Digital Districts Online Business Plan
From Shifted Learning
[edit] Introduction
Today the problem of achieving first class virtual options for our districts is not for the lack of expertise or models. The missing ingredient is getting people and organizations to work on common solutions to common problems by reducing duplication, minimizing costs, developing best practices and working together to achieve economies of scale that no single district could maintain on its own.
Dane Districts Online (DDO) was conceived as a shared resource for its members to do just that. From the beginning, this group (which has grown from two to six districts over three years) has tried to develop new thinking by working together at the consortium level, redefining course delivery at the curricular level, and building new pathways at the professional development level to support systemic changes as well as personal growth.
Rather than create a virtual school, this consortium pioneered online learning as a way to offer alternatives and curricular equity to students in the partners’ current schools by offering online services, student courseware, professional development, and consulting services to public and private K-12 school districts. The DDO goal has been to serve as a quality, convenient and cost efficient one-stop-shop for online learning and to assist both students and staff to be successful within the supportive structure of their home district.
This business plan summarizes the need for and benefits of such a consortium and the DDO organizational history that has led to the decision to move the consortium from its three-year DPI Ed Tech funding to a quasi-independent not-for-profit educational entity under a 66.0301 cooperative agreement among member districts. The plan identifies the initiative and service needed which will be provided by DDO in the markets that it will serve and lays out a 5-year overview for membership, service, revenue and expenditures.
True virtual learning forces us to confront and rethink many of our assumptions about education while simultaneously creating a new system that is student centered. Our common goal requires uncommon efforts and this plan lays out the first steps in that direction.
This plan originated with...
Joan Peebles, jpeebles@madison.k12.wi.us
Louis Loeffler, ljloeff@spasd.k12.wi.us
Madison Metropolitan School District
Doyle Administration, Room 216
545 W. Dayton St., Madison, WI 53703
[edit] Background
[edit] Need for a K-12 Online Learning Consortium
Online education is an increasingly common means in our country for educators and parents to meet diverse student needs; overcome barriers of time, pace and location; provide additional curricular options and opportunity for K12 students and provide options for credit recovery and advanced courses. The National Association of State Boards of Education notes, “Evidence to date convincingly demonstrates that, when used appropriately…e-learning can improve how students learn, can improve what students learn, and can deliver high-quality learning opportunities to all [students].
Many states have addressed e-learning opportunities and challenges through the establishment of statewide Virtual High Schools. Wisconsin, on the other hand, has provided leadership through a 1999 Policy Advisory (presently being updated), resulting in a variety of district level, consortia or CESA driven initiatives springing up around the state. Many of these programs/virtual schools have resulted in the offering of courses to students within the Dane County Area, with some districts [outside of Dane County] recruiting students under the open enrollment program. Under the current Wisconsin funding system, a portion of the state aide would be moved from the student’s local district to the new virtual school.
Six Dane County School Districts have been working together over the last three years in an online learning initiative with the belief that shared utilization and support of online learning services may increase our ability to serve students within our home districts, while at the same time saving time and money. The results of the last three years of work have set the groundwork for our ability to share knowledge, professional development, purchasing power, policy and procedure within our consortium to better support all of our students.
We realize online education presents challenges to established educational norms, procedures, and policies. As the report of the Web-based Education Commission to the President and Congress of the United States stated, “The power of the Internet to transform the educational experience is awe-inspiring, but it is also fraught with risk.” As we work together under the tight budget constraints placed upon our districts, we believe that our combined efforts will lead to attainment of the quality online delivery to our students with maximum efficiency of resources to our districts, and reduced risk for all of us.
[edit] Advantages of a Cooperative Endeavor Online Learning Consortium
Dane Districts Online (DDO) members have multiple reasons for partnering in this online learning initiative. Online services for students and staff might best be delivered on a collaborative basis to maximize available services, reduce duplication, and minimize costs for each district. Collaboration is also an effective means of increasing the breadth, depth, variety and sophistication of service offerings for students and staff as well as achieving economies of scale. Regional resources that are available to all students can help to raise the quality and level of education for all of Dane County.
