Distance Education

These resources provide guidance to support programs and instructors in implementing Distance Education.

Resources

Approved Distance Curricula
This current (July 2024) list of approved distance education curricula is made public by the Virginia Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education.

Distance Education Curriculum Submission Form
This is the form through which Regional Program Managers can submit curricula to the Distance Education Curriculum Review Panel. If needed, you can view the list of submission questions prior to submitting the form.

Quality Teaching Online Resources
These resources and tip collections provide guidance to support programs and instructors in implementing quality teaching online.

• Guidance for Online Course Development
  This guidance is intended to support adult education providers.
• Distance Education Tips
  Vocabulary used in distance education can, at times, be quite confusing. Organizations with different purposes and constraints (for example, a state education office and an independent publishing company) may be using the same term to refer to different ideas or may use different terms for the same idea. This tip sheet provides guidance for terms used in adult distance education programs in Virginia.
• Adult Education Indicators of Quality Online Courses Rubric
  This rubric was developed to help teachers better understand the components that go into developing an online course. These indicators will help guide you through course set-up, identify best practices, and develop strategies to make your courses more effective. Accompanying this rubric are a series of tips to help you dive deeper into some of the more challenging content areas.
• Adult Education Indicators of Quality Online Instructional Visual Aid Companion
  The purpose of this image is to serve as a visual aid companion to the aforementioned rubric.

Self-Paced Tutorials

These self-paced tutorials are offered through VALRC’s Reach 360 platform. To see what courses are available, browse our on-demand, self-paced learning opportunities.

VALRC – Distance Education Blended Learning Attendance Models (Module 1 of 2)
The purpose of this one-hour, self-paced tutorial is to inform distance and/or blended learning instructors, administrators, and data staff about the core concepts of blended learning and the different time-tracking models for collecting and reporting student attendance data. 1 Credit Hour

VALRC – Distance Education Overview of Blended Learning (Module 2 of 2)
This one-hour, self-paced tutorial provides information about blended learning classroom instruction and its required components so that teachers and instructional leaders can increase their facility with this type of instruction and improve student performance in a blended learning setting. 1 Credit Hour

VALRC – Understanding Virginia’s Adult Education & Literacy Assessment Policy
The purpose of this training is to familiarize the participant with the assessment section of the Assessment Policy and Distance Education Policy for Virginia Adult Education & Literacy Programs. 1 Credit Hour

For more resources related to distance education, please search VALRC’s resource bank.