Top 4 must-haves for online and blended learning

Recently Fuel Education released the results of their 4th annual survey on must-haves in online and blended, according to the 81 school leaders they interviewed.

Number one: Rigorous and engaging curriculum

The other three are:

* Presence of student progress tracking and reporting tools
* Measurement of student progress with initial and ongoing assessments
* Instructors who are well trained in delivering online courses

While I am not negating the need for any of what Fuel Education found out in this survey, I do offer that if we believe these are the four main requirements for a successful blended or online program, then all blended and virtual school programs should be highly successful already. Peruse any virtual school web site and they all tout their curriculum as "rigorous" and/or "engaging."

They also tout their usage of student tracking, intervention capabilities, ongoing measurement, etc.

Again, as I mentioned in a recent post, virtual and blended schools tend to think the solutions are only academic related. Hence, in a survey of school leaders we receive academic answers such as curriculum, measuring tools, assessments, and course delivery.

I would suggest that while these survey answers Fuel Ed uncovered are necessary (except for "rigorous curriculum" but I will leave that for another post), they should merely play a role in the overall pursuit, and should not be the top four requirements.

What if the survey were given to students? To parents? Would they give the same answers?

It's an ongoing problem, a disconnect between schools and students/parents. And yet, next year we will be served the same survey with the same results as this year, and we will still wonder why families continue to withdraw.

houston@figment-consulting.com

An early bird, a worm, and virtual learning

The well-known saying goes, An early bird catches the worm.

And while I know the meaning behind the phrase, I have often wondered about the worm. He too got up early and look what it cost him.

It's about perspective, and it's all relative really in that it is reference dependent. If you are the bird, well, rising early might prove beneficial. However, if you are the worm, perhaps there is validity in sleeping late.

When it comes to virtual schools, too many times we build them from one perspective -- starting inward and looking out. I recently read a blog post titled The Top Five Attributes for Online and Blended Learning that mirrors this inward-outward perspective and provides a glimpse of why virtual learning is falling short of its original promise.

In the post it posits that rigorous and engaging curriculum, tracking student progress, teacher availability for intervention, training and clear expectations for the students, and well-trained instructors able to deliver the online courses are the five most important attributes for success.

It all sounds great, and I am sure Fuel Education has the products for each of these attributes, however they are all from the bird perspective, and they forget about the worm.

Show these to educators and it would be hard not to agree with them. Show them to students and I wonder if the reply would be the same.

Or, perhaps the students would see them as good reasons to sleep late.

It is time to re-imagine virtual.

houston@figment-consulting.com