• 46 states have significant state policies (KP 2009)• 27 states and Washington DC allow over 220 full-time virtual charter schools with

over 225,000 students (CER)• 2 states require an online course for high school graduation• 30% of all employers use e-learning for training, in 5 years it will be 50%• 1 in 4 undergraduate and graduate student enrolls in an online course in higher

education• 75 % of school districts had one or more students in a fully-online or blended

course• More universities are offering K-12 courses online

– MIT open courseware for K-12 students– Stanford, Northwestern programs for gifted

• K-12 Online Learning enrollments growing 30% annually nationwide with 50,000 in 2000 over 2 million enrollments in 2008-2009

State Online Learning Trends & Examples

• Idaho and Georgia: endorsement for online teaching at the SEA

– Boise State University Ed Tech – online teaching

– Georgia Department of Education

• Michigan and Alabama: online learning HS graduation requirement

• Montana: new state virtual school

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

State Online Learning Trends & Examples

• Florida: – funded through performance-budgeting system

• New Mexico

– PK-20 Partnership (dual credit, prof dev., etc.)

• Texas: – TX Virtual School Network, clearinghouse for districts to review and

offer online courses and provides funding for each course enrollment in addition to the student FTE at the district

– Using SREB and iNACOL National Standards to evaluate online course quality

International Trends in Online Learning

• Mexico – K-12 Digital Content, Laptop for Every Teacher, Pre-service

methods using engaging digital content, new strategies

• Turkey– 0-15 million enrollments in 3 years

• Canada– All 13 Provinces and Territories offer K-12 online learning

• South Korea – National Virtual School

• Hong Kong & Singapore – Blended learning for Continuity of Learning

India• Size

– 1 billion+, 70 % rural population– Need 200,000 more schools– 29 Languages (none of which are English)

• Internet Accessibility 2007-08 - 42 million users (3.7%)• Online Learning

– Universal Access for K-12 Education in 10 yrs– Shortage of good teachers– Leverage teachers using technology to bring to scale– Educomp Program digitizing learning resources (online content) in

K-12 Education• Viewed as export opportunity

China

• China: 1.3 billion people

• Digitized K-12 curriculum

• Training Master Teachers to teach online

• With online learning: increase educational opportunities to 100 million new students

European Union

• EU:

– EU E-Learning Action Plan

– IB Diploma Programme Online (125 countries)

• UK: E-Learning Exports - 29 billion pounds annually; deal with China– Education as an export

Australia• Pioneer in distance education, mainly servicing isolated rural

schools and families• Curriculum breadth and opportunities for students in rural

and small schools still limited• Online provision available in each state served via

Blackboard, Moodle etc• Nationally, much is first generation online content – flat text,

limited interactivity and use of Web 2.0 capacity• Federal funded national rollout of 1:1 computing across years

9-12 by end of 2011

New Zealand

• Professional Development – ICT PD

• Teacher Laptop Program

• National Broadband Initiative

• Virtual Learning Network

Singapore

• Singapore: 100% of Secondary schools use online learning

• All teachers trained to teach online

• Blended Learning Environments

• E-Learning Weeks

Contingency Plans: H1N1

Trends in Education: Next Generation Models of

Online and BlendedLearning

Hybrid/Blended

ProgramsBlendedCourses

•Online course and/or•Online content•Online instruction•LMS/Technology

•Buffet: F2F & Online Courses•Emporium: F2F place with blended/hybrid approaches to learning

New Solutions through Online Learning

• 40% of US high schools do not offer AP courses– 75% of districts use online learning to offer Advanced Placement

or college-level courses.• Teacher Shortages

– 40% of public school districts in America today say they need online learning resources because certified teachers are not available for traditional face-to-face instruction.

• 60% of schools and districts say they need online learning for credit recovery.

• More than 50% need online learning to reduce student scheduling conflicts to graduate on time.

Trends: Higher Ed Online Learning• Sloan-C “Survey of Online Learning” titled, “Learning on Demand: Online

Education in the United States in 2009” studied higher education online enrollments:– 1 in 4 college students take an online course– 4.6 million online course enrollments in higher education– 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

Project Tomorrow Survey (2009)

• Benefits of taking a class online?– According to students:

• 51% said it allows them to work at their own pace• 49% to earn college credit• 44% said it allows them to take a class not offered on

campus • 35% said it was to get extra help• 19% said they took online courses to get more attention

from teachers

Online Learning Research• #1 Online Learning Expands Options

• “The first impetus to the growth of K-12 distance education was an interest in expanding educational options and providing equal opportunities for all learners.” (NCREL 2005)

• #2 Online Learning Is Rapidly Growing

• “Recent Surveys show that K-12 online learning is a rapidly growing phenomenon.”

– Growing 30% annually– 50,000 enrollments in 2000

– Over 2,000,000 enrollments in 2009

Online Learning Research

• #3 Is Effective: “Better”

• U.S. Department of Education Report of Online Learning Better than Face-to-Face (USED 2009)

• #4 Improves Teaching

• Teachers who teach online reported positive improvements in face-to-face, too.

• “Of those who reported teaching face-to-face while teaching online or subsequently, three in four reported a positive impact on their face-to-face teaching.”

Quality in Online Learning

• iNACOL National Standards of Quality– Online Courses (2007)– Online Teaching (2008)– Online Programs (2009)– Online Leaders (In planning stages)

• State Reviews– Texas, Washington, California, Virginia (list)

• Regional Accreditation

Disrupting Class (2008)

• Customized learning will help more students succeed in school• Student-centric classrooms will increase the demand

for new technology• Computers must be disruptively deployed to every

student• Disruptive innovation can circumvent roadblocks that

have prevented other attempts at school reform• In 2019, 50% of high school courses will be delivered

online

iNACOL Resources• iNACOL Professional Development:

• Virtual School Symposium – 1,500+ attendees• 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

Contact Information

Dr. Allison Powellapowell@inacol.org

www.inacol.org