Connecting Teachers, University, and State Department of Education: The Design and Implementation of a Statewide Open Source Learning/Decision Support Environment

The Power of Online Learning: Realizing the Vision 12th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks The Power of Online Learning: Realizing the Vision November 9, 2006, Orlando, FL

Connecting Teachers, University, and State Department of Education: The Design and Implementation of a Statewide Open Source Learning/Decision Support Environment Sam DiGangi, Ph.D. Assistant Vice President, University Technology Office, Associate Professor, College of Education, President, Applied Learning Technologies Institute, alt^I Arizona State University    Angel Jannasch-Pennell, Ph.D. Vice President, Applied Learning Technologies Institute, alt^I Arizona State University    Sandra Sutton Andrews, PhD Researcher, Applied Learning Technologies Institute, alt^I Arizona State University

IDEAL IDEAL (Integrated Data Enhancing Arizona's Learning) connects Arizona's 58,000 teachers in an online environment that provides opportunities for interaction, training, help with No Child Left Behind issues, and more. The ultimate goal of IDEAL is to increase the academic achievement of all Arizona students. Provide a single location for learners, teachers and parents to access learning resources Deliver formative assessments to prepare for AIMS Provide feedback on student’s mastery relative to state standards Make parental involvement easier and more robust

IDEAL Current IDEAL features include: Professional development resources The Arizona School Improvement Plan Item Bank for Formative Assessments Pre-made Formative Assessments Resources for teaching, including videos

IDEAL Planned IDEAL Features: Access provided to all K-20 Arizona students Built in accessibility options Sophisticated assessment applications Parent access Lifelong learning

IDEAL Next Steps: In late 2006-Spring 2007 the first groups of students will be brought into the environment. Students will have access to: Online formative assessments created by teacher Feedback on student’s mastery relative to state standards A classroom site where homework can be turned in Collaboration environment

IDEAL Student Access Details Phase one: full access to students in two Arizona districts Phase two: one million K-12 students Phase one in Fall, 2006

IDEAL Rationale for IDEAL: Technology and NCLB Opportunities inherent to technology Linking teachers and schools to resources

IDEAL Advantages of creating our own learning environment rather than outsourcing: Insider’s look at system details and issues Ability to leverage a variety of resources Ability to implement good pedagogy and research The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

IDEAL Advantages of Open Source: Self sustaining (no licensing fees) Can modify to suit our needs Large international support community Developers can add applications or can switch to another open source application at any time

IDEAL Nearly 100% of components are Open Source. Among them are: Drupal Sakai

IDEAL About Drupal: Drupal is a highly extensible and modular content management management system. It provides powerful tools for managing articles, news, blogs, podcasts, images, groups and much more. More importantly, it provides a powerful framework for managing content, creating community-driven sub-sites and implementing and building custom modules.

IDEAL From Sakaiproject.org: Sakai is an online Collaboration and Learning Environment. Many users of Sakai deploy it to support teaching and learning, ad hoc group collaboration, support for portfolios and research collaboration. Sakai is a free and open source product that is built and maintained by the Sakai community.

IDEAL IDEAL specifics: Formative Assessment Item Bank (adds to Sakai functionality) Arizona School Improvement Plan ASSET (professional development & resources for teaching) Sakai online classrooms

IDEAL What is formative assessment? Assessment for learning that provides: Insights on students’ strengths and conceptual errors in relationship to specific course concepts Guidance to improve student understanding A means of monitoring progress in learning

IDEAL What is formative assessment? (continued) Assessment for learning that provides: Diagnostic information concerning students’ understanding of concepts Feedback to the instructor about the effectiveness of instructional activities

IDEAL Within the IDEAL environment, the teacher can work with formative assessments on many levels: Select from pre-made formative assessments, or create and administer a formative assessment quiz from the item bank, aligned to Arizona standards Add own items (stored in teacher’s classroom area rather than in the item bank) Identify areas of concern Choose videos and other resources for remediation, also aligned to standards Sophisticated multi-level evaluations of individual items being planned to give teacher precise information on student needs

IDEAL Pre-made Quiz

IDEAL The Arizona School Improvement Plan (ASIP): Guides mandated schools through the process of creating an improvement plan Is available as well to any Arizona school principal

IDEAL The Arizona School Improvement Plan application features dynamically generated displays of relevant school data, e.g.: Percentage of highly qualified teachers at the school, over several years Student demographic information Performance on high stakes tests with school-wide areas of concern easily identifiable

IDEAL The Arizona School Improvement Plan provides highly sophisticated, user friendly features such as: Ability of principal to provide read-only access to improvement team members Needs assessment application

IDEAL ASSET provides teachers and schools with a variety of resources, e.g.: Online professional development courses including those mandated for all teachers Video and other teaching resources, aligned to Arizona standards Trilingual math resources in English, Spanish and the Navajo language Trade book selection application by grade level

ASSET Page Sample – Professional Development

ASSET Page Sample – Curricular Resources

IDEAL Conception, evolution and current realization, and future of IDEAL: Stakeholders and funding Technical specifications Open ended contract: specific elements (e.g. student access) with room for expansion (e.g. support applications) Open source basis implies ease of continuation

IDEAL Stakeholders: Arizona Department of Education Arizona State University Applied Learning Technologies Institute (alt^I) US Department of Education Arizona Districts Arizona Principals Arizona Teachers Students Parents

IDEAL Stakeholder issues met by: Contract Frequent meetings on many levels Tech committee Data team (ADE, ASSET, alt^I) Evolution of levels of collaboration, e.g. Addition of ADE to QA Revision of IDEAL to offer direct content input to ADE

IDEAL Lessons learned: role of helpdesk: Helpdesk data provided to ADE Helpdesk feedback from teachers and principals provided to developers as well as to ADE Without a Helpdesk, teachers would be less likely to use IDEAL Technical support ADE information provided Content questions answered

IDEAL More lessons learned: Cost: benefits of open source Universal accessibility, usability easiest if incorporated from the beginning QA process Ethics and security Problem of older data in districts, etc. Legal issues: older laws did not foresee Statewide learning environments