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Implementing ItsLearning Online Learning Management SystemCapstone for Masters Degreein Instructional Technology

December 2014

Candidate: Mary Beth JagerAdvisor: Dr. Anissa Vega Cohort #11 - Fall 2014

NEEDOnly about 20 percent of teachers were using ItsLearning on a regular basis.

The Forsyth County School System implemented a new online learning management system, Itslearning, at the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year. A select few of the thirty-seven schools in the county were chosen to pilot the system the previous school year, however, the school I teach at was not one of those schools.

The Instructional Technology Specialist (ITS) at my school asked if I had an interest in attending several trainings and then offer training sessions to the staff and students throughout the year. As a result of the timing of his request and my capstone project, I decided to focus my capstone on implementing the Itslearning LMS at my school among the teachers as well as students. The goal was for all of the teachers to be comfortable and confident with Itslearning and for 100% of them to implement and utilize the system within their own classrooms.

A survey was distributed to the teachers to determine how they felt about Itslearning prior to any training. Only about 10% of teachers admitted to being comfortable using the Online LMS. 2OBJECTIVES Increase teacher usage of ItsLearning through professional development to attain 100% teacher usage.Increase student access to technology resources and digital content including the use of ItsLearning.

My capstone project had two main objectives:1. To increase teacher usage of ItsLearning through professional development to attain 100% teacher usage.2. To increase student access to technology resources and digital content including the use of ItsLearning.

3PROJECT PLANDeliverable Time FrameAttended TrainingResearched strategies and resourcesUpdated Technology WebpageJuly & August Staff SurveysAugust, September, October, January, March Professional Development SessionsSeptember, October, January, MarchE-Mail Tips and ideasNovember, FebruaryAll Day Help SessionNovember

In order to reach 100% of teachers and most students using ItsLearning, I developed this project plan.

The plan began in July 2013 and Ended in April 2014. During the course of my capstone, I planned to get the Technology Page Updated to reflect ItsLearning mission and resources, survey the staff regarding their comfort level and needs for usage of ItsLearning, send out email tips and resources, to conduct 4 professional development sessions for teachers and to develop 2 sessions for students to be facilitated during Instructional Focus.

4EVALUATION PLAN

Staff Surveys Observing log-in rate counter per teacher

The evaluation plan of this project had 2 parts.

First of all, to evaluate the effectiveness of each professional development session, I decided to send out surveys to the teachers.

Secondly, I frequently monitored the log-in rate counter per teacher on ItsLearning to track usage.

5PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Staff Survey Results Prior to any Training

A short survey was distributed to teachers to determine how they felt about ItsLearning prior to any training. As illustrated in the graphs, the majority of teachers were not using ITSL nor did they feel comfortable doing so. This was a great starting point for me before developing any Professional Development Sessions. 6PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Leadership Team/Technology Team MeetingUpdate Technology Page to reflect ItsLearning MissionBasic Overview of ItsLearning Staff Development Sessions

I had an overall plan and the remainder of this presentation details how my capstone project played out.

In July 2013 the Instructional Technology Specialist at my school approached me to see if I would be willing to attend training sessions and then develop and facilitate professional development sessions to train the teachers at my school to use ItsLearning. After I attended the training, in August I researched resources that have strategies for implementation of Online Learning Management Systems within classes. I also looked up lesson plan ideas. The Instructional Technology Specialist and I got together to review the resources and shared them on the technology folder on ItsLearning. During the process of reviewing the resources and ideas, we updated information in the Staff Information Folder on ItsLearning. This will hopefully be a place we can upload and store future ideas, strategies and resources for teachers to access.

In September, I developed a hands-on professional learning session. For this session, I researched Itslearning and found the tools and features that I felt teachers at my school would be most interested in. After developing my session, I presented it to the staff at my school during teachers planning periods. Through the sessions, I learned about technology facilitation and leadership. Short planning period sessions were an ideal time to conduct this professional learning session because it was a basic overview and it seemed to spark most of the teachers interests.

