Teton Science Schools Launches Online Courses

Teton Science Schools opened enrollment for 2020-21 Place Network Online courses for middle school students this week. Three courses will be offered this year. Each course is designed as an academically challenging place-based experience that integrates language arts, math, science, and the visual arts. Designed to be part of a student’s learning experience, these interdisciplinary courses engage students in rich content, applicable skills, and center around a Community Impact Project. Participants connect learning to their local community and region throughout the experience, building relationships and supporting positive impact in the process. Courses are delivered virtually and taught by experienced Teton Science Schools’ faculty. These courses are open to middle school students around the world looking for innovative and place-based learning. Schools that are part of the TSS Place Network can enroll their students without a fee.

Head of Innovation, Nate McClennen, states, “We designed these courses to fill a need for affordable, online, high quality, place-based courses that help students understand and make a difference in their community – while meeting academic goals. Linked to content and skills connected to the course, middle school students will experience a relevant and engaging learning experience.”

Courses this year include My Place, Our Vision (fall), Owner’s Manual for My Human Brain (winter), and Health, Not Hunger (spring). Register now at https://www.tetonscience.org/what-we-do/school-network/online-courses/. Enrollment deadline is always ten days prior to the course start date (September 4 for the fall course).…Read More

Free digital course on Zoom

Teachers, professors, educators, and instructors are suddenly in a place where they need to teach from home to their students. Several of these teachers do not know how to navigate online courses and distance learning. 

 

Actor and Voice talent, David Lawrence XVII, who is the creator of the voice acting website, vo2gogo.com decided to create a free digital course on Zoom targeted for teachers. Lawrence’s new project “Teach Your Course Online” has launched today. The video course gives teachers a step by step process on how to engage with their students, use the correct cameras and lights for their makeshift video classrooms and his own personal tips and tricks.…Read More

Free online courses from Scholastic

Even when schools must close, you can continue your student’s education with many cross-curricular journeys. The Scholastic Learn at Home website is a free resource providing all students with 20 days’ worth of learning, updated daily. Content is divided into PreK/K, Grades 1–2, Grades 3–5, and Grades 6–9+, spaning many content areas so you can keep your students actively engaged in learning while your buildings are closed.

The Scholastic Learn at Home website does not require a username or password and is open freely to all. The learning journeys are accessible on any device. They are designed to limit the
need for printing and allow students to learn independently or with their families. Teachers can even plan virtual learning meetups to discuss and expand on any of the resources found on the site.

Scholastic Learn at Home website…Read More

Six things I learned bringing online learning to international schools

For the last 15 years, I’ve been introducing schools all around the world to the value of online learning. It started at the Colegio Internacional de Caracas in Venezuela, when I first discovered the courses from global nonprofit VHS Learning.

We began offering online courses to our students for enrichment. As a relatively small international school, we liked the opportunities that the platform offered us and the fact that our kids could take part in courses that we couldn’t offer.

Related content: 4 ways online learning leads to physical equity…Read More

7 programs that are transforming education

Innovative tools and strategies are transforming education, and the best educators recognize this growing trend and harness it to benefit their students.

Fuel Education’s Transformation Awards recognize schools, districts or organizations that are successfully transforming education, the way teachers teach, and how students learn. The awards highlight seven exemplary programs from Fuel Education’s partner school districts.

Each Transformation Award winner uses online courses and adaptive learning tools to meet the varying needs of their students, who represent different demographic, economic and geographic backgrounds.…Read More

Good online teaching is often just plain good teaching

One teacher learns that the secret to good online teaching is all in the approach

I have heard a lot of people say that they don’t think that online schooling works well because there isn’t in-person interaction between a student and their teacher. This belief is a myth. When both teachers and students participate the same way they would in a face-to-face setting, amazing things happen in the online world—just as often as they do in the traditional classroom.

A couple of years ago, I taught a student in an online creative writing class. At 19, John was behind in school and still trying to graduate. Classes were arduous for him, and he often didn’t pass them. These failures discouraged him, so he stopped trying completely—which caused his already low skill set to deteriorate even further.

Since traditional brick-and-mortar classes clearly weren’t working for him, John attempted online courses through his local high school. Online classes offered John a new method of learning that was previously unavailable to him and a more flexible way to get back on the path to graduation.…Read More

10 steps for making your online courses accessible for all students

New report highlights 10-step plan to applying Universal Design for Learning online

universal-UDL-learningAccording to a new report, incorporating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in online courses not only benefits students with disabilities, but can have significant benefits for all students, ultimately increasing retention and improving learning outcomes. UDL is tough enough in a face-to-face environment, but the real challenge might be how to implement the principles in an online world where students’ abilities and learning styles differ drastically.

