You asked for the status of the state's efforts to make available and promote the use of online courses for credit in school districts and adult education programs.

SUMMARY

Connecticut has a number of efforts currently underway to make online courses and distance learning more available to students in the state. One significant effort suffered a funding cut that limited the number of students able to take online courses. Currently, online courses are available to students and school districts through the Connecticut Virtual High School (CVHS) or the Connecticut Regional Education Center (RESC) Alliance's agreement with the Virtual High School, a nationwide organization based in Massachusetts. In either of these options, the district or the student pays for a course.

Among the various efforts to promote and make online courses more available are the:

1. State Board of Education's (SBE) proposed legislation (for the second time) to require all school boards to adopt policies for earning credits through online courses, and

2. State Education Department's (SDE) expansion of online courses included in its Race to the Top grant application to the U.S. Education Department.

SDE does not track the number of students taking online courses. Roughly 100 take courses through CVLC, another 300 through the RESC Alliance agreement. The largest number of students taking high school courses for credit is through the Connecticut Virtual Adult High School, where students are currently registered in approximately 1,000 courses for credit toward a high school diploma (another group is registered for about 1,000 GED preparation courses).

Approximately 34 other states have created virtual schools to provide online courses for high school students. A few, including Michigan and Alabama, now require at least some online education in order to get a high school diploma.

ONLINE AND DISTANCE LEARNING: BACKGROUND

The use of online courses as a tool in secondary (and to a lesser degree primary) school has grown over the last 10 years. Proponents see online courses as a way to offer students access to teachers and course content that may not otherwise be available at their schools. In hard-to-staff areas like mathematics, science, and world languages, online courses can provide a vehicle to deliver high-quality education. Online courses may also serve to fill the needs of students in small school districts where there may be insufficient numbers of students to justify the allocation of a teacher to a certain subject. This is often the case with advanced level courses.

Some are more cautious about the use of these courses and feel that if they are not properly supervised and monitored, they could be an unsatisfactory substitute for the traditional classroom experience.

One advantage of online courses is the option of what is called “credit recovery” for students who may have fallen behind during a semester or year. It gives the student the chance to begin again during the school year in order to stay on track for graduation. It does not mean the course is remedial; such courses involve the same expectations as the regular course of the same topic.

CONNECTICUT VIRTUAL LEARNING CENTER

In 2007, the legislature provided $850,000 for a distance learning initiative. The act required the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium (CDLC), an arm of Charter Oak State College, to use the money to develop online courses in conjunction with SDE and the Department of Higher Education. Through this CDLC created the CVHS. The CDLC purchased online course material and built the online course registration, reporting, and transcript system for the CVHS, which in its first year provided online courses to high school students and school districts at no charge.

When students could take courses for free, some did not take it seriously, according to Gretchen Hayden of the CDLC. Some schools did not show a commitment to the program and did not designate staff to be in charge on the school end.

Since the funding ended, the CVHS now charges $295 for a public school student for a semester course ($320 for private school or home school students). Hayden said that while this has limited the number of districts and students that participate, those that do tend to take the courses more seriously, which leads to a higher course completion rate.

Hayden estimates there are about 100 students currently taking CVHS courses. CVHS policy requires a participating school district to appoint an online learning coordinator to act as the intermediary between the district and its staff and the CVHS teachers and administration. Districts are also expected to appoint mentors to support students in their online coursework. She noted that Cheshire, Coventry, Mansfield, Meriden, Suffield, and Wolcott are all actively involved. For example, in Coventry, a group of students are learning Mandarin Chinese online.

For more information go to www.ctvirtuallearning.org.

RESC ALLIANCE AND VIRTUAL HIGH SCHOOL

The RESC Alliance has been offering online courses for five years and approximately 40 schools around the state participate. Under the RESC Alliance agreement with the Virtual High School, a school district gets a discounted rate for student enrollment and teacher and site coordinator training.

The alliance estimates that 300 students a semester take over 200 online courses. Recently, middle school options were added and students now have access to 50 high school courses.

For more information go to www.crec.org/tabs/district/downloads/VHS_Benefits_Plus.pdf.

BILL REQUIRING ONLINE COURSE POLICIES

This session the SDE is proposing a bill that would require all school districts to develop an online course policy with certain elements. Last session's bill, SB 947, passed both houses of the General Assembly, but the House amended the bill with a provision unrelated to online courses and the session ended before the Senate could take up the amended bill.

The bill would have allowed boards of education to grant credit towards meeting high school graduation requirements for the successful completion of online coursework.

It required the boards to adopt a policy that would ensure that:

● the workload required by the online course is equivalent to that of a similar course taught in a traditional classroom setting;

● the content is rigorous and aligned with curriculum guidelines approved by the State Board of Education, where appropriate;

● the course engages students and has interactive components, such as required interactions between students and teachers, participation in online demonstrations, discussion boards, or virtual labs; and

● the courses are (a) taught by certified (by any state) teachers who have received training on teaching in an online environment, or (b) offered by higher education institutions that are regionally or Department of Higher Education accredited.

The SDE indicates this bill would clear up the question of whether districts have the authority to grant credit for online learning opportunities. It also aims to set a standard for the courses.

RACE TO THE TOP APPLICATION

The state's application to the U.S. Department of Education for Race to the Top (RTTT) funds includes provisions for students' participation in online courses and for teachers to learn to teach effectively in an online environment. RTTT is a competitive grant program and it is unclear at this point how much, if any, grant awards the state will receive in the first round.

The application required school districts to sign on to the RTTT requirements that include tracking student achievement and linking student achievement and teacher evaluation.

Under the application, participating school districts will have increased availability to online courses. Students from participating urban districts who do not have home computers and Internet access and want to take online courses will be invited to participate in the Tech-4-All-CT program. This program, created two years ago, provided refurbished high-end computers, high-speed Internet access, training for parents or caregivers, and help desk support for low-income families.

The state submitted its application last month. The federal government has issued nonbinding budget ranges based on each state's population. Connecticut's estimated range is $60 million-$175 million. The federal government is expected to announce first round awards in April.

ADULT ONLINE EDUCATION

The largest number of students taking high school courses for credit is through the Connecticut Adult Virtual High School (CT AVHS), where students are currently registered in approximately 1,000 courses for credit toward a high school diploma (there is another group of students registered for about 1,000 GED preparation courses). CT AVHS estimates enrollments may reach 2,500 this school year.

The SDE's Bureau of Health, Nutrition, and Adult Education provides funding to the CDLC (which, as previously mentioned, runs the CVLC). Due to the level of state funding, students do not have to pay for courses.

The CT AVHS started as a limited pilot program in 2002 and expanded statewide in 2006. By 2009, it offered 24 half credit courses for adult diploma credit, an online GED study course, and an online writing lab for student's to receive tutoring. Thirty-three of the state's adult education centers now access the CT AVHS.

As with CDLC's Connecticut Virtual High School, all adult education center's participating in CT AVHS must have a trained online learning coordinator to administer the program and must assign a trained mentor to each students enrolled in the online course. CDLC provides this training.

For more information go to www.ctvhs.org.

OTHER STATES

More than 70% of the nearly 15,000 school districts in the United States currently offer at least one online course, enrolling about a million students annually, according to the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (INACOL). The association estimates that online enrollment has increased about 30% annually since 1997.

In 2006, Michigan began requiring high school students to take an online course or have an online educational experience to graduate; Alabama adopted an online course requirement in 2008.

In addition, 34 states, including Florida and Idaho, have created “virtual schools” to provide online courses to school districts and students.

For more information from INACOL go to www.inacol.org.

JM:ts