This document discusses teaching Advanced Placement (AP) social studies courses asynchronously online. It provides examples of AP courses taught asynchronously to students in different school districts and programs. It also describes the format used, including email, online lectures, discussion forums, and evaluations. Trends in student participation and performance in the discussion forums are analyzed. The conclusions emphasize that independent, self-motivated students can perform well in asynchronous online learning, and that interaction with the teacher and classmates is important for student success.

1. Tele-Teaching Advanced
Placement Social Studies
Courses in an
Asynchronous Manner
Michael K. Barbour

2. Musing of a Social Studies
E-Teacher
Michael K. Barbour

3. Advanced Placement Programme
The Advanced Placement (AP) programme, which offers
university level courses to secondary school students,
administers a standardised test each Spring which
determines whether or not students will be eligible for
university transfer credit.
Traditionally, AP courses are taught in a classroom
setting, to a small group of academically strong students.
However, decreased educational funding has limited this
type of environment to urban schools or large regional
high schools. Even in these environments, AP courses
have usually been limited to the Mathematics and Science
courses.

4. Tele-Teaching
Vista School District
1999-2000 to present
Centre for Advanced Placement Education
Pilot – 2000-01
2001-02 to present
Illinois Virtual High School
2000-01 to present

5. Vista School District
AP European History AP Comparative
1999-2000 -> 3 students, 2 Government and Politics
schools 2000-01 -> 1 student, 1
2000-01 -> 3 students, 2 school
schools AP United States History
2001-02 -> 2 students, 2
2000-01 -> 1 student, 1
schools
school
2002-03 -> 2 students, 1
2001-02 -> 2 students, 1
school
school
AP Human Geography AP United States
2000-01 -> 5 students, 1 Government and Politics
school
2000-01 -> 1 student, 1
2001-02 -> 1 student, 1
school
school

6. Centre for Advanced Placement Education
AP European History
2000-01 -> 3 students, 2 schools
2001-02 -> 1 student, 1 school
AP Human Geography
2000-01 -> 1 student, 1 school
2001-02 -> 1 student, 1 school
AP Comparative Government and Politics
2002-03 -> 1 student, 1 school
AP United States History
2001-02 -> 1 student, 1 school
AP United States Government and Politics
2002-03 -> 1 student, 1 school

7. Illinois Virtual High School
AP European History
2001-02 -> 6 students, 4 schools
2002-03 -> 16 student, 12 schools
AP Human Geography
2002-03 -> 13 students, 10 schools

8. Totals
AP European History
36 students, 23 schools
AP Human Geography
21 students, 13 schools
AP Comparative Government and Politics
2 students, 2 schools
AP United States History
4 students, 3 schools
AP United States Government and Politics
2 students, 2 schools

9. Format
E-mail
Weekly update on work for that week
As needed throughout the week
Online Lectures
Primarily text-based, with some images
No multimedia items
Discussion Forum
Question posted each week which students must respond to
Students also required to reply to one other students’ post
Weekly Evaluation
Week 1 – test prep item
Week 2 – test prep item
Weeks 3 & 4 – content-based project

10. Instant Messaging
1. Did you use ICQ this year to communicate with other students in the course?
Yes No
2. If "yes," describe how you used ICQ to communicate with other students in the
course?
3. Did you use MSN Messenger this year to communicate with other students in the
course?
Yes No
4. If "yes," describe how you used MSN Messenger to communicate with other students
in the course?
5. Did you use any other instant messaging programme this year to communicate with
other students in the course?
Yes No
6. If "yes," which programme and describe how you used it to communicate with other
students in the course?
7. Is there anything about the use of instant messaging that you would like to add?

