Online School Model
ABOUT MY SCHOOL
Valley Alternative Learning Transition School, VALTS, opened about 12 years ago. The
mission of the program is to provide an alternative education to students who are not successful in a traditional classroom environment. We serve approximately 45 students each quarter so we are able to offer very small class sizes. An average class has only 9-11 students. Our students attend class Monday through Thursday in either the morning or the afternoon for four hours. In addition to attending class they are required to work 20 hours each week. Since they can earn 20 credits each quarter, many students are able to catch up with their class and graduate on time. Students who complete our program earn a regular high school diploma from their host high school. Many choose to walk with their class which is always very emotional to watch.
A couple of years ago ESU#13 and Western Nebraska Community College entered into a partnership that will benefit many students in the panhandle of Nebraska. It was decided that a new state-of-the-art building would be built to house this newly formed partnership. Visionary leaders at ESU#13 saw that students in western Nebraska did not have the same opportunities as their counterparts in the eastern part of the state. Larger schools in Lincoln and Omaha are able to offer a rich variety of elective and AP courses. To help level the playing field, ESU#13 began offering online courses in the fall of 2008. We launched credit our first classes in the fall of 2008 to high school students in the entire ESU#13 service unit area in the four core areas. As the program expands, we will increase our course offerings to include high interest electives. I am making plans to create a several classes. I would like to start with the US Civil War and the History of the American West. I would also like to develop a course that combines cultural geography, world history and art history.
We researched numerous models during our quest to find the perfect model on which to base our program. We finally decided that what we were doing was so unique that we took bits and pieces of many different models. There was very little discussion about the LMS we would use. Moodle was the only LMS that was given any serious consideration. We spent hours looking at actual courses that were similar to the ones we were going to offer. There were prepackaged courses we could have purchased, but they were not exactly what we were looking for. After much debate and research we concluded in early June that we needed to build our classes from the ground up.
We had many discussions about what we wanted our program to look like. Here is what we came up with:
- Communication is the key to success. Students must be comfortable contacting their teacher. Teachers must be capable of forming relationships with students using technology. We will use a variety of communication tools to help us get to know our students. (Skype, IM, email, Elluminate, DL system)
- Create classes that are standards-based and rigorous by Nebraska certified teachers.
- Hiring innovative teachers to create and teach the classes. it is imperative that our teachers possess the unique skill set that good online teachers have.
- Create classes that are collaborative and constructive in nature. Use authentic assessment to help make learning and testing more relevant to our students.
- Create classes that use multimedia to help teach concepts.
- Extensive use of Web 2.0 tools by both teachers and students. Teachers have to be good technology role models.
