Organizational Structure of Virtual Schooling

An essential element in many examples of virtual schooling is an organizational structure to support distance learning for K-12 students. Partnerships often formed within and among participants in K-12 schools and other organizations. Local support was an important component for both the instructor and for students. Instructors used administrative support in their own schools, and frequently drew on additional resources for support. Students had access to coaches and other forms of local support to advocate for resources, mentor study skills and provide assessment. See examples given below:

• Local support was essential, including a coach who was qualified and could establish a presence with students
• The coach at the remote location provided students with a realistic view of the commitment required for Virtual Schooling, kept them on track, and regularly checked progress - see case study Psychology: Social Science Discussion Labs at a Distance
• A high school science teacher provided support for students in her school taking an online course from a distant university - see case study Anatomy and Physiology:Active Web-based Labs
• Virtual schooling was a community effort with careful planning and close collaboration among instructors, coaches, students and administrators
• Having one teacher successfully teach two sections of chemistry at geographically distant locations largely depended on careful planning and close collaboration among teachers, students and administrators - see case study Chemistry: Parallel Distributed Labs in a High School Partnership
• Partnerships between university scientists, university teacher educators and K-12 educators made a high powered scientific instrument available to K-12 students using the Internet - see case study Life and Physical Science: Online Lab Instrument Access
• It is essential that all partners' roles and responsibilities are specified clearly and agreed upon among all participants
• Schools engaging in the Virtual Schooling System for their students signed a contract in which they agreed to provide local support, accept the grades that were assigned, and pay all required fees - see case study Physics: Scientific Reports of Virtual Labs
• Anonymous evaluation of courses was used to inform the instructor and partners of the success of their Virtual Schooling efforts
• Students completed an exit evaluation when they finished the course. In addition to feedback for the instructor, the anonymous evaluations were used for consortium-wide quality assurance - see case study Chemistry: Blending Virtual and Home-based Labs
• Processes designed by the instructor were maintained by students and monitored by coach(s) to regulate assessment in school, college and in the field
• In the Chef Youth Apprenticeship Program teachers at each high school monitored student work and assessed progress as students practiced various culinary techniques - see case study Chef Youth Apprenticeship: Demonstration Video Labs
• A qualified teacher served as remote facilitator to guide student progress at the remote site - see case study Chemistry: Parallel Distributed Labs in a High School Partnership
• Local chefs provided a field placement for students, provided on-the-job-training, and recorded completion of competencies in student portfolios - see case study Chef Youth Apprenticeship: Demonstration Video Labs

Guidance developed by: Niki Davis, Ph.D., Dale Niederhauser, Ph.D., Lilly Compton, M.S., and Denise Lindstrom, M.S., Iowa State University Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching.