Module 8 iNACOL Reflection

7/28/2019 Module 8 iNACOL Reflection

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In conjunction with iHigh’s 2013 WASC Self-study, the iHigh teachers conducted a self-assessment using the iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Teaching , to identify areas of strengths as well as staff development needs. My reflection incorporates my assessment of iHigh Virtual Academy’s strengths and areas for growth as of June 2013.

Image source: iHigh collection

A. Effective online instruction that enablesstudent success: Even though iHigh reliesheavily on the content provider’s curriculum, theLEC experience has enabled me to better

evaluate the online modules and activities interms of incorporating best practices andstrategies, creating rich and meaningful studentexperiences, and providing effectiveopportunities for student collaboration andparticipation.

Even though we have limited abilities to modify the vendor courses, our staff is working oncreating ways to replace an entire unit with a collaborative learning project based on the sameobjectives. A key to iHigh’s success has been recruiting outstanding teachers who arecredentialed in at least two subject areas, some three or four. Unlike the district’s credit recoveryteachers, which do not require a subject-specific credential, iHigh teachers are fully credentialedin the subjects they teach.

B. Using a range of technologies to support student engagement and learning: Eventhough many folks consider me to be tech savvy after working for 9 years in a staff developer role at SDCOE, it is tough to keep current when focused on administrative duties. It wasprofessionally inspiring to learn about so many Web 2.0 tools that I otherwise would not havemade it a priority to learn about (e.g., Prezi, VoiceThread, Quizlet, and SlideShare). The LECmodules definitely helped expand my awareness of ways to effectively incorporate a variety of online tools and resources to support student communications, productivity, collaboration,analysis, research, presentation and online content delivery. Along the way, I learned strategiesfor troubleshooting the types of problems that other online students might experience.

It was also interesting to experience the Haiku learning management system. Our contentproviders use a proprietary LMS (Apex), and well as Moodle, eCollege and BrainHoney. I cansee the iHigh staff incorporating more Web 2.0 tools and/or projects into their courses, as wellas creating more screencasts to support teaching, parent training, and professionaldevelopment goals.

C. Planning, designing and encouraging active learning andcollaboration: Given that a majority of iHigh’s curriculum consistsof vendor-provided courses (largely to ensure UC a-g approval), Iam now better able to evaluate course content in terms of engaging, real-world, student-centered activities, as well as inquiry-based discussion groups and collaborative learning. My teachers

and I have learned much-needed strategies for transforming our current discussion forums into online communities that promoteeffective academic and social student interactions, including asking Image source: iHigh collection

dynamic questions to stimulate the discussion. I personally learned how to better incorporatemultimedia, images, documents, Web 2.0 tools and other resources to convey information aswell as to differentiate instruction.

I believe that as I gain more experience as an online teacher, I will be better able to anticipateand to mitigate the challenges and problems that can arise in an online classroom. However, Ihave learned from observing the interactions of my online teaching staff that ongoing andfrequent communications and interactions (between teacher, students, parents and Supervising



Teacher) are essential to keeping the student engaged, on pace, and actively involved in thecourse.


D. Clear expectations, prompt responses andregular feedback: The WASC Visiting Team rated theiHigh teachers very high in these skills, based onteacher observations and interviewing iHighstudents/parents. As a staff, we each effectivelycommunicate high expectations, provide prompt and

meaningful feedback to inquiries and/or coursework. Inaddition to the teacher’s written syllabus, the courseintroduction provides an online Table of Contents withlearning objectives and key terms for each lesson.

One area we need to improve on is providing more specific expectations to better stimulateparticipation in course discussion forums, especially for our dual enrollment students.

The course pacing guides provide a complete list of assignments, assessments and pointspossible for class, so students have a course road map right up front. Our student handbookdefines our goals for teacher response times: 24 hours for questions, 1-2 days for grading minor assignments, 3-5 days for grading major assignments and written final exams. The studenthandbook also covers expected rules of Netiquette, which are reinforced during our first-day,

face-to-face student orientation.

