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Some educators express fear about the shift to e-learning courses and whether they produce the desired results for their students. However, a recent national survey of schools working with The Virtual High School, a provider of online learning programs, found that 95 percent of the teachers, students, and administrators participating were satisfied with the online courses offered through VHS. How are other blended learning models achieving similar success around the country? Below are snapshots from schools that are making blended work.
INCREASING LITERACY WITH ONLINE RESOURCE
Dr. Jane Westerhold, superintendent for Des Plaines Community Consolidated School District 62 in Illinois, first introduced myON to the district as a literacy resource to provide greater access to engaging books for students in K–8. While myON was the superintendent’s initiative, it was the responsibility of Dr. Jan Rashid, assistant superintendent for instructional services, to manage the implementation. Through their collaboration, the scope was broadened and myON is now used across the curriculum. “As we interacted more with myON, we saw that it could be more widely utilized in the classrooms as a supplemental resource to increase rigor in the content areas,” Dr. Rashid explained. “In addition, reading digital text is different from reading print text, and is a skill that needs to be practiced. Embedding that practice into what the students do every day is important, not just for testing and assessments, but for their future success in life.”
BLENDED LEARNING MEETS DIVERSE STUDENT NEEDS
When Dr. Denise Hoy became assistant principal of Fayetteville, Arkansas, High School in 2010, one-third of the total school population of 1,800 was failing one or more classes by the end of the fall semester. Many of these classes were required for students to graduate. To address this issue, Dr. Hoy applied lessons she had learned in the 10 years she was a special education teacher/designee at Fayetteville. She focused on unique student needs and also leveraged technology to provide more flexible and targeted instructional solutions and increase the graduation rate. With the help of Odysseyware, Fayetteville implemented programs to help students stay on top of their coursework, recover credits when necessary, and earn first-time credits. Odysseyware’s course customization tool has also been used to create 30 different courses for students with language deficiencies and disabilities. By providing this flexibility and targeted instruction, Agee-Lierly Life Preparation Services (ALLPS) students recovered 736 credits between August 2014 and March 2015. As of April 2015, 29 students have graduated early.
FOUR FACTORS FOR BLENDED LEARNING SUCCESS
A recent white paper by Lexia Learning identified the following four elements that are critical for implementing a successful blended learning program:
#1: The technology tool should adapt to each student’s abilities
One of the core objectives of a blended learning model is to personalize instruction to meet the specific needs of each student. However, if the school chooses a technology-based curriculum that does not include an element of scaffolding and adaptive technology, student learning will be no more personalized than the traditional “one size fits all” instruction. Pay particular attention to the instructional “branching” that your instructional program provides. Some products may state that they provide “adaptive assessment,” but they may not actually provide “adaptive instruction.” Such programs place students at the proper instructional level, but once students begin the instructional component of the program they are all subjected to the same “one size fits all” instruction.
#2: The instructional program should capture student data
While structured practice or skill instruction delivered online can be beneficial in a blended environment, far too often these online activities are occurring without the data being captured—or they require a separate test event. If a blended approach is intended to help each student accelerate her or his skill development, the technology tools must record student progress at a fairly granular level. When the right technology tools are used, the student experience is monitored in real-time—without administering a test. Teachers can view data showing which students have completed each skill area and which students have encountered an obstacle and require direct instruction, either individually or in small groups. These data inform the instructional plans in the classroom, helping the teacher to be targeted and time-efficient in focusing on the students most in need of help.
#3: The program should recommend next steps for the teacher Schools can dramatically improve their levels of teacher effectiveness if they implement technology that provides recommendations for teacher intervention—connecting personalized learning, embedded assessment, and teacher-led instruction.
#4: The program should provide resources for teacher-led instruction While technology-based components help to identify the students who are struggling and the specific skills with which they have difficulty, teachers are sometimes left to plan the curriculum and choose the appropriate materials to help these students. The final step in ensuring an effective blended learning implementation is to select instructional resources that help the teacher to connect performance data to instructional strategies.
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