Spotlight on the South Carolina Department of Education

In light of exhibiting at the 2010 Virtual School Symposium this week, we wanted to we wanted to applaud two states that have creatively implemented sustainable e-Learning solutions that align with their respective state's budgets, goals and educational standards.

Yesterday, we highlighted the successes of the Open High School of Utah. You can read this post over here.

Today, we're shining the spotlight on the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDOE) who, with the help of Moodle, have sustainably and affordably deliver purposeful and engaging online instruction to educators and students throughout the state with its two distinct e-learning programs.

• The South Carolina Virtual School Program (SCVSP): In an effort to improve graduation rates, the state of South Carolina passed a bill that approved the creation of the South Carolina Virtual School Program (SCVSP), a blended learning program that offers its high school students supplemental courses for subjects that weren’t offered in the form of traditional, in-person classes. Additionally, the SCVSP offers “content recovery classes,” which enable High school students statewide to access and fulfill required classes online for graduation.

• eLearningSC PD: The eLearningSC PD is a professional development program that serves the instructors of the SCVSP by cultivating their instructional design skills and online pedagogy so they can create more intuitive and engaging courses for their virtual school students.

With Moodlerooms, the SCDOE has experienced great, measurable successes with their online programs and established a sustainable framework for continued growth:

• Creating Opportunities: For the 2009- 2010 school year(after switching to Moodlerooms in the Spring of 2009), the SCVSP delivered 64 unique blended learning courses to over 14,000 students--60% of which were senior-level students who were enrolled in courses to satisfy required classes in order to graduate on time.

• Improved Usability and Satisfaction: 93% of all participants in SCDOE’s professional development program, eLearningSC PD, said that they liked Moodlerooms’ solution better than their previous solution because of the ease of use and better layout. This in turn helped teachers improve their skills and create better courses for their virtual school students.

• Lower Total Cost of Ownership: Moodlerooms’ managed open-source model allows SCDOE to pay only for the services and support it wants and needs. This will lead to a savings of 35% over a 5 year period while allowing the programs to expand.
  

For more information of the SCDOE's e-learning successes, you can download the full case study here.

To read the official announcement, head over to the news section of our website here.

Do you know of any other schools that are harnessing Moodle for their e-learning needs? If so, we'd like to hear your stories.