April 24, 2018

Distance Learning Platform Updates

Tom Cytron-Hysom, Consultant

Here are some updates about Distance Learning (DL) Platforms:

Q: Have proxy hours been approved for USA Learns Citizenship content?

A: The USAL Citizenship content has been approved. BUT, a big change: ALL four USA Learns courses have been changed to time-on-task for proxy hour collection! As of March 2018, you can use the Student Activity by Class report in USAL, then convert to proxy hours for entering in SID using the Proxy Hour Formula Excel document. What this report displays is the students’ time on task in USAL for the date range you select. It doesn’t display any data for those that haven’t done any work in USAL; only for those who have. Here’s a detailed how-to screencast on YouTube. As always, there’s more information on the MN ABE DL website.

Q: Will Burlington English and Plato continue to be state-supported platforms next year?

A: Yes – no changes are planned. We do hope to research potential cell phone based platforms, with the possibility of purchasing one for statewide use.

Q: Will i-Pathways continue to be a state-supported platform?

A: No, lack of funds and very limited use means it will not be state supported any longer.

Q: Will Burlington English be aligned with the Northstar standards?

A: Alignment with Computer Basics is complete, and here is a chart showing the correlation with Northstar.

Q: When will the updated HTML5 NorthStar modules be released?

A: Computer Basics was released several weeks ago. World Wide Web will be released in a few weeks. We expect to release each module as it becomes available, over the next year.

Tom Cytron-Hysom, Consultant MN ABE Distance Learning

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