Special Pricing Obtained for Content Management Systems

Content Management Systems (also known as CMS, Learning Management Systems, LMS, VCM or Virtual Content Management) are programs that enable students and teachers to access the course content for on-line learning. The learning management system hosts the curriculum of semester or full credit courses. Course content of modules or units, for use in a blended classroom, can also be hosted in the learning management system. The CMS houses the content, administers assessments, facilitates communication among the teachers and students, and contains grades and participation records of each student. There are a number of commercially produced management systems as well as open source platforms.

The Information Technology Centers (ITCs) and Educational Service Centers (ESCs) throughout Ohio are partnering to make quality online learning options available to all Ohio districts and students at an affordable price through statewide consortium agreements and cost savings. Through the eLearn Ohio initiative, districts such as yours, can take advantage of the many benefits that on-line learning offer. As part of this initiative, eLearn Ohio has negotiated special pricing for content management platforms that can be used for the delivery of online courses.

The companies that negotiated special pricing with eLearn Ohio are:

Blackboard Learn Suite

Online and blended learning solutions, implemented well and with teacher training, help districts, ITCs and ESCs to:

• Engage students in and out of the classroom
• Differentiate instruction in a standards-aligned learning environment
• Bring professional development online & increase teacher productivity
• Do more with less by expanding educational infrastructure online
• Map assignments to Ohio Academic Content Standards
• Share classes across districts
• Differentiate instruction with the Adaptive Release Feature

In order to offer statewide discounted rates for the Blackboard Learn™ Suite, we have partnered with Learn21 – a non-profit flexible learning cooperative – as a statewide pricing conduit. Organizations will work through Learn 21 (www.learn21.org) to secure a software license with Blackboard.

• Organizations will pay on a per-user basis and may start with as few as 500 users
• As users are added to this master agreement, the pricing will continue to decline for additional Ohio users – creating economies of scale

The Blackboard Learn Suite includes:
• Blackboard Learn for Course Delivery
• Blackboard Learn for Community Engagement
• Blackboard Learn for Content Development

Hosting the software through Learn21 is not required, but the organization provides hosting through the local ITC along with data integration with Student Information Systems, grading packages, and more. Visit http://www.learn21.org for details.

Pricing:

Pricing available upon request. Please contact Melissa Higgs-Horwell from MCOECN at horwell@mcoecn.org or Shana Glenzer from Blackboard at shana.glenzer@blackboard.com for full details.

BrainHoney

BrainHoney is a next generation blended and virtual learning platform. What’s The Difference?

• Embedded State Standards - Drag and drop standards to align with content & develop curriculum maps
• Outcomes Reporting - report student and class mastery by state standard
• Teacher and Administrator Dashboards
• At-risk students, 2-click grading, performance by class & student
• Formative and Remediation Assessments - individualized learning paths for any course
• Customizable Grade Book - see time on task, email students with late assignments and more
• Course Import Wizard - inport courses from LMS systems including Moodle, ANGEL, and Bb
• License & Use Curriculum Immediately - providers include Florida Virtual School, Aventa, eTap, and more
• Customization and Integration Services Available - use BrainHoney’s APIs to customize UI and integrate with systems

Special statewide purchase pricing has been established with Agilix for the BrainHoney content management system. At the present time the SPARCC ITC is using BrainHoney for its Distance Learning Consortium. Licenses must be purchased through the ITCs and the MCOECN. Below you will find costs and the description of the implementation package for the first two years of the use of BrianHoney. For additional information and and to discuss pricing, please contact Jim Vincent at jim.vincent@email.sparcc.org or Kim Shurig at Agilix at kim.shurig@agilix.com

Year 1 Implementation Package (year 1 of each ITC implementation)

COST PER ITC FOR SET UP
• ITC Sub Domain Set up and Branding: $12,000
• Hosting provided by Agilix Labs
• 1 Day WebEx training
• 1,000 users licenses per ITC
• Access to Support for 1 named Administrator per ITC
• Additional named administrators $500 per year

Additional Users above the 1,000 bundle:
• 7,500-10,000 users: $3.30 per user
• 10,001-15,000 users: $3.20 per user
• 15,001-25,000 users: $3.00 per user
• >25,000 $2.50 per user

Year 2 Pricing and subsequent years:
$6,000 base fee plus per user cost based on ITC volume level
Optional Integration with Elluminate: $1,000 per ITC
Optional Branding of individual school districts within and ITC: $1,000 per district
Optional Training:
• $2,000 per day of training onsite at ITC
• $1,000 per day WebEx delivered training
• ITC’s may combine in 1 training and share training costs
• Limit of 20 in a training

Customizations and Integration with SIS or other 3rd party applications: Pricing available on request .

A+

A+ is a courseware program that provides core curriculum content and also assessment tools to match skill levels of students.  Aligned to state standards and delivered through the Internet, A+ courseware has 4 components:

Assess:  Which identifies students levels, skills and deficiencies.

Prescribe:  Automatically prescribes where the students should start.  Aligned to state standards.  These courses are heavily used for Credit Recovery.

Instruct:  Research-based direct instruction model

Report:  Benchmark reporting.  Ongoing assessment and post-testing.

For more information on credit recovery options and a list of courses go to http://www.amered.com/sol_crb_products.php.

The fee for the courses is $600 per license which can be used by a different student each period of the day. Thus, if a school has a 7 period day, 7 students could log on to take the A+ classes during the day for each license an ESC or district purchases. In addition, the cost of professional development, which would be provided by the American Education Corporation staff is $100 for a one-day session per person. These courses are hosted at the NOACSC ITC. 

Apex Learning® is the leading provider and publisher of web-based digital curriculum that serves all students, from those not prepared for grade-level academic challenges to those capable of Advanced Placement coursework. With Apex Learning’s comprehensive, standards-based online courses based on Ohio Academic Content Standards – and utilizing multiple course pathways – Ohio educators are able to effectively differentiate instruction and spend more time working with students one-on-one to address critical challenges.

Apex Learning partners with school districts nationwide to provide solutions tailored to meet their specific educational objectives, using experienced education consultants to design and implement customized programs. Multimedia instructional content motivates and engages students, provides multiple representations of concepts, and give students the ability to move at their own pace to master the material. The Apex Learning digital curriculum is helping Ohio school districts offer ALL students rigorous coursework, raise achievement levels, and prepare them for college, work and life.

Apex Learning Solutions available are

Apex Learning ClassTools Achieve provides access to all Apex Learning online courses for use by district online learning programs. This resource can be used in a computer lab or classroom setting.

In addition to the advantages of the Apex Learning digital curriculum, students enrolled in the Apex Learning Virtual School (ALVS) gain the instructional support, grading and feedback of a certified and highly qualified Apex Learning instructor. Apex Learning Virtual School is accredited by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools.

Apex Learning and eLearn Ohio Partnership Pricing

Purchases made through this process will qualify for an initial discount off of regular list pricing. Larger discounts for volume purchases are available and will be offered to districts on an individual basis. Apex Learning ClassTools Achieve enrollments can be purchased for $190 and Apex Learning Virtual School enrollments can be purchased for $345 per student per course per semester.

For more information, please view the Apex Learning Demo , visit Apex Learning online or contact:
Kevin Trent| Apex Learning P  859-512-7492   TF  866-416-9821   F  206.381.5601 E ktrent@apexlearning.com  www.apexlearning.com

Copyright © 2010 Apex Learning Inc. Apex Learning®, the Apex Learning
logo, ClassTools®, ClassTools Achieve®, ClassTools Virtual™, Literacy
Advantage™, and Beyond Books® are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Apex Learning Inc
Advanced Placement and AP are registered trademarks of the College Board.

Aventa

Aventa Learning partners with schools and districts to offer standards-based online courses to middle and high school students. Their online curriculum includes core, elective, foreign language, Advanced Placement, and credit recovery courses for grades 6 – 12.* Aventa courses use scaffolding complexity and include multimedia. Courses are developed by licensed teachers with at least three years of classroom teaching experience and continuously revised as standards, educational methods and technologies change over time. 

License fees per student/per course

• Core/World languages/Electives are available for $89 a license if locally hosted and using local teachers, and $299 a course if Aventa hosts and provides the instructor .
• AP courses are available for $99 a license if locally hosted and use local teachers, and $329 if Aventa does the hosting and provides the instructor.
• Credit Recovery courses can be purchased per seat for $69 if locally hosted using your own LMS.

*Course listings
• For a listing of HS courses available http://aventalearning.com/aventacourses/ high-school-catalog
• For a listing of MS courses available http://aventalearning.com/aventacourses/ middle-school-catalog
• For a listing of credit recovery courses http://aventalearning.com/aventacourses/ credit-recovery-catalog

Florida Virtual Credit Recovery Courses

Florida Virtual School (FLVS) has been a leader in online learning since 1997 in developing and delivering virtual K-12 education solutions to students all over Florida, all 50 states in the U.S. and throughout the world. They were the country’s first, state-wide Internet-based public high school and currently serve over 200,000 students in Florida alone. 

