Cultivating Career Success
For Educators
California Adult School Regulations
Distance Learning Practices
Nuts and Bolts
Terms of Use
Career Garden is a Career Preparation curriculum. It may be used as a stand-alone course or as an adjunct to a program of job-specific technical training.
California Adult School Regulations
California Adult Schools were first permitted to claim apportionment (ADA) for distance learning (as an instructional mode) in the early 1990s. The legal basis is California Education Code 52522.
Since Ed Code 52522 was instituted, districts have been required to submit an application each year to permit the district to claim apportionment for distance learning. A maximum of five percent of a district’s adult education ADA cap was the maximum amount of ADA a district was allowed to claim through distance learning activities. At this writing (September 2006) AB 2513, which will remove the five percent maximum on distance learning, awaits a signature from the governor. CDE has yet to determine application and reporting procedures for 2006-07. A CDE Program Advisory is expected shortly. See the CDE website for current information on its Innovative and Alternative Instructional Delivery Program
Download the Course Outline (“Career Preparation”).
Adult School Distance Learning Practices
Though currently in a “low-tech” paper-and-pencil format, Career Garden materials are designed to be used in a manner similar to that of the many well-proven “video check-out programs” operated by many California adult schools for English as a Second Language instruction. In those programs, learners are issued media (videos) and accompanying print exercises. Learners meet with their instructors periodically to review the work, address the learner’s questions and guide the student’s further learning. The school claims a set number of attendance hours for each lesson or unit completed to a given standard.
Career Garden follows this same pattern. The media in this case is print. (Only rarely is the learner required to work online.) The student demonstrates mastery of skills through the learning activities that make up each module. Learners meet with teachers who assess learner work, address learner questions and guide learners to further learning. The school claims a set number of attendance hours for each module completed to a given standard. The completion standard for each module is articulated on the Prepare to Meet Your Coach page near the end of each module.
Nuts and Bolts
The How To Use page of this web site provides a learner-oriented discussion on using Career Garden. It is recommended for educators intending to implement Career Garden. Educators must consider these planning issues as well:
Who are our target students?
Do you intend to use Career Garden with students in job-specific training programs? Or with any students in general who are job-oriented in their learning goals? If your school partners with Boston Reed for Clinical Medical Assistant or Pharmacy Technician training, Career Garden will be incorporated into those programs.
How do we prepare out teachers?
Many job-skill teachers have not taught in a distance learning mode. If you intend to integrate Career Garden into an existing job-specific skills course you may find a document directed to Boston Reed allied health teachers useful. "For the Teacher" gives some background on adult school distance learning and provides very specific suggestions for use of Career Garden modules as an adjunct to the face-to-face technical training. Other teachers new to distance learning may also find this document valuable.
How will we advertise and recruit?
Your routine methods of advertising learning opportunities are appropriate: in your course catalog/brochure, on your website (Boston Reed has a free and easy-to-use tool for building a powerful school website), postings on campus and in your community, announcements in relevant classes, and so on. Here is some sample wording you might use:
Career Preparation – Career GardenBoston Reed will also provide a referral mechanism on this website. Students who wish to study Career Garden with the support of an instructor but have no school affiliation will be directed to the nearest participating adult school. (We don’t expect to do any learner-directed advertising, but we know potential students are likely to find their way into this web site.)
Cultivate the skills you need to find a job and keep it. Study our new Career Garden modules on your own, practicing skills every adult needs for career success: job search, customer service, dealing with difficult people, stress management, and more. Meet with an instructor regularly to discuss your progress and receive guidance. Free. [learn more, who to contact, when, how, etc.]
How will students access the material?
If you wish to print out the materials and distribute them to students, you may. Or, you may have students visit this website to download and print their own copies of the training modules. Consider what best serves the students in your community.
How will we structure student-teacher contact?
This is key to your program’s success. There have been a range of practices among adult educators using distance learning, as well as some less-used strategies that hold promise. You will want to choose a set of strategies right for your students and community that balance student opportunity/access and instructional value.
- The teacher schedules individual appointments with students, on your main campus or at another school site. The teacher reviews/assesses student work during the meeting.
Pro: Individual attention with immediate and specific feedback.
Con: When a student misses an appointment the program loses “productivity.” Some skills are effectively reviewed in groups. - The teacher schedules windows of time during each week when students may drop in.