DDO can seek to reduce or eliminate existing or potential policy barriers to online learning activities in the areas of access, quality and cost through:
[edit] Leveraged Resources
DDO can reduce costs through aggregated purchasing power, acting as a broker to provide increased levels of service for students as well as financial benefits to districts. The consortium can focus on those services that provide advantages that a single institution could not achieve on its own while “leveling the playing field” by sharing resources across the region. DDO can collectively review and license agreements with service providers, resulting in significant cost savings; evaluate, develop or license products which benefit all; and secure services at lower prices through cooperative buying.
[edit] Shared Knowledge
DDO members can provide an organization in which all parties can flourish by:
- Utilizing the group to serve as a clearinghouse to discuss policy issues, concerns and approaches; assessing educational policy issues that are identified as barriers; and establishing pilot efforts with partners to test new approaches and strategies to overcome these barriers.
- Establishing policy baselines of current practices, procedures and strategies and assisting districts as they develop ways to improve quality, expand access, and reduce costs
- Using the DDO Portal to establish a “learning network“ as a mechanism for sharing resources and services and allowing investments to be leveraged in significant ways.
- Developing, owning and selling courses and learning objects; sharing professional development activities; establishing a clearinghouse and repository for meta-tagged learning objects.
[edit] Expanded Student Options
DDO can expand the learning opportunities available to students [but keep the locus of learning within each district] by creating electronically delivered instructional models which provide students with opportunities to develop skills and competencies and assure equitable access to rich and varied learning opportunities (with emphasis on curricular areas needed to ensure that all students can meet WI Model Academic Standards and succeed in higher education and the workplace).
[edit] Professional Development
DDO members can work together to offer opportunities for district staff to learn new skills and strategies as well as provide opportunities for staff to become involved in new roles [online teaching, developing online curriculum, coaching online students, etc.]. We can create a body of knowledge, beneficial to the whole, which supports standards for instructional design, online course delivery, learner-support and student services designed to serve a broad range of learner needs.
[edit] Organizational History
Dane Districts Online (DDO) began as part of a 5-year program to transparently integrate online learning options (courses, modules, and learning objects) into the 6 partner districts – and ultimately to all Dane County districts – via staff development, creation of supportive structures and policies, and resource sharing. Rather than creating a Virtual Charter School (under Wisconsin Statue 118.40), this project is pioneering online learning as a way to offer alternatives and curricular equity within the students’ home district.
This project began in 2000-2001 when Madison Metropolitan School District’s (MMSD) Distance Learning Task Force identified online learning’s potential as a teaching/learning tool, secured support from key administrators for research and development, created a 3+-district consortium (with Middleton-Cross Plains and Sun Prairie + Abundant Life Christian), devised a plan for a pilot focusing on alternative high school programs, and secured a DPI/TLCF start-up grant for 2001-2002. In 2002-2003, with support from a DPI Ed Tech grant, the consortium added Wisconsin Heights and began reaching teachers at the comprehensive high schools. During 2003-2004, the consortium added the Monona Grove and Waunakee school districts. During each of these years, the project partners conducted a cyclical planning process, assessed teacher and student needs, devised plans for staff and program development, implemented the project’s products in the classroom, and started the cycle again by assessing the past year’s results and planning for the next stage of development; including outreach to new partners. MMSD provided support throughout these years in terms of grant writing, project leadership and support services.
The primary focus over the years was to help districts provide online instructional opportunities to staff and students. The consortium ran pilot studies targeting instruction for alternative/at-risk students and then expanded offerings to the comprehensive high schools; developed policies and procedures to support student online learning and online staff professional develop options; developed a portal infrastructure to support and deliver online learning; and began the building of a county-wide online learning community and partnerships.
Courses were evaluated based on rigorous procedures and strong attention paid to the state and national standards. Work also started with teachers and staff to design high quality courses and to build a “Certification Ladder” designed to prepare district staff to work in various roles in the online world. Built into operational methodologies, as been a continuous evaluation, self-assessment, and improvement cycle that applied to management, customer service, resources, policy and procedure development.
Working together, the consortium began to find success at leveraging the resources of its districts, increasing student instructional and learning opportunities, providing staff professional development opportunities, and building partnerships. The goal is to continue this work and in order to accomplish this, to become a self-sustaining entity by moving from grant-funded projects to building a plan for long-term sustainability. In order to achieve this goal and to provide ubiquitous online learning options for its districts, DDO Leadership has taken the steps to become a quasi-independent not-for-profit educational entity under a 66.0301 cooperative agreement. As part of the agreement, Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) will be acting as DDO’s fiscal agent.
