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The International Netcourse Teacher Enhancement Coalition™ (INTEC) was the Concord Consortium's first netcourse project. Our second netcourse project, the Virtual High School (VHS), started this year. Working with these two projects over the the past year we've learned more about course delivery and associated Web technology from two different directions. Both INTEC and VHS share the same netcourse philosophy of a scheduled asychronous structure. The general approach is similar to a seminar. Activities are assigned for a particular period of time, but the participants do not have a time when they are required to be on-line. However, the two projects have different goals and hence have different approaches. This provided interesting data for each of the projects. INTEC is an NSF-funded project providing a graduate-level professional development netcourse for secondary math and science teachers. Its goals are to increase participants'understanding of inquiry and introduce them to educational tools which can be used to incorporate inquiry into classroom instruction. This 125-hour course is delivered primarily over the 'net. One of the INTEC goals is developing a community where individuals can support each other. INTEC is investigating the use of netcourses as a substitute for residential professional development institutes-delivering a single course to large numbers of participants-while VHS is creating a cooperative of schools. VHS schools expand the number of courses available through an existing cooperative wherein individual classroom teachers create their own netcourses and deliver them to classroom-number groups of students. VHS's professional development component prepares VHS teachers to create and teach netcourses. Recently the INTEC team met to review data and feedback from the current INTEC participants, as well as reaction to the VHS project to date. Based on feedback from participants, our evaluator (Horizon Research, Inc.) and our own reactions, improvements and changes are planned for the next sessions of INTEC. Which Inquiry? Inquiry-based instruction has a number of different implementation approaches, ranging from very open-ended to a highly scaffolded (structured) process. INTEC originally positioned itself for a mid-line approach, somewhere between the two polls. But our discussions showed that if we want to provide participants with a better understanding of inquiry we need to allow them opportunities to explore the range of inquiry. So there will now be course activities where participants can explore more open-ended inquiry as well as scaffolded models. Team-based Approach The VHS professional development experience was of necessity focused on individual teachers. INTEC has different goals, and the project feedback tells us that the team approach is a significant component in the process. The INTEC schedule includes activities which require the site-based teams to meet together. Our learning to date indicates that there is considerable significant discussion that happens during the face-to-face meeting and then at other times during the school day, for example in the faculty room or lunchroom. One of the INTEC goals is developing a community where individuals can support each other through the process of understanding and testing new instructional approaches. Graduate Credit Cost Participants in the INTEC project are able to get graduate credit for participation in the course because we have a relationship with Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts. They provide graduate credit when a participant successfully completes the course. Since they have increased their tuition this year, so must we. INTEC is currently worth four graduate credits, and costs $240. Less Calendar Time While INTEC remains a 125-hour course, we've redesigned a number of the activities to reduce the overall length of the course. Where it was solidly a three semester long course, it is now possible to complete the full course in two semesters and a few weeks of summer activity. (Since the final set of activities is a practicum with participants doing inquiry in their classroom, the summer activity can't be scheduled as the wrap-up.) New Technology INTEC has been using a combination of servers running a hodgepodge of software. VHS has tested Lotus'LearningSpace distributed learning product. INTEC staff feel that LearningSpace matches our needs, and so, at the beginning of January we will transfer to this state-of-the art product. INTEC has openings for participants in October and January. Any team of four teachers from a site interested in participating in this project should contact Raymond Rose,(ray@concord.org) INTEC Project Director.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: R & D Effort :: Masthead :: Cool Reviews :: Famine to Feast :: The Jungle Story :: INTEC Reviews :: Professional Development :: New Programs :: LearningSpace :: Perspective :: Get Involved! :: Copyright © 1997 The Concord Consortium, All rights reserved. Last updated: 11-Oct-97 Questions and comments regarding this site can be sent to webmaster@concord.org