In a previous post, I mentioned about the fact that US based Virtual High School has been working with the IBO since 2004 to perfect a model for online teaching of IB Diploma courses. The first trial was highly successful and concluded in May 2006. Since that time, VHS has run limited offerings of the IB Diploma which has not allowed for the Cooperative model of schools providing teachers in exchange for students being able to enroll in a range of courses, working for IB Schools.

Recently I have been working with VHS to gauge interest from International Schools in the Asian region to see if there is interest in them forming a partnership to expand the IBD offerings of VHS for IB schools. Here is a copy of a letter I have sent to a number of IB schools I have dealings with:

Dear XXXX,

I think we both agree that the idea of using a proven online learning model with all of the support for full classroom conferencing extends the offerings of a school and allows for students to gain a truly global experience by sharing with classmates from around the world whilst having the support of trusted mentors within the enrolled school. The issue is that this program is still in its infancy outside of the US.

Virtual High School has quite a history of successfully running online courses in the US and has a host of course offerings to suit all levels of American curriculum right up to many Advanced Placement offerings. It is only in recent years, however, that they have been successful in running courses endorsed by the International Baccalaureate Organisation. So far they have only been able to run two courses, these being Economics and ITGS.

Virtual High School is looking to expand its offerings in IBO courses but wants to know if there is interest from International Schools offering IB courses in supporting the VHS cooperative model. If you are not familiar with the cooperative model, there is some information on the Virtual High School website but in a nutshell, a teacher from a school gets training and support to develop and teach or just teach a course. Once trained, that teacher will instruct a course under the not for profit VHS system. VHS will, of course, provide all of the online conferencing and course management tools. In return for agreeing to release a teacher to teach online, the school will be awarded 25 places for students each semester in VHS online courses. Subject to the limit of a max of 5 in any one course to allow for cultural exchange in the courses. There is a payment made to the teacher for teaching the course and the students pay for the online courses.

As you can see from above, the model is not very successful when there are only 2 courses on offer to IB Schools.

For this reason, Virtual High School is looking to have some IB schools come on board with teachers that would be capable of developing and teaching other IB offerings throughout 2009 so that they would be ready to teach in the 2010 academic year. As a fast-growing IB school region, Asia would be well placed to benefit from the VHS teaching model but it is hard to know if the schools would support a model, especially if there is high staff turnover in the region, notwithstanding the fact that having VHS training makes a teacher a very desirable commodity in a school in the region.

In summary, Liz Pape, CEO of Virtual High School has asked me try to research if schools in the region might support one/some of their staff to do the training and write the course(s) in 2009 and deliver them in 2010. As you can imagine, there is great benefit to the teachers and the school in doing the training but it is generally done in a teachers own time. There is a cost of US$3500 for the training.

I would be grateful if you, as a school interested in the online IB offerings, could let me know if you think that there might be interest from you (and potentially others you might know in your region) in supporting Virtual High School to expand the IBO offerings and extend them to your students in the academic year commencing 2010.

Apologies for such a long winded email. I hope I have given you enough information and I look forward to answering any more questions that you might have and receiving your feedback.

Warm regards

Paul

It is going to be interesting to read the responses. If you are from an Asian School offering the IB Diploma, I would love to read your response. Is a cooperative model viable?