DDO has formed several partnerships in the larger community. Current examples of partnership benefits to DDO include: Curriculum for courses provided by SIERTEC, NCREL, and the UW School of Education; Use of Blackboard Course Platform provided by WiscNet; Portal hosting for the DDO Portal provided by Inacom Information Systems; Leadership in the Learning Objects initiative is provided by the UW School of Ed, CESA #2, IDEAS, UW Outreach, Fox Valley Tech College, UW System; Symantiac Registry Software is provided to the Learning Object initiative by Digital Concepts, Inc.; Instruction for students in certification programs provided by Inacom Information Systems;
To date, employees and consultants have been employed on an contractual annual or per-project basis and individual employees have been changed over the course of the project. As DDO builds financial stability, we expect the dynamics of this human resources trend to continue. This has served us well in that it permits us to be highly responsive to the technologies and to the needs of our members. By utilizing both consulting services and partnerships between districts, Dane Districts can continue to evolve and grow without being limited by staffing or long-term financial encumbrances.
Grant funds have been used to purchase courseware that has then been delivered free-of-charge to members. Considerable investment has been made in evaluating and providing courses, and DDO now is able to offer many core curricular courses. With our knowledge base and with the expense of course evaluation behind us, DDO may now begin providing courses on a per user basis.
Until the 2004-2005 school year, Dane Districts Online had been supported primarily through DPI’s Enhancing Education Through Technology Competitive Grant. This grant provided seed monies that permitted the consortium to grow. It provided the opportunity to develop and run preliminary programs, build infrastructures, and run online learning pilot studies for our districts’ alternative/at-risk students. The lessons learned have prepared us to offer online learning services independent of the DPI grant.
This is significant in that grant funding cycles and limitations on how grant funds may be used has made it difficult to provide services in the timely ubiquitous manner required for schools to consider online delivery. Further, as a grant funded project, Dane Districts Online has not been in a position to resell its services or courseware. The reselling of services is believed to be a significant means of increasing access to our students, reducing per-student costs, and providing the sustainability we need in order to serve the instructional needs of students and professional needs of our staff.
Work over the last three years has built a list of DDO assets (Appendix A), which will be used as the beginning infrastructure for the new Cooperative Endeavor entity. The ability to own and resell courses, services, professional development, as well as the services of our highly trained and skilled online instructional consultants will permit us to provide the year round just-in-time ubiquitous learning options that may have been difficult to provide in the past.
[edit] Market Opportunities
Dane Districts Online (DDO) has the potential to serve three markets.
1. DDO’s primary focus is service to member districts with high quality online courseware for students, professional development for faculty and staff, and reliable timely access to our resources (at a minimal per student cost.) Management and delivery philosophy should be based around their needs. In order to boost the ability to do this and be competitive for members, DDO will open membership, starting with the following Dane County Schools, in the 2004-2005 school year.
DDO would support and strengthen the ability of these organizations to increase equity of opportunity as well as retain students within their home district by offering online options. The advantages of this target group working together include:
Saving money, Reducing duplicative efforts, Ensuring that state content standards are effectively addressed, Complementing present educational services rather than reducing student populations, Advancing online learning as a tool for educational opportunity rather than educational privilege, Encouraging regional collaboration, and strengthening the quality of online learning curricula.
2. The second market represents the school districts in the CESA #2 region that are outside of Dane County. Part of this service will be provided in partnership with other educational entities, such as the Wisconsin CESAs. They gain the advantage of having a one-stop-shop for high quality online courseware and access to our fee-based Professional Development and Policy Resources at a cost less than what they would pay should they choose to purchase on their own. This market demonstrates our commitment to providing community services to all children in the region. Potential members include:
A regional approach to online learning, with districts operating in partnership rather than competition, would reduce overall costs to all members. Access to online courses could enable districts to allocate their own staff and resources more efficiently--saving money, for instance, by not staffing courses that draw low numbers of students. Consequently, districts could spend less yet still make more learning opportunities available to their students.
3. The final market represents the adult continuing education market, postsecondary institutions, corporations and organizations with an educational mission. The clients will purchase individualized courses of their own choosing and within their own time structure. For example, they may choose to learn Microsoft Office. For a nominal fee, they gain access to our Adult Continuing Education courseware (for which we will serve as a reseller). This market serves our member districts by providing increased financial support and thus increased sustainability.
