A Formative Evaluation Of The Edgenuity Online Learning Management System That Is Used By The Cima Vista Program At Rio Rico High School

Submitted to SCVUSD#35 School District Administration

By Jennifer Meeker

Boise State Graduate Student

Summary

The program that is being evaluated is the Edgenuity online learning management system that is used by the Cima Vista Program. This program is used across the country to help students earn credits as both credit recover and to graduate high school. This program allows students to take multiple classes in a safe online environment. It provides everything a student needs to complete their course work.

The main purpose of this report is to find out if the Edgenuity Program is right for the Cima Vista Program at Rio Rico High School. The Cima Vista program’s main goals are to help students who need alternative ways to graduate high school. Due to the location of this program and its population of students, there are specific needs that a credit recover program has to meet. One of the biggest needs is flexibility to take the classes anywhere, but to still have a location where students can come to work when they can.

This evaluation found that the Edgenuity Program is helping the Cima Vista program meet all of their goals. Students are happy with the program and feel that the courses are organized well. Teachers also are happy with the program and would recommend the program to others. Students are finishing course work in a timely matter and they are able to take multiple classes at a time. They are also able to work on different classes than anyone else in their program if they need to. Finally, the Edgenuity Program gives the student the flexibility to work at home at any time of the day to allow them to stay on track.

Description of the Program Evaluated

The Edgenuity online learning management system is used at the Cima Vista High School program at Rio Rico High School in Rio Rico, Arizona. The program is for students who “possess non-traditional learning styles and perform better in the non-traditional school setting”. The Edgenuity program is used at the high school as the sole way of delivering credit recover course work to the students in the Cima Vista Program. The program allows students to either make up course work they have missed, finish credits from pervious classes, or finish their high school diploma.

Edgenuity gives teachers an easy and flexible way to measure and monitor student engagement, progress, and achievement in real time. The data that teachers gain from the Edgenuity program allows teachers to spend more time motivating their students and to make sure they are understanding the course work to its full extent. Teachers are able to create a differentiated classroom experience for their students by customizing the course work for each student. There are also embedded communication tools that allow students to build meaningful relationships between students, teachers and families.

The student experience for Edgenuity is different for every student. This is because the course work is customizable. The courses in Edgenuity have direct instruction by highly

qualified, certified teachers. The lessons keep students engaged with media rich content and interactive instructional tools that help students build knowledge and skills with scaffolding and support. Each lesson is built from current research that best helps students learn. There are also many real world applications, which help transfer knowledge and skills.

Program Objectives

The objectives for the Cima Vista program in conjunction with Edgenuity are that every student will S.O.A.R. They use the Edgenuity program to eliminate barriers to learning and social development by fostering a sense of value, unity and belonging.

Strengthen Communitieso Celebrate diversityo Create a sense of placeo Act respectfully

Overcome Obstacleso Embrace challengeso Think criticallyo Develop solutions

Accept Responsibilityo Be personally accountableo Make positive decisions

Reach Goalso Demonstrate initiativeo Plan for the futureo Strive for excellence

Program Components

Students can log into Edgenuity from anywhere. They can work on their course work from home or at school. Once they are logged in, they have access to chat and email. They will also see a list of all of their courses where they can click on them to get more details about each course. They can see their current progress or they can access their next activity. During the videos, there is a digital notebook for students to take notes. In addition, a glossary highlights all the key vocabulary from the lesson. An option to translate into different languages is also available. A built in calculator is available as a tool, as well as highlighting, read aloud tools for on screen text, and the ability to change the language of the text. There is also an assignment calendar to help the student stay on track.

Evaluation Method

Participants

There were two groups of people that were chosen to be a part of the evaluation. One group was the students of the Cima Vista program. These students are the students that are accessing the Edgenuity program every day and can truly tell if the program is working for them or not. The other group of people that were chosen to be a part of the evaluation was the teachers of the Cima Vista program. The teachers have firsthand knowledge of the program and how it works. They are able to communicate if the program is working or not for their students as well.

The key personnel for the Cima Vista Program are Dagoberto Lopez and Mirna Valdez. Dagoberto Lopez is the director of the Cima Vista program as well as the lead teacher for the program. He is responsible for overseeing the program and the students’ management. Mirna Valdez is the teacher assistant for the program. Her role is to aid the teacher as well as help the students as they need it during the day.

Procedures

During my evaluation of the Edgenuity program, the Cima Vista program functioned normally. The only disruption was for a five-minute survey that the students were asked to take at the beginning of one of their periods. A survey was created for both teachers and students. These surveys asked key questions of the participants to gauge how they felt about the program. The surveys were sent out to the two teachers of the program as well as the students. The students had a link to the survey inside of their Edgenuity email account. In the morning of the survey, the students had an announcement in their course work as their first task of the day to take the survey that was sent to them. Teachers received an email with a link to the survey in their work accounts. The evaluator was given access to the backside of Edgenuity. A teacher login was created so the evaluator could access reports of the students’ grades, attendance, and credit completion details. This information was also used to form the evaluation.

