Skip to main content

Why World of Learning

World Of Learning at IU8

We are: Customized Learning, Rigorous Experiences, Caring Adults

The World of Learning  joined Appalachia IU8 in the 16-17 School Year. We started by building on our relationships with district partners across PA; our mission was to provide small and rural schools with options to expand opportunities for learners.

Today, as the IU8 World of Learning team continues to grow and stretch the boundaries of live virtual instruction, we work with people who are passionate about creating meaningful experiences for students. Our offerings have expanded from Modern Languages to Core and Elective Courses, Credit Recovery and the support of EL Learners and Facilitators. We have also expanded through providing Professional Development to support schools and districts on the journey of using Virtual Design and Learning anywhere. Toward the end of the 2016 - 17 school year we added the management of the Open Campus Initiative to our services. In the 2017-18 school year we were able to expand customized, rigorous, and caring opportunities for ALL learners in our districts.

Programming
WOL
Open Campus
Participants/Districts
Participants/Districts
Unique Courses
49
99
Full Time Students
0
94
Part Time Students
744
1323
AP
0
27
Credit Advancement - Summer School
1
0
Credit Recovery - Summer School
8
0
Credit Recovery - Regular School Year
0
0
Dual Enrollment
44
0
Enrichment Summer School
13
0
Initial Credit
1170
1417
Test Prep
0
0
Online Instructors
13
8
ELL Services
Developing
0
0
OT/PT Services
Developing
0
0
Professional Learning Services
12 Offerings
41
0
Districts Served
22
20

The 2017-18 school year was was great school for us! From increasing rigor in World Languages at Conemaugh Valley and Windber to offering Chemistry and Algebra 2 for Career and Tech students in the Williamsburg Community SD, having options was key! We were able to create opportunities for learners across our districts and state to continue rigorous coursework, in a flexible environment, with caring adults. We have forged new relationships at IU8 as well - providing professional development for virtual solutions and content support for English as a Second Language teachers and PT/OT staff. We are on the road to expanding the reach of Open Campus from a vendor driven resource to ones that are focused on using resources we have developed with the collaborative effort of our partnership with PDE, using our own CLX resources to providing Innovation and Incubation, CPDLF, the MCL Consortium, IU8 Open Campus and K12 Learning Unlimited to fill the needs of many types of programming that schools and districts have requested.


The WOL/Open Campus has grown our reach through partnerships with schools and districts, presenting at a variety of conferences and expanding who we serve through the blending of the World of Learning and Open Campus. Our dedicated team provides great outcomes, while holding learners to rigorous standards. We provide the support needed for learners’ to meet and exceed their goals. Our joining efforts with Open Campus has helped us serve about 2600 learners in our region, and beyond. Our ability to create flexible, not ‘one-size fits all’ options has allowed work with all our stakeholders to create solutions that truly give voice to our mission and the options they seek.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Practice Becoming

Practice Becoming “. . . Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow”.                       Kurt Vonnegut We are back at it folks! Excited to be working with teachers and learners! Teachers are amazing. I get the good fortune to meet lots of them in our World of Learning. What I know is that they are practicing all the time. I see them working hard at practicing the art of teaching as they learn new tasks and share professional learning each summer. I have the good fortune to work with amazing teachers at IU8’s World of Learning and as I support school districts through our Open Campus Initiative. I talk to people who care about learners, as people, every...
Post a Comment
Read more

Learning Together

"It is never enough, it seems to me, to teach a child mere information." (Eleanor Roosevelt) We just completed a three day learning event at IU8 that we called World of Learning Adventure . Teachers who have been a part of a the World Language Network at IU8 came together to learn about how to use virtual resources with the specific goals of “creating a variety of experiences for learners, exploring ways to engage learners, finding and sharing new resources, and to learn from each other.” We didn’t just talk about the content, we talked about really connecting with learners, going 'beyond information". It was awesome! It was aptly called an Adventure and was a good way to describe the journey we took. The intensity that the teachers brought to this experience set the stage for a great three days. We began by introducing and expanded learning ecosystem that is at the center of Mass Customized Learning (Schwann and McGarvey). We explored Open Educational Reso...
Post a Comment
Read more

Connected Learning - Anywhere!

Teaching and learning in an online, virtual, blended or internet based platform is not just about the tools, it is also about the connections. Don’t get me wrong, we couldn’t provide virtual services without the tools, but the tools come and some go… so we work hard to figure out how to engage with the learners and make the virtual experience meaningful. In the late fall, we spent some time with a few learners and their teacher. You can see that they like each other even though they have only been working together for about 8 weeks. We wanted to know a bit more about how learners were navigating these new tools that were being used at Windber Area School District so we asked them some questions. Here is what we heard when we asked: “What did you think when you heard you were going to be doing some of your class in a virtual environment?” The first students started “I thought it was going to be hard!” Another student described using the virtual tools as an “ex...
Post a Comment
Read more