After the session, I created a survey to gain information from the teachers on three different topics. The first was feedback on the planning period sessions on September 10th. The general consensus that I got was that the teachers valued the information that was shared in the session, but that the timing of the session was not ideal being that it was at the beginning of the school year and teachers were too busy to implement something new into their classrooms. Secondly, I wanted to gain information about what teachers would like to learn in future sessions regarding ItsLearning. Lastly, I asked questions to gain knowledge about what teachers were currently using in their courses with their students in relation to ItsLearning. The feedback I gained from this survey provided me with extremely valuable information moving forward. 7PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Reviewed Feedback from Initial Staff Development SessionStaff Development Session over Planner Tool in ItsLearning

The Instructional Technology Specialist and I met to review the feedback collected from the first training session. From this data, it was evident that the majority of teachers were not using ItsLearning in their classrooms. We decided that we needed to narrow down the information and choose a specific tool to go into detail about that would most benefit teachers and their students. We decided to focus on the Planner tool. The training was presented in four identical sessions where teachers rotated through. It was conducted in the computer lab so that each teacher could actually log on to their ItsLearning accounts to complete the steps and use the tool themselves along with the presenter. The sessions went very smoothly. From observing the teachers during the sessions, it was apparent that the majority of the teachers were eager to implement the tool with their students. The survey data collected confirmed this.8PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Planner Tool Session Survey Results

After completing two training sessions and conducting surveys afterwards, I was pleased with the overall feedback from the sessions. The majority of teachers were using Itslearning and the vast majority of the teachers noted they would like to participate in future training sessions on Itslearning9PROJECT DESCRIPTION

All Day Help SessionE-mailed tips and ideas to teachersMonitor Log-in Rate Counter

I made myself available all day on November 14th in the school computer lab for teachers to be able to come by during their planning periods this day to ask questions about ItsLearning that they may have had. I expected a good showing of teachers to come, but only three actually did. I took this as a good sign that not many teachers needed assistance and decided to check the log-in rate counter over the course of the next four weeks to determine how many teachers were actually using ItsLearning and the Planner tool. By mid-December (end of first semester) it was determined that 90% of the teachers at the school were accessing ItsLearning at least once per week. Once it was determined that only 10% of the teachers were not using ItsLearning as often, I decided to continue with the once per month e-mail newsletters with ideas and examples for using ItsLearning to teachers. 10PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Professional Development Session on Quiz Feature in ItsLearningAnalyzed data from teacher survey regarding the Quiz Feature session

I planned and conducted a professional learning session during teachers planning period meetings on how to create and administer a quiz in ItsLearning for students. These training sessions took place in the school computer lab so that teachers could actually log on to their own ItsLearning accounts and create a quiz on their own. The feedback from this training from the teachers was phenomenal. This is a tool that the teachers were extremely excited to implement with their students. 11PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Professional Development Session on Poll Feature in ItsLearningAnalyzed data from teacher survey regarding the Poll Feature session

I planned and conducted a professional learning session during teachers planning period meetings on how to create polls in ItsLearning for students. These training sessions took place in the school computer lab so that teachers could actually log on to their own ItsLearning accounts and create a quiz on their own. The feedback from this training from the teachers was very positive. This is a tool that the teachers were eager to implement with their students. 12PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Developed two training sessions for studentsFacilitated during ItsLearning in October and March

I developed two training sessions for Itslearning for teachers to facilitate to their students during Instructional Focus. The first lesson took place on October 16, 2013 and was over the basics of ItsLearning. The second session took place on March 26, 2014 and was over students taking a quiz in ItsLearning. After each of these sessions, the students were able to complete a survey in ItsLearning that I had created in order to provide feedback about the effectiveness of the sessions. Overall, the student at the school felt the sessions were beneficial and meaningful. 13REFLECTION AND FOLLOW UP

ItsLearning is Highly EffectiveContinue to Increase UsageFocus on Moving from Adaptive to Transformational Uses for students

Now that the ItsLearning Professional Development Sessions are complete, what are my thoughts? Well, I think that ItsLearning is a highly effective way to increase student technology use in and out of the classroom.

Obviously, each training session had a huge effect on how responsive the staff was to integrating ITSL into their classrooms. Now, the challenge will be to continue that positive momentum. Although the charge from the District Office was to have 100% of teachers using ITSL, that is a little unrealistic. I certainly expect a gradual increase throughout the following school year.

In addition to maintaining growth in student technology use, I believe that as a school, we need to focus on moving from Adaptive uses to Transformational uses, where students have choices about how they can demonstrate their understanding of standards, and student-produced work is not simply following the recipe outlined by the teacher. ITSL had many resources to accommodate this.

14REFERENCES

Allen, R., i3 Instructional Technology Specialist 6-12, personal communication, January 7, 2013 to September 1, 2014.Forsyth County Schools. (2014). Forsyth County Schools Itslearning 101. Retrieved from http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/Page/44389 Tozier, J., Instructional Technology Specialist, personal communication, January 7, 2013 to September 1, 2014.

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