In conjunction with iHighs 2013 WASC Self-study, the iHigh teachers conducted a selfassessment using the iNACOL Standards

for Quality Online Teaching, to identify areas of strengths as well as staff development needs. My reflection incorporates my assessment of iHigh Virtual Academys strengths and areas for growth as of June 2013. A. Effective online instruction that enables student success: Even though iHigh relies heavily on the content providers curriculum, the LEC experience has enabled me to better evaluate the online modules and activities in terms of incorporating best practices and strategies, creating rich and meaningful student experiences, and providing effective opportunities for student collaboration and participation.
Image source: iHigh collection

Even though we have limited abilities to modify the vendor courses, our staff is working on creating ways to replace an entire unit with a collaborative learning project based on the same objectives. A key to iHighs success has been recruiting outstanding teachers who are credentialed in at least two subject areas, some three or four. Unlike the districts credit recovery teachers, which do not require a subject-specific credential, iHigh teachers are fully credentialed in the subjects they teach. B. Using a range of technologies to support student engagement and learning: Even though many folks consider me to be tech savvy after working for 9 years in a staff developer role at SDCOE, it is tough to keep current when focused on administrative duties. It was professionally inspiring to learn about so many Web 2.0 tools that I otherwise would not have made it a priority to learn about (e.g., Prezi, VoiceThread, Quizlet, and SlideShare). The LEC modules definitely helped expand my awareness of ways to effectively incorporate a variety of online tools and resources to support student communications, productivity, collaboration, analysis, research, presentation and online content delivery. Along the way, I learned strategies for troubleshooting the types of problems that other online students might experience. It was also interesting to experience the Haiku learning management system. Our content providers use a proprietary LMS (Apex), and well as Moodle, eCollege and BrainHoney. I can see the iHigh staff incorporating more Web 2.0 tools and/or projects into their courses, as well as creating more screencasts to support teaching, parent training, and professional development goals. C. Planning, designing and encouraging active learning and collaboration: Given that a majority of iHighs curriculum consists of vendor-provided courses (largely to ensure UC a-g approval), I am now better able to evaluate course content in terms of engaging, real-world, student-centered activities, as well as inquirybased discussion groups and collaborative learning. My teachers and I have learned much-needed strategies for transforming our current discussion forums into online communities that promote Image source: iHigh collection effective academic and social student interactions, including asking dynamic questions to stimulate the discussion. I personally learned how to better incorporate multimedia, images, documents, Web 2.0 tools and other resources to convey information as well as to differentiate instruction. I believe that as I gain more experience as an online teacher, I will be better able to anticipate and to mitigate the challenges and problems that can arise in an online classroom. However, I have learned from observing the interactions of my online teaching staff that ongoing and frequent communications and interactions (between teacher, students, parents and Supervising

Teacher) are essential to keeping the student engaged, on pace, and actively involved in the course. D. Clear expectations, prompt responses and regular feedback: The WASC Visiting Team rated the iHigh teachers very high in these skills, based on teacher observations and interviewing iHigh students/parents. As a staff, we each effectively communicate high expectations, provide prompt and meaningful feedback to inquiries and/or coursework. In addition to the teachers written syllabus, the course introduction provides an online Table of Contents with learning objectives and key terms for each lesson. Image source: iHigh collection One area we need to improve on is providing more specific expectations to better stimulate participation in course discussion forums, especially for our dual enrollment students. The course pacing guides provide a complete list of assignments, assessments and points possible for class, so students have a course road map right up front. Our student handbook defines our goals for teacher response times: 24 hours for questions, 1-2 days for grading minor assignments, 3-5 days for grading major assignments and written final exams. The student handbook also covers expected rules of Netiquette, which are reinforced during our first-day, face-to-face student orientation. Teachers are continuously online during the workday (8 AM to 3 PM), triaging their email messages so that the most urgent items (e.g., student/parent questions; quiz re-set requests) get answered first. Teachers have compiled a collection of supplemental resources so they can quickly direct students to additional examples or information to support a given lesson. Teachers are constantly monitoring student progress and activating interventions for students who need additional assistance and/or a more structured setting in which to complete their work. iHigh has recently implemented PLCs to analyze student data (standardized tests, unit exams, and district quarterly benchmark exams) to better inform instruction. One challenge is that we have limited capacity to make revisions to the content providers self-contained courses, due to the online gradebook being synced with the providers specified assignments. One of this years WASC Action Plan goals deals with finding creative ways to substitute more collaborative lessons for a few of the existing lessons, especially in math (per student/parent requests). E. Modeling and guiding legal, ethical, and safe technology use: Both fulltime and dual enrollment students sign an Academic Honesty Agreement. Violations result in: first offense- a zero on the assignment, quiz or test; subsequent offense: withdrawal from the class with an Incomplete, which is treated like an F for calculating GPA. Our Netiquette guidelines address online written communications. While the Academic Honesty agreement does address plagiarism, we need to more explicitly create student awareness of copyright laws, fair use standards, and privacy guidelines. All students must sign their compliance with the districts Acceptable Use Policy at the start of each year, which addresses plagiarism, intellectual property, cyberbullying, FERPA/privacy and other legal, ethical and network safety issues. F. Being cognizant of diverse student academic needs and incorporating accommodations: The iHigh staff was rated highly by the WASC Visiting Team for ongoing progress monitoring and addressing individual learning needs. Differentiated instruction is mainly addressed through one-on-one tutoring and supplemental resources, due to the challenges in making adjustments to the self- contained vendor courses. About 5% of our fulltime students each year have either an IEP or504 plan. The counselor and iHigh teachers have designed accommodations for many types of learning, emotional and/or physical

