KEY DEFINITIONS

Distance Education (DE)

Distance education instruction occurs whenever the teacher and student are (1) physically separated by time or space, and (2) connected by means of a communications source used to provide synchronous or asynchronous instruction.

Various mediums deliver distance education courses: interactive video such as the WEN Video network, online course platforms, audio, and any hybrid combination. The delivery of instruction may be synchronous (in real-time) or asynchronous (where the communication and interaction is delayed over time).
Blended learning environments that utilize both traditional face-to-face instruction and distance learning fall under the scope of distance education.
A student participating in a laboratory environment and regularly attending class at the local school is considered distance education if a teacher separated from the student by either time or space delivers the instruction for the course.
Dual-credit courses, where the student receives both K-12 and college credit, can be delivered at a distance.
Online or digital content does not always imply a distance education course. The relationship between the teacher and student is what defines distance education, not the medium of the content.
If there is no expectation that a remote-instructor regularly provides instruction, independent study courses are not included under distance education.

Milestones

Milestones are the key topics or required objectives presented in a distance education course. Milestones are used to monitor student progress through the course, report distance education course completion rates, and calculate the students’ attendance and membership equivalency.

Distance Education Program

A distance education program is simply a collection of one or more courses. In Wyoming, institutions that provide distance education programs are not recognized as stand-alone entities or schools. Instead, the existing brick-and-mortar school system delivers the distance education program.

Wyoming Switchboard Network (WSN)

The Wyoming Switchboard Network is a collection of distance education programs available to K-12 students. The Wyoming Switchboard website acts as the central collection of K-12 distance education resources including the current statewide distance education courses available and information about the various DE programs.

All Wyoming public school districts, community colleges, and the University of Wyoming are eligible to provide distance education programs through the Wyoming Switchboard Network.

Resident District

The term resident district refers to the Wyoming school district in which the participating student resides, receives distance education program instruction and where the student's Distance Learning Plan (DLP) is filed.

Nonresident District

The nonresident district is the school district in which a participating student does not reside but which employs the distance education program teacher and which sponsors, approves, facilitates and supervises the distance education program course material provided to the participating student.

When a student resides in the district sponsoring the DE program and enrolls through the self-contained model, the resident district and nonresident district are actually one and the same.

If a student enrolls into a distance education program through the fulltime transfer model, the nonresident district assumes all of the roles and responsibilities of the student’s resident district as outlined in this handbook.