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Unscheduled asynchronous netcourses are organized like a book or independent study course: students can start, stop, and complete work at any time and progress through the course at their own pace. Many online correspondence schools are organized in this manner; such a school might give a rough time frame of a month to a year within which a student has to complete each course. Communication methods are usually asynchronous, but in order for students to progress entirely at their own pace, they have little interaction with their peers. If any interaction does take place, it is usually with the teacher(s) or moderator(s) on a one-on-one basis. Student collaboration with peers is limited, impractical, or unprofitable because students are studying different topics at different times. This type of course allows for great flexibility in a student's schedule, and is therefore often considered ideal for working students or parents. Unscheduled netcourses range in design from classes that consist of little or no interaction at all (i.e., students complete and submit assignments that can be graded by computer), to classes that are individualized with some student-to-teacher interaction (such as independent study courses), to classes that contain some interaction between students (in the form of asynchronous academic or social discussion groups, for example).
Unscheduled netcourses make up the majority of courses delivered over the Internet at this time. Most are modeled after traditional correspondence courses. Print-based correspondence courses have been around for decades, providing educational alternatives to learners with time and geographical constraints. It is not surprising that the Internet, with its powerful and high speed communication capabilities, has been embraced by many distance education providers as they create online correspondence courses. Using the Internet to deliver courses offers some basic advantages over using the regular mail: it saves money on printing and mailing costs, it allows for greater and faster interaction, collaboration, and feedback between students and teachers, and it allows teachers to update and change their courses in real-time to correct mistakes or to reflect world events as they occur. On another level, teachers can create multimedia distance courses which utilize the many resources and services available through the Internet. The extent to which the Internet is used as a tool in correspondence netcourses varies greatly. For example, some "virtual" correspondence schools are only using the Internet as a means for speeding up student/teacher response time, and for the delivery of assignments, text, and exam questions via e-mail. Other schools stress that they are enhancing their distance education programs by incorporating Internet resources into course design and by using the Internet to partially regain types of classroom interactions that do not typically exist in print-based correspondence courses.
The online schools below are listed roughly in order of number of students served, with the smallest programs listed first, and programs that we have not contacted yet or don't know the numbers for listed last.
The Chrysalis School in Woodinville, Washington, runs independent study programs for students of all ages. The school currently has about 300 on-site students who meet with teachers weekly for home assignments. Its courses are individualized and tailored to each student. In 1996/97 the school began offering courses to students at a distance using the Internet. It had 6 students: one each from South Africa, Illinois, and Hawaii, and three from California. Some of Chrysalis' courses were created specifically for delivery over the Internet, and eventually all courses will be more geared towards online delivery. Online students receive textbooks and materials in the mail, and use e-mail, fax, phone, and the Internet to complete course work. Students move at their own pace, and generally take 2-3 credits a semester. Chrysalis has mini-cam capabilities, but says that so far most students aren't interested in this technology being incorporated into their courses. Chrysalis will be doing some evaluation of its first online year over the summer.
Monte Vista's Online Academy is a program currently in its third and final year of pilot status; its goal is to "make a difference in the education of Colorado youth who are not currently being served by public education." The Online Academy is providing an opportunity for 40 Colorado middle and high school students not enrolled in public schools to earn a high school diploma. These students are typically home-schoolers or students who have dropped out of school or been expelled. This program operates within the Byron Spring Delta Center, which runs alternative educational programs for the surrounding community. Curriculum from Delta Center's alternative high school program was adapted to the Internet during Monte Vista's first year of operation. Fifteen students enrolled and even helped to create the online classes. Many aspects of these first classes failed, but with the experience gained, Monte Vista was able to create classes that were more successful for their second year, during which they were able to exceed their typical student to credit ratio.
Monte Vista's goal is to incorporate quality material from the World Wide Web into the instruction, and to eventually use the Web as the primary educational resource. At present, many of Monte Vista's classes rely mostly on textbooks, videos, and CD-ROMs. The math courses in particular make extensive use of educational CD-ROMs. E-mail and HTML-interfaced instruction are the major forms of communication between students, peers, tutors and instructors. The program has experimented with Palace Virtual Chat Rooms, but the majority of students don't use it, and Monte Vista staff don't believe this type of communication will become a main focus in any of their courses. Each student makes a contract with his or her teacher as to what classes he or she will need and by what dates assignments will be completed. The program uses 16-20 junior and senior high school students as peer tutors. Students are free to progress at their own pace. The Online Academy is in the process of switching to a T-1 line and its own server, and students are reimbursed for the dial-up accounts they use to access course materials. As the Online Academy extends into its third year, it hopes to become established as another core program in the Delta Center.
