Update on State Initiatives

Distance Learning Initiative

by John Stevenson, Texas LEARNS

Distance Education became an alternative form of delivery of adult education for Texas programs several years ago. Since then, a number of programs have elected to implement distance learning in order to help students reach their educational goals. Last year, fifteen adult education or EL Civics programs offered distance education in Texas and served nearly 700 students.

Texas programs have opted to provide distance education for a number of reasons—to intensify or extend instruction, to provide services for students who cannot commit to regular class schedules, to provide services for students who live in remote areas, to provide instruction to students who do not want to study in the traditional classroom, and to provide options for students, especially homebound students, who cannot attend classes at their local program.

So far, the main incentive for implementing distance education has been to intensify regular instruction, not replace it. Last year, Texas students enrolled in distance education accrued about one proxy hour from a distance curriculum for every five hours from a regular class. As programs struggle to meet the requirements of the state assessment policy, which requires at least 60 hours between the baseline and post-tests, distance education has permitted students to increase time-on-task by overlaying a distance course on top of their regular course of instruction. In the past, students attending classes for a few hours a week would have to remain in the program for five or six months before they could accrue enough time to justify taking a post-test. By adding distance courses, these students can add ten or twelve hours per week to their previous schedules and be ready for post-testing much, much sooner.

Recent research also bears out the more intensive instruction yields better results. Students who can intensify instruction through distance education are not only eligible for post-testing earlier, they are also more likely to make learning gains. Last year, 59.7% of the students who participated in Texas distance education programs completed one or more educational functional levels.

State policy requires programs to use distance curriculum approved by Texas LEARNS. So far, fifteen curricula have been approved—six for ESL (English as a Second Language) and nine for ABE (Adult Basic Education) and ASE (Adult Secondary Education). Three of these curricula were approved within the last year: Sed de Saber, a distance curriculum that can be used by very low level ESL students; The California Distance Learning Project--Adult Learning Activities, which can be used for both ESL and ABE students, and ITTS, a web-based curriculum for ABE and ASE students. In 2008-2009 the most popular curricula used by Texas students participating in distance education were Aztec (28%), English for All (26%) and GED (General Educational Development) Connection (20%).

In order to make distance education more affordable for Texas programs, TEA (Texas Education Agency) has purchased state licensing agreements for selected curriculum. These include GED Connection, Workplace Essential Skills and ITTS. A license for another distance course, TV411, was also purchased, but, to date, this curriculum has not been added to the approved list.

Professional development for teachers of distance education is provided by the GREAT Centers using training materials developed by Project IDEAL, a national consortium that promotes distance education for adult learners. A number of courses are available through Project IDEAL, but, by far, the most popular has been DL 101, which helps teachers and administrators design distance education courses for their students and which is required by state policy for programs that want to implement distance education. In 2008-09 more than 80 teachers and administrators participated in DL 101.

In the 2009-10 program year and following, we expect to see distance education expand exponentially in Texas. Texas LEARNS and the distance education committee are looking at ways we can assist programs that want to implement distance learning and support those programs that have already incorporated it into their delivery systems for adult education.