Teachers are continuously online during the workday (8 AM to 3 PM), triaging their emailmessages so that the most urgent items (e.g., student/parent questions; quiz re-set requests)get answered first. Teachers have compiled a collection of supplemental resources so they canquickly direct students to additional examples or information to support a given lesson.Teachers are constantly monitoring student progress and activating interventions for studentswho need additional assistance and/or a more structured setting in which to complete their work.

iHigh has recently implemented PLCs to analyze student data (standardized tests, unit exams,and district quarterly benchmark exams) to better inform instruction. One challenge is that we

have limited capacity to make revisions to the content provider’s self-contained courses, due tothe online gradebook being synced with the provider’s specified assignments. One of this year’sWASC Action Plan goals deals with finding creative ways to substitute more collaborativelessons for a few of the existing lessons, especially in math (per student/parent requests).

E. Modeling and guiding legal, ethical, and safe technology use: Both fulltime and dualenrollment students sign an Academic Honesty Agreement. Violations result in: first offense- azero on the assignment, quiz or test; subsequent offense: withdrawal from the class with an“Incomplete,” which is treated like an F for calculating GPA. Our Netiquette guidelines addressonline written communications. While the Academic Honesty agreement does addressplagiarism, we need to more explicitly create student awareness of copyright laws, fair usestandards, and privacy guidelines. All students must sign their compliance with the district’s

Acceptable Use Policy at the start of each year, which addresses plagiarism, intellectualproperty, cyberbullying, FERPA/privacy and other legal, ethical and network safety issues.

F. Being cognizant of diverse student academic needs and incorporatingaccommodations: The iHigh staff was rated highly by the WASC Visiting Team for ongoingprogress monitoring and addressing individual learning needs. Differentiated instruction ismainly addressed through one-on-one tutoring and supplemental resources, due to thechallenges in making adjustments to the self- contained vendor courses. About 5% of our fulltime students each year have either an IEP or504 plan. The counselor and iHigh teachershave designed accommodations for many types of learning, emotional and/or physical



disabilities, given that a segment of our students sought independent study due to medically-related issues.

For most classes, the teacher has limited capacity to make changes to the content or sequencing. However, teachers make accommodations in the grading process, and providesupplemental resources and instruction to address diverse learning styles and abilities.

As principal, one of my roles is to help support the availability of appropriate tools andtechnologies to accommodate student needs. The district provides Kurzweil software to read

text from the screen. So far, we have not needed additional assistive technologies. iHigh P.E.teachers have successfully adapted our P.E. curriculum for assist two students with fibromyalgiaand muscular dystrophy.

Almost all of iHigh’s English Learners have been reclassified as FEP by the time they enroll atiHigh. Still, iHigh students have a variety of diverse learning needs, for which teachers have builta collection of resources (videos, web links, documents, examples, etc. ) that they use to helpaddress individual student questions and styles of learning. Teachers are trained to supportstudent thinking and individual learning styles, as well as to develop, track and evaluateintervention plans.

G. Creating and implementing assessments that

ensure validity and reliability: New this year, theiHigh English language arts and math teachers havepiloted department-developed benchmark tests, as wellas unit exams. For accountability purposes, most unitexams must be proctored. Exams may not be returnedto students, due to test security issues. As wetransition to using many of the UC Scout courses,which appear to more adaptable than Apex courses, itwill become increasingly important to provide staff Image source: iHigh collection

training in creating effective online assessments. Ideally, staff-created assessment will simulatewhat the student will need to do on the Smarter Balanced Assessments in 2014.

H. Developing and delivering standards-based assessments, projects, and assignments;effectively measuring learning progress through student achievement of learning goals: These are skills where iHigh teachers will need additional training and practice, as we movefrom Apex courses to other providers (such as UC Scout). The Apex curriculum providesinformal formative assessments within the lessons, formal formative assessments (lessonquizzes; practice tests) and formal summative assessment (chapter tests). Humanities andworld language courses require substantial essay responses. iHigh teachers are quiteexperienced in spotting and dealing with academic dishonesty, especially with our dualenrollment students. They are also experienced and effective in providing meaningful feedback,usually embedded within the text, or sometimes as a separate narrative document. Currentassessments include predominantly short-answer and multiple choice questions, so teacherswill be focused on incorporating more constructed response and performance based questions.

