Site Coordinator Hand book Revised 05/2012
Colorado Online Learning (COL) Site Coordinator Handbook I feel like the instructor cared about the students in class. The projects he assigned were very informative and provided a variety of experiences related to the course subject. When I went to college I had to take an online class. I was the only one among my friends that already knew how to do it because of the class I took with COL last year. My teacher was such a good teacher. He was fair at grading, he always took time to help me, and even though I never once was with him in a classroom, I felt that we communicated very well and I learned a lot. Introduction COL relies on school site coordinators to act as local liaisons, register students, and monitor student progress. Our high-quality online teachers are even more effective when combined with enthusiastic site coordinators! As an example, one small school that regularly registers 20-30 students in COL courses improved its success rate to over 90% by assigning a coordinator that insists that students stay on task, appropriately encourages them, and accepts no excuses. Site coordinators are most effective when they are in the same building as the students. This gives them opportunity to easily check with them and address any concerns. We caution site coordinators, however, that COL courses are intended to supplement, not supplant, the courses offered at local schools. That s why we work so closely with schools. COL supplemental online courses help schools: Expand local curricular offerings. Resolve scheduling conflicts. Meet college admission requirements. Provide dual-credit opportunities. Provide summer school offerings. Provide specialized courses. Meet NCAA requirements We wish that we could offer site coordinators more than our gratitude for their services. Unfortunately, the need to keep our course fees affordable precludes such compensation. We hope that school officials understand the value of your efforts, and the importance of affording your students the best academic learning experiences available. This handbook is intended to answer questions that may arise when you are registering a student into our COL courses. Please contact me right away for needed help. We are always happy, too, to come to your school to give a general orientation. 2
COL Mission: To collaborate with schools in providing high quality online learning opportunities for students and teachers in Colorado. Website: COL has a home site at www.coloradoonlinelearning.org. Many of your questions can be answered by going through the web site. If you have questions regarding courses, how to enroll a student, or how to approve a student in a course, please look at our site. Site Coordinator Role: A site coordinator is a person selected by the school to work with students taking COL courses. Site coordinators are very important to the success of the online student as well as to the communications between the COL instructor, the student and the school. Site Coordinator Responsibilities: Site coordinators are very necessary to the success a student has in an online course. Some of the responsibilities may include but are not limited to: 1. Providing information to students and parents about COL courses. 1 2. Processing/approving student registrations. 3. Monitoring/encouraging student progress. 4. Contacting COL staff and instructors as needed. 5. Communicating with parents regarding COL courses. 6. Reviewing weekly eligibility reports. 7. Facilitating grade transcription. 8. Reviewing invoices and facilitating payment. 9. Brokering issues needing resolution, including any: Cheating/Plagiarism 2 Inactive students 3 Technical difficulties 4 Extra assistance to students 5 Site Coordinator Contact Information: Before the registration process begins, a completed Site Coordinator Contact Information form must be sent to COL. COL will set the school of record up in our system and notify the site coordinator when students can begin registering. Calendar: The calendar is posted on the COL website each semester runs a minimum of 17 or 18 weeks and has 16 weeks of content. The extra time gives the student time to take breaks with local schools. We are not a self paced program so students do need to meet deadlines. Acceptable Use Policy: The school of record is responsible for the Internet acceptable use policy. Complaints or violations should be handled by the school of record. Registration: A student or site coordinator can go online during the open enrollment period (see calendar on the web site) and register. Once a student is registered, the site coordinator of record is emailed a Request to Register showing the student information, including the class(s) requested and the student user name and password. Instructions on how to approve a student s request are at the bottom of this Request to Register, a student cannot start his COL class without site coordinator approval. The COL Request should be kept on file. Registration period: Fall semester registration begins in early August and spring registration begins in early December. The registration dates are posted on our COL calendar. The open registration period closes three weeks after the start of the COL semester. Transfer students: COL accepts transfer students at any time. The site coordinator should contact COL about the transfer. The student will continue the course work from the date decided on by the site coordinator, teacher and COL. 3
High Risk Students: Some students need very little support to be successful in an online course. These students are generally self motivated and can work on their own, however, some students, particularly high risk students require a greater degree of over site and assistance with an online class. Lower performing students will need a much higher degree of on site support. Technical Requirements: The technical requirements to help a student be successful in the COL course are posted on the web site. It is the school s responsibility to have all the programs that are required in COL courses available to the student. Down time: COL strives for a 99% up time, however we don t always have control and the web site may go down. Students can still access their courses by going to www.coloradoonlinelearning.org. Course Fee: The school of record is billed for students taking COL courses. COL will invoice on all students on the roster after the close of registration, usually within a month after COL courses have begun. Invoices are sent by email to the site coordinator within two weeks after the census date. Some schools pass (full or partial) course fees on to students. Attendance: COL students should participate in their online courses as fully as they would attend and participate in a traditional classroom. At a minimum, students are required to log in and perform work in their online courses at least five times a week. The school of record is responsible for the COL student and is expected to monitor their attendance and class progress. Drops: COL accepts requests to drop from the school of record only. Schools are charged a $50 drop fee for students who are dropped after the semester begins and prior to the Census Date. After that, the full fee is due. Materials: The majority