Eastern LINCS Minigrant Final Report, Cheryl Tondreau

Background: Since the summer of 2001, I have been using an internet based tutorial program, called Skills Tutor, with learners. Students enrolled either as a supplement to an Adult Ed class or because they could not or did not wish to enroll in a traditional adult education classroom program. Individuals who enrolled and used the product independently are considered 'pure distance learners.' Skills Tutor alone was enough for many learners enrolled in the RI Distance Learning Initiative across the state. Enrolled in my program, Project LEARN, however, there are many learners who want to work at a distance, but also want/ need some degree of direct instruction and some contact with other learners in order to stay motivated and be successful. I designed this project with these learners in mind.

1. What were the goals of your web project?

Using the internet, enhance and expand the study for pure distance students who were using Skills Tutor only and students in my DL/GED class (DL/GED class meets two days per week for two hour sessions for direct instruction in Reading Content areas and Math and students have access to Skills Tutor for additional skills practice and instruction):
  • Connect students in my DL/GED class with 'pure' distance learning students through the use of a virtual classroom assistant called Nicenet.org
  • Enrich the study for both groups (DL/GED class participants and pure distance learners) by providing additional links/resources for topics of interest that connect to their shared goal of attaining the GED through both Nicenet.org and the RI Distance Learning website.

    • 2. What steps did you take to implement your project?

  • DL/GED students were polled to gauge interest in connecting with pure distance learners
  • two pure distance learners were contacted to see if they were interested in participating in project
  • all students participating were given information about the project and asked to enroll in nicenet.org virtual classroom
  • DL Virtual classroom was designed and then modified and updated throughout project
  • RI Distance Learning website was modified to be more user friendly and a section was added for the new Virtual DL Class.
  • Participating students were asked for their opinions/comments/about the virtual classroom

    • 3. What feedback did you receive from the intended end users, and how did you use it?

    Throughout the period of the grant, I was able to informally assess the use of nicenet.org by talking with my DL/GED students when I saw them for class At the beginning of May, I asked all learners to complete a survey of their use of and comments about nicenet.org. (See here [a word document for download] for results of survey).

    Based on the results of the survey, I concluded that nicenet.org did satisfy some of the needs that my students had for additional support outside of class or in addition to Skills Tutor. At the beginning of the project, I used all the features of Nicenet.org (conferencing, link sharing, documents, email feature). After obtaining the feedback from my students, I limited the use of Nicenet.org to only those features the students found helpful, namely the email feature and the class assignment feature.

    4. What was the product or outcome of your web project?

    Development of a free virtual classroom site for students interested in activities outside the classroom and Skills Tutor) on http://www.nicenet.org (see note, below, to students for information about registering for our Virtual Class.)

    Enhancement of my existing RI Distance Learning site by creating a portal for Distance Learning Students - DL/GED Virtual Class section:
    http://members.cox.net/ridistancelearning/DL%20virtual%20class.htm. This has been started and is a work in progress.

    5. How will your project benefit its intended end users?

    Virtual Classroom Site: Throughout the grant period, March to June 30, students in the DL/GED class and 'pure' distance learners chosen for this project were able and encouraged to access Nicenet.org to communicate with each other, to get assignments related to their shared interest in passing the GED tests, and to get links to sites of interest on the Internet (based on discussions we had in class or connected to the shared book that we read, The Kite Runner.)

    It is my hope that students participating in this project will continue to use this virtual classroom site until they achieve their goals and exit our program.

    New Distance Learning students who enroll in my program will also be given the opportunity to enroll in the virtual class on Nicenet.org.

    RI Distance Learning Website: This part of the project was not given to the students participating in the project. I plan to complete the Reading section during the summer and field test it with a few learners and colleagues. Once this has been done, the link to the Virtual Class portal will be given to all new Distance Learning students during our orientation. Once all sections are completed, I hope that the additional information it will provide about the five areas on the GED tests will be helpful for any student who wishes to use it.

    6. Does the end product meet expectations? Please explain.

    My original expectation for the project was that both the virtual classroom (nicenet.org) and the RI Distance Learning Website would be fully completed and used by the participating students. This was an unrealistic expectation, however, since the implementation and use of the virtual classroom took most of the period to accomplish the goals set forth - namely, connect DL/GED students and pure distance learners, give assignments related to what we did in class, and to give links for sites of interest relating to class work and our shared reading assignment.

    I believe it was important to spend the extra time creating and modifying the virtual classroom with the students' input since the feedback I received was very useful to me and will be used to make the site more relevant and useful to the new students who will be offered this supplement to Skills Tutor in the future.

