Online Learning Task Group

2007-2008

This task group will focus on new and evolving issues, trends and technologies associated with online learning. It also will examine academic needs at the K-12 and postsecondary levels to determine how technology may help meet these educational needs. Quality online courses - including how they are taught and how schools, colleges and state education agencies can work together to share instructional, management and technical information - will continue to be important topics for this group.

During the last year, the SREB Educational Technology Cooperative provided leadership and coordinated multistate efforts to provide online courses to middle grades and high school students. The task group gathered and shared information on online policy, instructional and technical issues, and barriers. The Cooperative works closely with states as they implement new state virtual schools - nearly all SREB states now have a virtual school. In addition, the Cooperative convened key leaders of state virtual schools in April 2007 to share course content, obtain quality courses at the best prices, and identify strategies that will advance online learning in their states and across the region. The primary areas of focus were quality online teaching and quality online courses, through promotion and use of the new publications Standards for Quality Online Teaching and the Standards for Quality Online Courses.

During 2007-2008, the Cooperative will continue to provide support to the SREB state virtual schools. The work of the group will include the development of a paper designed to provide states with information about alternative funding approaches for their state virtual schools that will allow them to meet the academic demands of many middle and high school students. In addition, the Cooperative will work with representatives to build quality professional development programs for online teachers based on the SREB Standards for Quality Online Teaching published last year.

Based on the success of the multistate course module development collaboration last year, the Cooperative will explore possibilities to continue work to develop an online course on language literacy. The Cooperative also will work with states to negotiate agreements to share courses developed by individual states.

SREB-SCORE (Sharable Content Object Repositories for Education) is an initiative of the Educational Technology Cooperative to help SREB states improve teaching and learning and achieve cost savings through the use of shared digital learning content. Through SREB-SCORE, participating SREB state educational agencies, schools, colleges and universities will work together over the long term to create quality digital learning content and share it through connected state repositories (databases).

When fully implemented, SREB-SCORE will provide teachers and faculty across the SREB region with convenient access to digital learning content that they can customize, share and use to enhance the quality of their courses.

This Educational Technology Cooperative initiative will continue to help states use the Web to provide quality online professional development for elementary and secondary teachers. Achieving this goal will enhance the quality of teaching and provide support to improve student achievement without the expense of travel or loss of time away from the classroom. The Online Learning Task Group will work closely with SREB states' departments of education to promote the use of the Web to meet teacher-training and professional development needs. The task group also will focus on identifying ways SREB states' departments of education and schools can work more collaboratively with colleges and universities to develop and provide high-quality online professional development programs and courses for teachers and others.

The Educational Technology Cooperative will continue to focus K-20 online learning on the issues associated with accountability, capacity, quality and costs. The cooperative will gather and share information on these essential issues and bring state, regional and national K-12 and postsecondary initiatives to the attention of the members of the cooperative through e-mails, print materials, phone calls and meetings.

For more information, e-mail Bill Thomas at bill.thomas@sreb.org.