In addition, partnerships may develop which tap into common educational missions, bringing additional resources to both organizations with little additional cost to either organization. This market will potentially allow DDO to bring new online resources to classroom teachers and students, increasing the reach of these resources far beyond the physical limitations of the partnering organizations and beyond merely making the resources part of online courses. This market has particular promise because it offers economies of scale for all organizations involved.
[edit] Market Strengths
Dane Districts Online (DDO) specializes in providing high quality online learning opportunities to students and staff in our member districts. Working as a team of many, we are able to reduce individual costs and negotiate higher quality services from our providers. In addition:
- The development of processes and guidelines by membership and adopted locally are likely to promote high-quality online learning programs and maintain the three essential areas of program quality which have the most direct impact on student achievement: quality in teaching, course development or selection and student support
- Our faculty and administrators are prepared to work with online students and are provided with the best supportive services available. This results in increased student retention and learning.
- Our members are actively involved in both the management of and in service to the consortium. Because membership is exclusive, it is highly advantageous for those who can to join. In doing so, they gain from our ability to expand their offerings and find financing opportunities that would not exist for an individual member.
- Our courses have passed rigorous evaluation processes. As we grow, these courses will be offered at a reduced cost.
- DDO can provide online learning options to those outside of our membership. Primary offerings are presently in the high tech certifications areas such as Microsoft Office, Cisco, and Network Management. The courses are offered at less than half of the standard market price.
- Our fiscal agent, Madison Metropolitan School District, provides us with access to Madison’s exceptional curricular and instructional support, as well as curricular, legal, and financial services.
[edit] DDO Startup – Initiative and Vehicle
Dane Districts Online is ready to begin functioning independent of the DPI Ed Tech grant and begin the process of working as the self-sustaining quasi-independent educational entity DDO. Specific goals for 2004-2005 include:
- Offer an ever-increasing catalog of online curricular offerings and options.
- Expand and enrich online staff development options.
- Achieve economies of scale for all districts by acting as a broker, sharing resources, developing and licensing products, bulk purchasing, product evaluation, etc.
- Eliminate potential barriers to online learning by assisting members through: policy, procedure and strategy building; organizational readiness consultation; research & best practice dissemination.
- Build the long-term year-round organizational and service sustainability needed for ubiquitous online learning options to our students.
- Build the capacity of consortium teachers to improve instruction by effectively facilitating student use of standards-based online learning options and provide online professional development opportunities to our faculty and staff.
[edit] The Service and Needs we Serve
[edit] Our Services
- Offering online courses and other online learning experiences to K-12 students and staff that supplement the educational opportunities available through the local schools.
- Making courses, supplemental curriculum and learning “objects” available at a minimal cost to member districts and online learning programs in order to supplement curricula.
- Aggregating and brokering purchases.
- Assisting in setting and implementing standards and policy for the effective and efficient delivery of online instruction to member districts.
- Providing support to enhance the online academic success of diverse student populations.
- Partnering with research institutions to conduct or report on research pertaining to online learning.
[edit] The Needs We Serve
- Facilitate increased student achievement of the Wisconsin model academic standards in the core content areas and the Wisconsin information technology and literacy standards.
- Increase and expand access to curriculum and curricular options that motivate and challenge all students while offering the chance to learn the content and processes of the Wisconsin model academic standards in core content areas as well as support the NETS standards for Information Technology literacy.
- Build the capacity of consortium teachers to improve instruction by effectively facilitating student use of standards-based online learning options and provide online professional development opportunities to our faculty and staffs.
- Build the capacity of the Dane countywide consortium to implement online learning options for both staff and students on a larger scale, both within the member districts and elsewhere in Dane county.
[edit] Distinguishing Features
Unlike other providers, Dane Districts was conceived as a shared resource for its members. We provide access to online courseware, support of online instruction, and professional development, serving as a one-stop-shop for online learning.
- Our goal is to help students achieve online within the context of the students’ existing school districts and have no intent of recruiting FTE membership. By using our resources to secure external funding and by being large enough to be able to negotiate courseware fees and services, we are able to provide high quality instructional programming to our clients at nominal costs.
