The high-needs districts involved in the Region 11 Cyberlearning Collaborative (CC11) see the need to prepare students with 21^st century skills in order to be successful in an ever-changing and growing global workforce. The colleges their students attend are increasingly offering more and more of their courses online. The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology STaR Charts assess online learning for educators and students. Statewide, the 4x4 curriculum requirements have to be addressed by all districts. Rural districts should have equal access to all aspects of the educational system that urban districts have. Online learning speaks to these numerous needs for education now.

Several barriers that the districts face are:

1. Rural districts do not always have the resources available to meet the needs of a diverse student population and/or provide highly-qualified educators.

2. They may lack the funds, expertise and/or resources to implement a virtual school of their own.

3. Students may have scheduling problems while trying to meet the 4x4 requirement or International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement requirements and still take the courses they need or want.

4. Schools and/or parents may also lack the understanding and/or experience the benefits of online learning.

Online learning is proving to be a compelling environment for a significant segment of our school population. The skills acquired to learn and communicate online are life-long skills that will serve students in high school, college and in the workplace. Also, research has shown that professional development for online teaching improves teaching methods in traditional classrooms. With the development and implementation of a plan to inform program beneficiaries of program activities & benefits, students and parents can play an integral role in the program. With meaningful communication from the professional learning community, parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education and become full partners to assist in the education of their child.

The goal of the Region 11 Cyberlearning Collaborative (CC11) is to improve student achievement through access to quality online anywhere, anytime courses that supplement the required curriculum, and that fulfill the need for courses that otherwise cannot be offered by the districts. The measureable objectives of the grant are:

• Empower provider districts to develop and offer successful online courses to be approved and offered by the TxVSN by funding development and teaching of ten courses.
• Empower receiver districts to begin to implement best practices of utilizing online learning by funding courses for two hundred fifty six students.
• Provide a laptop for each participating student and teacher to ensure student and teacher success for online learning.
• Provide professional development for administrators and support personnel to help districts develop local policies and procedures for successful online learning.
• Provide approved professional development for provider district online course instructors.
• Provide approved professional development for provider district online course developers.
• Provide professional development for receiver district campus facilitators.
• Provide professional development for core curriculum teachers to promote online learning in blended models and to increase knowledge and capacity on each campus.

CC11 is composed of six high need districts (Arlington, Cleburne, Dublin, Lingleville, Mineral Wells & Poolville) and ESC Region XI, who hold a Shared Vision to improve student achievement through building capacity for and utilizing quality online anywhere, anytime coursework to supplement district offerings through a supportive collaborative which will address identified needs of both provider and receiver districts.

To attain this shared vision, CC11 will focus on 8 high schools within member districts and 8 middle schools for the two years of the grant. All six of the CC11 districts expect to be receivers of online courses, while three districts plan to provide courses as well.

CC11 will start with a needs assessment to determine courses needed, professional development offerings, and necessary support services and to identify the members of the professional learning community from the district stakeholders. Timely meetings of appropriate members of the professional learning community will ensure the projects are on task to meet goals and are aligned to the curriculum.

CC11 will provide professional development to build capacity in receiver and provider districts to participate in TxVSN. Best Practices in Online Learning will involve district level administrators (i.e. curriculum directors), school principals and teachers serving as on-site facilitators. Teaching with Technology online courses will be required as well for on-site facilitators. Online support will be provided. Best Practices in Online Course Design will be provided for course developers and Best Practices in Teaching Online will be required for teachers preparing to be online instructors. An additional teacher in each provider district will receive training in teaching online in order to have a substitute available if necessary or to step in if a teacher/online instructor leaves the district. Assistance and funding for course development and/or securing quality existing courses will ensure the goal for courses provided to TxVSN.

In order to build capacity for student access to the anytime, anywhere online courses offered through TxVSN, CC11 will provide the use of a laptop computer for each of the eight students taking an online course through the grant in each of the 8 participating high schools. The districts will establish policies for use/check-out of the computers to students enrolled in the online courses and possible technical support needed. TxVSN Online Course fees for 8 high school students from each participating campus each semester will be paid by the collaborative. Districts will communicate via their Web sites, in addition to other methods, to announce the online courses to students and parents and answer FAQs. Computers and online course fees for 4 students at each middle school each semester will be added in the second year. Core curriculum teachers at each CC11 participating campus will be provided opportunities to facilitate moving into online blended learning. By the end of the grant period, systemic change will have occurred and administrators, teachers, students and parents will have integrated online teaching and learning into their expectations for quality education. Courses aligned to curriculum requirements, teachers, facilitators, equipment, and support will be in place for districts to assist students in using online learning technology to meet graduation, Advanced Placement, and International Baccalaureate requirements or to earn dual credit or credit recovery beyond the grant period.

The Program Manager for CC11 will be from ESC Region XI Educational Technology Department and will oversee the program.

Objective #1: The CC11 Professional Learning Community will communicate regularly using a variety of technology tools including, but not limited to, video conferencing, web conferencing, listserv, discussion forums, email and Web sites to ensure that our shared vision is implemented, encouraged and supported at the regional, district and campus level.

