Act 2325 of 2005
Act 2325 of 2005 established the first state-led program to provide distance learning courses to Arkansas students. This founding legislation provided four focus areas:
To help alleviate the increasing shortage of available qualified teachers.
To provide additional course scheduling opportunities of students currently forced to choose between courses that are scheduled infrequently or concurrently.
To provide an opportunity for students to access an enriched curriculum and additional courses beyond those mandated by the Standards for Accreditation of Arkansas Public Schools.
To develop and make available online professional development and instructional resources for all teachers and administrators.
Act 1280 of 2013
Act 1280 of 2013 provided additional focus areas:
To provide for the expansion of digital learning opportunities to all Arkansas public school students.
To remove any impediments to the expansion of digital learning.
What is Digital Learning?
According to the iNACOL Definitions Project, the following definitions provide a framework for understanding:
Blended learning - Any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace; often used synonymously with Hybrid Learning. (Horn and Staker, 2011).
Digital Learning – Online or Blended Learning
Online learning – Education in which instruction and content are delivered primarily over the Internet. (Watson & Kalmon, 2005.) The term does not include printed-based correspondence education, broadcast television or radio, videocassettes, and stand-alone educational software programs that do not have a significant Internet-based instructional component. (U.S. Department of Education Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development Policy and Program Studies Service, 2010) Used interchangeably with virtual learning, cyber learning, e-learning, or distance learning.
iNACOL includes a web page titled Resources Overview.
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