WVDE | Instructional Technology | Virtual School

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The West Virginia Virtual School was created by the West Virginia Legislature on July 1, 2000. The mission of the Virtual School is to assure consistent, high quality education for the students of West Virginia through courses delivered via technology, promote efficacy and equity in course offerings, and provide options for implementation across the public school system. The Virtual School initiative helps bridge the barriers of time, distance and inequities for all West Virginia students by providing access to resources. Since the first three seventh grade students from Capon Middle School took Geometry in the fall of 2000, demand for virtual courses has experienced a steady increase. More than 2,000 students have enrolled in 165 different courses for the 2008-2009 school year.

News and Views

Virtual Learning Strand at the Statewide Technology Conference

The Statewide Technology Conference opened with a flourish on Tuesday, August 4, with a video welcome from Sen. Jay Rockefeller and presentations by Mark Seifert, Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Cindy Southworth, Director of Safety Net. Concurrent sessions in a variety of topics related to fully online and blended learning are scheduled. For information about these sessions and copies of speakers' handouts and presentations, revisit the WVVS website throughout the week.

Summer Professional Development Offered

This summer, the West Virginia Virtual School is hosting Click and Mortar: Blended Delivery Course Development, a week-long professional development opportunity for classroom teachers who would like to enhance and extend their "brick and mortar" classroom with a quality, online component. Participants will explore the WVLearns eLearning platform in depth as they develop a web-based companion for a course they currently teach in a more traditional fashion. Topics include instructional design, integration of statewide technology resources and online activities, utilization of assessment and feedback tools, and supporting online communications. Participants will have plenty of time to plan and develop content for their own course.

View the details of the workshop and submit your application early. Only 30 teachers will be selected for the first cadre.

Megyesi Named Outstanding Online Teacher

Anna MegyesiAnna Megyesi is an experienced Spanish teacher in her second year with the West Virginia Virtual School. She has undergraduate degrees in Spanish and Anthropology and a Masters degree from the School for International Training. Anna has lived, worked and studied in Colombia, Spain and Brazil. Anna was selected to receive the 2008-09 SREB Online Teacher Recognition for West Virginia based on her love of languages, passion for teaching, enthusiastic embrace of new and emerging technologies and instructional techniques, and dedication to integrating technology and language teaching. Anna also served as a presenter at the 2008 American Council of Foreign LanguageTeachers Association Conference.

Online Students Learn More Than Peers

Students in an online, self-paced version of a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee introductory psychology class scored about 12% higher on the same cumulative test as their peers in a traditional lecture version of the class. The online version appeared especially helpful for disadvantaged students and those with lower grades, the study found.