Recommendations

=Recommendations= J uly 2nd

Providing the right support and resources that allow teachers to see the possibilities for their learners is key to adoption of e-learning strategies. Recognising this, Second Life Academy is committed to leverage the relationship it has developed with professional and corporate organisations (e.g Apple) to provide expert support on hardware and software systems that spport e-learning. Such partnerships will also be aimed at fostering on-goingskills dvelopment and improvement for teachers, course designers for the first 2years post implemetation.

Develop astandards policy and guideline for using online resources and course development to ensure consistency and quality compliance across board.

Provide training to introduce teachers to skills required to monitir learning virtually.

Harness existing IT infrastructure to provide an environment of support by establishing that makes technlogy assisted teaching as stress free as possible.

Employ staff IT Trainer to conduct basic IT skills training workshops to address diverse technogy skills needs of the staff.

Develop online questionnaire to evaluate learning modules, strategies and outcomes.

Develop a wiki to provide solutions for common problems associated with e-learning, provide answers to frequently asked questions on most commonly used learning software.

Adopt strategies that will support the shift from traditional teachers to e-learning teachers while retaining control over quality of education.

June 24th (Brian)-

Thoughts? Rationales are still missing. We can trim as need be... I figured it's best to get as many ideas down as possible. (It's almost midnight my time.. this sucker wore me out...)

In order to achieve JMSS's goal of "maximizing student learning in the changing global society" t he following strategic plan outlines how the "School Without Boundaries" will be implemented. The plan is divided into six recommendations with measurable benchmarks for each goal. Also included in the plan are a time frame for accomplishing each objective and a supporting rationale:

Strategic Plan for Creating a "School Without Boundaries" at JMSS School Year 2011-2012 I would suggest that this be titled, deployment strategy Recommendation 1: To distribute the e-learning resources to students, faculty, and administration in April before the academic year 2011-2012.

Benchmark 1: Designate two technology representatives in the school who will be in charge of acquiring, storing, labeling, and disseminating the laptop computers and other technology tools by October 2010. ( Good idea, I would suggest that IT specialist be hired to work with the library teacher)

Benchmark 2: Acquire the laptop computers from the Apple corporation, store the computers in a facilities storage area, and label all the computers with bar codes by the end of January 2011.

Benchmark 3: Distribute the laptops to the faculty and administration by the end of February 2011, ensuring that all staff's names and the bar codes for the laptop that they receive are recorded in a data file. (Also a standards policy issue-)

Benchmark 4: Distribute the laptops to students by the end of May 2011, ensuring that all the students' names and the bar codes for the laptop that they receive are recorded in a data file. (As part of standards strategy/policy, on registration eh student can use serial number as passord this will ensure that all will be captured ) Rationale:

Recommendation 2: To develop and implement a training program flexible enough to meet the needs of working teachers. (Identify and categorise teachrs technology skills and needs and design training that addresses these needs and roboust enought to support their needs as time goes on.) Benchmark 1: Hire a educational design/technology leader on staff by February 2010 to coordinate the implementation of Moodle on the school server, train staff members on an ongoing basis, and serve as a technology go-to person in the school.

Benchmark 2: Designate a technology leader in each department who will serve as e-learning support leaders and role models for the other faculty in the department by February 2010. ( The technology leaders would come from recognising the Lone Rangers and utilising their skills to make learning curve easier for their fellow colleauges)

Benchmark 3: Have the educational design/technology leader train the entire staff on the available tools and functions via Moodle by April 2010 during three professional days.

Benchmark 4: Establish a helpline connection with Apple representatives, a technology troubleshooting discussion board online, and a website with step-by-step instructions for implementing the various teaching and learning tools by April 2010. ( Would like to add that the Department Tech Leaders mentioned earlier will get extra coaching to be able to support the school teaching/learning tools as a fall back plan)

Rationale: The importance of training teachers in the use of instructional design models suited to the improvement aims pursued is essential. (p. 296 Bullen & Janes"

Recommendation 3: To develop academically-challenging and design-sound curriculum for an e-learning educational environment.

Benchmark 1: Create a project management model in each department by February 2010.

Benchmark 2: Have the educational technology representative develop, administer, and analyze the results of a school-wide survey on the levels of technological known-how, teaching preferences, etc. by March 2010 to collect information in regards to the faculty's training needs, etc.

