Apex Learning expands

Internet Strategies for Education Markets: The Heller Report, Dec, 2000

Apex Learning (Bellevue, WA, www.apex.com) is expanding its business activities beyond offering online advanced placement courses to being "a builder and operator of virtual schools," says Keith Oelrich, president New offerings include a full-featured virtual high school offering with courses other than advanced placement courses, online professional development workshops and services to help educational publishers web-enable and distribute their content.

Oelrich says the company is responding to a mix of market drivers: demand for education is at a peak in history as we move into a knowledge economy and the number of K-12 students grows; the supply-side is suffering from an aging, retiring workforce of teachers; and schools have recently made an enormous investment in technology.

Virtual Schools Built in Partnership with Districts

The Virtual School offering will include an online infrastructure and authoring platform, accredited courses and customer service. A menu-driven approach will let schools control costs and content with options such as using their own teachers or using Apex teachers and using Apex-authored courses, editing Apex courses, or authoring original courses. Sales will be directed at districts and state organizations, and the company will strive to work as a curriculum partner for those entities. Sales will initially focus on high schools because they have funding for online learning initiatives.

Schools will customize the Apex offering, essentially custom labeling it. Oelrich is considering providing an Apex-branded web offering for students in districts that have not made agreements with the company. Current clients include Michigan Virtual U, Kentucky Department of Education, New Mexico Department of Education, Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Houston Independent School District, Utah State Office of Education, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, and the Milwaukee Public Schools.

The Virtual School does not put Apex into competition with course authoring platforms, says Oelrich. The platform, he explains, is just one component of an

overall offering. While Apex is using inhouse technology currently, he regards the platform companies such as Blackboard, WebCT and e-College as potential partners. Similarly, Apex is using in-house assessment technology, but they are looking at additional technologies. And as expanded course offerings require correlation with state-standards, they could look to partners for that component.

The AP Roots

With their AP experience, Apex has had an opportunity to develop sound online teaching methodologies, such as techniques to build a relationship between the student and online teacher and assigning each student a mentor in the school to monitor progress. Oelrich says that brand-name recognition is not high, but it is widely associated with quality where people do know the company. Because performance on AP exams can easily be compared across the nation, they also have proof of effectiveness. Among their students, slightly more than the national average go on to take the AP exam, and their pass rate matches the national average.

Advanced placement courses have also served the company well by meeting a clear educational need. Nearly half, 47%, of high schools don't offer any AP courses, and the average high school offers four courses out of a possible 32 subject areas. Online AP courses can cost effectively deliver any AP course to a single student in the district. Oelrich anticipates similar needs for IT training courses, remedial courses, foreign language and non-AP, advanced courses in disciplines such as physics and math. For example, Oelrich says there is only one registered computer science teacher for every three high schools in the nation.

Oelrich adds that the Virtual School also helps keep teachers in the workforce. A situation he call "home teaching" enables people who would otherwise leave the workforce, such as new parents or retired teachers, to continue teaching a course or two.

Professional Development Workshops

Professional development offerings are designed more to provide convenience than for needs that can't otherwise be met. Apex has long offered professional development for online teaching to their own teachers. That is now expanded to a wide-range of classroom issues at www.teacherdev.com. The site offers instructor-led workshops of 10 to 15 hours that typically provide one continuing education unit. A partnership with Seattle Pacific U also allows teachers to receive college credit for the courses, and Apex is expanding such relationships with universities.

Courses are designed for a teacher to start at any time and work at their own pace. It is possible for a district to arrange for groups of teachers to work through a class together, but Oelrich doesn't expect the option to be popular until users are more familiar with the offerings. The Institute now has fifteen courses. They expect to rapidly expand to 100 courses, adding new courses about every week or two.