- Unlike others in the market, Dane Districts has no vested interest in any given vendor and so offer variations on the same course. For example, Class.com might have a history course that is good for students who are not comfortable using a computer and who prefer a logical sequential feel to their learning and Florida Virtual might have the same course that is highly effective for students who are computer savvy or have difficulty staying with one task for a period of time. We evaluate the courses that are available based on a rigorous procedure and strong attention to the state and national standards, compare them based on the merit of each, and select only those of the highest caliber. We also work with our teachers and staff to design our own high quality courses.
- Built into our operational methodologies is a continuous evaluation, self-assessment, and improvement cycle. This is applied to our management, customer service, resources, vendors and courses.
- Dane Districts Online has positioned itself as a research and research supported entity within the K12 online learning market. Through a partnership with the University of Wisconsin, graduate students and faculty are invited to study our work and practices. In return, they then contribute to our effectiveness by sharing their work and helping us become more adept at serving our clients.
- Lastly, Dane Districts Online is unique in that we are becoming known at both the state and local levels. Consortium Members are active on state policy boards such as the current Wisconsin Collaborative Online Network, and present at state and national conferences. Once again, unlike many competitors, this is to share and provide information and resources.
[edit] Five Year Overview
Over the next several years (2004 – 2009), we expect to:
- Serve as a quasi-independent educational resource (through the 66.0301 agreement) with our financial management resources being retained within MMSD’s Business Services Division. This permits us to continue to utilize MMSD’s resources, apply for funding opportunities directed at large metropolitan school districts, have access to highly skilled administrative and instructional personal, and retain accreditation. For an annual membership fee, district members receive access to DDO’s administrative resources and policies, reduced cost access and usage of DDO owned professional development courses and student courseware, and voting representation on our Leadership Board.
- Add members from each of Dane County’s School Districts and offer membership options to Dane County’s private K-12 institutions regardless of district size or funding. As our district membership grows, we plan to tap into and use resources from each of the districts to maximize our potential without substantially increasing our human resources overhead.
- Provide maximum services to member districts and clients while minimizing human resource facilities requirements. Because we are an online educational entity, we plan to utilize web-based technologies to support our services.
- Continue building a network of educational services and courseware for our clients. Our primary services include instruction and professional development at the K-12 level, providing low-cost fee-based community-service online adult continuing education; and reselling of our infrastructure. We will continuously evaluate online course offerings and work toward becoming a leader in providing K-12 online learning support services and consulting, hoping to become a nationally recognized one-stop-shop for online K-12 education and professional development.
- Expand the DDO Portal. The web-site interface permits our clients and members to select, purchase and access courses from one website location. Future phases should allow the databases running in the background to maintain our accounting, staff, course management and student records systems.
- Explore options for storage of DDO courses and learning objects to reduce security conflicts and delivery bandwidth issues for our members as well as providing reliable (24/7) web-based access and support. (Vendor purchased-courses will generally be located on the vendor’s site).
[edit] Year 1 (2004 – 2005) Begin Operations under 66.0301 Agreement
- Extend invitations to potential members; establish and collect membership fees to support services delivered by consultants under the direction of volunteer directors and the Leadership Team
- Build a marketing plan for resale of products and services; Resell ElementK to generate revenue
- Deliver courses for students and professional development; Evaluate curriculum
- Build a cadre of consultants; Train district contacts
- Collect data and communicate with members through the DDO portal, course platforms and a variety of communication tools such as email and BLOGs
- Write grants; Develop a Quality Improvement Process
[edit] Year 2 (2005 – 2006) Expand Membership
- Continue activities of previous year
- Add new members and services
- Build partnerships with HED and business
- Implement marketing plan and brainstorm sustainability options
- Add courses for staff and students
- Expand functions of portal and digital repository
[edit] Years 3-5 (2007 – 2010) Expand Services and Membership
- Continue activities of previous years
- Hire part-time dedicated staff
- Add products and services as requested by members
- Strengthen local, state and national network ties
[edit] Human Resources Projections
[edit] Key Personnel
A strong advantage for DDO is the ability to be dynamic in fulfilling our human resources needs. For the 2004–2005 and 2005–2006 school years, DDO will be staffed entirely by member districts, volunteers, and consultants who will be performing their unique duties on a contract basis.
