December 2007 — News
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Oregon High Schools Log On to Online Media
The Oregon Department of Education late last month signed on with the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education to receive course materials online, including podcasts, streaming video and audio, and textual materials. Through the deal, some 205 high schools in the state, representing about 125,000 high school students, now have access to the materials through the agency's servers and through HippoCampus.org.
Through the deal, ODE has obtained a statewide license for 33 courses in the National Repository of Online Courses. The repository (NROC) is an "open educational resource project" of the Monterey Institute, providing an online library of courses for students and teachers in algebra, United States history, biology, American government, physics, environmental science, calculus, and other topics. These resources are already publicly available through HippoCampus.org, by ODE, through its agreement, will also have access to "additional resources, services, and secure assessments," according to the Monterey Institute.
For its particular deployment, ODE integrated the NROC content through its open-source learning/content management system, Moodle. The agency is in the process of providing training for educators on the use of the tools.
ODE Chief Information Technology Strategist Steve Nelson said, "[MITE was] a unique find. The quality is extraordinary, the flexibility is exceptional, and the feedback we're getting from our teachers is that the content is amazing. MITE understands the technological challenges of providing course content in a way that lets educators customize it for their particular classes. MITE was the only provider that would allow us to host the course content locally, which saves us money and improves the download speed."
According to the Monterey Institute, 20 schools and about 2,000 students have begun using the online content (as of the end of November), which is expected to reach 50,000 to 60,000 students by June.
Read More:
- The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education
- The Oregon Department of Education
- HippoCampus.org
About the author: David Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's online education technology publications, including THE Journal and Campus Technology. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
Proposals for articles and tips for news stories, as well as questions and comments about this publication, should be submitted to David Nagel, executive editor, at dnagel@1105media.com.
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