Course Design Using Open Educational Resources Bob Currie Michigan Virtual School Gary Lopez Monterey Institute for Technology and Education Mary Schlegelmilch Omaha Public Schools

Who Is MITE? Who is MITE? Mission To help meet society’s need for access to effective, high- quality educational opportunities in an era of rapid economic, social, and personal change.

OER Background

The Goals of NROC To create a repository of high-quality, high school, Advanced Placement, and undergraduate courses and distribute them at little or no cost to students and teachers worldwide. In pursuing this goal, NROC achieves other important outcomes, including, addressing the needs of underserved students helping establish content and technical standards for online content fostering collaboration among content developers and users become financially self-sustaining supporting the Open Educational Resource movement

A Course as a Set of Objects

NROC Library High School Course Foundations College Prep Physics I College Prep Physics II Algebra 1a Algebra 1b College Course Foundations US History I US History II American Government Introductory Physics I (algebra-based) Introductory Physics II (algebra-based) General Physics I (calculus-based) General Physics II (calculus-based) Introductory Calculus I Introductory Calculus II General Calculus I General Calculus II Environmental Science Religions of the World Elementary Algebra Advanced Placement Course Foundations AP Environmental Science AP Physics B I AP Physics B II AP Physics C I AP Physics C II AP US History I AP US History II AP US Government and Politics AP Calculus AB I AP Calculus AB II AP Calculus BC I AP Calculus BC II AP Biology Also in Development Non-Majors Biology General Psychology Statistics for Behavioral & Social Sciences Basic Education Online: Reading, Writing, ELL, Math

Where does NROC content come from? Two sources : Contributions from academic institutions Collaborative Development managed by NROC Network

Course Structure Contributed: “NROCing” the Content Consistent Organization

1. New content added by instructor or NROC 2. Customize course 3. Enhance group work and interactivity Enhancing the Content Contributed: “NROCing” the Content

Collaborative Development: NROC Network

NROC Network: Members Alabama Department of Education Anaheim Union High School Buena Vista University Cal State Fullerton Chattanooga State Technical & Community College Clark County Virtual High School Colorado Community Colleges Online Colorado Online Learning Florida Virtual School Hamilton County Virtual High School Hawaii Department of Education Idaho Digital Learning Academy Illinois Virtual High School Iowa Community College Online Consortium Kentucky Virtual High School Los Angeles Unified School District Louisiana Department of Education Maryland Virtual Learning Opportunities Michigan Virtual High School Minnesota Online Omaha Public Schools Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College Oregon Department of Education South Carolina Department of Education St. Petersburg College Tennessee Board of Regents University of Texas Brownsville University of Texas TeleCampus Virtual Virginia West Virginia Community College System Corporacion Universitaria para el Desarrollo de Internet

Omaha Public Schools Omaha Public Schools is the only urban school district in Nebraska. Demographics are as follows: 47,000 students Serves 16% of all students in Nebraska 60% of the student population is eligible for free and reduced lunch 57% of the students are minorities 13% of the students are English Language Learners

It is All About Standards!!

Commercial Print publishers (proprietary or ANGEL) Course vendors (complete courses) Supplement providers Non-Profit & OER Course Developers (complete courses) Repositories--National Repository of On-Line Curriculum-NROC District Development Using the Social Authoring Concept at the local level Finding & Developing Content

OPS Social Authoring Process Recruit and Train Master Teachers in the uses of LMS Develop the OPS Framework –Create Master Course aligned with district standards Recruit and train Master teachers to be content/course developers Create Course developers and reviewer teams to address course needs Lesson Design –Use a common format for lesson design –Access 3 rd party content, preferably at the learning object level Courses are duplicated for implementation at the building level

Design staff/team customize the courses within the LMS Reorganize Add or delete content Modify assignments or assessments Evaluate/continually review

Omaha Public Schools Why Use a Learning Management System (LMS) for a Curriculum Repository to Replace Course Guides? Approximately 600 new teachers per year Why On-Line Credit Recovery? 70.31% Graduation Rate (2005/2006)

LMS – The New Course Guide New teachers need a framework to teach from, to provide more time to focus on “how” to teach and student learning, not “what” to teach. Course Guides are typically developed at the same time “textbook” adoption occurs, and may not be updated until the next adoption cycle. As subject areas and course move away from “textbooks” as the primary source of information, OPS was in need of a process to create a more “fluid” course guide.

One “e-stop” for Teacher Tools

Why Customize and Prioritize On- Line Credit Recovery? It provides: an opportunity to align district standards and assessments within the course. an avenue to individualize instruction to meet credit recovery needs. multi-modal learning experiences. activities, assignments, assessments utilizing LMS. simulations and interactivity. opportunities for delivery in a blended environment in a traditional school, or for a variety of alternative delivery options.

Membership in NROC provides access to course content at the learning object level. Access to quality content at the learning object level, provided an avenue to develop courses using a variety of resources. Access to content at the learning object level allows our teacher/developers to align all courses with OPS content standards and assessments.

OPS started the transition from an on-line “tutorial” system in June, Courses were developed and piloted throughout the 2006/2007 school year. During the 2007 summer school session, 540 students (approximately 1/3 of the total students in Credit Recovery) took courses in a blended environment.

2007 Credit Recovery Results: Mark Distribution for E-Courses Used During the 2007 Summer School The chart above reflects 700 course enrollments made by 408 individual students.

Michigan Virtual School Michigan Virtual School, working in partnership with Michigan schools, is committed to providing cost effective, technology based solutions that strengthen teaching and learning.

MVS Information ( ) 8800 Enrollments 500 AP Enrollments 130 Course Titles Content Flexibility 90+ HQT Qualified Online Instructors NCA and CITA Accredited Alignment with Michigan Content Expectations

MVS Statewide Participation MVS served students in nearly 400 schools in

MVS Curricular Formats MVS Flex Advanced Placement Semester Paced Student Direct

MVS Content Development/Acquisition Process The 4B’s of developing/acquiring content Build – Develop original content Buy – Purchase or License content Buddy – Form strategic partnerships Barter – Create partnership exchange

MVS Development Process MVS Development Team Project Lead Subject Matter Experts Instructional Designer Media Asset Manager MVS Instructor Quality Standards Based Process

MVS Advanced Placement Provides Equity for smaller schools College Board certified instructor and audited courses AP Exam Prep with the course Unique opportunities to students –MVS NROC Based AP Courses – Environmental Science, Physics, Government, History and Calculus

NROC Advantages Quality Learning Objects Customizable Course Content Professional Learning Community Developer Network Research and Identification of Resources Online Community Updates

Michigan Virtual School