Data Sources

Teacher Attitudes

A Teacher Survey was designed to collect information from the instructors of the Edgenuity program in order to gauge their general feelings towards the Edgenuity program. This survey was given through SurveyMonkey. A link was sent to them through their work email addresses.

Student Attitudes

A Students Survey was administered in order to fully understand the student’s feelings towards the Edgenuity program inside of Cima Vista. This survey was also created through SurveyMonkey and was emailed to the students through their Edgenuity email accounts. It was given to the students as a task to complete in the beginning of their day.

Reports from Edgenuity

Reports from Edgenuity were accessed on attendance records, hours spent on courses, completion of credit details, and other significant information. This information was used to answer several of the evaluation questions.

Program Information

Information about the program was collected from two different websites. RRHS Cima Vista Website provided information about the goals and objectives of the Cima Vista program. The Edgenuity Website gave insight to how the Edgenuity program works and it objectives.

Results

Teacher Attitudes:

Overall teacher attitudes toward the Edgenuity program inside of the Cima Vista program are high. Teachers gave the highest marks to the content of the program for being organized well and stated that the activities and assignments are well designed. The teachers also felt that Edgenuity prepares their students for their next course. Teachers also stated they would recommend Edgenuity to both parents and students.

Student Attitudes

When the students were asked to rate different aspects of the Edgenuity program on a scale of 0-4 the average results were all over 2.5. This shows an overall good attitude towards the Edgenuity program. Students are mostly happy with the different components of the program. Most students felt that Edgenuity increased their knowledge of the subject area that they are studying. Some students however did feel that the course work for the Edgenuity is too challenging.

When the students were asked to tell how much they agreed with different statements about the Edgenuity program, overall students mostly agreed with the statements. Student felt the most

strongly that the course activities reflected the course goals and that they would recommend the program to a friend. Areas of improvements might be that the program instructions are not as clear as they could be.

Majority of the student use the Edgenuity program at home at least once or twice a week.

The majority of the students also ask for help from the teachers when they need it.

When asked how the program could be improved many students stated that they like it the way it is. Several gave a few suggestions on what could make it better as in shorter videos to watch and fixing some of the technological difficulties that arise.

Reports from Edgenuity

There have been 46 students enrolled in the Cima Vista Program since the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year. Of the 46 there have been 5 10 day drops and two graduations this year. Currently there are 39 students enrolled in the Cima Vista program using the Edgenuity Program. There has been a total of 74 credits earned this year by all students combined. That makes an average of about 1.8 credits earned per student who has not dropped this year so far.

English 1A; Credits; 4Economics A; Credits; 3.5

Algebra 2A; Credits; 3English 3B; Credits; 3World History B; Credits; 3

Algebra 2B; Credits; 2.5

Algebra 1B; Credits; 2

Computer Applications A; Credits; 2

Computer Applications B; Credits; 2

English 2B; Credits; 2

English 4 A and B; Credits; 2

Government; Credits; 2

Personal Well-ness A; Credits;

2US History B;

Credits; 2World History A; Credits; 2

Algebra 1 A; Credits; 1.5Biology A; Cred-

its; 1.5English 4A; Credits; 1.5

Geometry B; Credits; 1.5

Personal Wellness B; Credits; 1.5US History A; Credits; 1.5Bilology Parts 3 and 4 ; Credits;

1Economics B;

Credits; 1English 1B; Credits; 1English 2A; Credits; 1

English 3 Part 1 & 2 of 4; Cred-

its; 1English 3A; Credits; 1English 4B; Credits; 1

Financial Math A and B; Cred-

its; 1Financial Math

B; Credits; 1Financial Math S2; Credits; 1

Geometry Parts 3 and 4; Cred-

its; 1

Introduction to Art A/B; Cred-

its; 1

Personal Well-ness S1; Credits;

1Physical Science

S2; Credits; 1

Sociology S1 and S2; Credits;

1Spanish 1B; Credits; 1

Spanish 2 A and B; Credits; 1Art Fundamen-tals A; Credits;

0.5Earth Science A;

Credits; 0.5English 3 S1; Credits; 0.5

English 3 S2; Credits; 0.5

English 4 Part 3 & 4 of 4 ; Cred-

its; 0.5English 4 S1; Credits; 0.5

English 4 S2; Credits; 0.5

Enslish 1B; Credits; 0.5

Enviornmental Science A; Cred-

its; 0.5

Financial Math Parts 3 and 4;

Credits; 0.5Geometry A; Credits; 0.5

Geometry Part 1 & 2 of 4; Credits; 0.5

Government Parts A and B;

Credits; 0.5Health S2; Cred-

its; 0.5

Personal Well-ness S2; Credits;

0.5Physical Science S1; Credits; 0.5

Physics A; Cred-its; 0.5

Physics B; Cred-its; 0.5

Spanish 1A; Credits; 0.5

Spanish 2A; Credits; 0.5

Spanish 2A; Credits; 0.5Spanish I Part B;

Credits; 0.5US History S2;

Credits; 0.5World History ;

Credits; 0.5World History S2; Credits; 0.5

Credits

Credits

Out of the 64 different classes that are being taught this year through the Cima Vista Program, English 1A has been the class that students have earned the most credits in thus far. Economics is the next class that students have earned the most credits in. (See Appendix for Table results)

Discussion

The purpose of this evaluation was to evaluate the Edgenuity computer program that the Cima Vista program uses for students to earn credit. The evaluation was to see if the Edgenuity Program is working for the Cima Vista Program. Based on the teacher and student interest surveys, overall this program is working well for them. Also there have been many credits earned already this year. This shows that students are able to perform well using the Edgenuity program.

