Oregon Virtual Education - Vision and Guiding Principles

ORVED is a collaborative project. We share a common vision, guiding principles and foundational beliefs that drive decisions as we begin this project.

Guiding Principles:

• Student needs come first.
• Demand high quality.
• Do what's right for Oregon and improve public education.
• Promote equity of services for all Oregon schools.
• Provide the best possible product and work towards efficiencies to keep cost low.

Crucial Concepts:

High touch - Students perform best when they are known well by their teachers and their needs are supported. ORVED teachers connect with students via ORVED conference tools, email, phone and chat on a regular basis to encourage them and support their learning. While some of our students who are self-directed may not need this, a significant number of those who have already had difficulty passing a course or who are not doing well in school benefit from a supportive, teacher-as-coach relationship. This is also true for schools in low-bandwidth areas in Oregon and is an equity issue we'll need to address.

Quality curriculum - We as Oregon educators, need to learn (and re-learn) what this means. After I saw what the Florida Virtual School was doing in this area, I experienced a paradigm shift. See the PDF (Evaluating Online Courses) attached below and look at the standards for quality courses beginning on page 5. Also see iNACOL's Standards for Quality Online Courses. 

Shared resources - There are many online school programs in Oregon. We want ORVED to bring some of these together to take advantage of economies that come from collaboration and scale. Curriculum and training for ORVED is available to ALL Oregon teachers through ORVSD. The best online teaching tools and training can improve traditional, face-to-face instruction in addition to serving online teachers.

The creation of a broad base of Oregon teachers, trained in best practices for technology enabled instruction, will be good for Oregon schools. This effort is inline with the National Education Technology Plan, Goal #3 Teaching: Professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that enable and inspire more effective teaching for all learners.

Non-Profit Sustainable Model - The policies and practices at Oregon Virtual Education are designed to offer the best instruction to students at the lowest cost possible to Oregon schools. We won't shortchange students by offering courses without teachers to guide them like some other pay for credit options do and we won't use online instruction as a profit center for commercial gain. Fees for ORVED courses support quality instruction for Oregon students and a sustainable model of course development and training. Our budget and policies are transparent and governed by a board of superintendents from around the state.

Local School Participation - Local mentor or guidance counselor is essential for student success. ORVED works WITH students' local host schools rather than in their stead. All course registration is done by and through students' local schools. Grades for ORVED courses are reported to host schools for inclusion in the transcript issued by the school.

Accountability - ORVED is transparent in its governance, operations and finances. Yearly reporting includes aggregate student performance data as well as student and teacher feedback about courses. Teachers are held to high performance standards for their craft and students are asked to embrace rigorus standards in their learning.