processing+questions

Processing Questions for Online Efforts

VISION: Why does your school need online learning? How will you implement online learning in your school? What will it look like? Will it be blended, and which elements will be online? Will it be something every student can take advantage of? Only certain students, such as advanced students or credit recovery students? How will you justify who gets access?

NEEDS ASSESSMENT: Who will your school serve virtually? Who are the stakeholders? How do we communicate to stakeholders and seek their involvement? Who can you survey to find out needs? What do the survey results tell you?

INFRASTRUCTURE: What formats or delivery models will you support? Synchronous? Asynchronous? What technologies will be needed to support those learning models? What software or hardware is required to support those technologies? Where or when will students need access? If this need extends to the home, how will the school assure that students have internet access? What bandwidth is necessary to support those learning models? What are ways to deliver the same quality of multimedia without using up bandwidth? Will there be a need for students to register for classes? If so, how will that be done, and who will oversee the process? To what extent does the learning management system (LMS) need to interact with the student information system (SIS)? Who will support teachers and students with technical issues? Where will you be able to access external support? How will you backup the data for disaster recovery purposes?

INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL:

How will teachers be selected? Will they teach in lieu of face-to-face time? In addition to their contract? What negotiated contractual items must take place to make this reality ? What are the characteristics of a good online instructor? How will teachers communicate with their students? What policies will be put in place to regulate this communication? How will you assure that your online courses align with the Iowa Core (including the Essential Skills & Concepts, the Universal Constructs, and the Characteristics of Effective Instruction)? What policies will you have around academic integrity?

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: How will you train your teachers? Will it be done during inservice time? On their own time? How will you continue their professional development?

FUNDING: What specific opportunities do we want to offer students? How much will these opportunities cost? How will we fund those opportunities? How do we partner/market/apply to secure these funds?

COURSEWARE: Will you build your courses yourself or purchase courses? If you are building your own courses, how will that time be reimbursed? How will you assure

EVALUATION: What are the tangible goals of your program? Do they address your various stakeholders? How will you measure your ability to meet those goals? How will you evaluate your teachers in this environment?