District members have offered to provide the leadership and support required for DDO to move through the start-up creation stage and into the complete self-sufficiency stage. Direct leadership will be provided by staff members at one or two of the districts who will be responsible for hiring consulting services and acting as the consultants’ guides. These staff members will act as the presiding members at DDO leadership meetings and will respond to and act upon recommendations of the leadership team.
The leadership team will be comprised of at least one administrator from each member district as determined by the DDO entity bylaws. They will act as the primary directors of DDO.
[edit] Long Term Projections
2004 – 2006 Member District Provided Leadership and Consulting Support
It is expected that during the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 school years, DDO’s human resources needs will be provided by the districts and by consulting services. Selected members of the DDO administrative leadership team will provide direct functional leadership with the day-to-day management being provided either through MMSD or through consulting services. Researchers and interns will be recruited from the University of Wisconsin.
2006 – 2007 Add Dedicated Part-Time Staff
By the 2006 – 2007 school year, it is believed that Dane Districts Online will be financially positioned to hire a part-time dedicated director. This person’s responsibility will be to grow the capacity of DDO by building partnerships and by finding alternative local, state and national funding sources.
2007-2009 Increase Staff
Hire additional staff as budget permits, to fill these roles: Delivery Administrator, Student Support Specialist, Professional Development Specialist, Curriculum Evaluation and Development Specialist, etc.
[edit] Membership Fees and Benefits
[edit] Free Services to Members
- Professional Development Courses (See list of courses in Appendix B)
- Access to Digital Repository of Learning Objects
- Dane Districts Online Policy and Handbooks (District, Local Teacher, Student)
- Training for District Contacts
- Representation on Leadership Team (required of members)
- Use of Dane Districts Online Portal for Streamlined and Centralized Registration and Data Collection
- Data Collection and Reporting to districts (3 times/year) regarding course completion by students and staff
- Online Curriculum Evaluation of all courses and supplemental curriculum offered by DDO
[edit] Member Benefits
- Membership in a community of practitioners working together to leverage resources, share a growing knowledge base, expand student options and provide professional development
- Reduced costs of future products purchased through the consortium acting as a broker and ultimately providing growing assets and diminishing prices for all
- Participation in future grant projects
- Opportunities for Staff Leadership and Participation/Consultation in all aspects of Online Learning
- Services/Products at Reduced Costs to Members:
- Professional Development Courses (See list on courses in Appendix B)
- High Quality, Aligned and Juried Student Online Courses (Prices in Appendix B) and Curricular Modules (coming soon) from a variety of content providers
- Consulting Services (coming soon)
- ElementK Online Technical and HR Training (See list of options in Appendix C)
- Reduced cost of ElementK products for community members
- A One-Stop-Shop for Online Services
[edit] Becoming a Member
A school, district, institution or agency may become a member of this consortium by agreeing to the policies, procedures, and responsibilities that have been adopted by the Consortium; by entering into the 66.0301 agreement through signature; by paying the required membership fees to the DDO fiscal agent; by abiding by the DDO Member District Assurances; and by filing the 66.0301 agreement with the Consortium’s fiscal agent (MMSD.)
66.0301 is the statutory section which gives governmental entities such as school districts the authority to contract with other districts, municipalities, etc. to cooperate in the provision of services, goods, etc. that they are authorized to do on their own. They require Board resolution and approval for each District to be effective.
Other than the recitations relative to the statutory authority and the resolution number, date passed, etc. the terms of the agreement would be as any other agreement-set out dates, duties, compensation, liability, etc.
[edit] DDO Assurances
Dane Districts Online will:
- Train and support District Contacts (DC) from each member district [The DC is the representative, identified by each district, which serves as the liaison between DDO and the district. The DC approves course, determines budgets to pay for courses, assures that grades/credits, etc. are granted, coordinates with the district online learning team to determine and enforce district online learning policy, understands DDO Policy, etc.]
- Provide and promote the Professional Development Options to expand the capacity of its members to design, develop and effectively use online courses and services. In particular, offer the options to develop the online learning skills and competencies necessary for staff in member districts to become DDO Certified in these areas: Local Teacher, Online Teacher, Online Curriculum Developer, Online Mentor
- Develop and enforce DDO Policy [developed by DDO Leadership Team], which in turn will strengthen the organizational capacity of all to deliver online learning options.
