3-7+Notes

[]
 * ** Review of agenda, Updates ** |||| **Common understanding, Identification of additional items** (** Questions/Actions are listed below in red **) ||
 * **Recording of Update Section of the Meeting:**

The directors did not meet in February. Evan shared a lengthy update with the directors about AEA K-12 Online. Did not receive feedback from them. Will review at upcoming Director's meeting this month. No other news to report.
 * 1. Director Update**

Media Directors Update-Nancy
 * Met via polycom
 * Will address at next meeting.
 * Polling what is going on in the state.
 * Look at graphic to begin planning around a vision on digital learning for the state.

The Agora is undergoing some revisions in build-up to the March 28 date. This includes a separate themeing of the space from CoPI. "The Agora" will become the branded term to describe the AEA PD Online "online community" model of professional development, and CoPI will remain the name of the AEA K-12 Online initiative. AEA K-12 Online will have their community space in the Agora, as will many other entities.
 * 2. Agora**

The Agora is the virtual meeting space for teacher's to collaborate. Branding/marketing about online communities--statewide initiative called CoPi--e-curriculum development. Can extend beyond the CoPi groups. Set an application process for groups to request space within the "system" to offer their own online communities. Branding issue-needs to be identifiable apart from CoPi

@http://moodlesw.aeapdonline.org/course/view.php?id=182

Evan provided a quick overview of the Agora and the different sections within each community.

Will reach out to other organizations like SAI, ISAB, to help provide a space for them. Will help to cross link within communities--one-stop shopping

Elevator speech: Rob's analogy "the Mall"--The Mall for Educators--need a webinar or slideshow to get this message out AEA PD Online's role is "mall management" Next month we will come back with an application process Policies will be laid out in that application--agree to funding structure (free), have a moderator, FERPA, etc. Want to avoid the issues that has happened in the past with other communities like NING

Q:How many teachers are currently enrolled? A: Not many yet, as we haven't rolled it out. Marketing is being planned to get a buzz around it. Right now there are 56 enrolled in the AGORA.

Lead, Mentor, Model (leadership suggestion as the "model")

"Virtual Ribbon Cutting" slide show for the DE site suggested by Sue. Suggestion that people at the DE help push these efforts off the ground--meeting electronically in the virtual environment.

Q:Where does Higher Ed fit into this? A: We aren't quite there yet. Sue--UNI may be able to help with this as well as the Educator Quality Bureau.

There was a change in the project manager from Equella (the former person was placed in a new position). In this respect, it is a "reset", as we are still trying to get our schema approved.
 * 3. Iowa Learns (formerly Equella)**

Quality Assurance Piece--Gwen Documentation that everyone is providing quality assurance. Each entity would post their process for QA and identify the source of where it comes from--have a built-in review process. Have an over-all quality statement, but everyone should be responsible for their own. Sub-committee work is basically done. May be more of a concern as we add partners that may be unknown to us. Stacy Huff is doing the marketing for Iowa Learns. Logo is still under review. Name is official, Iowa Learns.

4. **AEA PD Online Live** Upcoming events - Diigo, Nanogong
 * Moodle Moments-3-5 minutes about something in Moodle
 * Several people have listened to the webinar about Course Proposals--conversational style
 * Would like more topic suggestions. Send your ideas
 * Looking at websites that have ongoing webinars-will link to some of the better ones.

Available at @http://myapp.is/AEAPDOnline Provides quick access to blog, PD catalog, webinar links, tweets, and upcoming events calendar. Reworking our brochures to include the APP. Thank you Denise Krefting for pointing us to "The App Builder" application.
 * 5. AEA PD Online App -**

Met 2/22 (14 counselors). Creating online modules for guidance curriculum this spring, including integration with IHAPI. Sue Schirmer is reaching out to AEAs across the state to join in the process.
 * 6. Counselors CoPI**

High School Counseling curriculum Began with the I Have a Plan and the need to find time to get students connected to it--virtually. Met in February and introduced the curriculum template. Right now they are all within the Heartland area. Reach out to get Jan Kohl involved. Sue is working on it. Can send an update to online council after our next meeting.

Q: Is Ed Wallace tied to this? (Gwen) A. In part (short answer.) Once e-curriculum is developed it would make sense to put it in where and if it fits.