SPARCC through eLearn Ohio, is offering schools access to their 43 FLVS courses, including 3 AP courses, AP Calculus; AP Biology; and AP English Literature for $300. This cost includes the cost of the teacher, the student license, and the hosting on BrainHoney, SPARCC’s Course Management System.* If the district wanted to use their own teacher the fee would be $150, in addition to $100 plus expenses for the professional development for the teacher.

* For a complete list of the Florida Virtual Courses available go to http://web.sparcc.org/index.php?page=florida-virtual

Learning Spring

The Aurora Learning System offers over 100 online courses for grades 4-12, hosted by the company. Each one-year course contains 36 lessons, with a 3-4 hour workload per lesson (totaling approximately 144 class hours). A single semester course contains 18 lessons. Courses are sold on a per-student license basis.

License Pricing for 1 Calendar Year

• Full student license: $130 which gives access for one student to take an unlimited number of online courses and assessments over a calendar year period. Great option for at-risk students because they can take as many courses as they can complete.
• Single Course License: $65 which gives one student access to one online course and unlimited assessments until the course is finished.
• LearningSprings offers a teacher for each course for an additional $180 per semester, with each semester composed of 18 lessons.
• There is also setup pricing of $1,950, which we can share between the participating districts which purchase through the MCOECN. LearningSprings charges this fee per district, but through eLearn Ohio, participating districts can share in the cost.

ODYSSEYWARE

OdysseyWare provides fully web-based curriculum for 3rd-12th grade core courses and electives that correlate with state standards and are based on proven instructional strategies. * Also, teachers can customize all lessons, assignments, tests and quizzes to differentiate instruction, address learning gaps, and provide remedial work.
License costs for a minimum of 5 annual licenses per district are $1000 each. There could be price breaks as the numbers of licenses sold to the consortium increases. The benefit of participating in eLearn Ohio’s statewide program is that the face-to-face training and set up costs of $2900 per district for up to 12 people or $1495 per district for web-based training for up to 10 people will be shared through ESC’s. Thus participating districts will realize considerable savings for the necessary professional development and set-up.

*To see a listing of OdysseyWare courses available go to http://www.odysseyware.com/products/courses/.

Rosetta Stone language-learning software using the proprietary Dynamic Immersion learning environment offers 31 languages including Spanish, English, Arabic and Mandarin Chinese. * Many schools are using it for flexible credit, world language support, credit recovery, RTI, PD and ESL/ELL students.  Rosetta Stone language learning software is used extensively by colleges and universities across the country, the State Department, U.S. Military, NASA and corporations worldwide. Placement curriculum is included which will place students at their appropriate level. For district success stories, Ohio state standards and correlations or more information on how districts are utilizing Rosetta Stone, go to http://www.rosettastone.com/schools.

Rosetta Stone has an easy to use management portal which allows teachers and administrators to track student progress and scores, customize curriculum and generate reports to aid student data analysis.

$89 per user per calendar year for as many courses as the user wants to take.  Licenses are transferrable and can be used by more than one student and multiple languages in a given year.

Training costs of $2100 for an all day, hands-on instructor led training session can be split among participants. Another option is $520 for an online session for an unlimited number of participants, which can be shared among participants. Please ask for details on upcoming sessions.

Supplemental materials, such as Teacher’s Guides, Student Workbooks and Audio Companion are available in print and digital format and are available for certain languages.  

*For a complete list of the languages available go to http://www.rosettastone.com/schools/languages.

Orders for Rosetta Stone licenses will be placed throughout the fall. Orders will be accepted for the months of September 2010, October 2010, December 2010, and March 2011. 

OhioLearns! Gateway AP Courses

Through special one-time funding provided through the generosity of Governor Strickland, the General Assembly eTech Ohio, and OLN, students will have an opportunity to apply for fee waivers to be used for the Advanced Placement courses taken through the Gateway. Take a look at the course catalog and other information http://olg.ohiolearns.org.

To Purchase: Please contact Melissa Higgs-Horwell, phone (740)352-6820, or email horwell@mcoecn.org; or Jim Vincent, phone (330)445-2267 ,or email Jim.vincent@email.sparcc.org for a customized quote for your needs. We will help you figure out what type of courseware licences you might need and will help you plan and schedule the necessary professional development.

To purchase licenses, iTC’s and ESC’s must send purchase orders to the MC-TSG, attention Sandy Houck, Projects Coordinator, 209 Nolan Parkway, PW Box 407, Archbold, OH 43502, Phone (800)214-OECN, Fax (419)267-5222.

For more information call or email, Melissa Higgs-Horwell, phone (740)352-6820, or email horwell@mcoecn.org; or Jim Vincent, Phone 330)445-2267, or email Jim.vincent@email.sparcc.org.