Mindquest is a m ostly asynchronous program that offers online high school diplomas free to adult Minnesota residents through the Bloomington Public Schools. Computers, modems and full Internet access are also available at no charge to students living in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. Mindquest has been offering classes over the Internet for three years now, and is currently offering about eight fully online classes to about 50 students, with a staff to student ratio of 1:10. Writing is heavily emphasized in this program, in which students prepare and compile an ongoing portfolio of all their work to be evaluated and used as a basis for recommendation of a diploma. Mindquest students work with counselors to develop individualized learning programs in which they take online courses, complete projects, and gain credit for demonstrating life experience, knowledge, and skills. When possible, there are some very limited face-to-face meetings (mostly for orientation and technical support) but these are not mandatory. Students can enroll any time, and can progress at their own pace.
Mindquest courses typically require a student to complete 10 to 12 writing assignments (there are no multiple-choice, true/false, or short-answer type tests or lessons) over e-mail and participate in asynchronous threaded discussions online. Mindquest is about to move to the latest version of FirstClass groupware; classes are presented in HTML format, but discussions and portfolios of student work are housed within the FirstClass environment. MindQuest curriculum developers hope to incorporate Web resources and emphasize student discussions more and more in their course design. Mindquest is currently working with a deaf organization to develop an experimental CU-SeeMe live video communications system which will recognize American Sign Language (ASL). They anticipate increased enrollment in their online courses, and hope to develop partnerships, so that other programs can implement their own, locally funded versions of Mindquest. Mindquest also hopes to start developing classes for adults beyond the high school level.
The Division of Independent Study Online Program is part of the North Dakota Department of Education. It started as a high school correspondence program in 1935 and now offers 165 middle/high school courses to 11,000 students in all 50 states and 22 countries annually. Two years ago, the Division of Independent Study (DIS) started offering its courses in both print and Web-based form. Its teachers enhanced their print-based curricula for delivery on the Web by adding video, graphics, and Internet links. In 1995/96 World Geography was offered as the first online course to four students from Alaska; three of these students finished the course. In 1996/97 the Division of Independent Study offered 11 online courses to approximately 40 students. By September of 1997, it is expected to offer about 20 online courses.
DIS online courses are open year round, and students enroll any time and work at their own pace. The DIS feels that the major benefit of being online is the fast turn-around time; even DIS print-based students use e-mail to turn in assignments. Other benefits include the ability to meet the needs of a diverse group of students and to enrich curricula with Web links. All students use textbooks, and some courses require kits. The program will start to use chat rooms, and while there is no group work at present, the developers are trying to incorporate more hands-on activities. A typical course consists of 14-16 lessons and 4-5 tests. Students generally have one year from the time they enroll to finish each 1/2 credit class. Students receive certificates for completed high school courses and some students complete a high school diploma. The DIS had about 80 students graduate last year. Ten percent of DIS students are adult learners who take courses for enrichment. The majority of students are enrolled in regular schools but wish to graduate early. Students range from second graders to 70 year old learners. Sample lessons for about 10 courses can be found at the Division of Independent Study's Web site.
Laurel Springs is a licensed California private school that provides online courses for the completion of a high school diploma. The school started offering distance education in 1991, but began exploring use of the Internet in 1994 after a large earthquake shut many libraries down, making it difficult for its students to conduct the research that was required of them. The development of netcourses resulted from the school seeking creative ways to deal with a unique problem.
