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Principal Kelly Halvorsen presented the Winona Area Public Schools board Thursday with next year’s course proposals, some of which included new hybrid classes that would allow students to enroll in courses with an online component.

The classes would utilize software called Moodle — a virtual learning environment that can be used to instruct fully online classes or to enhance a traditional classroom setting, among other applications. Some high-school teachers currently use the software to engage students in discussion on online forums, Halvorsen said. So far, students have responded enthusiastically.

For the rest of the article, go to WAPS proposes some virtual classes for next year

Online education has lots of perks and benefits for students in high school and college, and for the most part, virtual classroom settings are successful. However, online education is not for every student. Highly motivated students tend to the be the most successful, but what about the mediocre student or the student who lacks motivation?

Minnesota’s online school truant officers have devised a mathematical formula that identifies the highly motivated students with high completion rates versus those students who are just going through the motions. Like students who don’t show up to class, the online student who doesn’t log in daily is more likely to dropout.

Habitual truancy laws are clear with absenteeism in face-to-face instruction but the law become sketchy in an online environment. Legal experts question how online attendance is tracked.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual Schools Face High Truancy Rates

It’s important work, school officials say, at a time when enrollment in online schools is soaring, but so are dropout rates. Online students made up a disproportionate share of truancy cases last year, and virtual schools worry about a backlash against their industry if they are perceived as havens for slackers.

“It is very easy to become truant in online,” said Stacy Bender, dean of students at Minneapolis-based Minnesota Virtual High School, which has 1,300 students spread throughout the state. Unmotivated students can just stop logging in and then lie about it to their parents and within two weeks, they are truant, she said.

For the rest of the article, go to Online schools go old school to nab cyber-truants

“It is very easy to become truant in online,” said Stacy Bender, dean of students at Minneapolis-based Minnesota Virtual High School, which has 1,300 students spread throughout the state. Unmotivated students can just stop logging in and then lie about it to their parents and within two weeks, they are truant, she said.

To catch online truants, Bender and her colleagues in online schools in Minnesota use mathematical formulas that compare the hours spent on online lessons and academic progress. The formula allows for high achievers who work quickly, while catching students who are just going through the motions.

Bender has been key to spreading the interpretation, both in her current job and previously at the smaller Wolf Creek Online High School in Lindstrom. She runs a web site, mnonlinetruancy.weebly.com, has written on the subject for a trade journal and presented it Nov. 10 at the annual conference of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. She said she has also put 3,500 miles on her Honda Civic since January working on truancy issues in counties throughout the state.

For the rest of the article, go to Minnesota online schools coax prosecutors to go after truants despite outdated law

Studies in Colorado and Minnesota have suggested that full-time online students in those states were struggling to match the achievement levels of their peers in brick-and-mortar schools. Articles in The New York Times have questioned not only the academic results for students in virtual schools, but also the propriety of business practices surrounding the use of public dollars for such programs.

Meanwhile, two left-leaning magazines, The Nation and Mother Jones, contended this month that education policy reforms pushed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the name of digital opportunities for students have the ulterior motive of funneling money to big technology companies. And the move into education by the right-leaning media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, with his News Corp. conglomerate’s purchase of the educational technology company Wireless Generation, has drawn protests from some teacher advocates at public appearances by Mr. Murdoch.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual Ed. Advocates Respond to Wave of Criticism

It is estimated that more than 1.5 million students take online classes nationally, and of those, 200,000 are full-time online students. As of 2011, 39 different states have state-run virtual education programs.

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“Minnesota is one of those that does not. Interestingly, Minnesota has one of the largest numbers of online students, but they do not have a statewide program,” said McClure.

In place of a state-wide program, there are currently 24 online consortiums and other certified virtual education providers throughout the state. Minnesota does have a number of policies regulating online learning though, such as having the different providers adhere to national education standards.

The benefit for a school district, such as Greenway, to be involved in an online consortium, is that they have a say in the educational standards of the program, as well as what classes will be offered, and so forth. Since the beginning of Infinity, when only eight districts were involved, there were a total of five courses available, and only 30 students enrolled. In 2010, 43 districts have become part of Infinity, offering 58 different courses to more than 1,000 enrolled students. All Infinity teachers are from member districts, giving students access to a large number of teachers within a relatively small regional area.

For the rest of the article, go to Greenway boasts high completion rates among online consortium

The Minnesota Department of Education has threatened to close the school, claiming that the charter school graduated students who had not met state standards, and that the curriculum did not align with state standards.

The results of the case could impact whether District 197 absorbs BlueSky into the district to provide online education.

BlueSky officials disagree with the state’s assessment, and are critical of the review process that the department used to evaluate the school.

For the rest of the article, go to West St. Paul’s BlueSky Online School Awaits Ruling

While all PLATO Learning courses are interactive, engaging, and effective, vCourses have been optimized specifically for virtual programs. PLATO vCourses benefits include a streamlined workflow for teachers and administrators, an intuitive and easy to navigate user interface for learners, and support services that ensure schools and districts can implement an effective virtual program quickly and cost-effectively.

“As the online learning population continues to grow rapidly, we will continue to support schools and districts by providing a virtual learning experience that sets the standard for the industry,” said Jamie Candee, vice president of product and marketing for PLATO Learning. “Virtual courses are becoming an expectation of learners and families. With PLATO vCourses, schools and districts can meet that expectation, and offer a learning option that will help them retain students.”

For the rest of the article, go to PLATO Learning Introduces vCourses for Launching Effective Virtual Learning Programs

Fergus Falls iQ Academy, however, has taken steps to make its online program better.

“We have a new Learning Management System (LMS) that allows access to many new academic resources for teachers and families,” said Molly Johnson, who heads Fergus Falls iQ Academy along with Jesse Thorstad.

iQ Academy Minnesota, a program of the Fergus Falls Public School District, offers an interactive curriculum for students in grades 6-12, what Johnson refers to as “a robust virtual learning environment” and a supportive teacher and student network.

Fergus Falls IQ Academy, still enrolling students in September, had over 300 online students in 2010-11.

Another major new feature this school year includes the Scantron Series, which involves performance tests to help measure student growth.

The Office of the Legislature Auditor reported that an estimated 20,000 students in kindergarten through high school took at least one online course last year. That’s less than three percent of the state’s K-12 students, the report said, but the number has been growing.

Statewide, for the 2009-2010 school year, the number of students taking classes part-time online classes doubled to about 3,800 and the number of students taking online classes full-time tripled to about 8,300, from 2007.

For the rest of the article, go to Online learning more popular in FF, Minnesota