Online courses for credit recovery Promising

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1 Online courses for credit recovery Promising Online courses for credit recovery: Promising practices for high school teachers. Practices for High School Teachers Many students who probably would have dropped out are now making up the courses online. School has become more attractive to them, because they re no longer at the point of feeling, I have no chance to graduate; why would I even go to school? An online credit recovery teacher Introduction High schools are increasingly offering students the opportunity to take courses online that they have previously failed in the classroom an approach known as online credit recovery. This brief provides promising practices for the complex instructional and administrative demands that teachers face when leading these courses, which they often must do after receiving only minimal training with the courseware and associated teaching strategies. A common approach to online credit recovery is providing a computer learning lab in a school or community-based setting in which one or two teachers supervise the coursework of up to 20 students across multiple academic disciplines and grade levels. Students progress at their own pace, so it s likely that no two students are engaged in the same activity at the same time. While blended courses which combine online coursework with teacher-led instruction are often described as the preferred way to incorporate online elements, the credit recovery courses offered at many high schools are fully online, with no teacher-led instruction or group learning activities. Students in these courses need to sustain a high level of initiative a substantial challenge for many students who are re-taking a course they have previously failed. Clearly, their teachers must create a learning environment that is well-structured for independent learning. Online credit recovery teachers use many of the same strategies that are used in traditional classrooms, such as communicating rules and procedures, offering encouragement and feedback, and presenting clear goals. This brief focuses on ways that teachers tailor these strategies to serve online credit recovery classrooms, as well as strategies that are unique to online learning labs. It is based on findings from a study of 12 Massachusetts high schools with high dropout rates that developed online credit recovery programs as part of the MassGrad initiative. Using Online Courseware to Monitor Student Work A typical online course consists of a series of curriculum modules that include readings, recorded lectures, practice activities, and interim and final assessments. The courseware offers printable reports and on-screen displays of course data that enable teachers and students to track progress and performance. Monitoring progress and performance. Progress indicators are calculated based on the number of modules in a course and its start and planned completion dates. Performance indicators show a student s grade based on mastery assessment scores. These indicators enable teachers to offer more intensive support to students who are behind schedule or struggling to demonstrate mastery, and to allow other students to manage their own learning process more independently. 1

2 Monitoring classwork and homework. Teachers need to unlock online assessments before students can complete them. One teacher reported checking in with students who hadn t asked her to unlock an assessment for a half hour or longer, to determine if the students had lost focus or encountered an obstacle. Some teachers also review course log-in times to determine if students have taken advantage of the opportunity to complete online coursework from home. Monitoring time on task. Some courseware offers idle time indicators intended to assess student focus and time spent on task. Most teachers reported that these indicators are unreliable, because students who engage in productive offline activities (e.g., consulting a textbook or meeting with a teacher) while logged into their courses, or who forget to log out before leaving the learning lab, are also counted as having high levels of idle time. Diagnosing performance challenges. Students often rush through the learning activities in a module, or complete them without adequate focus, and then repeatedly attempt and fail the module s mastery test. Teachers can identify this dynamic by checking the amount of time a student spent on a module, or by looking online at the quality of responses that a student provided for a given activity. Teachers can then require the student to take more detailed notes, do additional practice exercises, or complete other supplemental tasks before the teacher will unlock the assessment for the student to re-take it. Identifying courseware limitations. One teacher found that several students had failed the same assessment, despite spending ample time on the module s activities. She reviewed the activities, determined that the instructions and academic content were deficient, and developed an alternative activity for the students to complete. Online Courses and Competency-Based Learning Educators are increasingly implementing competency-based approaches to learning, in which students move ahead once they have demonstrated specific knowledge and skills, rather than after spending a specified number of months in a classroom. Many competencybased learning approaches also accommodate students at varying levels of academic preparation, and have transparent systems for assessing performance. The online courses described in this brief have features that enable them to meet all of these criteria for competencybased learning. Detecting cheating. Checking the amount of time spent on a module led one teacher to notice that a student was providing detailed written responses after spending only a minute or two on activities that required several pages of reading. The teacher determined that the student had been typing course questions into Wiki Answers and pasting the responses directly into the courseware. 2

3 Supporting Student Motivation. Due to the self-directed nature of online learning in many credit recovery settings, fostering student motivation is essential. One teacher said, Most students are in credit recovery because of motivation issues, not cognitive or behavioral issues. As in traditional classrooms, online credit recovery teachers grapple with how much of this motivation should be internal versus external, as reflected in these two opposing comments made by one teacher: If the opportunities we provide don t motivate them, I can t hold them by the hand and make them work. Mostly they re motivated because it s their second chance to pass the course, and they know that. I m always on their back if they re behind they know that. In practice, teacher strategies emphasized both internal and external motivation. Fostering student buy-in. One teacher explained that when new students enroll in online credit recovery, she sits with them to make sure they know exactly what they re getting into This is what you re going to be doing in here, for 180 days. But she also lets them know that the online course could be a good solution, since they have already failed the course in the classroom, and that she will provide support. If a student is reluctant to participate, the teacher suggests looking over another student s shoulder for a class period, and to talk with students who are already taking online courses. If the student still doesn t want to participate, the teacher sets up an appointment for the student with a guidance counselor. Offering praise and encouragement. Some teachers spent much of their time circling the room, offering encouragement in addition to academic support Oooooh Kyle, we re getting there. 84%. You have a B- average. Keep it up! or Nice work. Now see if you can get one more activity done today. One teacher said, I m a pretty positive person. I think it helps, because many of my students are surrounded by pretty negative people. Even if they re not progressing, just offering some positive feedback about something they re doing well generally works. Emphasizing deadlines and consequences. One teacher explained that her students had not fully understood that their credit recovery course could make the difference between graduating or not. After she met with seniors to discuss this, their participation increased. At another school, a prominent notice on the learning lab s whiteboard said, Attention Seniors!! You must finish Credit Recovery by Fri May 23rd for June graduation!! Remaining days: A third teacher reminded students that the more focused they were, and the more often they came into the credit recovery classroom, the sooner they would finish the course. 3

