Mike, Ruhi, Monisha, MasaStanford University ED 391

EPGY Status Report

2

EPGY Background

• EPGY: Educational Program for Gifted Youth

• Started in late 1980s by Stanford Philosophy Professor Patrick Suppes

• Enrolls about 3000 students/year, growing

• Provides courses to “gifted” children, mostly in high school math and sciences

• Most students take the courses at home

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Project Background

• EPGY would like to address the school market

• Interested in Title 1 funds for low-income schools => less gifted, motivated kids

• Current schools it is serving– local

• Belle Haven Elementary, Menlo Park• Las Lomitas Elementary, Atherton• Brandeis Private School, SF• upcoming: Enola Maxwell Middle School (SF);

Garfield Elementary (Redwood City)

– remote• schools in Beaverton, OR; London, England

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Ed 391X Project

• Study the possibility of strengthening EPGY’s offering to the school market– market opportunity– software’s appropriateness for less gifted,

less motivated kids– possibilities for grouped instruction (rather

than individualized instruction)• in person• synchronous online

– possibilities for per student cost savings– other stuff?

5

Market Landscape

• Over 6 million K-12 public school students, 1048 school districts in U.S.

• Since 1996, there has been an increase of about 100,000 students per year.

• Problems:– Shortage of teachers– many schools failing – drop-out rates rising – inconsistent teaching of difficult subjects– unequal access to courses

• A large K-12 online education movement is accelerating across the country

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The Promise of Online Learning

• Addresses some of the challenges in previous slide

• Offers potential for better results and cost savings

• Offers a way to study developmental and individual learning styles, performance accountability

• Several states already have fully developed programs

• Studies suggest that virtual education is no longer experimental

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Potential Beneficiaries of Online Programs

• Students who experience scheduling conflicts or inability to attend school on a regular schedule– Court School Students, who attend prison schools– Adult Education Students– Career and technical education programs

• Students who have special needs not met by the local district– AP or Honors classes– remedial classes– special education– English Learner Programs

• Home School Students• Teacher Professional Development

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Online Pedagogy

• Because of the newness of online learning we are still learning what makes for effective pedagogy.

• Online learning is subjected to more intense scrutiny that normal classroom delivery, but it can be more easily tracked.

• Online environment should be designed with specific outcomes in mind and should be monitored for efficacy.

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Recommendations for Effective Online Program

• Student recommendations– Course content needs to be interactive,

using multiple media– Timely feedback from teachers is

necessary– Face to face meetings are important

• Adult recommendations– Create quality online courses

• project-based assignments• interface that encourages interactions.

– Face-to-face meetings are important.– A variety of student support mechanisms is

needed.

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Approaches for Curriculum and Content Development

• Buy

• Build

• Hybrid

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Course Pacing

• Self-pacing offers advantages as well as challenges

• Self-paced courses make teaching/support harder

• Ability to facilitate student-to-student interaction is also affected by pacing

• Course pacing options:– one timetable– completely self-paced.– students select from choices of pre-defined

timetables

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Challenges to Online Learning and Teaching

• Weak content and curricula• Weak online pedagogy• Limited forms of online

assessment• Lack of technology standards• Instructor is not prepared to be a

virtual instructor• Not all learners are prepared for

online learning

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Existing Online Education Programs for K12

• State-based: 14 statewide online programs

• University-based: introductory and correspondence courses available to high school students

• School district-based• Virtual charter schools and private

schools• For-Profit Corporations: supply virtual

education either on a course-by-course basis or as a school

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Computers and the Internet in California Schools

2000 2001

Schools connected to the Internet 80% 90%

Classrooms connected to the Internet

58% 77%

Student/Computer Ratio 6.97 6.37

Student/Multimedia Computer Ratio

9.51 8.24

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Government Educational Technology Initiatives

• Federal technology literacy grants• Digital California Project• The Education Technology Grant

Program for High Schools• Statewide Commission on Technology

and Learning• California Learning Resource Network• Digital High School Program• Many others

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Market Landscape Final Thoughts

• Virtual education is here to stay.• More and more services core to the

operation of the school and to learning will become web-based.

• Online learning offers the potential for consistent and high-quality curriculum for a large number of students.

• Virtual education can also address equity issues.

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Software Evaluation…

Positives•Lesson on entering formulas

•Problem set up

•White board for fraction section

Need Improvements•Interface

•Lack of help, no visible exit signs, no undo or back

•No marker on time left

•Could be more collaborative

•Messages given from the system are not clear, nor encouraging

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Software Evaluation…

Questions to Ask•The problems are tedious and difficult

•No scaffolding for the level of difficulty

•The software is unprofessional

•The handwriting on the black board

•The grammar of the lecture

•The background noise during the lecture

•How can we encourage the students to take notes

•Print screen

•Photoshop tool be able to use the screen as scratch paper

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Observations From School Visit

• where: Las Lomitas Elementary in Menlo Park, grades 1-3 Math

• Kids were *really* engaged with the software, seemed to learn lots

• The math gets *quite* advanced very quickly

• They should provide the kids with checkpoints to take stock– appreciate what they’ve learned– think about what they’ve accomplished – apply what they’ve learned

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What’s Left To Do

• more visits to schools

• re-interview lead elementary math tutor

• interview teacher who taught kids who used EPGY math courses

• interview EPGY marketing person

• create Flash demo to show our proposed software changes