The Aurora Learning Community Association (ALCA) is an online community of learners, a knowledge management and generation system. It originated in 1997 as a Technology Innovation Challenge Grant for software, curriculum, and professional development.

Thousands of educators and other professionals throughout the country are members of the ALCA community. As users contribute to their own learning community, they gain a sense of ownership and collaboration.

No learning community (system) is the same. The elements of professional development, student learning, testing, highly qualified instructors, parental communication, standards based instruction, and so on vary from system to system. The ALCA solution merges all of these elements and more into a dynamic environment that can be specifically designed to mirror a school's structure. Some specific examples include:

• Use of online objective testing, with each test item tied to a specific standard.
• Performance assessment, using rubrics and portfolios.
• Convergence of professional development outcomes directly to online lessons > to instruction > to student assessments > to outcomes from state testing.
• Multiple levels of communication between administration, teachers, students, and parents.
• Shared resources to parents for soliciting support in helping their child succeed in school.
• Online professional development and/or participation in established eworkshops on other ALCA communities.
• Use of work samples and portfolio resources to examine student learning over time.
• Simple and quick options for exchange of comments between student and teacher. (From the many options embedded throughout the system, teachers determine which method is best to use.)
• Improved instruction by the development of a shared vision of best practices.
• Archiving lessons learned so that in coming years new staff may reap the benefits in the form of local professional development activities.
• Improved accountability on the part of both teachers and students through the development of product based workshops and classroom activities.

ALCA offers a broad spectrum of learning solutions for educators and businesses. Each community is different, with the freedom to create its own structure of content and to manage its own activities.

Yes. National Geographic and state standards (currently for Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico) are attached. Work is in progress to integrate various other national and all state standards. Additionally, in upcoming versions, local standards will be imported to the system for local district use.

Blocks of standards can be assigned to all ALCA resources, assignments, classes, projects, and even organizations. An entire community and all of its sub areas or specific activities can be tied to a single or multiple standard(s).

Absolutely. All places are learning environments, and ALCA is constructed to support any collaborative endeavor, whether for a business, agency, organization, or school. Remember, the administrator structures the community to suit the need of his or her community members. Those members could be from a diabetes support group, a regional business, or a small rural school.

I can do a search of the thousands of public resources which are available across all ALCA communities. I can also join ALCA to develop and use additional resources, participate in online learning activities, and manage my portfolios. My technology skills and overall learning will be enhanced because of ALCA.

Yes! Any work can be made public so that others may view it. This is particularly important for showcasing portfolios and sharing and analyzing data. Portfolios for learning and professional showcases are encouraged. Data results and products within online courses and continual learning activities are published with permission by the moderators of those learning activities.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) policies are followed. When a person registers, he or she can choose an "alias" for a display name. (For members under 18, an appropriate alias is definitely recommended. Otherwise, parental consent is advised.)

Each individual community administrator dictates the privacy policies for his or her community. (This individual must know the actual names of users.) Published materials can be made public (viewable to anyone), private (for one's own use), or semi-private ( for one's own community or specific to the moderators of the community).

Specific to the ALCA community, no registration information will be shared with individuals or organizations. If an individual participates in an online training, then the moderator of the activity will have access only to the individual's First, Last, and Display name.

ALCA community members strictly follow copyright laws and ALCA's written policies on fair use and terms of use. Community members are responsible for being respectful of copyright issues and maintaining academic integrity. Members retain copyrights of their own products, and each ALCA community retains ownership of original content placed in their data bases.

It is an ALCA policy that a member with moderator rights who places products into a "shared" folder is granting permission for others to use the products to the access level selected.

Several fee structures are available, from single user (student, instructor, and moderator) fees beginning at $1.00, to fees for three tiers of technology support and memberships.

     Fall 2003 Price List

Yes! There is no need to purchase floppy disks for technology. ALCA also reduces or eliminates the costs associated with web page development and maintenance. Hard copies of materials can be replaced by putting them online, thus reducing publishing costs. Additionally, in the near future, textbook costs will be reduced or eliminated because of the content of some ALCA online courses which are being developed. (These are only some of the cost-saving features of using ALCA.)

Many of the online resources are freely offered. However, if you choose to become a member of ALCA, the minimal registration fee entitles you to create and use additional resources. A Search tab at the top of most pages will help you find resources.

In addition to web tools and templates, which are available for web page designs, thousands of lesson plans on all subject areas/grade levels can also be utilized. A virtual library of such materials as forms, files, webpages, self-contained websites, portfolios, presentations, lesson plans, assessments, and courses is housed on the ALCA site, ready for dissemination.

You can not only manage your classes with calendars, lesson plans, gradebooks, message boards, and assignments, but you can also create online lessons in specially designed templates, with standards and resources easily attached.

Contact ALCA so that ALCA staff can assist you in establishing your community. You may want to consider getting your own ALCA server to manage it, especially if your learning community is a large one.

Yes. It is very simple to choose a template and then to create your distinct desktop. All of the ALCA resources, including web pages, uploaded files, presentations, lesson plans, forms, locations, portfolios, work samples, procedures, checklists, and others have a unique URL found at the bottom of each. Using a combination of any of these resources, you can create your own rich website. One can mix and match however pleases their own needs. From this homepage an educator can share most information needed for parents and students alike. You are limited only by creativity and memory purchased. (See Costs.)

Yes. ALCA has message boards; chats; internal mail; portfolios; presentations; data sharing forms; and shared folders (with "view", "add", and "edit" options), all of which involve various forms of communication.

No. ALCA Help and Quick Starts features are online to aid anyone needing assistance. Additionally, available online are professional development workshops on how to use the ALCA learning management system.

To improve my teaching and learning skills, to enhance my use of technology, to help my colleagues and students improve their technology skills, to communicate with others, to collaborate on projects, to do data sharing and analysis, to set up my own web page, and to become a skilled professional.

This application created for ALCA by GammaStreams Technologies is a WebObjects application created by Apple Computer, Inc. With WebOjects, the ALCA Community server also requires SQL compliant data base software for storing all content for the community. Presently most ALCA communities are using OpenBase. All applications will run on Apple, Windows, and Solaris platforms. For potential learning communities that wish to set up the application at their own site, both applications would need to be purchased. Upon installation of both applications, the ALCA Community application servers will automatically begin communicating with other ALCA communities.