• CC11 will provide professional development for administrators and support personnel that are research based with strategies for local community and parental buy-in to help districts develop local policies and procedures for successful online learning.
• Opportunities to provide support and experiences in online and blended learning best practices for educational leaders will be provided to ensure strong, supportive and sustained leadership at the district and campus level.

Objective #2: The CC11 Professional Learning Community will conduct an initial needs assessment and review district, campus and teacher STaR Charts, district technology plans, TAKS performance and additional data of targeted students to identify educational needs and refine focus areas, establish goals and desired outcomes, and design virtual learning components. These components will be designed to

• Address specific focus areas and to build capacity at each district and campus to participate in the TxVSN,
  
• Provide professional development for teachers teaching or facilitating online courses,
  
• Provide access and academic and technical support to students taking online courses, and involve parents in the education of their child.
  

Objective #3: The CC11 Implementation Plan calls for initial Professional Development for administrators, teachers and facilitators available either online or face-to-face. Assistance and funding for course development and/or securing quality existing courses will ensure our goal of ten courses total from all our provider districts.

• Meetings of the entire Professional Learning Community or subgroups working in the same section of the plan will share best practices, discuss challenges, and develop strategies for improving instruction using technology.
  
• Core curriculum teachers will receive assistance in moving to online blended learning.
  
• Educational leaders, teacher instructors and facilitators will be available to support the use of technology to enhance instructional methods that develop higher-level thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving skills.
  

Access and support for students to take courses in Spring 2009 will be in place.

Courses

To improve student achievement though building capacity for utilizing quality electronic anywhere, anytime coursework and to supplement district offerings, a needs assessment will be taken by all Cyberlearning Collaborative Region 11(CC11) campuses. The collaborative grant will address the needs of both provider and receiver campuses by evaluating the needs assessment to discover what high school and middle school courses are needed. From the assessment, a list of courses will be created to give to the provider schools. The providing schools will decide which electronic course to develop and deliver to their campus and receiving campuses in the grant and via TxVSN based on their analysis of the assessment data, local needs, collaborative needs, and instructor availability.

The courses that are developed will be delivered through TxVSN for other campuses to take. Two providing campuses will develop four unique courses and a third will produce two courses . This represents a low-risk cost-effective method for collaborative members to offer their students access to a multitude of online courses. The course delivery system will be left to the district to decide. However, the grant will offer training in using Moodle and hosting possibilities. The ongoing development of electronic courses will build capacity for the receiving and providing campuses. These courses are aligned to curriculum requirements and will be in place for districts to assist students in using electronic technology to meet graduation requirements, meet IB and AP requirements, and/or earn dual credit and credit recovery beyond the grant period.

In order to build capacity for student access to and success with the anytime, anywhere electronic courses offered though TxVSN, CC11 will:

• pay the electronic course fees for the selected students participating in any selected course offered through TxVSN
• help the campus provide policies and procedures for ensuring recruitment of students that will ensure success
• provide laptops for each of the participating students of each campus
• help the campus establish policies for use/check-out of the laptops to the students enrolled in the electronic courses
• facilitate communication to the students and parents to announce the opportunity for electronic courses being offered
• support adult literacy where appropriate

The high school students will register for the Spring 09 courses. By year two, middle school and high school students, both, will register for Fall 2009 and Spring 2010.

To insure success for the students, each campus will have a facilitator to help/guide the students and address problems. This facilitator will be trained by the grant to be knowledgeable about online learning from the perspective of the student, the campus, and the parent.

The professional development plan for the CC11 program is based upon the SBEC Standards for Technology Applications and the recommendations for the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology as well as the NACOL Standards for Quality Online Teaching and Online Course Design, which provide a comprehensive set of guidelines for online teaching and instructional design. Some professional development is presented face-to-face, but the majority is delivered online by experienced online course instructors to model best practices in online teaching.

To meet the objective of strong, supportive, and sustained leadership with buy-in by all stakeholders at the district and campus level, the initial activity for district and campus administrators (curriculum director, principals, counselors, etc) in a blended learning environment as both a face-to-face and online workshop about best practices in online learning and teaching, presented by a highly-qualified, experienced ESC Region XI consultant.

The course management system (CMS) training is

face-to-face to provide course developers guided, hands-on experience with the technical and administrative aspects of the CMS program, but also emphasizes how to utilize components of the CMS program that address best practices in online learning (for example, interactive discussion forums). This professional development will build capacity for districts to develop and offer high-quality online courses.

In order to prepare the on-site facilitators for their responsibilities on each campus, they will be required to take an online “Teaching with Technology” workshop. These courses will not only give the facilitators experience in an online learning environment, but also provide opportunities to enhance instructional methods with project-based, technology-infused instruction.

Online forums and a mentoring network will be established to provide support and sustain communication and collaboration in all program areas. All members of the CC11 will benefit from the interaction and shared experience of these 24/7 resources.

To build capacity at each campus for online learning, CC11 will provide mentoring and professional development to empower innovative core curriculum teachers from each campus with the knowledge and support necessary to help them move into online blended learning. This program will be designed collaboratively with campus administrators to assure that the campus will have in place models of online learning to inspire and encourage the whole campus to adopt these resources and strategies.