Pro: Flexibility for the student. Individual attention.
Con: Lack of teacher productivity if no students come. - The teacher schedules group sessions. Groups might range in size from a small handful to a classroom-full.
Pro: Opportunity for group practice. Little down-time for teacher.
Con: Less individual attention to students and their completed work. (Some large programs have added an instructional aide who checks student work during these teacher-student meetings.) - The teacher is available by voice mail or email. This might be part of scheduled contact or incidental, as student need for guidance arises.
Pro: Expanded opportunity for teacher-student contact.
Con: Lack of face-to-face contact compromises ability to assess and coach students in some kinds of skills. - Students fax or mail their work to the teacher at school, then teacher and student discuss it over the phone.
Pro: Opportunity for the homebound or very busy. Good individual attention to the learner and her work.
Con: Lack of face-to-face contact compromises ability to assess and coach students in some kinds of skills. - The teacher meets with scheduled groups of students via telephone in a conference call.
Pro: Access to the home-bound or extremely busy. Group interaction.
Con: Lack of face-to-face contact compromises ability to assess and coach students in some kinds of skills. - Teachers and students interact in online discussion boards. The school creates an account for an inexpensive or free online discussion board service at which students post their questions, ideas, even work samples. Some sample services are Nicenet and Yahoo Groups.
Pro: Opportunity for more frequent group interaction. Practice basic literacy skills of our day.
Con: Lack of face-to-face contact compromises ability to assess and coach students in some kinds of skills. Some students may not have ready access to a computer with an Internet connection (though this number is decreasing).
What formula will we use for computing ADA?
We suggest that each Career Garden module completed successfully would be the equivalent to ten hours of seat time. “Successful completion” can be considered a score of 80% or higher based on the criteria in the Prepare to Meet Your Coach page of each module.
How will we record ADA?
If your school already has a distance learning project, you have probably already developed your procedures for recording and summarizing attendance hour equivalents. If not, we offer some suggestions.
- A simple table listing student names vertically and a column for module number, date completed and hours generated across the top. This simple approach makes a lot of sense if you have a large group of students who are working through the modules at the same time. Remember to add these hours in to your P-1, P-2, and Year End ADA summaries.
- Create the same simple table in a spreadsheet or database. This might be appropriate if you have large numbers of students or if you operate your teacher contact time on a drop-in basis.
- Find a way to use your automated attendance accounting system. Boston Reed’s adult education data system, CDI, has an Independent Study mode that works effectively for recording distance learning hours.
What documentation should we keep?
The essential record is that of attendance hour equivalents generated. However, some schools with distance learning projects also file a sample of student work on a regular basis. This provides some back-up to the attendance hours claimed.
How will we manage TOPSpro data?
The same obligation to collect TOPSpro Entry and Update Records from students in face-to-face classes applies to students in distance learning programs. This data collection might happen in face-to-face meetings with teachers. Occasionally distance learning programs have mailed TOPSpro forms between student and school. Schools using Boston Reed's CDI as their core data management system could allow students to submit their Update Record information online.
How do we budget for this program?
It is common practice for a school to budget a number of hours each week for one or more instructors to supervise distance learning students. The decisions you make related to student-teacher interaction will guide your budgeting decisions, along with projections you make for the number of students you will serve.
It is common practice in the Innovative Programs application to submit a budget for the entire (currently allowable) five percent of the school's cap - even if the school intends to use less than that in distance learning activities. Making an application for the full five percent gives the school permission to generate that much ADA via distance learning. This is thought to be a prudent move that provides the school more flexibility should unforeseen events (floods, earthquakes, riots, etc.) disrupt the school's routine modes of instruction.
Where can I get more help with distance learning issues?
The California Department of Education (CDE) has established the California Distance Learning Project to provide leadership and technical support to adult schools implementing distance learning. We encourage educators to visit their web site.
A document providing guidance for completing the Innovations Program application for Career Garden is available. To get this document or other support specific to Boston Reed's distance learning resources, you may contact Tom Reid by email or phone (707.688.4338 direct). Tom has been involved in adult school distance learning projects since 1995.
Terms of Use
Boston Reed permits California Adult Schools and their students enrolled in
- Boston Reed-partnered courses
- other distance learning activities