Review Selection Process
TxVSN will be conducting more course reviews starting in the fall of 2008. The submission window will be opened for potential provider districts to submit courses on September 15th, 2008. Provider districts may submit courses for review via email. The 08-09 submission window will remain open until one hundred semester courses have been selected for review. Official closure will be indicated on this web site below this paragraph.
Submission Window: OPEN
As the TxVSN begins to build its course offerings for schools, the courses to be reviewed for the network for Grades 9-12 shall, to the extent possible, include a full range of course options that are needed to complete high school graduation requirements found in 19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Chapter 74. Priority will be given to foundation courses that satisfy the new 4:4 requirements in the areas of English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies; advanced placement courses, languages other than English and the classroom portion of a driver education and traffic safety course that complies with the requirements for the program developed under Section 29.902.
While submitting courses, potential provider districts will be asked to specify a priority list of course review order for the courses they are submitting for review (document below). This priority list will be taken into consideration during the selection process. Each provider district will be informed how many of their courses will be reviewed and asked to fill out access information for the reviewers.
Courses submitted within the submission window that are not selected will be entered into a course pool for future review cycles.
Region 4 will provide each provider district with a TxVSN Course Review Access Form (not included on this web site) to be filled out for each course selected for review. This form will contain information needed by the reviewers to access the courses for evaluation purposes. Reviewers should be given the maximum allowable access to a course to conduct a thorough review. Although not required, it is advantageous for courses to be reviewed with an active instructor facilitating the course. The National Standards of Quality for Online Courses includes criterion that addresses the instructor’s interaction with students. When the form is completed and returned, review teams will be assigned and reviews will commence.
Once a course review begins, the Course Review Project Manager will request the Provider District fill out a Course Review Questionnaire (supplied by Region 4) detailing the course in review. The questionnaire will help the provider district communicate how the course instructor interaction enriches and completes the TEKS instruction to ensure 100% alignment. It will also serve as a tool for the course review team to gather data specifically for all of Standard E and parts of Standard D of the National Standards of Quality for Online Courses. Course reviewers generally would not see evidence of these particular criterions when reviewing a course. Provider districts will have approximately one week to fill out the questionnaire once the review of the course begins.
Important Note
Part of the course review includes TEKS Alignment of student objectives. Each course will be measured with a TEKS Alignment Instrument that lists every TEKS and student objective for that course for the reviewer to find evidence. The TEKS Alignment Instrument is not broken down by semester as it is usually up to the instructor and district to establish the scope and sequence in which they teach the content. Keep in mind that submitting only one semester of a full year course for review may turn up as deficient for the required TEKS alignment if it does not address all of the TEKS in the one semester. It is strongly recommended that provider districts submit both semesters of a course at the same time so that reviewers may complete the TEKS Alignment Instrument with both courses. Reviewing in this manner will give courses a much improved chance of meeting required TEKS Alignment. This will constitute two separate reviews, but the applicable fee will be for a full year course as opposed to two completely separate single semester course reviews.
Application and Submittal Forms
To begin the process of becoming a TxVSN provider district and submit courses for review, fill out the following forms: TxVSN Provider District Application: Fill out and send in one form to be considered as a provider district. Please use the Application Instructions document to clarify the application form. Submit this document to TxVSN Central Operations at TxVSNCentral@txvsn.org.
TxVSN Course Review Submittal Form: Fill out and send a separate form for each course you are submitting for review. Please use the Course Submittal Instructions document to clarify the submittal form. Submit this document to TxVSN Course Review at coursereview@esc4.net.
