The Clark County School District (CCSD) set a goal of having one third of their 320,000 students in an online or blended learning environment by the 2015 year. SoftChalk was a major tool in the proverbial tech tool box that allowed us to not only meet, but exceed that goal.
Utilizing SoftChalk as a foundation, along with the Canvas Learning Management System, CCSD’s Innovative Learning Environments division has been curating a full catalog of middle school and high school courses. Schools and teachers can use this curriculum at no cost to them, in essence saving the district millions of dollars when it comes to paying outside vendors for a product that may not directly align with CCSD and Nevada State Content Standards.
Integrated components that have made this endeavor successful are SoftChalk templates based on components of an effective lesson, use of Google docs for assignments, embedded Google Slide presentations inside SoftChalk, and utilizing Subject Matter Experts as lesson idea generators and peer reviewers.
Here you can find Michelle M. Truman’s PowerPoint presentation.
Michelle has also provided a list of handouts from her presentation that you are free to view and download for your own curriculum building.