Rural district explores MOOCs |
On Board Online • April 27, 2015
By George Basler
Special Correspondent
One of Kim Mueller's first impressions when she became superintendent of the Wellsville Central School District in Allegany County five years ago was how isolated students could feel in the small, rural school district.
"My first thought was: How do we connect to the wider world?" she said.
The answer, in Wellsville's case, has been a major investment in technology. The investment has included making the school building Wi Fi accessible and retooling classrooms for technology, including installing interactive whiteboards and projectors in every classroom, said Emory Roethel, coordinator of curriculum, instruction and technology.
The district also placed iPads in the hands of all 1,350 students. Students use the iPads to take notes, access the Internet for research, do reports, communicate with teachers and post assignments on My Big Campus, an online learning management system set up by the school district.
Now, Wellsville is beginning to consider the next step of incorporating MOOCs, massive open online courses, into its instruction.
"What we have been looking at is learning beyond the school house walls so students are more globally competent and competitive," Roethel said.
MOOCs are online courses made available free of charge (although students pay for a "certificate of achievement") to anyone in the world through providers such as Coursera and Udacity.
While MOOCs have been geared toward college students and adults, high schools are beginning to show an interest in using them for advanced and, or specialized courses. One of the largest MOOC providers, EdX, recently announced a new initiative that includes the addition of more than 40 high school and Advanced Placement courses.
"There is no one right way to get to 21st century educational standards. We want to provide as many ways as possible," Mueller said, noting online course MOOCs could give students the opportunity to pursue subjects at their own pace.
No timetable exists for introducing MOOCs into instruction, but teachers and administrators are brainstorming about new courses that could incorporate MOOCs.
High school English teacher Madonna Figura surveyed her students and found them enthusiastic about MOOCs. While they made it clear they would not want to take all their education online, they thought it would be worthwhile for an extra course, she said. She has proposed a College and Career Readiness course that would give students the opportunity to choose a MOOC in content areas such as art; business and management; food and nutrition; health care; music, film and audio; and social sciences.
Mike Bidzerkowny, a high school math teacher, said he's looking at online courses and thinks they are an opportunity for students to do independent study in a content area of their choice. The issue is "a student has to be motivated enough to do the content," he said.
The best way to supervise student progress is one puzzle, Roethel said. "We will need to make sure there are periodic checks done by the teacher as well as having students review their own progress," Roethel said. One option is a "hybrid model" in which classroom work is combined with web-based instruction.
"Right now our focus is to improve our ability to offer more choice for students and do it really well," he said. "Once we build some solid MOOC-based courses, then we will review and consider the next steps. At this point, having 20 students in a course is a great start." Help is on the way. The district hired two new staffers this year to work with teachers on restructuring lesson plans and integrating technology into their classrooms.
"Technology is a tool. It's not the answer to everything. But it's a facilitator," Mueller said.