Florida Virtual School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Florida Virtual School | |
|---|---|
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| URL | www.flvs.net |
| Commercial? | No |
| Type of site | Online public education provider |
| Owner | Julie Young |
| Created by | various authors |
Founded in 1997 by President and CEO Julie Young, the Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is one of the largest online middle and high schools in the United States. It is the only public online school--and likely the first of any kind of public school--to be funded on a performance basis. The widely-known online program was created to provide students with a personalized instruction option that gives students flexibility in meeting their educational goals.
According to its website, flvs.net, "FLVS is part of the Florida public education system and serves students in all 67 Florida districts. FLVS also serves students, schools, and districts around the nation through tuition-based instruction, curriculum provision, and training."
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[edit] "Any time, any place, any path, any pace"
Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is a nationally recognized e-Learning model, and has received many awards including the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) 21st Century Best Practices Award. FLVS is an established leader in developing and providing virtual 6-12 education solutions to students throughout the country.
FLVS was founded in 1997 as the country’s first state-wide Internet-based public high school. Today, the school offers middle school and high school students (public, private, or homeschooled) over 90 courses, along with solutions for adults seeking GED alternatives both in and out of Florida. As noted, FLVS is the only public school where funding is tied directly to student performance.
FLVS also currently offers 10 Advanced Placement classes: Art History, Computer Science, English Language and Composition, English Literature and Composition, Calculus AB, Biology, U.S. Government and Politics, U.S. History, Microeconomics, and Macroeconomics. After a student takes one of these courses, he or she may take an AP exam to receive three college credit hours.
Each teacher is charged with successfully completing an average of 120 students per calendar year, though that number may be slightly lower for AP or other advanced courses. Students keep in contact with teachers through email, chat rooms, web conferencing sessions, an online whiteboard room, along with phone calls. Teachers also frequently plan face-to-face events, such as outings to local museums, and invite interested students and families to attend. FLVS utilizes UCompass Educator as their "Learning Management System," which is, in the virtual learning world, the web-based software system that houses the actual courses. UCompass, like other learning management systems, provides excellent navigational features to help students and parents to manage the course, such as an online gradebook, assignment area, and a chat area.
[edit] Advantages and Challenges to Online Learning
There are several potential challenges that come with online courses and/or schools. For instance, some students do not take courses seriously; academic integrity could be an issue; there may be insufficient student-to-student interaction; teachers have to learn new ways to get to know their students and adapt their teaching methods to an online environment, and efforts to build community require new ways of thinking and interacting with the home. To meet these challenges, a good online program must be proactive. On these issues, Florida Virtual School has played a leadership role by implementing the following:
[edit] Academic Integrity
Florida Virtual School utilizes a multi-tiered effort to maintain the highest levels of academic integrity. First, courses are designed with academic integrity in mind. Auto-grade assessments are created from a test bank, thus ensuring that no two students will receive the exact same quiz. Oral assessments are also built in throughout the curriculum. Assessments are also widely varied, providing teachers with a wealth of formative feedback in order to get to know their students' work on many levels. Technology helps as well. FLVS uses a plagiarism detection tool which compares student work with hundreds of thousands of websites--as well as with an internal database of thousands of pieces of work from current or previous students. Best teaching practices are another measure to ensure academic integrity. FLVS believes that teaching online must be much more proactive than in the classroom. As a result, teachers are required to conduct monthly phone conferences with students and their parents, thus providing a way to get to know families much better than they did in their traditional classrooms. Most FLVS teachers report knowing their students much better in the online environment. Although there is a good deal of group interaction, much work is done through individual interactions between teachers and students. FLVS teachers report that the academic integrity tools are helpful, but the best defense is in simply knowing students well.
[edit] Student-to-Student Interaction
Once again, the design of the curriculum and the practices of the teaching staff are keys to Florida Virtual School's continued 85%+ success rate. Courses are designed to encourage or require students to engage with one another through online tutoring groups, group discussions, web conferences, white board sessions, and more. FLVS students have successfully prepared for regional and state competitions by working entirely in an online environment. Most students have never met until they actually show up for the competition. They have fared well in the competitions as well, taking several top honors in science, language, and computer events. Two FLVS students recently won the State Department's Doors to Diplomacy award.
[edit] Teacher Preparation
Because of the unique challenges of teaching, engaging, and holding students accountable in the online environment, FLVS has been proactive in developing a unique ongoing mentoring program. Training for new hires begins in the same manner that students will learn--in an online course. After some follow-up face-to-face training, new online teachers are assigned a mentor who will walk through the first year with that instructor, guiding and providing "just-in-time" learning throughout the year to get the instructor off to a solid start.
Florida Virtual School administrative staff utilize a tool called Virtual School Administrator, a performance management tool that allows instructional supervisors to monitor every teacher-student interaction, view all current grades, course loads, comment logs, wait lists, course requests, grading patterns, and much more. Without such a performance management tool, FLVS administrators insist that program quality would be impossible to maintain, and retention and success rates would drop dramatically. The administrative team works very closely with the mentoring team to provide insight into areas where teachers and students need support in order to be successful.
[edit] Building Community
Florida Virtual School has found several ways to build and maintain community in the online environment, including some that have already been mentioned, such as the use of chat rooms, online web-conferencing sessions, group assignments, and field trips. In addition, FLVS hosts no less than six online clubs, including two honor societies, a newspaper, science club, Latin club, and a business club. In addition, teachers often host "expert chats" and arrange for students to interact with professionals, such as scientists or authors.