Benchmark 3: Have each department develop a plan with their own goals and indicators for implementing curricular changes, developing e-learning goals and indicators, and designing appropriate lessons and assessments with assistance of the hired technology representative by April 2010.

Benchmark 4: Provide planning and development time for the faculty to implement their plan to ensure the successful opening of the e-learning community.

Rationale: Educational design will be the key, providing it is in response to specific objectives and gives the guidance and mechanisms for helping to achieve good results in each of the scenarios.

To ensure success, however, it will be necessary to develop indicators that measure the relationship between the design of courses and their perceived or measured quality (Sangra, Guardia, and Gonzalez-Sanmamed, 2007, p. 296 in Bullen & Janes)

Recommendation 4: To ensure students' performance and satisfaction in participating in an e-learning community.

Benchmark 1: Develop and implement in-school and online training sessions that are student-friendly and are able to be completed within a reasonable amount of time.

Benchmark 2: Administer a survey for students after each training session to ascertain what training strategies and tools can be altered to enhance their understanding and confidence in using e-learning tools.

Benchmark 3: Develop an online technology help desk during traditional school hours and an online technology troubleshooting discussion board for students by May 2010.

Rationale:

Recommendation 5: To increase enrollment of a diverse student body in the e-learning school.

Benchmark 1: Network with business leaders in the local community and seek their advice in developing a marketing campaign for the "School Without Boundaries" by October 2010.

Benchmark 2: Develop and implement a marketing campaign that can be delivered locally, nationally, and internationally to increase enrollment in the school by January 2011.

Rationale:

Recommendation 6: To evaluate and revise the curricular design, e-learning tools, faculty/student/administration needs, marketing strategies and programming needs as needed.

Benchmark 1: Design and administer periodic surveys that can be used to evaluate the various processes involving in running and supporting the school and the e-learning environment.

Benchmark 2: Develop a schedule for the 2010-2011 school year that is flexible enough to meet the various needed as determined by the surveys.

Benchmark 3: Evaluate the short-terms and long-term funding situation of the school and hire a grant writer as deemed necessary by administration and faculty based on the funding evaluation.

Rationale:

>>
 * 1) Project management will be used to transition from a purely face to face instruction to blended and fully online instruction. A dedicator manager will be hired, allowing the faculty to continue with their primary role as instructors. Not only will this approach ensure on-time delivery, but will also offer the following benefits:
 * 2) Quality control
 * 3) [what other specific benefits?]
 * 4) Educational Design strategies will be employed to ensure high quality courses and programs. (Sangra, Guardia, and Gonzalez-Sanmamed, 2007 - pg 284-299 in Bullen & James)
 * 5) During this process the project management team will focus on the following:
 * 6) the learning needs of both resident and distant students and the potential environments will be analyzed
 * 7) training needs will be identified and defined
 * 8) selection of appropriate resources with regard to the learning processes will be chosen
 * 9) contents and activities will be developed by the instructional design teams, and
 * 10) the learning process will be evaluated
 * 11) Instructional design teams will create the learning objects and other materials that will be used to populate the courses. These teams will consist of the course instructors as curriculum expertss, educational designers, graphic designers, and multimedia production staff.
 * 12) Support for Students
 * 13) Training modules
 * 14) Helpline
 * 15) Support for Faculty
 * 16) Software, hardware training
 * 17) Professional development - pedagogy. Some key ideas: (Sangra et al, 2007 - see pg 289- 290)
 * 18) Teacher as facilitator (phase 3)
 * 19) Importance of teaching methods & actions, as opposed to merely the content (McCormick & Scrimshaw, 2001) (phase 4)
 * 20) Student centered learning model (phase 5)
 * 21) Technical Support
 * 22) Evaluation
 * 23) After some period (to be determined) the new program will be evaluated on three levels, as recommended by Sangra et al 2001) - the institutional level, the program or course level, and at the level of disaggregated elemements that make up the program and our institutional services. These elements will be examined from the perspective of the students, the faculty, and the school administration. Further assessments will be made of economic changes resulting from the implementation of the changes; the success, performance and satisfaction of our students; and technology evaluation.