Cobb County eSchool Uses Wimba Classroom to Energize K-12 Students
eHS does not fit the description of a traditional high school. Based in Marietta, Georgia, eHS was created in 2001 by the Cobb County School District for students who wanted to take classes outside of their regular schedules. Traditionally, eHS has offered tuition courses to students who wish to take a class in addition to their regular school day.However, in accordance with the Georgia Virtual School legislation signed by the Governor in May 2005, eHS now offers online courses to students as part of the regular school day.
During the 2005-2006 school year, eHS served over 1,300 students taking over 1,600 seats in 45 courses. As in face-to-face classes, eHS online classes include a teacher, lessons, homework, class discussions, and assessments. Except, eHS students have access to a wider range of coursework and more flexibility in scheduling. More importantly, students have the opportunity to develop as independent learners - because learning online is neither time nor place dependent.
Enter Wimba
When eHS considered offering foreign language courses, which require vocal interaction among students and instructors, it needed more collaborative online technologies. eHS turned to Wimba Classroom and Wimba Voice solutions to add those collaborative elements. After only a few days of using these tools, eHS quickly realized the potential they held for the entire school. Cheryl Rowley, an administrator at eHS, knew that the Wimba tools could make a difference in the school’s entire educational program, which, until the use of Wimba, had been asynchronous-only.
When eHS first purchased Wimba’s collaborative technologies in Spring 2006, Ms. Rowley decided that school-wide software adoption would happen quickest if the administrators led by example. Since the majority of eHS instructors are adjuncts who have full-time jobs, they had limited time to learn new software programs, so it was critical for them to understand the importance of these tools and their relative ease of use.
Therefore, Ms. Rowley decided to hold faculty meetings online via Wimba Classroom – meetings that had previously been conducted face-to-face. These meetings quickly enabled many instructors to overcome their fear of taking on the challenge of learning new technologies because while they were participating in their faculty meetings, they were actually learning how to use Wimba Classroom. Ms. Rowley admits the faculty was initially hesitant about taking on this new idea, but the addition of the online meetings quickly enabled them to see the potential for Wimba Classroom in eHS courses.
The Wimba software is easy to use and therefore allows instructors of varying technological skills to implement it based on what they might need in order to reach all their students. These tools allow eHS instructors to set up private tutorials for students according to their schedules and availability. The tools also help teachers to better convey to students more rigorous concepts that would otherwise be difficult to deliver. This allows teachers to differentiate student instruction. It also allows the instructors to collaborate among themselves by sharing their ideas and finding new and innovative ways to teach.
During the 2007 school year, the 45 person staff and 1,500 students at eHS use Wimba’s products in more than 50 different classes such as Geometry, Latin I, American Literature, Government, Algebra II and III, and World Literature.
Enticing the Technophobe
Although Wimba’s collaborative products have been a great addition to eHS, there is one unique challenge that these students and instructors face. Since new students enroll in eHS each semester, it can be difficult for them to grasp this new technology. New enrollees are usually tentative with the tools in the beginning, but they often become more comfortable as the semester progresses.
In order to address this apprehension, eHS uses a scaffolding method to help the students become more familiar by consistently making it a bigger part of their online classes. In fact, Rowley states that given the choice between over-the-phone instruction or Wimba Classroom, the students overwhelmingly choose Wimba Classroom because it allows them more flexibility in interacting with their instructors. For example, students can post their PowerPoint presentations or current assignments in Wimba Classroom and receive immediate feedback from their instructors.
Saving Time & Money by holding Professional Development online
By using Wimba for its faculty and personnel trainings, administrators and instructors no longer have to travel to a central location to receive training, and can now participate from their offices or classrooms. In addition, the use of Wimba Classroom allows for the creation of reusable training objects, thus eliminating the need to repeat the same training time and time again, saving staff time due to less travel. Less travel and compacted training – training larger groups in fewer sessions – allows the division staff to spend time in a higher-quality consulting roll to Principals and testing staff rather than delivering training. It also creates an easily-accessible tutorial for personnel to access anytime they need refresher training. Reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. Administrators and other school personnel are “absolutely astounded” that they no longer have to commute to or attend a face-to-face training activity. Wimba Classroom has made a profound difference in the lives of busy educators across the entire school district, allowing them to be more productive and to better serve their students at the same time.
In fact, in a given year of use, the county saves nearly $6,000 in mileage reimbursement costs and almost $18,000 in terms of lost productivity, for a total annual savings of $23,500 – and remember, this is in addition to all of the online courses it’s been offering more than half-a-decade. This school has demonstrated that the Wimba Collaboration Suite is a truly comprehensive solution that allows for rich online instruction and meetings.
Embracing the Future
eHS is looking toward the future with Wimba Classroom and Wimba Voice by using Wimba Classroom to take over the face-to-face orientation for its students. eHS is looking to evolve, and with Wimba, is embracing collaborative technology and making it a permanent part of its future.
About eHS
Cobb’s eHS offers quality, Internet-delivered online high school courses for students enrolled in the Cobb County School District. Since summer 2001, eHS has served almost 5,000 students. During the 2005-2006 school year, eHS served almost 1,300 students taking over 1,600 seats (.5 units) in 45 courses.