Highly Qualified Online Facilitators

At Kirkwood HSDL, we fill a very unique need for schools and students that need flexible courses to meet their needs.  In order to meet the requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), school districts must provide their learners with highly-qualified instructors in content areas. For many reasons, it may be difficult for a school strict to find a highly-qualified teacher and that's where Kirkwood HSDL can help.

We employee about 18 part-time online facilitators that hold their Iowa teaching license in the subject area that they are assigned.  They help answer students' content questions and do virtual face-to-face meetings with students on an as-needed basis.  When it comes to technical questions or Kirkwood FT HSDL staff take care of that.

The online facilitators are responsible for welcoming students to their course, giving them any additional course expectations that they have, and keeping the students on target to finish in their four-month window.

By taking the burden of finding highly qualified content-area experts away from the local school district, the district can focus on helping the student(s) achieve success.  They can do this by assigning coaches to monitor students' progress and having regular check-ins with the students.

Flexible Enrollment

Flexible Enrollment

Who can enroll in Kirkwood HSDL courses?

Students in Iowa high schools may enroll in Kirkwood HSDL courses.  Students should be working with their school counselors to see if the courses Kirkwood HSDL offers are the right fit for them. Once students have permission from their local Iowa high school, then they may complete our registration form and begin working on classes.

What are Kirkwood HSDL courses?

Kirkwood High School Distance Learning offers more than 50 online and book-based courses. Courses range from middle-school level courses for students needing to review the basics all the way to pre-AP courses.  Kirkwood uses content providers for their online courses and uses mostly AGS textbooks for the book-based courses.

When can one enroll in Kirkwood HSDL courses?

Kirkwood offers flexible enrollment to students taking their courses.  This means that a student may sign up for a course any day that the HSDL office is open.  From the time the registration is processed, a student is allowed to take up to four calendar months to complete the course.  However, because we offer flexible enrollment, a student may start the course on the first of October and be finished with it by November 15th.  Once the student finishes that course, he/she may enroll in another course immediately.

Where can one enroll in Kirkwood HSDL courses?

Students may call the HSDL office at 319-784-1517 to schedule a same-day appointment if they want to start immediately.  Additionally, there are three other easy ways to submit a registration.  School administrators or parents may mail the registration form and payment to Kirkwood HSDL.  For faster service, parents or administrators may email it, or fax it the HSDL office and then call with a Visa, Master Card, or Discover Card payment.

Why would one enroll in Kirkwood HSDL courses?

Students around the state of Iowa enroll in Kirkwood HSDL courses for a variety of reasons.  One reason may be that a student failed a course and he/she needs to make up the credit for graduation. Another reason may be that a student would like to graduate early and he/she needs the credit to advance.  A final reason may be that a student goes to a very small school and Spanish and government are offered at the same time, so he/she can only take one course at school.

For more information visit our website.

Successful World Language Acquisition in Online and Blended Learning?

World Language Acquisition

In the US, world language has been mostly reserved for high school and college students.  For those students who follow the traditional route in the US, is it possible to be successful at learning a world language through online and blended learning?

Student Enrollments in Kirkwood HSDL Online French and Spanish Courses

During the 2014-15 school year, Kirkwood HSDL enrolled 32 students in French I and French II.  Of these 33 students, 3 were dropped from the course for various reasons.  Kirkwood HSDL also enrolled a total of 7 Spanish students in levels I, II, and III; 3 of which were dropped from their courses for various reasons.

From a total of 40 enrollments between French and Spanish across all levels, 85% of the students finished their semester-length courses.  Of those students that finished (34), 47% (16 students) finished with scores between 90 and 100%, 50% (17 students) finished with scores between 80 and 89%, and 3% (1 student) finished with scores between 70 and 79%. 

What This Data Says about Successful Language Acquisition in Online and Blended Learning

Kirkwood HSDL enrolled approximately 960 students for the 2014-2015 school year.  Of those 960 students, only 40 students enrolled in world language courses.  This is only about 4% of the total enrollments in online courses, so the sample size is quite small; however, the outcome shows that the majority of students enrolled in the Kirkwood HSDL world language courses complete the course with a mastery level of 80% or higher.

Successful World Language Acquisition?

The minute amount of data given here, suggests that students are able to be successful in an online and blended learning environment; however, further research is needed to determine what factors contribute to student success in world language acquisition in an online and blended learning environment.