District 16 plans to bolster online learning
by Elyse Kaner
Staff Writer
Spring Lake Park District 16 is gearing to ramp up its student online learning programs.
The move will give students more options, allow students to work at their own pace and the district will be on course for a rapidly expanding manner of delivering instruction – via the Internet.
“The K-12 online learning is growing and it’s growing fast,” said Jerelyne Nemanich, the district’s instructional technology coordinator.
Nemanich presented a report, “Online/Blended Learning Task Force Update,” to the SLP School Board during last month’s regular school board meeting.
The district will start with the high school and later address middle school needs. Nemanich said parents of elementary students have expressed interest in taking online learning classes as well.
Online learning both attracts and retains students, Nemanich said.
District 16 currently offers a fully online distance learning program. In existence for 11 years, the program is one of many online programs statewide in which a student can earn a full diploma.
According to the district’s most recent estimates available, about 10 students are enrolled full time in the program, while about 40 students are taking one or two classes, according to Nemanich.
The focus of Nemanich’s task force update was on blended or hybrid learning, a mix of online learning with some face-to-face learning in a traditional classroom environment. (Nemanich noted “a couple days a week for face-to-face time.”)
A major proportion of content is delivered online, including online discussions.
Initially, the district would offer classes in the core subjects (math, science, language arts, social studies) and look into offering music and physical education courses, Nemanich said.
The courses would align with the district’s essential learning outcomes and learning community framework.
An online/blended learning task force, comprised of mostly high school teachers and administrators and two middle school staff, has met four times.
The group, in accordance with a guiding change principle, seeks to identify those courses that will most meaningfully engage students in online learning.
“It’s not just something where they’re going to get their homework online,” Nemanich said. “We want to make sure there is interaction among kids online.”
Additionally, the task force will identify how to effectively implement the courses into the high school schedule.
SLP High School next year is moving from a seven-period day to a six-period day. Online learning will afford students an opportunity to take classes they otherwise might not be able to squeeze into their schedules.
Another desired result for the program is the partnering of District 16 with other school districts, businesses, community and higher education.
“Everyone on the task force said this is something we need to move forward with,” Nemanich said.
Some of the benefits of taking online learning are: it allows students to work at their own pace, to earn college credit, to take a class not offered on campus and to get extra help, according to a Project Tomorrow Survey that Nemanich included in her presentation.
Nemanich shared the following numbers derived from the International Association for K-12 Online Learning:
• The K-12 online learning market is growing yearly by 30 percent.
• Enrollment has increased from 45,000 in 2000 to 1 million in 2007.
• Twenty-seven percent of high school students took an online course in 2009, according to Project Tomorrow’s annual Speak Up Survey.
• Ambient Insight projects that 10.5 million students will engage in online learning courses by 2014.
• In a book “Disrupting Class,” by Clayton Christenson and Michael Horn, data suggests that by 2019 about 50 percent of all courses will be delivered online. In six years, data suggests that 10 percent of all courses will be taken online.
In the next two months, task force members will talk and learn from other school districts implementing the program. They are: Mounds View, Edina, Bloomington, Minneapolis and Stillwater.
Focus groups will be formed for feedback in planning, including teachers, parents and students. Courses and teachers of those courses will be identified for the next school year. Also, the plan will be communicated to staff, students, parents and community.
Superintendent Jeff Ronneberg said the task force is enthusiastic about bringing online/blended learning to the district.
“They’re making a lot of progress really fast, but they’re also, just as Jerelyne shared, are going deep… . They’re really being thoughtful about their work.”
Elyse Kaner is at elyse.kaner@ecm-inc.com
