Job+Descriptions

• In study after study, online learning has proven to be as effective as face-to-face learning. • It is multi-dimensional, whether being online courses, online trainings, online simulations, online live meetings, or online communities. • It allows learning to take place at the preferred time, place, and pace of the learner. • It provides flexible learning before, in between, after, and in place of face-to-face sessions. • It has high potential to save costs, and to offer all educators across the state access to the same offerings. • It utilizes 21st Century Teaching and Learning. • It is in high demand from Iowa’s educators.
 * Rationale for Statewide Online Learning Development Team**
 * Online Learning is Critical **

• To develop a statewide system for development of content for online professional learning related to statewide efforts and mandates by determining the vision and managing the process • To develop a single, transparent system for delivery of online professional learning content • To serve as an advocate for quality online professional learning by collaborating with other state organizations
 * The Purposes of the Statewide Online Council are: **

• Quality online content takes considerable resources to make. • Without a budget, the council cannot fully prioritize and plan content development. • Most members of the council do not have budgetary discretion.
 * Funding is an Issue **

• In the past, the council has used local AEA contributions and partnership to develop offerings for online learning that benefit the whole state. While a system of in-kind contribution has been better than no such system, it still is not the most efficient model for developing and delivering online content. Council members at different AEAs wear many different hats and are not able to focus on statewide developments. • Budgeting a certain amount of money for development is not optimal, because it is difficult to determine how much a project will cost ahead of time, and because most costs are associated with employee time, not set costs. The time needed by employees vary in many different areas (content selection, course sequencing, technical design, and additional maintenance) as well as levels (trainings, courses, communities). • Asking for funding each time a project comes up isn’t optimal either. Costs for development don’t always end neatly (there are ongoing maintenance costs). And, without assurances of funding, planning and prioritization of projects is difficult.
 * We considered… **

In addition, none of these options helps the fragmented nature of our current arrangement, where vision, expertise, skills, and coordination is centralized.

The council recommends a statewide development team be funded by the AEAs. • A team of dedicated personnel would have the job-specific skills (programming, instructional design, graphical design, etc.) for them to specialize. • A team of dedicated personnel could focus on the online content projects and not be sidetracked by duties specific to one AEA. • Part-time contributions by many different AEA consultants in the areas of online content design are not as efficient as full-time contributions made by the select team members. • A team funded by all the AEAs would signal a collaborative effort by the AEAs • Funding a team of dedicated personnel is an easier way to handle the issue of equal funding than in-kind contributions • Having specialized knowledge in a statewide team makes that specialized knowledge more accessible to AEAs on a local level, without having to fully invest in building that knowledge locally.
 * We recommend… **

**Duties of Statewide Project Manager for Online Learning** • Maintain agendas/minutes and between-meeting communication with OLC • Communicate with individual AEA leadership teams • Communicate with individual AEA internal tech teams • Communicate with other statewide agencies (ILO, DE, IASB, BoEE, SAI, ISEA, etc) on behalf of the OLC • Manage communication between project team members
 * Communication**

• Oversee online content projects prioritized by the OLC, including timelines, development steps, workflows, committee setup • Oversee other statewide staff (instructional designers, system administrator, programmer) • Oversee (& make recommendations) for the upkeep of current trainings, including managing legalities & mandates • Oversee deployment & troubleshooting of online learning offerings, including the technological infrastructure. • Oversee and communicate standards/criteria of online content as determined by OLC • Work in conjunction with online council to approve statewide offerings, including courses, for statewide use. Help guide approval process at individual AEA level. • Oversee budgetary management and report project costs to OLC for approval
 * Coordination**

• Serve as instructional designer to develop online content prioritized by the OLC • Secure resources (technology, graphics, etc.) necessary to create projects • Find alternatives to proposed projects (including 3rd party or locally developed products) to use as a source of comparison of options for OLC
 * Development/Production**

• Develop/facilitate training for online instructional strategies, including online technology • Train online community facilitators in online facilitation • Serve as resource for local (AEA) online learning supervisors • Serve as resource for local (AEA) online learning technology support
 * Training/Support**

• Be aware of resources, current research, and emerging practices to be “an expert” in these areas for the OLC & AEAs. • Help guide OLC to create & actualize vision, including the setting of goals and the completion of action steps, in conjunction with the Iowa Core • Help guide individual AEAs to create & actualize local vision, including internal professional development and work with local LEAs. **Duties of Statewide Programmer for Online Learning** • Have the ability, flexibility, and willingness to learn new programming languages to meet future needs of the council • Current programming experience needed would be SQL, ASP.net, JavaScript, PHP, HTML, C, C++. Other proposed projects could include social networking platform programming.
 * Vision**
 * Experience**

• Meet with statewide development team before projects to determine the best format for content and instruction, and the necessary technology and programming for that project to be actualized. • Meet regularly with project manager and instructional designers during development of online learning content projects. • Write and develop code for online content projects that work with all necessary technology (hardware, OS, browser version, etc.) • Troubleshoot and debug code to correct errors • Create documentation and help manuals for assistants who are supporting users • Meet with support personnel to find feedback on improving programming • Be aware of current practice and emerging trends in programming • Train others in programming and program coding of projects for redundancy and crisis planning **Duties of Statewide Instructional Designer for Online Learning** • Have the ability, flexibility, and willingness to learn new technological applications of online learning to meet future needs of the council • Current instructional design experience needed would include Moodle, HTML, mobile device platforms, and social networking platforms
 * Duties**
 * Experience**

• Meet with statewide online learning development team before projects to determine the best format for content and instruction, and the necessary technology for that project to be actualized. • Meet regularly with project manager and teams of content experts during development of online learning content projects. • Work collaborative with content experts to create online content, including: the design and flow of instructional lessons, the appropriateness and delivery of content, the structure of the learning platform, the alignment of content to learning outcomes, the alignment to the Iowa Core and Iowa Professional Development Model, and instructionally-sound assessments • Oversee multimedia and graphical development (including completing simple projects or working with graphical/multimedia design support for more advanced projects). • Work with educators to analyze efficacy of trainings during development, pilot testing, and full rollout • Oversee user/course administration of online content (Moodle) server • Analyze, evaluate, and improve the systems level of online learning (such as installable options in Moodle or common templates) • Be aware of current practice and emerging trends in instructional design, as well as research on best practice for distance teaching and learning • Serve as a resource for local AEA online content development
 * Duties**