Last Week at One Schoolhouse: How Do You Know If Your Hybrid Program Is Any Good?

Last week at One Schoolhouse, we asked you to consider how you know if your hybrid program is any good? One easy way to measure your program is to survey students regularly, collecting survey data centrally. Unfortunately, 63% of respondents haven't yet surveyed students or have only had teachers survey their own classes, which goes against our best practice guidance. Survey your students and collect the data centrally. At One Schoolhouse, we survey students five times a year (2 weeks in, and at the end of each quarter) using the same questions each time. This lets us set baselines, so we can measure growth over time (school-wide and on a departmental and teacher basis). We ask students about mission-aligned competencies and also about logistics like time spent in their course, challenge level, and always include an open-ended response question for anything else students want to share. At One Schoolhouse, all our administrators (including the Head of School) read every student comment. Observe classes in the LMS. For better or for worse, learning online is far more transparent than on campus classes. Make sure that: 1) courses are easy to navigate; 2) resources are available and accessible; and 3) students have a clear sense of how the assignments and assessments tie to course competencies and outcomes. For synchronous work, it’s possible to observe a course in real-time, but that practice tends to disrupt the flow of the class. Instead, ask teachers to record a live session so that you can provide evaluation and feedback. Use rubrics for consistency and to set clear expectations. At One Schoolhouse, we’ve developed a list of standards for both course design and competencies for instruction that help us ensure that every course we offer meets expectations and aligns with our mission. It's important that you do the same, standards and competencies should incorporate the feel of your school -- your mission, what you value, who your community is (and who it aspires to be). Consider questions like: What key aspects of our culture and mission need to be made explicit in our version of the standards/competencies? Which will be easy for us to implement? Which will be a challenge? Which will I need help to interpret for our faculty? Ways to Engage: Looking to dive deeper beyond surveys and observation to learn more ways to ensure program quality? Join us for an upcoming course. Assessing and Adjusting Your School's Hybrid Learning: Fidelity to Implementation : Now is the critical period for Academic Leaders to evaluate, adjust, and adapt their hybrid program. This course will help you identify key markers of success, establish data-gathering procedures and create communication plans for your hybrid academic program going forward. Course dates: October 26 - November 1, 2020. Register for Assessing & Adjusting Resources to Read & Watch: One Schoolhouse's Course Standards for Designing and Building Hybrid Courses, and Teaching Competencies for Hybrid Courses : This checklist-style planning tool can be used as a rubric where teachers provide evidence of having met the expectations: examples of emerging practice, artifacts of innovation, and/or space to share growth goal. Improving Teaching With Expert Feedback—From Students : This Edutopia article on how teachers can improve their practice by giving students a voice in the classroom. Did you miss Wednesday's Academic Leaders Webinar with Andy Shaw, Director of Professional Learning at FolioCollaborative, on on faculty goals, feedback and observation this school year? Watch the recording posted here. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Survey your students and collect the data centrally. At One Schoolhouse, we survey students five times a year (2 weeks in, and at the end of each quarter) using the same questions each time. This lets us set baselines, so we can measure growth over time (school-wide and on a departmental and teacher basis). We ask students about mission-aligned competencies and also about logistics like time spent in their course, challenge level, and always include an open-ended response question for anything else students want to share. At One Schoolhouse, all our administrators (including the Head of School) read every student comment.
Observe classes in the LMS. For better or for worse, learning online is far more transparent than on campus classes. Make sure that: 1) courses are easy to navigate; 2) resources are available and accessible; and 3) students have a clear sense of how the assignments and assessments tie to course competencies and outcomes. For synchronous work, it’s possible to observe a course in real-time, but that practice tends to disrupt the flow of the class. Instead, ask teachers to record a live session so that you can provide evaluation and feedback.
Use rubrics for consistency and to set clear expectations. At One Schoolhouse, we’ve developed a list of standards for both course design and competencies for instruction that help us ensure that every course we offer meets expectations and aligns with our mission. It's important that you do the same, standards and competencies should incorporate the feel of your school -- your mission, what you value, who your community is (and who it aspires to be). Consider questions like: What key aspects of our culture and mission need to be made explicit in our version of the standards/competencies? Which will be easy for us to implement? Which will be a challenge? Which will I need help to interpret for our faculty?

Ways to Engage:

Looking to dive deeper beyond surveys and observation to learn more ways to ensure program quality? Join us for an upcoming course.

Assessing and Adjusting Your School's Hybrid Learning: Fidelity to Implementation: Now is the critical period for Academic Leaders to evaluate, adjust, and adapt their hybrid program. This course will help you identify key markers of success, establish data-gathering procedures and create communication plans for your hybrid academic program going forward. Course dates: October 26 - November 1, 2020.

Resources to Read & Watch:

One Schoolhouse's Course Standards for Designing and Building Hybrid Courses, and Teaching Competencies for Hybrid Courses: This checklist-style planning tool can be used as a rubric where teachers provide evidence of having met the expectations: examples of emerging practice, artifacts of innovation, and/or space to share growth goal.
Improving Teaching With Expert Feedback—From Students: This Edutopia article on how teachers can improve their practice by giving students a voice in the classroom.

Did you miss Wednesday's Academic Leaders Webinar with Andy Shaw, Director of Professional Learning at FolioCollaborative, on on faculty goals, feedback and observation this school year? Watch the recording posted here.