The other piece may be the connection with Character Counts and Institute for Excellence in Ethics. (Rob). May connect with the Counseling things that are being developed-another resource piece. Could also be part of Iowa Learns. || []
 * **Discussion** || **Current Issues, Input Sought from Council** ||  ||   ||
 * **Recording for Discussion Part of Meeting:**

Update on recent meetings. There was some recent concern by one AEA that the AEA K-12 Online effort is not producing the results that they would like to see. They were desiring more fully online content than blended content.
 * 1. CoPI - Communication, Concerns**

Evan sent out a "check our assumption" email on 2/15 to Online Council members and on 2/18 to Directors, asking for feedback on what was "new information" for them and concerns over what was stated. The only feedback that was received was from Jean Hansen, Drake University online council member. This is either indicative that we are indeed all on the same page, or that our communication structure isn't working.

__Questions for the group:__ • Our stated goal is to develop capacity for schools to develop online learning, which includes blended learning. What do you believe "online learning" equals? Does your AEA agree with this goal, or do you feel it should be changed?

Discussion: Summary by Evan:
 * Brian: Talked about it at our face-to-face meeting in September: 100% online or mostly online, consensus definition: 51% or more online than not.
 * Gwen: Legislative definition-anything more than 50%
 * Evan: Hard to actually calculate. Specific product should be intended to be over 50%.
 * Stacy: Each AEA has the capacity to support teachers who are just getting started but aren't ready to go over that 50-51%.
 * Evan: Example: Blended learning-aspects online; Cognitive Tutor: 3 days f-2-f, two days online, self-paced
 * Diane: I thought CoPi was doing blended learning. Also talking about full online courses?
 * Evan: CoPi is working on enhancing blended learning.
 * Brian: What are we set up to support? Where can we fill the void?
 * Evan: Format where you have a definitive f-2-f component with specific time online, away from the f-2-f. ELA students-providing curriculum for them where the teacher may not speak the same language; Gradual release model for example. One of the things with our system, we can provide local support for the schools through the AEA's . To develop a state-wide program we may have to purchase e-curriculum or come together to develop the e-curriculum--develop it statewide rather than every AEA developing it on their own. Statewide consultants developing only the online portion with the locals still working with districts to develop the f-2-f portion.
 * AEA K-12 Online can act a service for consultants to do some of the work; blended learning that is over that 51% level; online content to help consultants to develop some common e-curriculum.
 * Deb V.: Not our priority work--that 20% that comes to AEA PD Online-- need to prioritze
 * Deb H.: Is our audience getting smaller? Who are we helping?
 * Stacy: You are helping those who are doing it, to do it well. Rather than doing a lot of things "good", do a few things "well".
 * Deb H: who do we support--that 20% who come to us or do we turn them back to the AEA local?
 * Building mentors to mentors others so as not to use these resources and build a repository of resources.
 * Who is the "we" or the "you" doing the work? A team of 5--looking to clarify what we are support. Do we have direct over-site of certain efforts--that 51%? If they are under the 50%, we would send them back to the local AEA.
 * Is there capacity that we expect AEA PD Online to offer to the local AEA's?
 * Need a graph of who does what
 * Gwen: discusses legislation: School districts need someone to talk to about incorporating online learning in their district and sees that as the role of AEA PD Online and local AEA's--guidance. School districts have to fill out a plan and submit to DE
 * Nancy: speak to needs--talking to districts and content consultants request blended environment, math consultants express work they are doing redundant work--can't we work together to create this curriculum.
 * Questions from manager of this: we don't have many districts requests that the e-curriculum will take away the actual f-2-f time in the classroom--under the 51% threshold so send them back to the local AEA for support and service
 * Deb V: go back to directors to see where it fits--
 * Clarify: If the end outcome is not going to replace classroom time--under the 50% threshold; send back to appropriate director
 * Stacy: Work with content consultants to help them understand the pedagogy of online teaching so they can go back and help build capacity
 * Jean: Support the consultants in the local AEA's to get them all on the same page.
 * Gwen: I see this as a huge responsibility of this group to make sure that these courses are quality and meets the needs of students and districts. AEA's have an enormous role at the local level to help teacher's develop a sense of quality and what sticks to the core.
 * Sue: Rubric of quality has traditionally been for f-2-f. This is beyond that.
 * important to build capacity within the state regardless of %--equity at each AEA
 * online learning assistance should come from whoever can help.
 * AEA PD Online just needs guidance so we know that we are sending them to the correct people


 * Is there a key group in each of these content areas that could be part of this conversation? That is happening already.
 * Perhaps that is something the Ed Services Directors weigh in on this. Where is that line? Seems to be at that 50% threshold.
 * Denise K: Perhaps if AEA PD Online helps they just let the AEA consultants know in the AEA the teacher is from so they can all work together?

