Ohio Department of Education Families

This practice allows parents open access to student curriculum, grades and instructors through an online environment called Moodle. The practice supports the concepts of open communication and parents being partners in the learning process at home. Parents can enter the Moodle Web site to see their student’s progress and scores on assigned work. Parents may review the work and skills with their child, and if the student is having difficulty the parent may message the teacher or staff from the site to discuss a course of action. The Moodle environment also allows parents to see upcoming assignments and expectations, as well as difficulties that may arise from new topics. This allows teachers and parents to provide a bridge from the present into the future, because everyone is aware of the past, present and future work expectations for each student.		Contact: Deb Munis Organization: Auglaize County Educational Academy District: Auglaize County Educational Academy Phone: (419) 738-4572    All families Online LMS: Moodle, Google Docs, DimDim Ongoing
Auglaize County Educational Academy uses Moodle, an open-source learning management system; Google Docs, a cloud-computing system; and DimDim, a web-conferencing site; to provide comprehensive support that ensures student success. By placing curriculum, student scores and access to instructors in one place, parents can support their children in the learning process. Students can share their work and scores with parents. Parents can gain teacher and staff support without waiting for office hours or parent-teacher conferences. Parents can access important staff messages at their convenience and respond even when the school is not in session.
Because of the ability to communicate with parents and provide home support, our students have earned more credit, and we have had more graduates since developing this system.
Acclimating parents to the online environment We require at least one parent to attend the training session that every student completes upon entering the school. Many parents have used this as springboard to learn other computer skills.
Students and parents provide a great deal of input on the programs, and we feel this is a sign of their comfort with the system. The staff is always looking for additional sources to incorporate in the learning process for students, parents and teachers. This year we have added Google Docs to our online system to allow collaboration between students and teachers on projects and papers. This program also allows students to save their best pieces in an online e-portfolio.
The original plan for this practice came from the staff of the Auglaize County Educational Academy, but over the years parents, students and teachers have suggested improvements. The Academy has added a variety of new components to ensure availability and ease of use of important data. Ideas for new components also have come from in-service opportunities. The project has been ongoing and ever-changing, and it continues to be refined and expanded to support the Academy’s teachers, students and families. Moodle, Google Docs and DimDim can be placed on a server without paying open-source software costs. Teachers and staff have provided the set-up and incorporation of the lesson plans, lessons, activities and data. Staff and teachers made this part of their already contracted time.