of COL courses are bookless, however, if materials are required, they will be sent directly to the site coordinator for delivery to the student. It is the site coordinators responsibility to return the materials to COL at the end of the school year. Grades: Site coordinators have access to grades at any time. There are two ways to access grades for your records. Grade to Date Report: The grade to date report can be generated at any time. Log in to the web site with your school user name and password, select the home tab, scroll down the page to Grade to Date Report, select that tab and follow the easy instructions to generate a report. This is a two step process, once you ve generated the report, you will get an email when the report has finished compiling, log in again, select the Grade to Date Report, and select the view report tab. The report can be saved to a recognizable file and printed for your records. Grades can be accessed through the course listing for an individual student. When you log in, select the course listing, select the course the student is in, select the student s name, this will show the student grade to date. If you need additional information, select the grade detail. Final Grades: Final COL grades will be sent to the site coordinator of record within two weeks of semester end these grades are kept on record as the final grades. COL grades are reported in percentages so the school of record can assign the appropriate letter grade. For students graduating early, notify the teacher of record and the Student Services Director, and grades will be sent to you prior to the date you request. COL considers less than 60% as failing. 4
Credits: Online education courses should be treated the same as courses offered at the home school. The school of record will translate COL courses into the appropriate credit. Student Discipline: The student discipline protocol is posted on the COL web sites. The teacher or COL staff will notify the site coordinator if an offense has been committed by the student. Special Needs: The school of record is responsible for advising COL of special needs students. Please see the Special Needs protocol on the web site. It is imperative that COL be informed of any students on an IEP or 504 plan so we can coordinate with the local schools in meeting student needs as much as possible in an online environment. Not all special needs can be met in an online course, therefore, COL staff and the site coordinator should review the requirements early in the semester. Additional Information: Additional information is available on our web site, and help is always available by contacting COL staff. Notes 1 Some schools provide a special addendum to school catalogues regarding the availability of COL courses. Contact COL staff if you would like assistance with this. 2 Cheating/plagiarism. This has not been much of an issue since online teachers get to know their students so well that they can spot many instances of cheating. Online courses also use a variety of means to minimize unethical behavior. For example, more performance-based assessments are used, as well as timed assessments. It is easy, too, to do an internet search for a string of words that may be used in student compositions. COL teachers are encouraged to speak with students personally to reinforce instruction and validate student ethics. COL staff will contact a student s site coordinator anytime that cheating is suspected. If cheating is confirmed, the school will be asked to advise COL staff regarding appropriate consequences in accordance with local school policy. 3 Inactive students. COL staff review student grades and try to employ a variety of strategies to engage students. COL reserves the right to drop a student who has not accessed his COL course within 30 days of the start of the semester and who has not logged in for 10 days or more. Districts are billed on all inactive students if they were not dropped with in the allowable drop period. 4 Technical difficulties. The COL Technology Services Director can assist schools with troubleshooting particular issues. 5 Extra assistance to students. Site coordinators may ask on-site teachers to provide tutoring and/or mentoring for specific students. Please contact COL staff if other needs arise. We want to make sure we do everything we can to facilitate student success. 5
Important things to consider before registering a student in a COL course Colorado Online has been serving Colorado students for more than 10 years. We re happy to be able to help you educate your students and feel privileged that we can help you provide courses you may not otherwise be able to offer. To help you with your decision in placing students in COL courses, I ve listed several things you should consider before registering your student. 1) Always check the pre requisites in a course. Some courses that have pre requisites are: a. Environmental Science this is a college level course. b. Physics c. Intro to Composition There are many more courses with pre-requisites, look at the course catalog on our web site to make sure you are placing students into a course he/she can be successful in completing. 2) Make the courses a part of the daily schedule and part of the eligibility requirements. Students need to know the importance of the course they are in. They have course access from any internet connected computer but working at school provides helpful face-to-face support. 3) Allow enough time during the school day for students to work on their online course. Rule of thumb is an hour per day, five days a week. Make arrangements for the 4 day a week students to be able to meet due dates on time. 4) Don t register a student in COL if he/she is not committed to the COL class. COL teachers get paid by student completion, so by the time the decision is made to place a student in COL, it should be a final decision. Once registered, the student should be in for the full semester just as you require in your school. COL courses cannot be dropped after the registration period closes, however, COL reserves the right to drop inactive students. Inactive students are defined as students that have not logged in within two weeks of the close of registration or have not logged in for ten days consecutively. 5) Remedial students need lots of support COL courses aren t remedial. COL courses are rigorous just like your in-house courses. Consider the student s you are placing, don t place him/her in a course that may be too challenging. 6) You have control of your students - you can see the grades anytime you want, and you have access to the student grade book. Run reports regularly and look at the student grade book when needed. 7) Teacher Led Courses aren t self paced! It is important for students to understand that there are due dates that need to be met, teachers they correspond with and expectations for them to do well. Encourage students to reach out to their teachers regularly. We appreciate the confidence you place in COL we want to help with your students and want you to make the best decisions for them when placing them with us. COL courses are a great 6
learning experience but, just like in-house courses, students must be carefully placed and consistently supported. 7