Laurel Springs now has about 35 classes that are delivered completely online at the fifth through twelveth grade levels. The Online program currently has about 1,000 students and 52 teachers. The courses are aimed primarily at the home-schooling market, and only infrequently serve adult learners. The school is open to students around the world (although about 70% live in California) and is almost completely asynchronous. Students living nearby in California can have occasional face-to-face meetings with their instructors, and the school is trying some live monitored discussion groups for the first time this year. All courses are set up as individualized independent study courses, tailored by the teacher to fit the unique needs of each student. Learners can enroll anytime, but courses generally run from September to June and during the summers. Students work with an instructor who sends them weekly assignments over e-mail; students return the completed assignments and receive feedback and grades over e-mail as well. Laurel Springs' goal is to have students make use of information and software that is available on the Internet as much as possible; specific Web sites are often used to complete research and assignments. For example, students use information from libraries, museums, galleries, and science sites that are found on the Internet. Some courses also make use of textbooks, print materials, and CD-ROMs.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Independent Study High School (ISHS), has been in existence since 1929, offering accredited high school diplomas through print correspondence. The school serves 15,000 students each year, in 136 countries and all 50 states. The ISHS is now working under two separate grants to redevelop its print-based distance courses for an electronic environment. The electronic courses are meant to be stand-alone, time-free, and place-free, and to incorporate the use of text, data, video, audio, and the Web. The courses will be delivered entirely online through an HTML interface and will use no printed materials. The first one-year proof-of-concept grant was used to develop four such online courses: "Chemistry," "Expository Writing," "Geometry," and "Current Events in Bosnia and the Ukraine." These four courses have been tested with high schools and teachers, and will be offered to an estimated 2000 students during the 1997/98 school year. The courses are being independently evaluated and assessed; the evaluation will cover topics ranging from questions of how and if technology enhances student learning to specific details of netcourse production and design.
The second, 5 year, $15 million Star Schools grant from the Department of Education (DOE) is being used to develop 54 netcourses so that a high school diploma can be earned entirely online. By January of 1998, 14 netcourses will be developed, and 10 more will be created each additional year of the grant. While students will complete courses at their own pace, some courses will require discussion and interaction between students. Expository writing, for example, requires students to analyze and comment on other students' writing, with a teacher moderating. Course work will include writing essays and papers, and going on the Internet to do research. The ISHS will sell site licences to school districts, and so its courses are designed to be used both synchronously within a classroom setting (in which case they would be used more in a group mode) or asynchronously long-distance.
The Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY), offered by Stanford University, develops and offers advanced courses to K-12 students at a distance. While EPGY does serve a number of home schoolers, most of its students are enrolled in schools that for various reasons can't offer advanced courses. EPGY has been delivering math courses since 1989, physics courses since 1992, and writing courses since 1994. Its computer-based multimedia courses are taken by approximately 2,500 students at the high school level each year. Forty percent of EPGY's students are from California, but EPGY also has students in 47 other states and at least 6 countries. The program is aimed at "gifted" students; to be admitted in any but the writing courses, a student must test in the top 3% of the population in mathematical ability. Classes are individualized and set up as independent study. Some student-to-student interaction is required in the writing courses, but in the math and physics courses cooperation is encouraged but not required. Students in EPGY work through a standard course progression at their own pace, and many work through university level classes while they are still in high school.
EPGY courses currently make only limited use of the Internet, using it mainly for e-mail and listservs. EPGY will begin "to make more aggressive use" of the Internet for distributing supporting course materials and software upgrades. Each course uses a standard textbook and off-line homework and chapter tests, but the bulk of instruction is delivered asynchronously via CD-ROM. CD-ROMs deliver lectures in the form of synchronized sound and graphics. The lectures are followed by computerized exercises, quizzes, and interactive expositions. Course software is developed by EPGY using a combination of commercial and in-house tools. EPGY's Deputy Director says that CD-ROM was chosen so that students would have very high fidelity for the sound and because most of their students have slow Internet connections. He says that EPGY will stay with CD-ROM until DVD-ROM becomes widely available. EPGY students also receive synchronous support in the form of phone calls and a virtual classroom environment. The virtual classroom refers to connections involving real-time voice interaction combined with shared whiteboard interaction. This feature is used actively in the writing courses and in a more limited way in the math and physics courses. EPGY hopes to increase its use of real-time interaction as the technology improves.