- Facilitate the DDO Leadership Team (communication, meeting structure, etc.) for purposes of guiding DDO and determining the next steps for the consortium.
- Maintain the DDO Portal for registration, information, dissemination, etc.; Maintain a digital repository of Learning Objects for access in instructional settings
- Offer Student Courses and Supplemental Curriculum which has been evaluated for adherence to standards and high quality and aligned to WI standards; Provide orientation and structure for students to receive their “Virtual Driver’s License” before being approved to take online courses
- Provide data to member districts regarding participation by staff and students in courses; information/syllabus regarding courses for member districts to determine credit
- Work with multiple vendors to extend the purchasing power of DDO member districts; ensuring purchased courses/services meet high standards of quality and are purchased for the most competitive price
- Maintain accurate and up-to-date records which provide information regarding assets, purchases, expenditure, etc.
- Generate Revenue through a variety of methods [Reselling product, selling DDO owned courses, grants and foundations, etc.] for purposes of ultimate self-sustainability of the consortium and lowered costs for all consortium members.
- Act as an educational complement and supplement, functioning through the collaboration of Wisconsin School Districts, with no plans to become a “virtual school.”
- Work closely and collaboratively with other statewide organizations and online programs to maximize resources, avoid duplication and prove to be a value added for its members.
- Address a broad range of educational needs, styles and abilities, including: advanced as well as remedial work in core subjects or skills, test preparation, applied technology, and career exploration.
[edit] Member Districts Assurances
Member districts will:
- Designate school contact personnel for support of student’s progress and/or issues: (District Contact, Technical Contact, Leadership Team Members)
- Proactively work within the district to establish the Local District Policies needed to support online learners.
- Provide verification of student activities and evidence that the student has obtained the Student Virtual Driver’s License.
- Provide mentoring and monitoring of participating students, through DDO Certified Local Teachers, during the time that they are accessing courses to adequately insure security, participation and support.
- Provide a location that is conducive to a healthy learning process for students enrolled in DDO courses.
- Provide the student with access to a computer with sufficient resources to accomplish the tasks set forth in the course requirements; provide additional resources required for successful course completion.
- Ensure that a student has adequate network connectivity and connection to the Internet for access to the course and provide proper timely technical assistance to the student.
- Provide resources and support as is requested in the student’s IEP.
- Utilize the Dane Districts Portal for registration, information and required data reporting.
- Encourage teaching staff to become actively engaged in the Professional Development options and opportunities outlined in the Online Learning Professional Development Ladder.
- Fulfill the responsibilities listed for a member in good standing (to be developed by leadership team.)
[edit] The Future of Dane Districts Online
Over the course of the next decade, Dane Districts Online will be positioned to provide global services and support to our members. Specific tangible and intangible assets will include the following:
- DDO representing a consolidated consortium of K-12 Wisconsin schools that are working together to build a service and learning infrastructure.
- DDO experienced and highly skilled professional staff provides both consulting and support services to our members and on a fee-based basis to non-members.
- Built-in self-continuous assessment, analysis and improvement of our practices, structures and courseware offerings.
- Immediate access to professional certified educators and educational researchers.
- Internalized high quality curricular assessment and evaluation resources geared toward both the state and national academic standards and dedicated to the success and needs of students in Dane County Wisconsin.
- Internalized knowledge base of highly skilled experts in standards based education, alternative instructional delivery, access to each of our Members knowledge based/experiential resources and access to the resources at the University of Wisconsin (a premier research-one university).
- Purchasing/negotiation power provided by being a countywide online instructional organization, with the potential of providing direct services to over 65,000 of Dane County’s students and global ability to resell our courses world-wide.
- One-stop online learning provided through the DDO Portal. For members, dedicated access and support via online student records and courseware management systems; for clients, one unique location to access high quality online instructional resources.
- A self-sustaining service for members, able to offer courses and programs on an as needed year round basis; reselling courses, leasing online student and course management systems, and offering consulting services generates revenues that can then be reinvested in program offerings.
- Partnerships with business, industry, and higher education position which permits access to resources outside of the K-12 environment and lends credence to growing standing as a national leader and innovator in technologies based instruction.
- Enhanced sustainability and client services by expanding DDO owned course offerings that specifically meet the needs of our members and clients.
- Growing numbers of DDO’s online Professional Development and Student courses designed by our own K-12 educators.
