Distance Education | News

NCC Developing Rubrics for Evaluating Online and Blended Learning

• By Leila Meyer
• 10/09/13

The Northeast Comprehensive Center (NCC) is launching a five-year Regional Online and Blended Learning Initiative to develop a set of rubrics and resources for the evaluation of online and blended learning programs for use by state education agencies in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Rhode Island.

According to Emily Rukobo, regional initiative leader for NCC's Regional Innovations in Learning team, the goal of the initiative is "to learn, share, and collaborate with state leaders across the Northeast to create actionable deliverables for statewide dissemination on key issues related to online and blended learning."

A leadership group will meet Oct. 10 and 11 to develop standards and rubrics to evaluate online and blended learning programs for approval or adoption by each participating state.

The event will feature:

• Presentations by leadership representatives to address the current status of the online and blended programs evaluation in their states;
• Knowledge-sharing sessions presented by the Center on Innovations in Learning (CIL); and
• Roundtable sessions facilitated by NCC team members to guide state leaders through the standards and indicators development process.

Invited state education leaders and partners will be have online access to the event through Safari Montage Live! and a recording of the event will be available for download from the NCC site afterward.

The initiative will progress through five phases, one for each year. The online and blended learning evaluation will take place during the first year. The second year of the initiative will focus on online teacher and administrator evaluation, and the third year will focus on teacher and administrator preparation. The focus of the final two years of the initiative will be determined by participants as the initiative and digital learning technologies develop.

The Northeast Comprehensive Center is a regional organization funded by the United States Department of Education with the goal of providing state education agencies across the region with training and technical assistance to implement and administer programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Further information about the initiative and registration information for the online event can be found on the NCC's site.