The University of Missouri's Center for Independent Study is an example of a high school distance education program that is completely unsynchronized with almost no student to teacher interaction. The Center is in the process of putting all of its computer-scored lessons and exams online. All courses are completely independent and text-based; students receive a study guide and a textbook at home and have the option of completing and submitting lessons over the Internet. At this time, 251 of the Center's 300 courses have lessons that can be submitted and graded online. Most lessons are multiple-choice so that they can be graded by computer, although some (such as essay-type for English classes) are partially graded by instructors. Students receive a computerized report immediately after submitting each computer-graded lesson. If a student has a question or concern about a particular answer, he or she can use an 800 number to reach a staff member at instructional services to research and look into it. The Center for Independent Study serves 12,000 students annually, and estimates that seven out of ten lessons are completed and turned in over the Internet. Students who choose to use the Internet don't mail anything in except for a midterm and final exam that they take under supervision. A typical class consists of eight lessons and two exams, and students can take from one to nine months to finish.
While the Center is reluctant to replace textbooks and have students read all material online, the course designers do hope to start incorporating Internet resources and links into their online lessons as they develop more of them. They are trying to make their lessons rich with multimedia; some of the lesson questions use graphics and audio files (for example, a student taking art might look at famous paintings and have to identify the artist). The Center's classes are taken by home schoolers, high school students who want enrichment, students who for various reasons can't take required courses at their high schools, students who want to graduate early, and students who failed classes. Visitors to the Center for Independent Study can request a password to see a sample lesson which shows the best examples of online questions taken from different class lessons.
The Calculus & Mathematica Distance Education Program (C&M DEP) started in 1988 when professors from the University of Illinois designed a calculus course based on interactive electronics text called Mathematica Notebooks. They developed a series of notebook lessons that start out with basic and tutorial problems featuring "electronically active" solutions. Students move from these examples (or skip over them if they feel they have mastered the material) to problems with no given solutions. The Mathematica software allows students to re-work examples with different numbers and functions and to increase the complexity of problems. As they work on problems that they receive via the Web, students create their own notebooks by inserting commentary, graphs and plots; these notebooks are submitted to undergraduate mentors via e-mail. The mentors give assistance, grades, and feedback via phone or e-mail, and Timbuktu screen sharing software is used if the student and mentor want to work together in real time to address a student's question.
The focus of the class is on students' active engagement with the math problems, and soon after it was first tested, lectures were dropped from the curriculum entirely. With no reliance on lectures the course was no longer limited to on-campus students, and the University began offering it to rural high schools that didn't have enough students to give calculus classes traditionally. Today, adults, remote high school students, and home schoolers use the Internet to take university credit C&M math and calculus courses that are not otherwise available to them, and a national remote learning coalition called NETMATH has been established to offer mathematics via the Internet on a national level. NetMath is also fully equipped to handle deaf students using TTY phones.
CALCampus High School Diploma OnLine is a distance education program offering online classes to adults who wish to earn a high school diploma. Students must complete six 12-week classes (Written Communication, Consumer Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, American History, Government & Voter Responsibilities, and Law & Society) within a year to receive a high school diploma from a non-profit educational association called the American Academy. Students use the Internet to download all course materials and information and then they study independently offline. Students receive weekly lessons with homework, communicate with their instructors, and turn homework in via e-mail. Students also have the option of real-time classroom conferencing with instructors and other students, and a few "live" classes meet in real-time online rooms. The total cost of earning a high school diploma is $483. (Note: all information about CALCampus comes from their Web site only)
The Grand County School District Electronic High School was created for use by students in this Utah school district who needed to replace failed courses, who wished to graduate early, or who wanted to study at home. This "virtual" school is another that uses the Internet for delivery and administration purposes only. Electronic High School classes are self-described as "courses that are currently very traditional and do not take advantage of the multimedia nature of the Internet." The Internet is used only to submit assignments and receive feedback from the teacher. All tests are completed on the computer using Super Sleuths testing software. There is currently one teacher working on the online curriculum; this teacher hopes to rewrite the courses in a way that will incorporate Internet resources and put all text online, but for now the classes are strongly textbook based. To complete a course, students read from their text, answer assignment questions, and take exams. They progress at their own pace and can have as much or as little contact with the teacher as they like. Students must receive a score of 80% on all work to pass, and they can redo assignments and repeat exams as many times as necessary to pass. (Note: all information about the Grand County Electronic High School comes from their Web site only)
C O N T E N T S :Summary | Unscheduled Asynchronous Netcourses | Scheduled Asynchronous Netcourses | Fully Synchronous Netcourses | Conclusions | Glossary of Terms