4 Supporting Goal-Setting, Time Management, and Self-Regulation Check-ins. Teachers conduct several types of formal and informal check-ins. As students enter the room, some teachers initiate a quick exchange with each student to ensure that they are logging on and have a specific progress goal for the day Alex, you re at 36% completion; see if you can push to 40% today, okay? Other check-ins happen as teachers circulate in the learning lab, or at the teacher s desk during an impromptu or scheduled meeting. In addition to discussing in-class goals, some teachers help students plan for doing online coursework at home or during a study hall. Using progress indicators. The courseware provides bar charts, percentage completion metrics, and color-coded screen elements that help teachers and students track progress and set goals for the day, week, or semester. Students in some schools access their own online progress reports, as they enjoy knowing their standing and find it motivating. One teacher prominently displays a hand-written, poster-sized bar chart indicating each student s percentage course completion and goals for the week. She explained, They don t always reach the goal, but it helps them with their time management. It allows them to say, Last week I didn t do so hot on my chemistry, so I m going to have to work on that at least three times this week in order to catch up. Working off-site. All schools encourage students to complete online work outside of the learning lab. To reduce the possibility of cheating, schools only permit students to make off-site progress until they reach the next mastery assessment, which then has to be unlocked by a teacher and completed in the learning lab. Most sites reported that only about 5 25% of students complete much work at home, but that it is an important option for students who are highly motivated, approaching graduation, or have an extended absence due to a suspension or medical problem. One teacher said, If they took the time at home even just three nights per week to watch a 20-minute lecture and then do the related vocabulary exercises, they would cut their course completion time by 15 20%. This teacher also makes calls and sends notes telling parents that their children always have homework, because they can work on an online course at home. Building socio-emotional skills. Some teachers help students develop the socio-emotional skills that support success in online courses. One school combines their summer online credit recovery program with a series of group sessions on self-control and self-understanding. One teacher helped a frustrated student put her online coursework challenges in perspective, sitting with her and pointing out that she was close to reaching a progress milestone. Another teacher explained, When I see students not progressing, I ll sit down with them and ask them what the issue is. If it s a personal issue, I ll encourage them to leave it at home and press forward. That s the coach in me. Completing a productivity rubric. In one school, students and teachers separately complete a productivity rubric each week, then meet to compare and discuss their assessments. The rubric contains the following four dimensions: Productivity (e.g., student completed at least 75% of their weekly module goal ); Time Management Skills (e.g., student rarely needed on-task reminders or redirection to meet program goals ); Respect (e.g., student was usually respectful to peers and staff and used proper etiquette most of the time ); and Attendance (e.g., student had one unexcused absence ). 4

5 Balancing Courseware Monitoring and Direct Student Support The teacher s time is a scarce resource that must be allocated wisely across many potential activities in the learning lab. A key dimension of teacher activity is the amount of time focused on monitoring and managing the courseware versus directly supporting students and managing the learning environment. Across the learning labs, teachers made very different choices with regard to this dimension, and the resulting learning environments were substantially different. A few teachers monitored the courseware very closely, almost never left their chairs, and demanded a very quiet classroom environment. These teachers had frequent but very brief interactions with students that focused almost entirely on unlocking assessments and encouraging students to work toward completing a specified percentage of the course that day. (One learning lab with 6 students had so little activity that the motion-sensitive lights turned off several times during a 45-minute class period.) At the opposite end of this dimension, the teacher in one school with an after-school credit recovery program seemed virtually unaware of the courseware s monitoring and management features. The room was loud and chaotic, and the students entered and left frequently, having made minimal progress. Few structures were apparent that supported student planning or goal-setting, and the program was serving far fewer students than its capacity, despite a great need for credit recovery among the student population. Most learning labs fell somewhere in the middle, with teachers striking a balance between managing the courseware, managing the learning environment, and providing direct student support. It appeared that this balance was not dictated at the school level, because in some schools different teachers used distinctly different approaches. Many factors undoubtedly influenced the range of approaches just described. The emphasis here is for teachers (and administrators) to recognize that this range exists, and to make a deliberate choice, possibly by experimenting with different approaches over time in order to identify what is most effective with their specific students. The middle ground adopted by the majority of schools appeared to meet the complex instructional and administrative demands of the online learning lab most effectively. Additional Resources Two additional briefs one for teachers and one for administrators will be published based on the MassGrad study of schools engaged in online credit recovery. The following websites contain resources that also address the knowledge and skills needed to facilitate online, blended, and competency-based learning programs. International Association for K 12 Online Learning Keeping Pace with Digital Learning Nellie Mae Education Foundation 5

6 Acknowledgments The contents of this report were developed by the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Grant funding was provided by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education. The contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and readers should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. 6