Effective Online Learning Communities
eMINTS: enhancing Missouri’s Instructional
Networked Teaching Strategies
Overview of eMINTS i3 Grant
◊
◊
Studying impact of eMINTS professional
development and technologies on 7th and 8th grade
teachers and their students in small rural Missouri
districts
RCT study with three groups of schools:
◊
◊
◊
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Group 1 (30 schools) get eMINTS technology and
intensive 2-year professional development
Group 2 (30 schools) get eMINTS and intensive 2-year
professional development plus a third year of PD using
Intel Teach® Elements courses
Group 3 (30 schools) wait until Group 1 and 2 are
finished but provides data for comparison
Schools in all 3 groups get eMINTS technology and
professional development
School Assignments
2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16
Group 1
Randomly
assigned
schools
eMINTS
Year 1
eMINTS
No PD
Year 2
Group 2
eMINTS
Year 1
eMINTS
Year 2
eMINTS
+
Intel
Teach©
Group 3
No PD
No PD
No PD
eMINTS
+
No PD
Intel
Teach©
No PD
eMINTS
Year 1
No PD
eMINTS
Year 2
eMINTS Equipment
◊
Hardware includes
◊ Teacher laptop
with docking station
◊ SMART Board and projector
◊ 1 laptop for every student in 7th and 8th grade
◊ Laptop charging carts
◊ Printer and digital camera
◊
Software and learning resources
◊ Productivity
software
◊ Concept-mapping software
◊ BrainPOP! online animated content
eMINTS Professional Development
◊
Comprehensive eMINTS includes:
◊
◊
◊
◊
Year 1 - 100 hours + 4 full days + 9 classroom visits
Year 2 - 75 hours + 2 full days + 9 classroom visits
New Year 3 - 12 hours (f2f) + 30 hours (online) + 3-4
classroom visits
Creates communities of practice to model
and facilitate communities of learners in
classrooms
◊ Other eMINTS professional development
programs include: eMINTS4Administrators,
eMINTS4Techs, train-the-trainer, and
eLearning for Educators (short online
courses)
eMINTS Communication Needs
◊
eMINTS Staff – distributed around Missouri
◊
◊
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Sharing of information across organization
Accessing materials and resources
Collaboration among staff on various tasks
Program participants – distributed around
Missouri, nationally and internationally
◊
◊
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Accessing materials and resources
Attending training webinars
Communicating with cohort group
Tools
Lessons Learned
◊
Strongest online communities are formed
when participants have some face-to-face
interaction in addition to online
◊ Community needs to be facilitated
◊ Community needs to be continually
refreshed with new information and
resources
◊ Strongest online communities have a clear
shared purpose and timeframe for
participation
eMINTS National Center
www.emints.org
Monica Beglau
Lorie Kaplan
(573) 884-7202
325 Clark Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
emints-info@emints.org
Experience Unlimited Possibilities for Learning