Teacher Attitudes

The Teacher Attitudes Survey was designed to collect information from the instructors of the Edgenuity program in order to gauge their general feelings towards the Edgenuity program. Overall it was found that the teachers are very happy with using the Edgenuity program. They like the way the courses are structured and they would recommend Edgenuity to their students and parents.

Student Attitudes

The Student Attitudes Survey was administered in order to fully understand the students’ feelings towards the Edgenuity program inside of Cima Vista. It was found that the students as well liked the program. They feel confident in the information that they are learning and are happy with the organization of the classes. The students do feel however, at times the courses are too difficult. However, since they have been earning credits in a timely fashion, this would suggest that they are learning the coursework effectively.

Reports from Edgenuity

The Reports from Edgenuity were accessed on attendance records, hours spent on courses, and completion of credit details. This information showed that averages of 1.8 credits are being earned per student currently in the Cima Vista Program. This is only for the first 1 and one-half quarters for the school year. Students are also taking many different courses. This shows that students are in need of different types of courses. Therefore, if Cima Vista had a program where a teacher had to come and teach all of these different classes the students need, then the students would not all be able to take the different classes. There are 64 different classes being taught right now for 39 students.

Program Information

Information about the program was collected from two different websites. RRHS Cima Vista Website provided information about the goals and objectives of the Cima Vista program. The Edgenuity Website gave insight into how the Edgenuity program works and it objectives. After reviewing these objectives for both the Cima Vista program and the Edgenuity program it is clear that the Edgenuity program is living up to its own objectives, as well as helping the Cima Vista program meet its objectives.

The main component of the Edgenuity Program that stood out is that it allows a classroom full of students all to be working on a different class at the same time. This is very important because the Cima Vista Program’s goals are to help students earn credits to graduate. The Edgenuity Program is allowing the students to earn credits at their own pace and in whatever course they need. One component of the program that may need improvements is the videos in the course. Students responded that they are too long sometimes. Therefore, by offering the videos in shorter segments students may be able to process the information better.

The Cima Vista Program at Rio Rico High School objectives are to strengthen communities, overcome obstacles, accept responsibility, and to reach goals. The Edgenuity Program was chosen in order to help the Cima Vista Program reach these goals. After evaluating to see if the Edgenuity Program does this or not, it is found that it does.

The Edgenuity Program helps strengthen community in multiple ways. It does this by giving students another outlet to graduate from high school. Students are able to work at their own pace and complete course work of their own choosing. This builds a stronger community of people who are educated and can work different types of jobs.

Student overcome obstacles by being able to work on their school work wherever they are. If they have to stay home to take care of their families one day they are able to get caught up on work at home and they do not fall behind. Students are also able to graduate from high school even after they have dropped out of school.

The Edgenuity Program forces student to accept responsibilities. It does this by putting the learning into the hands of the students. It is up to them how fast they move through the course work. However if they go slowly they will not earn credits fast enough. The student has to learn to gauge how much work they have to put in and whether or not they will have to work on it at home too, to stay on top of the course work.

Finally, the Edgenuity Program helps student reach their goals. Each student may have a different goal. Their goal could be to graduate high school, complete a course, or to complete multiple courses. All of these goals can be accomplished through the use of the Edgenuity Program.

Project Cost

(X days * Daily rate) + expenses (Travel, printing, office supplies, mail, phone, etc.)

= Total amount owed for Evaluation.

(25 days X $500) + $5000 = $17,500

The above figure is how much is due for the evaluation services that were rendered. The amount of days was figured because one week was necessary to prepare and create an evaluation plan. Another week was required to create the surveys to be implemented, as well as one week to implement surveys and collect data. An additional week was needed to analyze the data collected, as well as one week to create a report on the data. Total work time was 5 weeks, with five working days per week. A total of 25 days were needed, at $500 per day for a total of $12,500. Add that to $5000 which is the fixed figure from travel, printing, office supplies, mail, phone, etc. which gives a total of $17,500 begin owed for services rendered.

This is your bill for services rendered doing the evaluation:

Personnel 12,500

Operations

(Travel, printing, office supplies, mail, phone, etc.)

$ 5000

Total Owed $17,500

Appendix A: Survey Monkeys

Teacher Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F9Y8WBP

Student Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XWWT3T5

Appendix B: Data from Edgenuity Program on Classes and Credits earned