An Online Co-op? What’s That?
Mary Sellers
July 21, 2006
PHAA Conference, Carlisle, PA
I think all of us are familiar with co-ops. A group of moms get together and decide to split up the job of teaching by forming classes. Usually, co-ops meet one day a week, and each mom or dad leads a class in which they feel most comfortable. Someone who loves literature teaches the writing class. The bilingual mom teaches Spanish, and so on. I liked co-ops a lot when my kids were younger. Getting together for gym day or for art class was a great time. Everyone looked forward to it.
But, now that my kids are getting older, we don’t feel as if we can give a whole day, or even half a day, to a co-op. Math and Science take a lot longer to do than they did in third grade. Schedules are trickier with sports, part-time jobs, play practices, and other meetings. Plus, instead of having a house full of elementary-aged children and a few babies, there are teens, middle schoolers, and young elementary. There doesn’t seem to be a co-op which meets the needs of all three levels at the same time on the same day. What’s a parent to do? How can she reap the benefits of others’ talents in teaching without sacrificing her homeschool time or her sanity?
An online co-op may be the solution.
Now, before I get into the details of how to set up an online co-op or class and the things you need to consider, I thought I’d share a bit of my background so that you’ll understand why I feel this idea has such merit. For the last four years, I taught AP Language and Composition for PA Homeschoolers, which is a totally online course. The students seemed to have no trouble adapting to written discussions instead of oral ones. They also formed a closely-knit community, so much so that at the end of the year picnics at my house, students would drive in from North Carolina, Michigan, and other far-flung points. One girl even flew in from Idaho! This year, I am taking a “sabbatical” from the AP class and have decided to use the skills I learned to create an online class for my children and some friends.
I am not a computer guru. I know a few things from having worked on the computer for several years, but much of the technical details are far beyond me. I’ll share as much information as I can about setting up your online classroom, but I really can only answer as much as I know.
The first thing to consider when thinking of beginning an online class is what would you like to teach? Some classes lend themselves better to the online format, while others require a bit more work. I’m not sure how the AP Calculus class is run, but typing equations in Microsoft Word can be tricky. Also, trying to perform dissections or chemistry experiments online would be hard for me, although the AP Biology and Chemistry teachers do a wonderful job in these areas. If you are thinking of these subjects, I’d encourage you to contact one of these teachers to find out what special programs they use to help. You don’t have to be teaching an AP class to use a basic biology computer program. One program I use which makes the assessment of online writing much easier is Markin. You can download a free trial at http://www.cict.co.uk/markin/ . Just type “Markin” into Google, and the website will be the first choice. It allows you to customize comments and easily make notes in the text of a document, much easier to use and to customize than the comments section of Microsoft Word.
Of course, the primary consideration in what you want to teach is what do you love to do? What would you love to learn right along with your students? The technical details can be worked out later, but if you aren’t interested in the class, you probably won’t enjoy teaching it.
After you determine what you’d like to teach, you need to decide if you want to offer a class by yourself or if you want to have other teachers join you. A real co-op is normally several teachers sharing their talents. But, you could offer a single online class if you want. The classes do not necessarily have to “go along” with one another. If one wants to teach English, one Economics, and the third the history of Peru, it’s just fine. What is important is that the co-op teachers decide what works best for them.
Once you determine who the teachers will be, you’ll want to decide on the level of work which is expected of each teacher. Since there are no weekly meetings, lessons will have to be presented online or via email. Students won’t be able to hand in projects. They will have to be posted online or emailed. Clear expectations of what is expected of each teacher will go a long way toward a smooth co-op experience.
When I taught AP Language, I had a syllabus broken down by weeks which gave the assignments for the year. Also in my syllabus was a clear grading scale, explanations of how to complete assignments, and other useful information. In addition, I would both email and post a weekly assignment sheet which repeated the assignments in the syllabus, explained the assignments in more detail, and provided information such as when they could expect their graded essays to be returned, books they might need to get from the library for upcoming assignments, and so on. In a co-op situation, if one teacher has a clear syllabus and weekly emails and the other teacher just randomly posts things here and there and doesn’t stick to deadlines, there will more than likely be problems.
Also, will these online classes have assignments which need grading such as essays and tests? Or, will the class merely be discussion with little grading needed from the teacher? Once again, expectations clearly stated before the school year begins of what is expected from each teacher will go a long way toward preventing problems later in the year.
