Course Design Using Open Educational Resources

Bob CurrieMichigan Virtual School

Gary LopezMonterey Institute for Technology and Education

Mary SchlegelmilchOmaha Public Schools

Who Is MITE?Who is MITE?

Mission

To help meet society’s need for access to effective, high-quality educational opportunities in an era of rapid economic, social, and personal change.

OER Background

The Goals of NROC

To create a repository of high-quality, high school, AdvancedPlacement, and undergraduate courses and distribute themat little or no cost to students and teachers worldwide.

In pursuing this goal, NROC achieves other important outcomes, including,

• addressing the needs of underserved students• helping establish content and technical standards for online content• fostering collaboration among content developers and users• become financially self-sustaining• supporting the Open Educational Resource movement

A Course as a Set of Objects

NROC Library - 2007

High School Course Foundations

College Prep Physics ICollege Prep Physics IIAlgebra 1a Algebra 1b

College Course Foundations

US History IUS History IIAmerican GovernmentIntroductory Physics I (algebra-based)Introductory Physics II (algebra-based)General Physics I (calculus-based)General Physics II (calculus-based)Introductory Calculus I Introductory Calculus II General Calculus I General Calculus II Environmental ScienceReligions of the WorldElementary Algebra

Advanced Placement Course Foundations

AP Environmental ScienceAP Physics B IAP Physics B IIAP Physics C IAP Physics C IIAP US History IAP US History IIAP US Government and PoliticsAP Calculus AB IAP Calculus AB IIAP Calculus BC IAP Calculus BC IIAP Biology

Also in Development

Non-Majors BiologyGeneral PsychologyStatistics for Behavioral

& Social SciencesBasic Education Online:

Reading, Writing, ELL, Math

Where does NROC content come from?

Two sources:

Contributionsfrom academic institutions

Collaborative Development managed by NROC Network

Course

Structure

Contributed:

“NROCing” the Content

Consistent Organization

1. New content added by instructor or NROC

2. Customize course

3. Enhance group work and interactivity

Enhancing the Content

Contributed:

“NROCing” the Content

Collaborative Development:

NROC Network

NROC Network:

Members

Alabama Department of Education

Anaheim Union High School

Buena Vista University

Cal State Fullerton

Chattanooga State Technical & Community College

Clark County Virtual High School

Colorado Community Colleges Online

Colorado Online Learning

Florida Virtual School

Hamilton County Virtual High School

Hawaii Department of Education

Idaho Digital Learning Academy

Illinois Virtual High School

Iowa Community College Online Consortium

Kentucky Virtual High School

Los Angeles Unified School District

Louisiana Department of Education

Maryland Virtual Learning Opportunities

Michigan Virtual High School

Minnesota Online

Omaha Public Schools

Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College

Oregon Department of Education

South Carolina Department of Education

St. Petersburg College

Tennessee Board of Regents

University of Texas Brownsville

University of Texas TeleCampus

Virtual Virginia

West Virginia Community College System

Corporacion Universitaria para el Desarrollo de Internet

Omaha Public Schools

• Omaha Public Schools is the only urban school district in Nebraska. Demographics are as follows:• 47,000 students• Serves 16% of all students in Nebraska• 60% of the student population is eligible for

free and reduced lunch• 57% of the students are minorities• 13% of the students are English Language

Learners

It is All About Standards!!

• Commercial• Print publishers (proprietary or ANGEL)• Course vendors (complete courses)• Supplement providers

• Non-Profit & OER• Course Developers (complete courses)• Repositories--National Repository of On-Line Curriculum-NROC

• District Development• Using the Social Authoring Concept at the local level

Finding & Developing Content

OPS Social Authoring Process

• Recruit and Train Master Teachers in the uses of LMS • Develop the OPS Framework

– Create Master Course aligned with district standards

• Recruit and train Master teachers to be content/course developers• Create Course developers and reviewer teams to address course

needs• Lesson Design

– Use a common format for lesson design– Access 3rd party content, preferably at the learning object level

• Courses are duplicated for implementation at the building level

• Design staff/team customize the courses within the LMS

• Reorganize

• Add or delete content

• Modify assignments or assessments

• Evaluate/continually review

Omaha Public Schools

• Why Use a Learning Management System (LMS) for a Curriculum Repository to Replace Course Guides?• Approximately 600 new teachers per year

• Why On-Line Credit Recovery?• 70.31% Graduation Rate (2005/2006)

LMS – The New Course Guide

• New teachers need a framework to teach from, to provide more time to focus on “how” to teach and student learning, not “what” to teach.

• Course Guides are typically developed at the same time “textbook” adoption occurs, and may not be updated until the next adoption cycle.

• As subject areas and course move away from “textbooks” as the primary source of information, OPS was in need of a process to create a more “fluid” course guide.

One “e-stop” for Teacher Tools

Why Customize and Prioritize On-Line Credit Recovery?

• It provides:• an opportunity to align district standards and

assessments within the course.• an avenue to individualize instruction to meet

credit recovery needs.• multi-modal learning experiences.• activities, assignments, assessments utilizing LMS.• simulations and interactivity.• opportunities for delivery in a blended environment

in a traditional school, or for a variety of alternative delivery options.

• Membership in NROC provides access to course content at the learning object level.

• Access to quality content at the learning object level, provided an avenue to develop courses using a variety of resources.

• Access to content at the learning object level allows our teacher/developers to align all courses with OPS content standards and assessments.

• OPS started the transition from an on-line “tutorial” system in June, 2006.

• Courses were developed and piloted throughout

the 2006/2007 school year.

• During the 2007 summer school session, 540 students (approximately 1/3 of the total students in Credit Recovery) took courses in a blended environment.

2007 Credit Recovery Results:Mark Distribution for E-Courses Used During the 2007 Summer School

Failed, 7%

Dropped, 5%

In Progress,

14%

Passed, 74%

The chart above reflects 700 course enrollments made by 408 individual students.

Michigan Virtual School

• Michigan Virtual School, working in partnership with Michigan schools, is committed to providing cost effective, technology based solutions that strengthen teaching and learning.

MVS Information (2006-07)

• 8800 Enrollments • 500 AP Enrollments • 130 Course Titles• Content Flexibility• 90+ HQT Qualified Online Instructors• NCA and CITA Accredited• Alignment with Michigan Content Expectations

MVS Statewide Participation

MVS served students

in nearly

400 schools

in

2006-07

MVS Curricular Formats

• MVS Flex • Advanced Placement• Semester Paced• Student Direct

MVS Content

Development/Acquisition Process

• The 4B’s of developing/acquiring content

• Build – Develop original content

• Buy – Purchase or License content

• Buddy – Form strategic partnerships

• Barter – Create partnership exchange

MVS Development Process

MVS Development Team• Project Lead • Subject Matter Experts• Instructional Designer• Media Asset Manager• MVS Instructor• Quality Standards Based Process

MVS Advanced Placement Provides

• Equity for smaller schools• College Board certified instructor and audited

courses• AP Exam Prep with the course • Unique opportunities to students

– MVS NROC Based AP Courses – Environmental Science, Physics, Government, History and Calculus

NROC Advantages

• Quality Learning Objects• Customizable Course Content• Professional Learning Community• Developer Network• Research and Identification of Resources• Online Community Updates

Michigan Virtual School