    Once I began making the necessary changes to the existing RI Distance Learning site, I recognized that to complete the site the way I want and to be most beneficial for the intended user (pure distance learning students), I will need more time and will need to get some technical support for some of the more complicated website development. The site is, however, already much more user friendly and the section on Reading Strategies should be helpful to anyone who uses it.

    7. What helped your efforts?

    Feedback on the project given at the May 19th (Interim report meeting) was very helpful. I intend to make the changes that I am able to and seek the help of someone with more website creation expertise for the other changes that could be made.

    8. What hindered your efforts?

    Although the feedback on my project from the other members of the grant team was helpful, I found that I lacked the expertise to make all of their good suggestions.

    Also, making the changes and additions to the website that I planned to make by the end of this grant period wereput on holdÓ due to an injury I sustained in an auto accident. Once I am on my feet again, I will work on the site.

    One of the hardest things for me to accept during this grant was that totally redoing and updating the RI Distance Learning website was going to take a great deal of time and the scope of this minigrant was not intended to be of this magnitude. At some point in this grant period, I did come to realize this and I'm satisfied with the results so far.

    9. What, if any, unanticipated outcomes or developments were there?

    Improvements to the existing RI Distance Learning site were more complex than I had anticipated.

    One of the pure distance learning students decided after the start of the project that she could not participate in the shared reading assignment. She did, however, continue to use the virtual classroom to get other assignments and to communicate a little with the other participants.

    10. What did you learn in the process of doing this project? What would you do differently?

    I learned a great deal about website development. I gained new insight into what my learners needed and wanted in addition to the class and in addition to Skills Tutor.

    Because the time for the grant was so short, I would have limited the scope of the project at the beginning rather than during the project as I had to with this project if I were to do another minigrant project.

    11. Any other reflections or comments?

    I really enjoyed the experience of working with the other members of the LINCS minigrant team. I am very grateful for this opportunity to expand what I do for Distance Learners in the State of RI. As you can probably tell, I intend to continue to work to improve both the virtual classroom site and the RI Distance Learning website so others can benefit from the work that was done for this project.

    note to students:

    To Join and Participate in DL/GED Virtual Class

    In order to provide DL/GED students and pure Distance Learning students with more information and more assignments, I have created a new opportunity called DL/GED Virtual Class. This class is supplemental to what you already have and is completely voluntary. I would, however, like to encourage you to participate since I think it will help you.

    There are three online components that make up this virtual class.

  • The first is Skills Tutor of which you are aware. You have been given a user name and password. Up to now, you have been able to choose the modules that you'd like to work on without much guiding by me. I will be assigning modules which compliment what we are doing in class or to go with the outside reading of our novel, The Kite Runner, as it is appropriate.
  • The second component is Nicenet.org which is a virtual classroom site.
    This site has
    (1) a section for conferencing which we will use to communicate our views with others in the class,
    (2) a section called link sharing where I will give you links to internet sites of interest,
    (3) a section called documents where you will be able to see text to help you be successful in this class,
    (4) a schedule section where you will find assignments that I'd like you to do,
    (5) a Class members section where you can see the members of the class and
    (6) a personal message section that enables you to communicate by email with others in the class.
  • The third component is a website which I developed for RI Distance Learning. On this website, I plan to put information that will be helpful as you prepare for the GED test. At first I will complete the section on Reading. In the future, you will be able to access information on all five GED test content - Reading, Writing, Social Studies, Science, and Math. There is so much to share with you. This site will help me to give you information I cannot possibly give you privately or during classtime.

    • Skills Tutor: http://www.myskillstutor.com

    user name: _____________________

    password: _____________________

    site: project01

    Nicenet.org: http://www.nicenet.org

    To enroll in this component of our class, go to the site. Click on Join A Class. Enter our class key: R96449S54

    You will need to give your first name. If you wouldn't mind receiving messages from others as well as reminders about assignments, please give your email address also.

    Distance Learning Website

    To access the information for this class on this website, go to:

    http://www.members.cox.net/ridistancelearning/DL%20virtual%20class.htm

    This website is under construction and will be changing often

  • The first GED subject we are working on is Reading - Click Reading
  • Click Strategies to review some Reading Strategies we talked about in class

    • The development of these web pages has been supported by Eastern LINCS under the auspices of the New England Literacy Resource Center. The Literacy Information aNd Communication System (LINCS) is a cooperative electronic network of the national, regional, state, local partners created and funded by the National Institute for Literacy.

    page developed July 11, 2005; updated August 24, 2005

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