ISTE SIGIVC 2007: Arkansas Department of Education: Distance Learning Center

Organizational Overview
The Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) Distance Learning Center (DLC) is Sub-division of the Division of Research and Technology within the Arkansas Department of Education. The DLC was established in July 2001 to provide quality distance-learning content to Arkansas secondary students.

Today, as the DLC nears the completion of our seventh academic year of operation, the DLC employs 23 instructors who provide content to schools throughout Arkansas. Twenty-two of the instructors are located at the main DLC facility in Maumelle, Arkansas. One, based on his desire, has relocated to Farmington, Arkansas, One of the visions of the DLC is that instructors should be able to live where they desire.

Challenge, Problem or Organizational need
1. Assisting schools in resolving faculty availability issues.
2. Using synchronous and asynchronous technology to enable flexible student course scheduling.
3. Assisting faculty in enhancing and enriching existing curricula.
4. Providing professional development and instructional support to faculty in incorporating technology and material into instruction and research.

The Solution
In 2005 the State of Arkansas Department of Information Systems awarded AT&T the enterprise service for bridging, scheduling, trouble reporting, end point management, and core routing support for IVC service.
The network is designed to support multiple interactive video protocols (specifically H.320 and H.323) via transcending that is inherent to the Polycom MGC bridge. At the core of the IVC network are six Polycom MGC 100s that are located in AT&T central offices. The bridges are cascaded, centrally controlled, and centrally scheduled to provide continuity of service to all of the video network subscribers.

The CIV systems are used in conjunction with IBM Sametime, an instant messaging and Web conferencing solution. The content is pushed to the desktop computers of the students over the Arkansas State Network which connects all K-12 institutions. This solution permits real-time application sharing. Instructors may also write on the PowerPoint slide during discussions and can permit or deny a student the privilege to write on the shared content. Some students are learning to use Adobe InDesign and Photoshop.

On-site adult facilitators and students have access to weekly lesson plans and calendars prior to the beginning of the upcoming week and may view and print material prior to the content being taught. ADE DLC instructors use blogs, podcasting, and Web quests to further enrich the learning experience for students. Online assessments provide instant feedback for students in the following formats: homework, quizzes, tests, and written assignments. Modifications are made for those students requiring specialized learning plans.

The Results
All 38 units of instruction required by the state are available to schools. The DLC will instruct over 2400 students this academic year. Demographically, the make-up of the students enrolled in DLC classes mirrors the state demographics with respect to ethnic and gender characteristics.
• The typical Arkansas school district receives 4 classes from the DLC
• The number of CIV Class Periods has increased by 4,350%, from 466 class periods in 2001 – 2002 to 20,737 class periods in 2005 - 2006
• Faculty size has only increased from 7 instructors to 23 instructors, 43% of which have graduate degrees
• 37 Professional Development classes, 124 hours, were offered in the summer of 2006

Innovations &/or Best Practices
AT&T received the North American Best Polycom Solution of the Year 2005 Service Award for the infrastructure that was installed by AT&T to support educational conferencing. This network was also recognized by the publication Campus Technology in December as a best practice. In December 2006 The State of Arkansas network was listed as one of the “101 Best Practices” by Campus Technology magazine.

Contact Information
Max Kolstad, State of Arkansas, Department of Information System, Manager of Distance Learning Services max.kolstad@arkansas.gov