disabilities, given that a segment of our students sought independent study due to medicallyrelated issues. For most classes, the teacher has limited capacity to make changes to the content or sequencing. However, teachers make accommodations in the grading process, and provide supplemental resources and instruction to address diverse learning styles and abilities. As principal, one of my roles is to help support the availability of appropriate tools and technologies to accommodate student needs. The district provides Kurzweil software to read text from the screen. So far, we have not needed additional assistive technologies. iHigh P.E. teachers have successfully adapted our P.E. curriculum for assist two students with fibromyalgia and muscular dystrophy. Almost all of iHighs English Learners have been reclassified as FEP by the time they enroll at iHigh. Still, iHigh students have a variety of diverse learning needs, for which teachers have built a collection of resources (videos, web links, documents, examples, etc. ) that they use to help address individual student questions and styles of learning. Teachers are trained to support student thinking and individual learning styles, as well as to develop, track and evaluate intervention plans. G. Creating and implementing assessments that ensure validity and reliability: New this year, the iHigh English language arts and math teachers have piloted department-developed benchmark tests, as well as unit exams. For accountability purposes, most unit exams must be proctored. Exams may not be returned to students, due to test security issues. As we transition to using many of the UC Scout courses, which appear to more adaptable than Apex courses, it will become increasingly important to provide staff Image source: iHigh collection training in creating effective online assessments. Ideally, staff-created assessment will simulate what the student will need to do on the Smarter Balanced Assessments in 2014. H. Developing and delivering standards-based assessments, projects, and assignments; effectively measuring learning progress through student achievement of learning goals: These are skills where iHigh teachers will need additional training and practice, as we move from Apex courses to other providers (such as UC Scout). The Apex curriculum provides informal formative assessments within the lessons, formal formative assessments (lesson quizzes; practice tests) and formal summative assessment (chapter tests). Humanities and world language courses require substantial essay responses. iHigh teachers are quite experienced in spotting and dealing with academic dishonesty, especially with our dual enrollment students. They are also experienced and effective in providing meaningful feedback, usually embedded within the text, or sometimes as a separate narrative document. Current assessments include predominantly short-answer and multiple choice questions, so teachers will be focused on incorporating more constructed response and performance based questions. The iHigh staff members who are completing the LEC certification training will be well-equipped to assist other iHigh teachers in creating or selecting and implementing a variety of formative and summative assessments that assess student learning progress. As a staff, we are working on better utilizing student feedback to improve the online learning experience. This effort was begun this year in conjunction with student focus groups for WASC.

I. Competently using student performance data to modify content and to guide student learning: As previously explained, most of the vendor-provider courses have limited capacity to modify the content. The iHigh staff has developed supplemental resources and activities to address learning gaps identified by analyzing student performance data. For example, a monthly book club was established this year to help improve low scores in literary analysis. This years meetings were face-to-face, although Image source: iHigh collection we hope to use web conferencing next year to involve more students. iHigh teachers effectively use observational data, student work samples, and results of computer-scored assignments and assessments to monitor course progress and effectiveness. Teachers are skilled at directing students to supplemental Internet resources to help customize instruction, in addition to providing individual and small-group tutoring. Assessment of teaching effectiveness and achievement of learning goals is accomplished within monthly PLC meetings and whole-group staff meetings. Due to iHighs blended online independent study format, one of our most effective alternatives is the use of the Learning Contract, which requires students to report to the classroom to work 3 or 4 days per week. This intervention provides structured, supervised work time, with the oversight and immediate availability of the teacher to provide tutoring, answer questions, and provide immediate feedback. Close to 100% of records of relevant communications are retained by virtue of being logged in the Apex Message Center. Not only are all relevant communications logged and recorded, but so are uploaded (teacher-scored) assignments, such as the Practices. Teachers are well-versed in using the various online learning management systems provided by our vendor partners, as well as tools such as Audacity (audio recording), Camtasia (similar to Screencast), and Adobe Connect Pro. There are currently not many opportunities for formal student self-assessment. J. The online teacher interacts in a professional, effective manner with colleagues, parents, and other members of the community to support students success: iHigh has consistently earned high marks on our parent surveys for providing ongoing communication with parents or guardians concerning student learning. iHigh teachers are usually able to break away during the day to attend staff development without needing a substitute teacher. We do not typically call a sub because he/she would not have access to the online Learning Management Systems. Teachers simply catch up when they return, or work from home after hours. K. The online teacher arranges media and content to help students and teachers transfer knowledge most effectively in the online environment: iHigh teachers are fairly tech savvy. They understand how to incorporate iPad applications and other interactive resources into their instruction. There is limited capacity to arrange and/or rearrange the course content within the vendor-provided courses. The iHigh teachers compensate by compiling a Image source: iHigh collection list of supplemental resources, including video clips, etc. The iHigh staff is working to provide expanded access to multimedia and visual resources, especially for science, math and VAPA courses. We will be working on including the appropriate Web 2.0 tools to improve social interaction and critical thinking in our courses. In summary, participating in the LEC training expanded my personal awareness of the iNACOL standards through specific reading, examples and projects that clarified the characteristics of an effective course and/or online teacher. I had the opportunity to learn about many Web 2.0 tools, to learn from the discussion forum perspectives of my colleagues, and to be reminded of accessibility issues when creating online content (including our school web page). My action

plan for implementing changes in our teaching practices involves staff development for the teachers who did not participate in the LEC training, preferably led by their colleagues, to focus on improving the overall effectiveness of our instruction and ability to customize instruction. We will continue to learn about online teaching through participation in conferences, webinars and trainings sponsored by CUE, ISTE, CCIS and iNACOL.