New Information - a comparison of programs.

Ferndale Adult & Alternative Education has just added (or is in the process of adding) two new programs to their night-school computerized offerings.  Here's a rundown of what they now have and what it all means:

• Nova-Net: the oldest distance learning program in use. Covers most major subject areas and some electives. Currently used mostly for civics, economics, and some English 9 courses, with career education electives.  FAAE is considering discontinuing this program, as it is still entirely text and audio based, with no video components.  Costs several thousand dollars for approximately 11 student licenses.
• Compass Learning: a few years old, paid for by Oakland Schools rather than by FAAE, so it's "free" to us.  Used for math, and some history classes only, but has unlimited licenses for those subjects.
• *NEW* - E20-20: a brand new program comparable to Nova-Net that FAAE has just purchased.  We have ~30 ports available, and the capability to add a health class.  Started as part of Compass learning before the companies split.
• *NEW* - Plato - used for math, science, English, social studies, and health. (although the counselor believes she will build the health modules on E20-20 instead of Plato)  Approximately 160 ports available!
• This program will open up the capability for at-home learning!
• It isn't set in stone yet, but the current possibility the counselor has set up is to allow chapter work to be done at home, while tests and quizzes must be done from the school computer lab.  This adds greater flexibility for students with work, family, or transportation barriers to education, but also risks running afoul of the School Board's distance learning policy.

All of the programs are self-paced, meaning the participant goes through the material as quickly or as slowly as he or she likes.  It is up to the teacher to add supplementals, which is useful for those programs with fewer available student ports (shared by multiple classrooms across the district).
Plato is the most "self-sufficient" of the programs, with plenty of activities for students to complete without needing supplemental materials.  After a set of activities for a chapter, there is a quiz. After five chapter-quizzes, there is an exam. This simulates an ordinary quarter-type schedule.

All of the assessments are multiple-choice for the computer to score, but with a bank of questions so that students are able to re-take a test without repeating questions.  The programs are currently set to allow two re-takes without having to get special teacher permission. (After 5 attempts at the test, the questions start repeating). This allows the student to make up for a bad testing experience, and then allows the facilitator to determine whether they need to go back and re-access the content material.
(M Mirkes, personal communication, February 23, 2011).

I am excited about the new programs!
I still recommend increasing the multimedia components, and finding a way to add authentic assessments to the computerized modules.  I also think that it would be helpful to add collaboration pieces, perhaps as supplemental materials for the students to do in the classroom.
Finally, I recommend that the school budget for enough site licenses that all of the students have access during their allotted class times, rather than having to take turns and hope someone else logs off!