Math Counts

Poudre School District • Fort Collins, Colorado • 45 Schools • About 24,000 students • 3,325 employees • Nestled against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and alongside the banks of the Cache La Poudre River.

Blackboard Statistics • 728 active courses • 4,561 active users • Average 103,017 page views per day • Busiest day saw 126,367 page views

Programs • Started as a way to host our virtual high school courses purchased from Class.com. • Now, used mostly to supplement face-toface classes. • Beginning to use it for some staff development (Book studies, curriculum specialists, etc.) • Some use for curriculum planning & resources • Used to create discussion boards for a variety of user groups. (Media Specialists, Negotiations, etc.) • Some groups (Science Olympiad, Math Counts, etc.)

Challenges • Automating course and user creation. • Automating user enrollment. • Getting faculty trained at up to 45 schools with one trainer. • Keeping up with email and phone questions. • Finding money to pay for it. • Getting grades into the district’s grade book. • Removing students after the semester is over.

Administrative Support • Support of director of media and technology • Support of director of curriculum • Support of high school assistant superintendent. • Support of chief information officer. • Buy in from teachers around the district.

Getting Buy In • • • •

Success of virtual high school. Making course content available 24/7. Online testing (automatically graded) Losing students to competing online schools. • Interest of Teachers – Ease of Use – Password Protected – Awesome Tools that teachers can’t create on their own personal web sites.

Policies and Procedures • At this point, very minimal. • To have courses created, teachers must have his/her course coded on our student information system (SILK). • Prefer that teachers go through 2 or 3 short workshops. • Anticipate developing policies and procedures for appropriate communication and online test taking.

Training • After/before school workshops at many high schools, junior high schools, and elementary schools. • Formal staff development classes. 15 hour courses. • Training for groups such as curriculum specialists and media specialists. • Pedagogy embedded within the “how to” training. • College (CSU) credit available.

Getting the Word Out • Staff development catalog • Media Specialists • Blackboard Power Users • School workshops set up by administrators • Newsletter in leave and earnings statement • Word of mouth

Online/Hybrid Courses • VHS – students who failed face-to-face course or other reason such as teen parent. • Self-paced (with time points). Instructor serves as a facilitator. Students are not on their own. • Success really depends on the teacher. • All types of courses offered (mostly courses required to graduate). • VHS courses purchased from Class.com • Test, assignments, and grading are built into Class.com courses. • Supplemental courses are not reviewed.

Managing the System • System Administrator – 1 (me) • A person in IT to install/update Blackboard • User logins – Automatically created every night – Tied to SILK

• Courses – Automatically created every night – Tied to SILK

• Problem: Teachers who teach the same course several times a day. (One course or Many???)

Lessons Learned • Figure out a way to automate user & course creation, and user enrollment. • Figure out how you will deal with multiple sections (i.e. one course vs. many) • Figure out an efficient way to train users. • Make sure equipment is adequate and that maintenance is being performed. • Determine a way to deal with help calls and email questions.