eLearning Assignment

Kayse Moyer

May 22, 2005

My assessment begins with the English 4 class offered by the Florida Virtual Schools based in Orlando. This class module focused on teaching Shakespeare and the site itself is very clean and easy to navigate, but one problem which I immediately noticed, and according to MSDE’s evaluation criteria for online courses, this module does not list state or national standards with the individual lessons. The lessons did seem to be very engaging and interesting as well as appropriate in reading level. Students must perform multiple tasks for each lesson and the tasks are age appropriate and present multiple types of assessment. Especially dealing with Shakespeare’s drama students need to see and hear the plays, so students were asked to use different types of media and interview family members for the communication component. I did not see any area for teacher interaction and it seems to me that simply emailing the teacher may not be efficient. It would help to have an interactive area directly in the course module and it does not appear that students interact with one another. The lessons do however, challenge students with multiple activities for various learning levels and learning styles. This course was reviewed and evaluated by 2 out of state reviewers and one local and the course site appears to be updated regularly.

Class.com is based in Lincoln, Nebraska and was my second virtual school experience. I viewed a science class that was aligned with state standards which were attached to the modules but not individual lessons. This course explores the origins of science and students were asked to map, keep a log, take quizzes, and recognize important vocabulary as in any classroom setting. There were also multiple activities that were age appropriate and the lessons were very innovative. This course was neat and easy to navigate but at times the pages are a bit dull and completely full of text. Student distractions are obviously at a minimum and the lessons really seemed thoughtful and addressed overarching ideas that students will apply to many different aspects of life besides science. Class.com did lack teacher accessibility but it appeared that students are encouraged and at times required to rely on each other for class discussions and activities. I appreciated the required discussions because one of the big factors that I think students lose in virtual schooling is peer interaction. This school requires critical thinking in the lessons and students are assessed in many ways besides standard quizzes and tests. The courses do not appear to be updated often but the courses seem very thorough.