1 Illinois Virtual High School

2 History of Distance Learning in the United States 1970’s Broadcast Television Microwave Broadcast 1980’s Broadcast Television Microwave Broadcast Satellite Broadcast 1990’s Broadcast Television Microwave Broadcast Satellite Broadcast Video Conferencing Multimedia packages

3 There is a growing movement in the United States to provide an entire high school curriculum via distance learning technologies

4 USA Virtual High Schools Florida (since 1996) Concorde Consortium (since 1996) Kentucky (since 1998) Nebraska (since 1998) Illinois (beginning 2001)

5 March 1999 IVHS Timeline Earliest discussions about the possibility of creating an online ‘virtual’ high school

6 What were the initiatives behind the IVHS? Address large discrepancies in curriculum across the state Make available Advanced Placement courses to all schools Address the growing home school movement in the state

7 July 1999 – December 1999 Series of meetings among groups of teachers interested in a virtual school December 1999 $30,000 acquired grant for planning January 2000Establishment of virtual school steering committee

8 Governor Ryan’s Vision ”Utilizing various technologies this project [the Illinois Virtual High School] will explore new ways to deliver high school and college- level opportunities throughout Illinois.” Governor George Ryan State of the State Address, February 2000 Venture TECH - strategic technology investment initiative

9 July 1999 – December 1999 Series of meetings among groups of teachers interested in a virtual school December 1999 $30,000 acquired grant for planning January 2000 State takes control of virtual school program March 2000 Establishment of virtual school steering committee 3 day planning retreat by steering committee June 2000

10 August 1999 The Illinois Board of Education (secondary education) takes control of the virtual school September rd Party vendor bids accepted October 2000 Bids go out for portal and content vendors IL Virtual School open for registration December 2000 IL Virtual School begins classes January 2001

11 IVHS Providers ecollege.com (portal) apex learning (content) class.com (content) The Florida HS (content)

12 Illinois Virtual High School 13 initial courses including core courses such as American History, English, and Algebra offered because these have high occurrence of being ‘repeated ’ avoided science and foreign language courses

13 What are the long term goals of the IVHS? Offer a complete core high school curriculum along with many electives Provide equal access to the technology needed to use the IVHS

14 What technologies will the IVHS use? The registration and administration of courses will be done via the Internet While most work will be done via web-based course design, the content providers may choose CD- ROM, video recordings or other media to distribute curriculum.

15 What ‘best practices’ were explored? Prior to accepting the bid of the content vendors, how they would provide the curriculum was investigated A variety of methods were reviewed. Among the best or most effective included:

16 The use of ‘streaming video’ Illinois Institute of Technology Lectures delivered in classrooms are available as RealPlayer files. Notes and assignments are downloadable Students correspond with instructor via Assessments take place at independent testing centers

17 Direct Satellite Broadcasts TEAMS (Los Angles, California) teams.lacoe.edu K-12 classroom settings delivered via direct satellite broadcast to subscribers. Cooperating school receives related classroom material Students correspond with instructor in real time via telephone, or fax

18 Best Practices on the Web United States Dept. of Education Distance Learning Resource Page Links to courses developed out of the ‘Star Schools’ Program Links to over 800 examples of the web used as a medium for learning.

19 Problematic Issues facing the IVHS Communicating Purpose Retention rate found with distance learning Equitable funding Translating course into a distance learning format (foreign language, science) Intellectual property rights Concerns of labor unions

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