Identifying — and then executing — opportunities to lead the market is tough to do, particularly online. That’s exactly what the National School Boards Association (NSBA), a national federation of 53 state and regional associations that serve local public school board members, managed to do with a distance learning program.

The network of NSBA associations covers a wide geographic base and incorporates associations with highly diverse resources and needs. One critical need, which all of the associations have in common, is the need for information. The distance learning requirements for school board members and association staff members are very diverse, and NSBA saw an opportunity to position itself as a leader in promoting electronic education.

In 1999, NSBA’s Education Technology Programs Department (ITTE) launched its first set of online courses to provide professional development opportunities to K-12 practitioners, and to provide national leadership related to the quality and policy of implementing distance learning in public education. According to Rachel Kliewer, manager of education technology programs development, "School districts investing in technology infrastructure may lack the resources for training teachers to use that technology effectively. These new courses fill that professional development gap, meeting NSBA’s mission of supporting constituents by providing fast and flexible ways to serve customers and meet the needs of a diverse audience." NSBA’s objective is to help policymakers, administrators, educators, and others to integrate their technology efforts to "meet the needs of America’s children" by providing practical advice and guidance using an interactive Web-based training format.

By early last year, NSBA’s education technology group had received numerous inquiries from members about distance learning tools, and the organization’s leaders set out to incorporate distance learning into the association’s strategic plan. Subsequently, NSBA developed the distance learning program in the following phases:

• Conducted market research and needs assessment, including focus groups and phone and online surveys

• Developed a request for proposal

• Solicited bids from online learning providers

• Developed a pilot course for a technically savvy, glitch-tolerant ‘test’ audience

• Sold to key national audiences as a board development tool

• Outreach, outreach, outreach.

NSBA currently offers the following five-week, interactive, facilitated courses.

• Staff Development: Technology in an Integrated Curriculum

• Strategies to Support Teachers to Effectively Integrate Technology

• Grappling with Accountability: Resource Tools for Organizing and Assessing Technology for Student Results

While students can complete the courses at their own pace, a certain level of interactivity enhances the overall learning experience. Students may also participate in synchronous chats scheduled by instructors. NSBA is also planning to diversify into self-paced models without a moderator, and graduate credits are now available. All tools and materials necessary to take an NSBA online course are available online.

While the distance learning program was developed to serve a specific purpose, NSBA has found that the technology and methodology can be applied to a much broader scope of association-wide training initiatives. The NSBA education and technology team is continually looking for new ways to maximize the impact of the distance learning tools to train people to deliver more effective services.

The organization’s careful planning and inclusive method of implementation has paid off. The association has conducted detailed evaluations of its distance learning program, which is expected to become a significant source of non-dues revenue. To date, every online class is filled with a waiting list of students.

While NSBA expects to take a financial hit for the first few years, the plan calls for the program to break even in three years, recoup the initial investment within five years, and produce income thereafter.

Program results include:

• Just 40 percent of NSBA online students are members of the initial marketing group. This means that the program is reaching a wide audience of K-12 practitioners —potential new members.

• Distance learning taps the organization’s best thinking and serves as a best practices resource.

• Distance learning brings member associations up to speed with leading-edge professional practices and provides a quick feedback loop for brainstorming.

• The program helps associations leverage their strengths and ideas.

NSBA member associations are widely dispersed and vary enormously in terms of size, ranging in size from one full-time staff person to a staff of 400. By integrating online learning, the federation has transformed its business model, which now enables member associations to benefit from an unprecedented array of education as well as other association management best practices.

Of all the lessons that NSBA staff has learned from developing the distance learning program, the one that stands out is the importance of developing a "vanguard" group of enthusiastic supporters within the association. The distance learning team invested significant time and effort to select a first audience that was comfortable with technology and in all likelihood would be highly receptive to distance learning. Overall, the following lessons emerged from the process:

• Know your members, understand their needs, and know how to approach them.

• Approach educators with an education message.

• Score an early win by demonstrating a successful prototype to a receptive audience.

• Integrate your distance learning program into the association’s strategic plan at an early phase.

• Work with a supportive network of colleagues to develop an effective comment and feedback loop to gauge progress and fine-tune deliverables.

• Realize that it will require a great investment of time to help both instructors and students understand the process. Take the necessary time to do this.

• Set realistic timelines, establish and follow strict review procedures to manage the project effectively.

The association’s main challenge was to communicate to members that a high-tech delivery tool can be every bit as effective as a classroom experience in transmitting knowledge. In developing the distance learning program, NSBA has found that distance learning is not so much about the venue as it is about the education.