Author: Robert L. Blomeyer, Jr. Ph.D

Adaptation of the “Sussex Scheme” for the Analysis of Curriculum Materials

This adapted work was developed by the author at the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory in 2001 under research supported by U.S. Department of Education Regional Educational Laboratory contract number ED-01-CO-0011. The content does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Department of Education, nor does mention or visual representation of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the federal government.

Click to download==> SUSSEX Schema_OTA_CC_License

EVALUATING COURSE EQUIVALENT VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS by Robert L. Blomeyer, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Course Description

This 6 module course is intended to help K-12 teachers develop and demonstrate proficiency with online teaching. The modules are:

Module 1 – Orientation to Online Learning: Standards

Module 2 – Technology, Tools & Online Activities

Module 3 – Online Facilitation: Supporting Meaningful Interaction

Module 4 – Assessing and Evaluating Online Student Performance

Module 5 – Managing Online Learning Environments

Module 6 – Social, Ethical, and Legal Issues in Online Teaching & Learning

Each module involves a series of activities to be completed that relate to the competencies covered in the module. In addition to these 6 modules, the course includes pre-course and post-course units with self assessment resources.

Performance Objectives

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

• Explain and use the basic elements of online courses: email, threaded discussions, real-time conferencing
• Facilitate asynchronous and synchronous online discussions
• Create collaborative learning activities for students
• Identify issues associated with the management of online classes
• Discuss the ethical and legal issues associated with online education
• Explain the accessibility issues associated with online education
• Discuss strategies for integrating online and classroom instruction

Note: OTC addresses teaching & learning in fully online, “supplementary” online, and  “blended” online programs that employ learning management systems or Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, social networking, etc.) supporting  interactive 21st century learning in bricks and mortar  schools & classrooms.

Our course concentrates on effective “facilitation” of online learning and creating online assessments and learning activities for existing online courses, instead of  on designing and building new online courses.

(Link to downloadable PDF document: OTA’s Online Teaching course)

Objective:

Provide educational leaders and school administrators with a comprehensive understanding of instructional management and support required for successful deployment of K-12 online learning.

Audience:

School Principals, Assistant Principals, County/State Educational Staff, School Board members

Competencies:

After completing this class, participants will be able to:

OTA-621 (Deployment):

1. explain the benefits of online learning and how they apply to their school(s)
2. identify the technology and human resources required to implement online learning in a school
3. describe the cost, funding, and budget implications of online learning

OTA-631 (Management and Supervision):

1. select and prepare teachers for online teaching
2. describe evaluation and assessment methods for online learning
3. describe ethical/legal issues associated with online learning

Participants are expected to complete assignments for each lesson in which they demonstrate these competencies. In addition, participants will be required to develop a plan for managing online learning in their school(s) and present this to their classmates at the end of the course.

(Link to downloadable PDF document: OTA’s Administration and Supervision I & II )

Prepare 21st century educators to support teaching learning in online, blended and traditional learning environments everywhere.

Our Organizational Objectives:

(1) Improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by providing world class professional development for America’s teachers and educational leaders, (2) Create online communities supporting ongoing professional development for educators everywhere, (3) Further our understanding of online teaching through research and evaluation studies tied to the courses and community.

Our Courses:

OTA offers a suite of courses, each of which is 4-6 weeks in length (depending upon the specific requirements of each customer):

1. The Online Teaching Course (OTC) – an introduction to online teaching for teachers that covers: nature of online learning, online teaching methods, online assessment, managing online classes, and the social/ethical aspects of online teaching. Participants develop an online lesson plan as part of the course.
2. The Management of Online Instruction course (MOI)- an introduction to the management of online learning courses intended primarily for school/college administrators. It covers: benefits/limitations of online learning, selecting and training online teachers, budgeting for online courses, evaluation methods for online learning, and the ethical/legal implications of online learning. Participants develop a plan of online learning as part of the course.
3. The Learning 2.0 Course – The OTA Learning 2.0 course (L20) is intended for individuals who want to understand first-hand how to harness the new applications of Web 2.0 for learning in formal or informal educational contexts. These applications include: blogs, wikis, podcasting, RSS feeds, social networking, media sharing, multiplayer games, and immersive environments. Our L20 course will be of particular interest to librarians, school technology coordinators, and those designing/teaching online courses.
4. Custom courses – configured to meet the needs of a specific institution and their teachers. For example, while online teaching for special needs is a topic covered in other courses, we could provide a full course about this topic if requested (e.g., for 504 coordinators). Alternatively, we could offer an entire course about online teaching for a given curriculum area (e.g., science, math, languages, etc).

Contact Bob Blomeyer, Business Manager of Online Teaching Associates for more details.
Phone: 630-769-5178. Email: rblomeyer@onlineteachingassociates.com or rblomeyer@earthlink.net.

Indian online student with a laptop (iStockphoto.com #3453092; licensed OTA)

The standards and proficiencies guiding all of OTA’s online courses are correlated to the National Standards for Quality Online Teachers (NSQOT – NACOL) and the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS – ISTE).

OTA offers a suite of courses, each of which is 4-6 weeks in length, depending on customers’ requirements.

Study Group (iStockphoto.com File #8179780; licensed OTA)

• Greg Kearsley, Ph.D. and Bob Blomeyer, Ph.D. have combined careers including more than 50 years of experience designing, developing and building online learning environments, as well as conducting research about educational technology.
• OTA maintains a professional network of carefully screened and highly experienced master online instructors and experienced online teachers as subject matter experts for supporting custom development of new, high demand online courses.

Online Supervision – Father supervising son’s virtual schoolwork. (iStockphoto.com #7089982; licensed OTA)