Exploring Course Information

I was excited to receive access to the distance education website for my internship project this past Wednesday. The distance education school requires that all interns undergo a security check before entering the course website. It took about a week for me to get my paperwork to the school and for them to process it, much quicker than the time it takes to get a security clearance in our district.

Now that I'm in, I am following some initial instructions from my course instructor. She suggested that I get oriented with the system and formulate questions as I work. The course I'll explore is language arts designed for sixth graders. I won't be interacting with students, but I will have access to the lessons, assessments, and projects they use.

As I work, I'll undoubtedly view the course and the course management system though the eyes of my fifth grade gifted students, several of whom are considering distance education courses for their middle school years. I'll be curious to see how the instructor and course differentiate instruction to meet the needs of different learners. I'll also try to assimilate the course management system used by the distance education program and the Moodle LMS we use at my school.

My first task was to explore "Course Information." This area of the course includes all of the "set-up" instructions a student or intern needs to begin exploring content. This section of the course was very well organized and informative. I found the following points especially interesting:

1) I learned how to create a zip file (for some reason I never knew how to do that).
2) A key way the course differentiates instruction is to differentiate pace. Accelerated students complete the course in 18 weeks (4.5 months), traditional students finish in 36 weeks (9 months...twice the time as accelerated students), and extended learning students with special permission finish in 52 weeks (13 months). Students cannot change their pace option midcourse without permission from their parent, teacher, and guidance counselor.
3) Supply lists include a short list of quality novels with additional selections for advanced students.
4) There is no textbook for the course.
5) The course orientation includes an excellent piece for kids on academic integrity and plagiarism. My students struggle with the concept of plagiarism and it was interesting to see this approach.

At this point, these are my major questions:
1) It appears that the pace of the course is doubled for accelerated students and it is enriched with additional novels. What kinds of students are candidates for this level? Gifted? High achieving? What groups of students tend to opt for the extended learning and how does this ultimately affect their graduation rate?
2) How do teachers guide students as they select a pace for the course? If they've never taken an online class before but they are gifted, are they encouraged to try the traditional pace first? How about students that struggle in the face-to-face classroom, are they encouraged to try an extended pace first?
3) How is grade skipping handled? Is it often necessary for gifted students, or does the accelerated pace generally meet their needs?

My next steps are to explore specific lessons and assessments suggest by my teacher. I look forward to working through the material as if I were a student.

I also plan to look for current research on gifted students and online learning. This should help me answer some of my questions. I'm also due to meet with my teacher via Elluminate to discuss the lessons, assessments, and my questions tomorrow morning.

I'm enjoying this opportunity to explore distance education for young students. I really feel like I'm looking into the future of education.

Jeanne