E4TN

Infobox Website
websitename = e4TN

url = [http://www.e4TN.org www.e4TN.org]
commercial = No
type = Online public education provider
reg =
owner = e4TN Coordinator = Wendy Oliver|
author = various authors

e4TN is an organization created by a grant awarded to the Hamilton County Department of Education. e4TN's primary goal is to develop "meaningful and interactive" online courses for the students of Tennessee's middle and secondary schools. A secondary goal of this grant is to create a statewide group of experienced and skilled online educators from across Tennessee. When the grant was implemented, seven school districts throughout the state received secondary funding. These counties became the original beta-test pilot districts, putting the first in-house developed courses in front of students. Students needing courses not currently in the pilot phase of the grant are able to take vendor based courses administered through e4TN's Host Membership Pilot (HMP). The leadership team for the grant is Wendy Oliver (Hamilton County Department of Education), Glen Smith (Tennessee Department of Education), and Dan Long (Tennessee Department of Education).

Vision

"e"ffective and "e"ngaging "e"-learning "e"nvironment"

e4TN provides a student centered effective, engaging e-learning environment designed to create a strong online learning community through continued communication and rapport with the online instructor, lab facilitator and onsite facilitator. The team-based infrastructure of the e4TN organization assures that the course developers, interface designers, instructors and facilitators work together to provide the best possible learning opportunity for each online learner.

History

[http://www.hcde.org Hamilton County Department of Education] was awarded the largest award ever given to an LEA (Local Educational Association) in the state of Tennessee in December of 2005. The EDTECH grant was to develop the state of Tennessee e-learning platform named e4TN. The funding allowed e4TN to create a catalog of online courses using research-based cognitive theory designed by certified Tennessee teachers and aligned to Tennessee standards. Seven districts across Tennessee were awarded grants to participate in the Beta Test Pilot program in order to test the e4TN courses and to develop a model for student support during the implementation phase. The beta test phase began with 66 students enrolled in Gateway Algebra, Government and Economics in Spring, 2006. This number has grown to over 1000 students engaged in 15 courses. In partnership with Hamilton County Department of Education, e4Tn developed the Host Membership Pilot program to provide vendor-based courses to districts not participating in the Beta Test Pilot. In Spring, 2008, 13 more Tennessee districts joined the program as part of the Pilot 500 grant and the original 7 Beta Test districts implemented outreach programs to neighboring districts.

Educational Infrastructure

e4TN has created an infrastructure that provides training for onsite and lab facilitators at each school to select and provide three different levels of ongoing support to students. The e4TN implementation team has developed training modules for onsite facilitators, lab facilitators and e4TN online instructors. In partnership with Hamilton County Department of Education e4TN has trained 160 onsite facilitators, 175 lab facilitators and 139 online instructors.

External links

* [http://e4TN.org e4TN (e for Tennessee)]

ee also

*Virtual school
*Online classes

References

cite press release |title=Tennessee Awarded Grant for Online Learning Initiative |publisher=Governor's Office |date=11/15/2005 |url=http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/governor/viewArticleContent.do?id=676 |format= |language= |accessdate=2008-03-27 |quote= The e4TN virtual learning initiative will expand Tennessean’s access to college preparatory classes in rural and high poverty urban school districts.