Once the teachers are lined up, the subjects are chosen, and the level of work is lined up, decide if there will be a charge for the class. An online AP class can be $400 or more. Other online classes I’ve seen range from $60 to $350. Consider the amount of work each person will be doing. Is the co-op only for the children of the teachers? Then you probably don’t want to charge each other. Is the co-op open to others who won’t be teaching? You may want to consider charging a fee determined on how much time per week you think you will spend on a student. A baseline figure might be minimum wage per hour spent on a student’s work. So, a class that is mostly discussion would have very little teacher grading time, maybe only ten minutes per week to grade a quiz. However, a class which has a number of essays or discussion questions might have a half an hour to hour of student time per week. Minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, so a baseline fee for a 36 week class with an hour of time spent on a student per week would be $185. For a class with less time, say ten minutes a week, the fee might be $30.
The size of the co-op should be the next consideration. Will it just be the children of those teaching? Will it be open to only those known by the teachers? Will you advertise to a wider audience? Don’t take on more than you should, especially as you have to consider the needs of your own homeschooled children and all the commitments you currently have. Also consider if all the children need to take each class offered, or can they pick and choose. This selection might be easier if you have classes at different grade levels.
One of the final decisions to make, and some might say the first decision that needs to be made, is where will this online class be hosted? There are a number of options for hosting an online class. The most reasonable, which would give you the maximum amount of control and privacy, would be to have your own website and to download a message board program to your site. There are a number of free places to get a website, but I would not recommend them for your class. For one thing, many of these free sites might not allow you to have a message board. Also, these free sites have pop-up ads on them which could be distracting or even inappropriate. There are many low-cost web host sites available. On your handout, I’ve listed one site. For $3.95 a month, you can have your website hosted with more than enough space for all you’d need to run a successful online class. If the cost of a website seems prohibitive, just have all the teachers chip in a part of the fee or split the cost between all the families who are participating in the co-op.
If the idea of having your own website seems daunting, you can use one of the free discussion board hosting programs. I’ve listed a number of them on your handout. One problem with some of these hosting sites is that your discussion board becomes part of the system, and if someone wishes to browse discussion groups, they could come to yours. Granted, a group of kids talking about the gross national product of Uruguay or how to correctly diagram a sentence might not be the most appealing, so chances are good you might not get any visitors.
Now I’d like to get into the nitty-gritty of an online class or co-op. I just want to remind you that I’m not a technical expert. You more than likely will have questions I won’t be able to answer. The most valuable asset you can have when you are teaching online is a computer geek. Find someone who loves to work with computers and knows what all of those letters like IP, php, mysqul, and so on mean. Then, bribe him or her to help you! I’ve found that those who love computers also seem to love helping others with computer problems and questions, so look around! You may even have a computer geek in your own home.
I’d like to show you my website where I ran part of my AP class and where I plan to conduct all of the online co-op I’ll be teaching this coming year. (www.marysellers.org/phpBB2)
This is my website. I downloaded the message board from PHP. Before I go forward, let’s back up a bit to define some things. A message board is a place for people to post things and have others comment on them. An initial message with replies is called a “thread.” A message board is not the same thing as a blog. A message board allows all users to post questions or comments and to comment on each others’ comments. Let me show you what I mean.
I’ve set up my message board with various headings. If we click on a heading,
all the messages posted under that topic come up. If we click on an individual
message, the initial message and all the replies to it will appear, with the
newest message listed at the end. If we want to reply to this message, we
simply click on “Reply” and type in the response. This message board is an
open source download from phpBB. You can read more about them or download your
own phpBB software from the website I have listed in the handout. Although
there are a number of free message board programs you could use, I’m going to be
explaining phpBB and using it in all our examples. I found that a number of the
free message board hosting sites used phpBB as well.
Even though it isn’t the most important part of setup, I’d like to talk about the look of the message board first. There is some customization of my board, like the Douglas Adams quote at the top, but the general layout came from a free download at phpBB. If you go to their website and click on “Styles” and then on “Downloads,” a list of pre-made styles will come up. Let’s look at a few of them to get an idea of how different the pages can look but that they still can have the same content. When I click on a sample, it will be showing the same page but with just a different color scheme or style. You can see that there are still the general headings, the sub-headings, and the messages underneath. The look of your message board is up to you and the other teachers. You don’t have to be a computer genius to make things look different.
One thing to notice is the various icons beside messages. In phpBB, these different icons tell you whether there is a new post under that message. At the bottom of the message board, there are icons and explanations as to what things mean. Having different pictures to signal new posts will save you loads of time trying to scroll through your entire message board each time you come to post.
Now, as to the actual set up of your class, let’s assume you’ve gone with the option to have your own website and have downloaded phpBB as your message board. Make sure that when you (or your computer geek) download and install the phpBB message board, you are listed as the administrator.
What does the administrator do? The administrator controls the board, the settings, the member list, and what everyone on the board can do. You will need to set yourself as administrator, and you should set the other teachers as administrators as well. Let’s look at my administrator board to see what you can do.