The iHigh staff members who are completing the LEC certification training will be well-equippedto assist other iHigh teachers in creating or selecting and implementing a variety of formativeand summative assessments that assess student learning progress. As a staff, we are workingon better utilizing student feedback to improve the online learning experience. This effort wasbegun this year in conjunction with student focus groups for WASC.




I. Competently using student performance data tomodify content and to guide student learning: Aspreviously explained, most of the vendor-provider courseshave limited capacity to modify the content. The iHigh staff has developed supplemental resources and activities toaddress learning gaps identified by analyzing studentperformance data. For example, a monthly book club wasestablished this year to help improve low scores in literaryanalysis. This year’s meetings were face-to-face, although

we hope to use web conferencing next year to involve more students. iHigh teachers effectivelyuse observational data, student work samples, and results of computer-scored assignments andassessments to monitor course progress and effectiveness. Teachers are skilled at directingstudents to supplemental Internet resources to help customize instruction, in addition toproviding individual and small-group tutoring. Assessment of teaching effectiveness andachievement of learning goals is accomplished within monthly PLC meetings and whole-groupstaff meetings.

Due to iHigh’s blended online independent study format, one of our most effective alternatives isthe use of the Learning Contract, which requires students to report to the classroom to work 3 or 4 days per week. This intervention provides structured, supervised work time, with the oversightand immediate availability of the teacher to provide tutoring, answer questions, and provideimmediate feedback.

Close to 100% of records of relevant communications are retained by virtue of being logged inthe Apex Message Center. Not only are all relevant communications logged and recorded, butso are uploaded (teacher-scored) assignments, such as the Practices. Teachers are well-versedin using the various online learning management systems provided by our vendor partners, aswell as tools such as Audacity (audio recording), Camtasia (similar to Screencast), and AdobeConnect Pro. There are currently not many opportunities for formal student self-assessment.

J. The online teacher interacts in a professional, effective manner with colleagues,parents, and other members of the community to support students’ success: iHigh hasconsistently earned high marks on our parent surveys for providing ongoing communication with

parents or guardians concerning student learning. iHigh teachers are usually able to break awayduring the day to attend staff development without needing a substitute teacher. We do nottypically call a sub because he/she would not have access to the online Learning ManagementSystems. Teachers simply catch up when they return, or work from home after hours .

K. The online teacher arranges media and content tohelp students and teachers transfer knowledge mosteffectively in the online environment: iHigh teachersare fairly tech savvy. They understand how to incorporateiPad applications and other interactive resources into their instruction. There is limited capacity to arrange and/or re-arrange the course content within the vendor-provided

courses. The iHigh teachers compensate by compiling a Image source: iHigh collection

list of supplemental resources, including video clips, etc. The iHigh staff is working to provideexpanded access to multimedia and visual resources, especially for science, math and VAPAcourses. We will be working on including the appropriate Web 2.0 tools to improve socialinteraction and critical thinking in our courses.

In summary, participating in the LEC training expanded my personal awareness of the iNACOLstandards through specific reading, examples and projects that clarified the characteristics of aneffective course and/or online teacher. I had the opportunity to learn about many Web 2.0 tools,to learn from the discussion forum perspectives of my colleagues, and to be reminded of accessibility issues when creating online content (including our school web page). My action



plan for implementing changes in our teaching practices involves staff development for theteachers who did not participate in the LEC training, preferably led by their colleagues, to focuson improving the overall effectiveness of our instruction and ability to customize instruction. Wewill continue to learn about online teaching through participation in conferences, webinars andtrainings sponsored by CUE, ISTE, CCIS and iNACOL.

Documents

Module 8 iNACOL Reflection