Group items tagged

"EQuIP (Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products)is an initiative of the American Diploma Project (ADP) Network designed to identify high-quality materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The objectives are two-fold: Increase the supply of high quality lessons and units aligned to the CCSS that are available to elementary, middle, and high school teachers as soon as possible; and Build the capacity of educators to evaluate and improve the quality of instructional materials for use in their classrooms and schools. EQuIP builds on a collaborative effort of education leaders from Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island that Achieve facilitated. The outcome of that effort was the development of the "Tri-State Rubrics" and a quality review process designed to determine the quality and alignment of instructional lessons and units to the CCSS."

"Questions of quality in repositories of open educational resources: a literature review" Javiera Atenasa,b* and Leo Havemannc Abstract Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials which are freely available and openly licensed. Repositories of OER (ROER) are platforms that host and facilitate access to these resources. ROER should not just be designed to store this content - in keeping with the aims of the OER movement, they should support educators in embracing open educational practices (OEP) such as searching for and retrieving content that they will reuse, adapt or modify as needed, without economic barriers or copyright restrictions. This paper reviews key literature on OER and ROER, in order to understand the roles ROER are said or supposed to fulfil in relation to furthering the aims of the OER movement. Four themes which should shape repository design are identified, and the following 10 quality indicators (QI) for ROER effectiveness are discussed: featured resources; user evaluation tools; peer review; authorship of the resources; keywords of the resources; use of standardised metadata; multilingualism of the repositories; inclusion of social media tools; specification of the creative commons license; availability of the source code or original files. These QI form the basis of a method for the evaluation of ROER initiatives which, in concert with considerations of achievability and long-term sustainability, should assist in enhancement and development. Keywords: open educational resources; open access; open educational practice; repositories; quality assurance "

"Guidelines for Professional Development of Online Teachers Based on the SREB Standards for Quality Online Teaching Providing quality professional development for online teachers is extremely important to ensure ongoing quality teaching and learning - just as it is for teachers in traditional classrooms. The professional development of online teachers should be well-planned and organized to meet the specific academic and instructional needs of online teachers."

"April 29, 2014 Achieve Webinar: Integrating EQuIP Into Your State's Common Core State Standards Implementation Strategy Achieve hosted a webinar on integrating EQuIP into Common Core State Standards implementation plans. Alissa Peltzman, Vice President, State Policy and Implementation Support, Achieve and Sasheen Phillips, Achieve's new Director of EQuIP and OER, provided an overview of the available tools and resources developed through Achieve's EQuIP (Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products) initiative, designed to identify high-quality materials aligned to the CCSS. We then heard directly from leaders at the state and district level who have put the EQuIP resources into use to support their efforts to identify quality and aligned instructional materials to advance implementation of the CCSS, including Merri Ann Drake, Idaho Core Coach, Idaho State Department of Education; Elissa Farmer, Curriculum Specialist, Seattle Public Schools; Terri King-Hunt, Gifted Support Specialist, Atlanta Public Schools; Linda Schoenbrodt, Elementary Mathematics Program Specialist, Maryland Department of Education; and Amy Youngblood, Founder, Eduoptimus. Please see below for resources shared during the webinar. Integrating EQuIP Into Your State's CCSS Implementation Strategy (PowerPoint slide deck) Integrating EQuIP Into Your State's CCSS Implementation Strategy (audio recording)"

"The eLearning Guild announces the release of a free eBook, 65 Tips on Managing Projects and SMEs for eLearning. The Guild has assembled 65 tips from 11 contributors who will be presenting in the upcoming July 2012 Online Forum, "Managing Projects and SMEs for eLearning." This experienced and diverse group offers advice and insights on topics such as defining the parameters of a project, the importance of sign-offs and written approvals, what to do when you're out of resources, and what factors drive quality. 65 Tips on Managing Projects and SMEs for eLearning presents practical solutions in five categories: Dealing with Stakeholders and Planning Your Project. Planning is arguably the most important step in any project. Learn how to lay a sturdy foundation with 25 expert tips. Choosing and Managing Your Team. The team is the center of your project universe. Heed these 13 suggestions to choose and manage your project teams effectively. Effective Communication. Keep the lines of communication open with these nine tips. Constraints and Challenges. Two factors - constraints and challenges - are a way of life in the project world. Follow these eight tips from our knowledgeable panel to ensure challenges only cause a bump in the road, rather than a major traffic jam. Quality Control. Determining if your project meets expectations is key, and these 10 tips will help ensure a solid final product."

Very relevant to our current work and evolving approach. Thanks Liz.

"How do you know you have quality digital learning content? This question could be made incredibly complex, but luckily people in-the-know have given ten simple guidelines. The Association of Educational Publishers has stepped up to offer some professional standards of quality and consistency - a baseline for all instructional resources."

"Clarifying Ownership of Teacher-Created Digital Content Empowers Educators to Personalize Education, Address Individual Student Needs The webinar explored how states and districts can empower and encourage educators to create and share high-quality digital instructional materials to improve students' learning experiences. Presenters discussed the central legal issue of ownership of instructional materials and offered recommendations for effectively managing the increased use of digital content, including with respect to the advantages provided by open educational resources (OER). "

"This policy brief provides concrete, actionable recommendations for state policymakers. There are five key issues in the iNACOL State Policy Framework: 1.Create Competency-Based Education Systems 2.Improve Student Access and Equity 3.Measure and Assure Quality from Inputs to Outcomes 4.Support Innovative Educators 5.Support New Learning Models Through Connectivity, Data Systems, and Security"

iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Courses. Thanks Liz.. Do they have a newer version?