Summary: Consensus about a teacher inquiry about a teacher wanting to something online--<51% send back to local AEA Need some clarity around roles of services. Consensus around statewide AEA PD Online act as a gate keeper for repository. Still have questions about: Who do we send them back to? What do I need to do to help support them? Homework: from each AEA who your contact person is and what support do you expect? Please answer the email!!

• What are your AEA's desired outcomes from this work (in other words, what are you expecting to see)?

• If our desire is to develop more content for fully online opportunities, how do you feel we should approach our current arrangement with Iowa Learning Online and our current holding pattern? Summary Understand the current holding pattern. Want to wait and continue to work with it. In interim, basic description of what is available and list of what is available. Evan will send that out to AEA's.
 * We want to support ILO and local teachers
 * Online courses and credit-recovery courses have been purchased
 * In a holding pattern until we know what we are to do-get direction from Jason
 * Make sure everyone understands what is out there. Have to honor our current holding pattern.
 * Connecting the content to the standards themselves-where they are in the particular progression for that level
 * Use this holding pattern for the online piece for getting those online content ready and draw in some of those content consultants and build their capacity
 * Need to allow some teachers to be involved--having a voice and choice to be involved in that improvement
 * Brian: Is the credit recovery in a different realm by itself? I am assuming 100% of online credit recovery. Puts it in a different category by itself.
 * Nancy: What is the bigger picture--what is best for kids? We need a buffet.
 * Evan: Credit recovery is different, but it is also in a holding pattern. Conversation with Jason--needs to be part of a larger discussion.
 * Brian: With the courses that were purchased those were 100% online courses.
 * Nancy: BrainHoney piece bits and components or is it a whole course? BrainHoney has a pre-assessment. Specifically targeted credit recovery courses.
 * Gwen: Nancy intended that they would be used on the ground, in the classrooms. Courses needed some tweaking to align with the core and teachers needed some training to incorporate the content within their alternative classrooms.
 * Nancy Mc: Need to coordinate this within the state.
 * Nancy: Would it be appropriate to go back to the UEN's and see how they were using it and what needs to be tweaked?
 * Gwen: UEN's wanted a solution but didn't necessarily want to help create the solution. It's a work left unfinished. We need to continue to have that conversation. How to use it and it does involve licensing.

• Our current resources allow us to work with other CoPI steering committee members to do long-term planning, but not much in terms of content development. To build an online professional development course, such as OLLIE, takes about 100 hours of development per credit hour (=15 hours of time). A fully online semester has 4 times the instructional time (60 hours), so a rough estimate would be about 400 hours to develop. On one hand, this can be reduced if we use pre-packaged modules, but this either costs money, or includes heightened scrutiny around whether it is aligned with the core, which actually requires more hours to complete.

Is fully online course content development worth the cost of creation? And, who is expected to do this work?

Gwen: ILO has cost estimate for development--$30,000-150,000 per course depending on the level. Trained instructional designers, select content specialists, sit down and go through the course development process-after course gets to a certain point, we pilot it, work on it some more, pilot is some more--include content people who understand the core. ILO hires the people to do the work--contract people on their own time.

Evan: Issues we face currently: We create a course and then it needs to be looked at by the content experts and they all have jobs. Would the statewide team be ok with designating one person to do the quality check?

Gwen: ILO's particular goal--we currently have a partial curriculum now. ILO designated by the legislature to offer and teach for a school district, we intend to develop a curriculum that would be wide enough in scope to cover all the courses in the Iowa code- a big spectrum of offerings. have potentially 3 years of money to do those things. some would be purchased courses and some locally developed. Goal is 2 per year.

Denise K: Districts struggle at the HS level most: AEA Compact helps direct the work. Focus work in areas of transitioning kids better to post-HS and achievement gaps.

Nancy Mc: I don't think we need to have a full catalog and look at the requests by superintendents and what areas of greatest needs.

Who will prioritize that work? Deb V.:Directors and the online counsel conversations Nancy Mc: Poll curriculum coordinators who meet monthly to find their greatest needs-feed it through the curriculum coordinators and contacts. Deb V: I agree with that-fits right in with those conversations we are already having because of budget concerns.

Summary: Projected costs would be and the number of courses we can build this year (a number) and then prioritize what will be done. Who would make those decisions? Deb V: If it costs more money, then it needs to be the Chiefs The groups prioritize--to support others look to the Chiefs to provide the supports How do we go about filling out that catalog? We need a structure in place of what we can support and if it goes beyond that, then the AEA's need to understand what they have to support. Nancy Mc; What is the cost to the local districts, not just the AEA's? Look at the price structure for the districts to have students participate in the course. Nancy Mc: What do have? How is it being used? How many are using it? How do we get it more aligned with content standards? How do we market it?

