Eleventh- and twelfth-grade students from four different schools enrolled in a two-year advanced placement physics course through i-school, offered by the VSS. A veteran high school physics teacher seconded to the VSS taught the students online using voice and data conferencing technologies and Blackboard online. The teacher also provided supplementary materials, freeware, and virtual laboratories on a CD that was mailed by the VSS to students. Science simulation and other Internet resources were also used.

The teacher taught two fifty-minute synchronous sessions through audio conferencing and Blackboard. He encouraged discovery learning in his virtual classroom through demonstrations, simulations, and experiments. His tasks required the students to conduct procedural steps that mirror those of real scientists, i.e. testing, observation, analysis, comparison, and evaluation. In one example, he demonstrated a simulation about the physics of sound using a simulation accessed through the Internet. Using the simulation, he walked the students through the measurement activity where he had the students measure the changes of the sound wave patterns on their computer screens. Students then had to plot the measurements on a graph and discussed their observations with other students in a Blackboard discussion forum.

The teacher often began his teaching of new topics with a short lecture on the key points. On the topic of "Optics", he described the key points on the lesson on light heard through audio headsets worn by teacher and students. Students listened carefully because they knew they needed the information that would help them in their upcoming laboratory experiment with concave mirrors. He provided detailed instructions in the task sheet. Following the instructions, the students walked through the task, noted their findings and wrote up their reports. Findings were also posted in Blackboard so students could compare them. The experiments were supplemented with links to other simulations such as "Thin Lens" and "Optic Bench" which helped to reinforce the key points.

Supplementing the required experiments with links to other simulations also provided gifted students with the opportunities to explore more resources on the same topic. The teacher shared an incident where one student had decided to lighten the lesson with a cheeky remark about one of his classmates at the same location: "Sir, Jared is playing games." Far from becoming angry with Jared, the teacher was fairly sure that Jared, a gifted student, was in fact stretching his knowledge of physics using one of the many links that he had provided the class. When questioned, Jared revealed that he had indeed been exploring one of the many simulations and proceeded to describe the simulation to his classmates and teacher.
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HOW?

"As a virtual school student you participate in online lessons with your teacher and other students. These lessons will allow you to talk with the teacher and other students by phone while using the computer to share information and ideas." Virtual Classroom: Online lessons See a teaching online lesson sample (requires Windows Media Player)

The Virtual Schooling System (VSS) is an agency that advertises its services on the web. Schools purchase places in a class which is taught by a teacher who is seconded to the VSS agency. The teacher has a desk in the agency's headquarters in the state capital. Each seconded teacher is responsible for designing and teaching courses in one subject. VSS provides all the resources, except for the specified text book which must be purchased by the student or the school. VSS also provides comprehensive technology for advanced learning.

The Physics course blends self-study with live teacher-directed sessions over four sessions of 50 minutes in the school timetable each week:

• 2 teacher-directed sessions use a bridge phone to talk directly with students in up to four locations
• 2 sessions of resource-based learning are adjusted to suit the individual student's timetable

The teacher utilizes Blackboard, a learning management system licensed by the VSS, and voice and data technologies to connect with his students across multiple sites. In addition, he prepares all the necessary supplementary materials, freeware, and virtual laboratories ahead of time. The VSS then makes copies on CDs and mails them to the students. The CD allows students to access big files and applications to reduce the time downloading from the Internet and following copyright restrictions. This teacher also provided his own homepage which contained more resources for his course

How does the teacher know his class so well in this virtual context? Photos shared in Blackboard at an early stage were useful to build community among the students and the teacher. Teaching two fifty-minute synchronous sessions, he hears their voices and they hear his twice a week. The sense of immediacy and intimacy is facilitated by the voice conferencing technology. This teacher believed that synchronous communication was necessary in dealing with high school students to provide "live" teacher supervision. Just as important are the asynchronous conversations in the class discussion and the personal e-mails in the virtual classroom. These are archived in Blackboard so he can check them at any time. The first topic of conversation was an icebreaker: Introducing yourself as if you were introduced by your pet cat or dog or whatever. This brought almost all students out of their shell and he was then able to draw them out further over the course of the year. Occasionally one remained aloof, but a few e-mails would sort that out better than his previous experience with a class of 30. Problems were often handled via e-mail and it worked, because he could call in local support from the school counselor, parent or the person who sponsored the student (the study coach). Although the VSS requested that an adult be present with the students studying at a distance, it was not uncommon for the student(s) to study alone. This is why VSS includes a virtual study room and study coaches as part of the virtual schooling experience.

Schools engaging the VSS for their students sign a contract to provide local support, to accept the grading of VSS into their own school administration, and to pay the fee. The VSS charges a fee that is relatively expensive so that schools are encouraged to employ their own teachers when they have a full class enrolled. The teacher in this case noted that more than one school had not returned for a second year of physics because students' enthusiasm for physics had increased, resulting in adequate demand to employ their own teacher.

Thanks to Dave Graham and Queensland Virtual Schooling System for their help.

This case developed by:
Niki Davis, Ph.D. and Lily Compton, M. A
Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching
Iowa State University

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Case Studies
Web Links:
Virtual Schooling System: http://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/service/virtual/
VSS i-school General Information: http://www.learningplace.com.au/deliver/content.asp?id=12855
Queensland's Department of Education and the Arts:
Blackboard: http://www.blackboard.com/
Study Coach: http://education.qld.gov.au/virtualschool/html/students/infohub/study_coach.htm
VSS guidelines: http://www.learningplace.com.au/uploads/documents/store/doc_368_1271_isch_fs4.pdf
VSS time-tables: http://www.learningplace.com.au/default_community.asp?orgid=64&suborgid=368
'Thin Lens' simulation: http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/java/Lens/lens_e.html
'Optic bench' simulation: http://webphysics.davidson.edu/Applets/optics4/default.html
Virtual Classroom - Online Lessons: http://education.qld.gov.au/virtualschool/html/students/infohub/virtual_lessons.htm
Sample of teaching Online Lesson: http://media.helloqueensland.net.au/WM/teachingonline.wmv
Virtual Study Room: http://education.qld.gov.au/virtualschool/html/students/infohub/study.htm
Download free Adobe Reader: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Download free Windows Media Player: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp

'Good Practice to Inform Iowa Learning Online' case studies were developed by the Center for Teachnology in Learning and Teaching at
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Last updated: January 2005