11. Instant Messaging
fourteen of the twenty-one students in the course replied to this
message
2 students indicated they had used ICQ, while 4 students stated
they had used MSN Messenger
while the level of usage of various instant messaging programmes
was low, the students that did make use of them found them a
valuable tool
the most common uses were to simply get to know other students,
to ask questions about content or evaluations, or to ask and
answer questions to review for tests
the students indicated that they like to instant and informal nature
of instant messaging

12. Instant Messaging
The use of instant messaging adds
to the ability to understand concepts
and ideas. It allows us to get instant
answers to many of the questions that
we have rather than having to wait
for e-mail back from our e-teacher.
Also, we are able to get alternate
answers to review questions that
could show up on tests.

13. Instant Messaging
For some students that are in the course, I have added
them to my contact lust for messenger. If they are online
at the same time as I am than we will sometime converse
answers and questions to review for tests and assignments
but that is all.
If I had a problem I would go online to see if anyone was
on to ask. Also, if I needed to know when something was
due I asked people.
I simply just chatted with people in the course who are on
my list, outside of class.
Used instant messaging to talk about history and get to
know other students.

14. Discussion Forum
Students from two different classes participated in an online
discussion forum. At the conclusion on the course, students had to
option to take an external exam and received a score of 1 to 5 based
upon a standard curve, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the
highest.
There were three different categories in the discussion forum. The
“Discussion” category was a place where students participated in a
directed, threaded discussion. The “Main” category was a place
where students would post course-related messages that weren’t
part of the directed discussion. Finally, the “DC Café” was a place
for students to discuss anything that they wanted to.
When viewing the following charts, the number of messages posted
is listed across the top of the chart and the students’ scores on the
external exam is listed along the side.

15. Discussion Forum - AP European History
The students who participated in this discussion forum over a
25 week period did so under the following conditions:
• the participation of 19 students was part of an assignment
valued at less than 5% of their final mark
• the participation of 3 students was mandatory twice weekly
and worth 15% of the students final grade
• the participation of 2 students was mandatory twice weekly
and worth 15% of the students final grade, but these students
only participated for the final 18 weeks
• the participation of 1 student was entirely optional and not
worth any of their final mark

16. Discussion Forum - AP European History
All categories
0-9 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 > 50
5 3 2 1
4 1 3 1
3 3 3
2 1 1 1
1 1 1
- 2 1
Discussion category
0-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30
5 1 2 3
4 1 1 3
3 2 2 2
2 1 1 1
1 1 1
- 1 1 1

17. Discussion Forum - AP Human Geography
The students who participated in this discussion forum over
a 26 week period did so under the following conditions:
• the participation of 15 students was part of a mandatory
assignment that was worth approximately 10% of the
students’ final mark
•the participation of 5 students was mandatory twice weekly
and worth 15% of the students final grade

18. Discussion Forum - AP Human Geography
All categories
0-9 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 > 50
5 2 1
4 1 1 1
3
2 1 2
1 1 2
- 3 1 2 1 1
Discussion category
0-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 > 26
5 2 1
4 2 1
3
2 1 1 1
1 1 2
- 2 1 1 4

19. Discussion Forum - Trends
Excluding the students whose participation was
mandatory, the following trends were noticed:
• in both classes, students who participated more
scored better on the external exam than students who
participated less
• lack of participation did not guarantee a poor score,
no more than a large amount of participation
guaranteed a high score (as seen by the participation
and scores of the students’ whose participation was
mandatory)

20. Discussion Forum - Conclusions
There are some general conclusions which can be drawn:
• students who write about a subject learn that subject better
• participation in an open discussion forum forces students to
write about a subject
• students who participate in online discussion forums tend to
perform better than students who are non-users of the online
discussion forums
Main question for future research:
Do better students participate more in online discussion
forums or do students who participate more in online
discussion forums perform better?

21. Conclusions
Based upon practice moreso than research
Students who are independent learners will perform well in a
totally asynchronous environment
Students who are self-motivated will perform well in a totally
asynchronous environment
Students who interact through asynchronous means with the e-
teacher and their classmates will perform well in a totally
asynchronous environment
Students perception of their relationship with the e-teacher will
determine their level of interaction with their classmates and
especially their e-teacher