Need an understanding from all the AEA's about that catalog. We don't have a clear direction from the AEA's. We have a limited number of staff to do the work-it is expensive to develop courses. What is the path when someone asks "Why don't we have more courses?"

Nancy Mc: Maybe we table this until there is more of a statewide educational plan.

Is there Consensus: yes? it is important given the cost. Deb V: Need to do the work with the money we have--not a full catalog. Stacy: Why can't we reuse what the teachers are already working on--there is our 3-4 courses for next year. Denise K: Who owns the content then?

Evan: We don't have consensus--having fulling online courses may not be what we want to pursue given the costs. Brian: We have some classes started without no expectation to having a full catalog. An hours ago we said we couldn't do this work anyway. Nancy Mc: Let's table this and put it on a holding pattern until the pathways are a little clearer.

• Our current communication structure is: - Agenda and monthly online council meeting (and Shelley's notes) - Monthly Director update email from Evan, week before Director meetings - On monthly Communication Director meeting agenda - Monthly communication updates from Deborah on the 15th. - Ongoing CoPI updates on our wiki from Nancy - On monthly Chief, Ed Service, Media, and SPED director meeting agendas

Does this communication structure work for your AEA? What suggestions would you have for improvement, if improvement is necessary? Nancy Mc; I went to our PR individual and requested to be cc: each time those communications are sent out. Was getting pushed out but not pushed in (withing the AEA). Will share at the monthly meeting to ask how the information gets shared internally.

• At the beginning, the Ed Service Directors desired that this would be a collective activity with involvement from all AEAs. However, we have some AEAs wanting to move faster and willing to invest their own consultant time and other AEAs not wanting to invest consultant time. What are our non-negotiables in terms of AEA involvement? And, to what degree do we allow individual AEAs to choose their involvement? (Or in other words, what should AEA PD Online be able to expect out of the individual AEAs?) How do we balance this among the system? Nancy Mc: It is very low on the rung when we have so many other things we have to do. The work we are doing here is somewhat different than what is going on across the state. Do you have any reservations if another AEA is doing a lot at a local AEA? Nancy Mc: If they are saying that I hope they are going to the chief administrator. To my knowledge it hasn't happened in my AEA. There are disparities in every aspect. Seth: I don't have any problem with anyone doing more, but I would like to know what they are getting and what they want.

Will Table the rest of the items:

2. **"Super Module"** - In an effort to better integrate professional development courses with statewide efforts, we would like to create a universal module that overviews the different initiatives, and then require online instructors to tie their courses in with those initiatives (even if it is a simple "how does topic x fit with these initiatives" type forum. Ideas include: • Iowa Core • RtI • Gradual Release • Conceptual Based Teaching • Workshop Model • AIW • TPACK

3. **Personalized Learning** - Lisa Fry and Jeff Herzberg from the AEAs joined Director Glass and others at a Personalized Learning conference in San Diego last week. Being proactive and cutting edge, there is an opportunity for a statewide deployment to better facilitate this. We see three possible areas:

• Online Student Communities - similar to the Agora model, these communities would coalesce around objects of interest for students that are either outside the core curriculum, or are not adequately covered given the passion around them. Topics could include robotics, creative writing & publishing, video game design, architecture, mock trial, graphical design. Communities would bring students across the state in touch with other passionate students as well as statewide experts. The community could organize events for student performance, as well as create introductory training materials.

• Online Student Portfolio - similar to our training system, this would allow students to complete on-demand self-paced modules and earn "badges" for completion. Students could amass a portfolio of completed competencies outside the curriculum, and the portfolio could be a marketing piece for higher education or a future profession. Topics could be either mandatory or exploratory, and could include things like copyright awareness and citation, digital citizenship, financial literacy, using computer applications, etc. This could work hand-in-hand with the communities, so that the badge system is inter-connected and that communities could create their own trainings in the portfolio system.

• Online Apprenticeship - an outreach of the other two, this would be a network of career pathways with connections to industry leaders. The pathways could include foundational material (in the portfolio system), a community of learners, as well as structured curriculum to accompany a job-shadow, or a mentorship program.

Roundtable sharing of thoughts from the Intel conference participants. Our plan is to bring together a cadre of instructors, including a partnership with UNI, to setup ongoing offerings of Intel courses.
 * 4. Intel, State Partnerships**

Discussion - what factors should we consider when approached with outside state partnerships?

Possible partnership. They have teacher professional development and student modules that could be incorporated into our offerings. ||
 * 5. Character Counts (Institute for Ethics and Something)**
 * **Closing** || **What needs to be communicated?**
 * Future agenda items?** ||||  ||
 * Agenda items: ||