While there are challenges to online learning--just as there are challenges to any learning environment--the benefits of using FLVS are numerous. Florida Virtual School's program provides flexible scheduling opportunities, enhanced course selection, the opportunity to earn needed graduation credits, and individualized instruction. Access to online instruction has proven to be valuable to public schools students for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they simply need an option to make up a credit, or their current schedule may conflict with a required course they need to take. Students have taken courses because they have medical issues and need to work from home, or they are simply trying to get ahead. Home-schooled students benefit from taking courses that are tied to standards, taught by certified, in-field instructors, and recognized throughout the state and nation as top quality courses. Finally, FLVS benefits students from rural or low-performing schools may have limited access to a broad selection of high-quality courses.
[edit] School Policies, Features and Other Details
[edit] Pricing and location
FLVS is free to Florida residents who fund the program through state taxes; students outside of Florida may take the courses on a tuition basis. The fee is $375 for a half-credit (one semester) course and $750 for a full-credit (2 semester) course. There is an added $25 fee per semester for AP courses. Fees include all required materials as well as the personalized instruction of a teacher, certified in the subject matter at hand. A few courses, such as some of the English or AP courses, may require reading materials which can be obtained from public libraries or purchased for minimal costs at local new or used book stores.
[edit] Grades
Students are scored based on the same system as any public school in the United States.
- A: 90-100%
- B: 80-89
- C: 70-79
- D: 60-69
- F: 0-59
Progress reports are distributed on the 15th of every month.
[edit] Assessments
There are 5 main types of assessments:
- Assignments are the most common assessment. Students upload files created using Microsoft Word and saved in the Rich Text Format and other programs from Microsoft Office such as PowerPoint. You may also copy and paste some assignments, like essays, into a comments area box.
- Worksheets are common assessments that can contain multiple-choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions. Multiple-choice, true/false, and short answer are auto-graded, when submitted, and the teacher grades the essay questions.
- Exams are also common, and can consist of multiple choice, matching, short answer, and other questions. Multiple choice questions are auto graded by the computer, but if a response is needed for any question, the teacher must manually grade that portion of the assignment. The Final Exam usually counts for a large part of the student's grade, and is usually taken at the end of modules, or at the mid-term point or final portion of a class. Occasionally these exams are timed. 30 minutes to 2 hours may be signed a timed exam depending on the difficulty, length and point value of the assignment.
- Exam Worksheets are just about the same as an exam, however are less likely to be timed assignments. These assignments usually consist of long or short response questions with a mixture of fill-in-the blanks, true or false, or multiple choice.
- Discussions usually have a very small grade value. At various times during a course, students will be asked to write a paragraph about a given topic. They then submit it in the discussion area where they can read and respond to other students' postings.
- Oral Exams are short exams taken over the phone with the instructor.
[edit] Pace Charts and Procrastination
Each class has a pace chart that should be strictly followed by each participating student. The pace chart shows how long a course is expected to take. The pace chart shows how work is expected to be submitted by each child each week. If the child falls behind one week, they should receive a call from the instructor to talk about why the student is behind in the course. For every two weeks that a student falls behind in their work, their overall grade should temporarily lower by 1 letter grade. For instance, a student who had a B but fell two weeks behind would have a C. Grades can be raised once a student catches up.
[edit] Monthly Call
Every 30 days a student and one parent must talk to a teacher from each course at separate times. The main purpose of this is to inform parents of their child's progress and pace.
[edit] Surveys
Surveys about the modules are found at the end of each one. Students encounter a more in-depth survey about their overall learning experience about 2/3rds of the way through a course. The survey explores things such as engagement, course rigor, communication with teacher, etc. Survey results are used to determine the redevelopment needs of the courses and the overall effectiveness of the program.
[edit] Course Enhancements
All courses use a wide range of resources which are included to enhance the learning process. Resources include links to appropriate internet sites, video streaming, flash animations, and/or multi-media interactives. Many multi-media links are provided by United Streaming.
[edit] Provided Courses
[edit] Middle School
- Orientation to Art 2-D
- Keyboarding
- Language Arts 1
- Language Arts 2
- Language Arts 3
- Reading 1
- Spanish 1
- Mathematics 1
- Mathematics 2
- Mathematics 3
- Comprehensive Science 1
- Comprehensive Science 2
- Comprehensive Science 2
- U.S History
- World Cultures
- World Geography
[edit] High School
- Computing for College and Careers
- Web Design 1
- Web Design 2
- Computer Programming-Basic 1
- English 1
- English 2
- English 3
- English 4
- Chinese 1
- Latin 1
- Latin 2
- Latin 3
- Spanish 1
- Spanish 2
- Spanish 3
- Fitness Lifestyle Design
- Life Management Skills
- Personal Fitness
- Algebra 1
- Algebra 2
- Geometry
- Liberal Arts Mathematics
- Pre-Calculus
- Calculus
- Critical Thinking and Study Skills
- SAT Preparation
- Driver Education/Traffic Safety
- Biology 1
- Chemistry 1
- Earth-Space Science
- Marine Science
- Physics
- American Government
- American History
- Economics
- Global Studies
- World History
[edit] AP
- AP Art History
- AP Computer Science A
- AP Eng.Lang. and Composition
- AP Eng.Lit. and Composition
- AP Calculus AB
- AP Biology
- AP Macroeconomics
- AP Microeconomics
- AP U.S Government and Politics
- AP U.S History
[edit] Other
- Student Orientation
- Adaptive Physical Education IEP or 504 Plan