The first thing I have to check is to see that I am logged on with my username. You can check this at the top of the board. If it says “Log in,” you aren’t logged in and need to do so. If it says “Log Out” and has your name beside it, then you are already logged in. At the bottom of the page, there will be a link to “Go to the Administration Panel.” Let’s click that and go. I’ll have to log in again as a safety feature, and we’re in!
The page is set up into two columns. The first column contains all the links, and the second displays which section you have clicked on. The page automatically pops up at the Administrator Index. If you have a new site, you will need to set up some forums. Forums are what I earlier referred to “sub-headings.” The “main headings” are called “categories.” Under “Forum Admin,” click on “Management.” This will give you a list of all the categories and forums currently on the board.
You can see all the headings with several choices beside them: edit, delete, or move up or down. Underneath each main heading, the category, is a white box which reads “Create new forum.” If you don’t have any forums, this is the box you’d be most interested in. At the bottom of the page is a box which reads “Create New Category.” Let’s do this first, as it would be the thing you’d need to do first when you’d be setting up your own board.
Simply type the name of your category in the box. You can see from my Categories that I have sections for the Syllabus and Weekly Emails, a place to post writing, a place to get help, and a discussion board section. If you are teaching a class by yourself, you might set your board up in the same way. But, if you have several teachers, you may want to have a category for each class. You can have multiple phpBB bulletin boards on a single website, but I’ve found it to be a bother. For one, when I visit one website, I’m logged out of the other one automatically. I guess maybe I’m lazy and don’t like to log in repeatedly. It might make life more convenient if the whole co-op shared a single message board.
Let’s pretend that I’m the history teacher in our co-op. I want to title my category “American History.” So, that’s what I’d type in the box. Now, we have a new main heading or category. I want this category at the top of the page, so I’m going to click “Move up.” I have to click it multiple times to skip over all the other categories already in place.
Now, I’m ready to create some sub-headings or forums for my new category. There is a white box under “American History.” Type in the category you want. I want “Assignments,” so I type that in. Now I’m at the Forum Settings page. I can type a description of this forum, “What’s due and how to do it.” I can decide which category it should come under (in case I typed in the wrong white box). I can decide if the forum is locked, which means no one can post any messages in it, or unlocked, which is the setting you’d want to choose so that people can post messages. You can also decide if you want to have auto-pruning. I would recommend this feature be enabled for any social boards you might have where the discussion is trivial, but I’d not recommend it for academic forums, like essays, discussion questions, and assignments. To activate auto-pruning, you click on the box and set the number of days you want. If you want the computer to automatically delete messages which have not had a reply in 30 days, you’d put a 30 in the box. If you want the program to check for the age of messages every day, you’d put a one in the box, and so on. Finally, you click on “Create Forum.”
Let’s add two more categories. I also want “Essays.” And finally, I want “Discussion Board.” You can have as many forums as you’d like.
The next link under “Forum Admin” is “Permissions.” This allows you to set the level of security for individual forums. If you want anyone to be able to see it, select “Public.” This would allow parents and other people to see the sites. If you want only those who are registered users to see the site, choose this option. The other options are explained detail at the phpBB site under “Support.” Many of your questions about phpBB can be answered there.
Why don’t we post a message? Click on the forum and then click on “New Post.” Type the title of your message and what you want to say. Yes, I know it’s simple!
The final technical detail to consider is registration. Let me log out, and then we’ll register as a new person. Click on “Register” at the top of the page. You’ll then see a form to fill out. I’d encourage you to have your students register with their real names, at least at first. There is a setting you can change which will allow users to change their screen names. As you might have noticed, I allowed name changes near the end of the year, which is how I wound up with Captain Jack Sparrow, Special Agent Dude, and Captain Cosmo. (Go through sign up, including avatar and what it is).
When it comes to managing your online class, regular interaction is the key. I’d encourage you to daily check your website, visit the Social Board, if you have one, and to participate in the discussions with your students. Keep emails and online posts frequent. Don’t assume students know how to do things. Hold their hands, as it were, when explaining the technical details and the procedures for posting assignments. Answer your emails as promptly as you can. Don’t be afraid to be less formal with the class as the year goes on. If your class lends itself toward it, have the students participate in group projects or work with a partner. It will help the class to feel more like a community.
Some teachers like to have a regular time when everyone is online together. Although this idea has merit, it does go against one of the major benefits of having a class online, the ability to read notes, complete assignments, and post comments on the social board at any time of day.
In many ways, an online co-op is just like a regular co-op. You have to prepare your lessons, figure out the best way to teach and motivate the students, and assess their progress in some way. Teaching online is great fun. You can show up to class at 12:00 am wearing your pajamas, and not feel a bit guilty. If you’ve been feeling burnt out with a traditional co-op, why not consider an online co-op. The technology is there; you just have to use it.