This is the latest version

"Knowledge knows no boundaries We're a global online learning community where educators collaborate, share resources and showcase accomplishments. Project Share is a collection of Web 2.0 tools and applications that provides high quality professional development in an interactive and engaging learning environment. Project Share leverages existing and new professional development resources for K-12 teachers across the state and builds professional learning communities where educators can collaborate and participate in online learning opportunities. The mission of Project Share is to provide an interactive and engaging learning environment that offers opportunities for: Communicating and disseminating information from state, region, and district levels. Creating or joining common interest networks to increase teacher-to-teacher collaboration, conversations with experts, and communication with students in a secure online environment. Accessing state-adopted and approved materials, including electronic textbooks and other materials developed through TEA partnerships. Accessing educational resources through McDonald Observatory StarDate, PBS Digital Learning Library, Texas PBS, and many others. Accessing Texas Education on iTunes U to explore the history and cultures of Texas, view educational tutorials, and download resources for personalized learning. Collaborating on the development, dissemination, and evaluation of online professional development sessions and courses. Highlighting individual accomplishments through the development of ePortfolios. Developing and sharing ideas and resources."

The academically peer refereed Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects (IJELLO) - formerly Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects - endeavors to provide readers around the world with the widest possible coverage of developments in E-Learning and Learning Objects, as shown in our mission statement. . IJELLO is an interdisciplinary forum that publishes high quality articles on theory, practice, innovation, and research that cover all aspects of E-Learning and Learning Objects.

"Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license. These resources may be used free of charge , distributed without restriction , and modified without permission. In 2012, the Washington State Legislature passed Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 2337 that directed the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to create a collection of openly licensed courseware aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and conduct an awareness campaign to inform school di stricts about these resources. The Legislature saw this as an opportunity to both "reduce the expenses that districts would otherwise incur in purchasing these materials" and "provide districts and students with a broader selection of materials, and materi als that are more up - to - date." As a part of th is legislative mandate , OSPI conducted a review of OER in high school mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) that built on the work of the 2013 WA OER R eview . Teams evaluated full - course Geometry/Integrated Math 2 and units in 9 th - 10 th grade ELA. In addition, an OER Algebra 1 course unavailable for review in 2013 was examined. The review process, conducted durin g February and March , 201 4 , made use of existing review instruments designed to gauge alignment with the C CSS and overall OER quality . Minor revisions to the 2013 process were informed by feedback from the first cohort of reviewers. The results from this r eview enable educators and content developers to tap into the most powerful feature of OER : the ability to freely adapt and redistribute materials ."

"Essential Principles of High-Quality Online Teaching: Guidelines for Evaluating K-12 Online Teachers "

"This guide is organized in two main sections. Section I provides our working definition of distance education and anatomizes its many modes and models, dissecting their strengths and weaknesses in terms of instructional quality and effectiveness. Section II focuses on methods, collating best practices and lessons learned about teaching and learning from successful global distance education models. The guide also contains a glossary of terms, a reference section for further Web-based information on distance learning programs and approaches, and an extensive bibliography of the sources cited within the guide. Where available, we provide website addresses for every program discussed here. We also provide the URLs of websites that offer free content, but not those of commercial websites, which can typically be accessed online by searching for them by name."

"Open Educational Resources Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Additional Resources OER Rubrics (PDF) OER Training Videos About the OER Rubrics and State Support Open Educational Resources (OER) offer opportunities for increasing equity and access to high-quality K-12 education. Many state education agencies now have offices devoted to identifying and using OER and other digital resources in their states. Below, learn more about the Achieve OER Rubrics and Evaluation Tool, training materials on the rubrics and the Achieve OER Institute."

"make their compliance e-learning more interesting and impactful. 1. Focus on behaviours not policies If the organisation requires people to read the whole policy, e-learning should not be the answer - put in place an effective system of tracking completion and the right carrots and sticks. What e-learning should be used for is providing realistic ways for learners to practice the desired behaviours and providing the minimum viable knowledge to do this. If you get the attitudes right, people will refer to the policy when they need to. Several entries successfully boiled the underpinning policies down to just a few key messages which could then be communicated in engaging ways. This may take significant trust from your subject matter experts, but this is increasingly the direction of travel that regulators are taking (away from 'tick box' compliance). 2. Make the learning part of a campaign Once you have defined the key messages about how you want people to behave, think about it as a communications campaign. E-learning is just one channel within the overall campaign. There has been much already written on this, so I won't dwell on the benefits of campaign thinking and spaced practice e.g. improved memory, social learning, buzz, ease of learning transfer back into the workplace. Some entries applied campaign thinking very effectively. 3. Pre-test Life is too short to be told things you already know so that your employer is legally protected. It's a far better use of everyone's time if learners have a pre-test. This means that the people who need the learning get it and those who don't don't (pre-testing enables a variety of routes through the learning). To make this viable, the questions in the pre-test need to be challenging and really robust. The amount of learner time that you'll save more than justifies paying for additional instructional design expertise if you need help to step up the quality of questioning. 4. Use role filters Learne

Recordings of 11 webinars offered by NCAT in 2013 and 2014 are available below. Each features an NCAT Redesign Scholar, the project leader of a highly successful course redesign, describing the redesign project with a particular focus on its distinguishing characteristics. "

LOVE this. Liz, do you recommend any of these to watch first, either because you know the presenter or any other reason?