The recent report, written by three professors at Montana State University, aims to help educators involved in online learning implement UDL for teaching both general and diverse populations, including students with disabilities.

The authors note that while, ideally, UDL allows students with disabilities to access courses without adaptation, it can also help to improve learning—and, therefore, retention—among all students.…Read More

50 tips to develop and run your online courses

From getting started to managing the day-to-day business, try these 50 tips for setting up a successful online course for any grade level

online-learningAs many K-12 U.S. public schools and districts are struggling to compete with 100 percent online cyber charter schools for essential student funding, many universities are struggling to understand the impact of MOOCs on future enrollment. Both of these scenarios point to the one thing that is abundantly clear, online education is having another growth spurt in the second decade of the 21st century and the race to create in-house online content is on.

In-house online content is defined here as online course development created by practicing K-12 educators to avoid having to access sometimes cost-prohibitive, commercially-developed online courses.

However, in addition to the already full plates of educators, in-house online content and course development remains a challenge. With a healthy dose of optimism and motivation to better serve their current, digitally-inclined students’ expectations, along with many excellent, free online tools for online and blended course development, K-16 educators are now able to master the task of online course content for blended learning models and/or 100 percent online course development using the following easily-implemented strategies. While the physical location of the classroom may be left behind, the online classroom adventure has just begun.…Read More

College credit recommended for free online courses

Students may soon be able to receive college credit for the free online courses that are reshaping higher education, the Associated Press reports. The American Council on Education announced Thursday that it is recommending degree credit for five undergraduate courses offered by Coursera, a Palo Alto-based company that provides “massive open online courses” from leading universities.

“A rigorous evaluation of these courses showed that they meet ACE’s standards for college credit recommendations,” Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, whose recommendations are used by colleges and universities to determine whether to offer credit for nontraditional courses…

Click here for the full story…Read More

More students taking science, math, online courses

Whereas 220,000 students were enrolled in distance education courses a decade ago, over 1.3 million were taking them in the 2009-10 school year.

More high school students are enrolling in math and science classes and seeking online learning opportunities. Fewer want or are able to find jobs while in school.

Those are just some of the changes under way at the nation’s high schools in how students are learning and what they are doing with their extra time, according to a report released May 24 by the U.S. Education Department.

The annual “Condition of Education” report said there has been a marked increase over the last two decades in the percent of high school graduates who had taken calculus, from 7 percent in 1990 to 16 percent in 2009. Overall, the percentage enrolling in math and science courses increased in all subjects except Algebra I, a class many students now take in middle school.…Read More

Stakeholders fight for ed-tech funds

Education leaders worry that programs like Alabama's ACCESS Distance Learning will struggle without federal funding from EETT.
Education leaders worry that programs like Alabama's ACCESS Distance Learning will struggle without federal funding from EETT.

Computer-based testing, online high school courses, instructional data systems, and a dropout reengagement program that uses a blended model of instruction are just some of the uses of federal education technology funding that are occurring in states, a group of state leaders told Congress in lobbying for further ed-tech support.

Education leaders gathered on Capitol Hill May 17 to share stories about successful federally funded programs in an effort to urge lawmakers to continue to fund the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program in FY2011.

President Obama’s budget proposal would fold EETT—the largest single source of federal funding for school technology equipment, support, and professional development—into a new competitive grant program that aims to promote effective teaching and learning by making technology an integral part of education. But many advocates of education technology are wary of this approach.…Read More

Exam lets prospects ‘test drive’ online education

Nearly seven in 10 students pass Test Drive College Online's competency exam.
Nearly seven in 10 students pass Test Drive College Online's competency exam.

Prospective students returning to college after a lengthy layoff can gauge their basic English and math skills beforehand to make sure they’re ready for online classes with a new program designed to find the most qualified and disciplined students for web-based courses.

Test Drive College Online, launched May 5 at no charge, matches applicants with online institutions that best suit their academic goals after the student passes a 20-question College Competency Exam, which includes freshman-level math and English questions that help advisors identify students who aren’t yet ready for higher education.

Once students pass the competency test, they can enroll in a five-week course designed as a test run, letting them understand the demands of web-based classes before they pay tuition and find they can’t handle the workload. If the student completes the course, an advisor helps the student transfer the credits earned during the five-week class and enroll in any one of 200 online programs.…Read More