Online
Courseware Brokerage Services
In the
current year it is estimated that a rather small percentage
of K-12 instruction is online- about 1% (compare this with
10% for post-secondary). According to sources at the
Education Industry Association, the online percentage of
K-12 instruction will grow to approximately 50% in ten
years. By that time, most online instruction will be
received within schoolrooms- unlike the current situation
wherein most online instruction is received in homes. This
suggests that Asora's Stellar Schools design will become
increasingly relevant going forward.
As should be evident to visitors who have reviewed our
business plan for Stellar Schools (available elsewhere on this
website)
that one of our roles will be that of a broker of third
party products and services. In doing that, we plan to
acquire and integrate third party online instructional
content into the courseware that we will supply to
customers- including franchisees.
Given our limited financial capital, we are beginning the
development of Stellar Schools by first establishing a
brokerage service, which will focus on instructional
formats that accommodate self-pacing and on instructional
content for the core curriculum.
Identifying
prospective customers of online
content
We are
interested in providing brokerage services primarily to
physical (brick & mortar) schools for the K-12 levels
of instruction. Since we intend to provide AP courses, we
sometimes identify them as 13th
grade
level courses. This leads us to occasionally use the
nomenclature K-13 to express the instructional levels we
cover.
Our company is an advocate of tutorial instruction because
of its several advantages over traditional age-based group
instruction. The latter’s defects, including
pervasive social promotion in nearly every public and
private school, suggest that the tutorial alternative
should be considered.
To provide that tutorial instruction requires a self-paced
learning environment supported by an asynchronous
(on-demand) online instructional system. Thus our
preference is to work with schools seeking a self-paced
instructional format within core curricular areas. There is
no need to convert all courses to the new online format in
one step- the transition can proceed one or two subjects at
a time.
Within Asora’s Stellar Schools project, we have our
own long-term plans for developing/obtaining online content
covering the core curricula for levels K-13. Implementation
of those plans awaits adequate financial resources. In
these plans we intend to maximize the use of third party
courseware where it fits our curricular and instructional
needs. Unfortunately, our review of this marketplace shows
that none of the available courseware products have all- or
even most- of the instructional components we seek. A list
of those components or instructional formats is shown
below.
As we develop our new brokerage service, we are seeking
information from a number of vendors to learn more about
their products. That should give us the knowledge base from
which we can better assist our clients make purchasing
decisions. (Though of secondary importance, we will also
offer our services homeschooling families that are seeking
online instructional resources.)
In the short run we intend to help clients find suitable
“off-the-shelf” courseware products that can be
used now. Then as resources and circumstances permit we
plan to add other instructional components- either by
producing them ourselves, by producing them jointly with
client schools, or by working with third party courseware
suppliers to provide them.
Co-development
opportunities for customers
In the
early phases of developing Stellar Schools there will be a
number of missing pieces from our "arsenal" of courseware.
We welcome customers who would like to help us develop
these items. Partners in such development will share in
future revenues from the courseware they help create. To
learn more see our Development
Opportunities page.
Identifying prospective suppliers of online
content
We have
found approximately 30 to 40 vendors and organizations that
provide online instructional products and services in K-13
core curricular areas. Only a few vendors cover all of the
subject areas, which suggests any given school or customer
may wish to combine the offerings of two or more suppliers
of the relevant courseware.
We have been querying these vendors as to their offerings.
(What are the courses offered? And what are the modes of
instruction? Also, how many of the following instructional
formats are used in their courseware?) As we learn more
about these suppliers, their offerings, and their
willingness to cooperate, we will be in a better position
to help clients obtain and use the most suitable courseware
for their schools.
Our long-term plans foresee these courses having up to
fifteen instructional formats that are listed below. Though
we show them as separate items, we are aware that any given
instructional courseware package may involve combinations
of them.
The fifteen instructional formats of Asora Stellar
Schools
Our
instructional system is based on having students master
each course’s knowledge items that we call Learning
Concept Statements. The set of related Learning Concept
Statements that would comprise a short lesson are called a
Learning Concept Group. These lessons can be learned by
following a combination of one or more instructional
formats. We favor courseware that contains or accommodates
as many of the following instructional formats as possible:
1.
Lecturettes: For each
Learning Concept Group a student may, on demand, receive a
short video lecture presented by the instructional team,
which we foresee as having two teachers and two student
questioners. By “short” we mean that these
lecture segments generally run no longer than 20 minutes.
(For our calculus based physics course, we have produced
two prototypical lecturettes.)
2.
Supplemental Lecturettes: For a
subset of Learning Concept Groups, which students often
find more difficult than others, we present additional
short lectures to help students “around” common
mistakes and misconceptions.
3.
Lecturette Notes Online: Expanded
“scripts” of the Lecturettes are presented
online in textbook format and is the primary textbook for
the course as it contains all of the Learning Concept
Statements and explanatory material that the student is
expected to master. Material from the Supplemental
Lecturettes is included in its appendices. (We have
prototypes for a physics course.)
4.
Lecturette Notes Hardcopy: A
physical paper bound version of the Lecturette Notes is
also provided to each student. (Again, we have prototypes
for the physics course.)
5.
Audio Presentations: Material
quite similar to the Lecturettes may be presented in audio
format. Some differences/augmentations in the presentations
would correspond to information that would be presented
visually in the Lecturettes.
6.
Trade Text Hardcopy: A
physical “trade” textbook. Generally, this book
is used as a secondary textbook. (In the case of physics we
use a book by Giancoli.)
7.
Trade Text Online: When
available, an e-book version of the secondary textbooks
will be provided as well. (Publishers of the Giancoli text
refused us permission to digitize their work.)
8.
Confidence Based Assessment System: We
intend to use the Knowledge Factor, Inc. system of
assessment, which is described in more detail on our
website. By knowing the confidence with which a student may
hold an incorrect understanding of a concept or fact, it
enables the instructional systems to better remediate the
misunderstanding. Practice tests and official tests are
drawn, in each instance, from a random sampling of the
examination data base- the only difference being that
official tests are proctored.
9.
CyberTutor: After
each administration of the practice test or proctored test,
the CyberTutor mechanism compiles a remediation document
that includes both textual and video presentations of the
issues and concepts surrounding each question answered
incorrectly. This means that students will encounter their
video instructors again in this mode.
10.
CyberWorkbook: Students
can interact offline by completing CyberWorkbook
assignments that are then scanned for grading by the Hub
center staff.
11.
CyberDrill: Students
can interact online by responding to commands and questions
presented online. Each such exercise will relate to one or
more Learning Concept Statements.
12.
CyberGames: Various
computer games will be organized around the concepts of
each course. They will be designed such that students who
have mastered the course will tend to win more often.
13.
Schoolroom Teachers: Within
each Stellar Schools schoolroom there will be at least one
teacher- operating in tutoring mode- who can help students
learn the material.
14.
Student Tutors: Many
schoolrooms will also have present more advanced students
who have already mastered the course content at a
sufficiently high level to be accorded the status of
“student tutor.” They will also be available to
help.
15.
Hub Help Desk: Finally,
at the Stellar Schools Central Service Center or Hub- from
which we plan to operate the Stellar Schools network-
additional teachers will be available to answer questions
when the resources at the schoolroom level prove
inadequate.
_________________
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for
further information.
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