Online Learning Community Bring Oregon Students Together

PORTLAND, OR – September 16, 2003. Beginning last week, a cutting-edge online learning community has sprung into existence in Oregon. Students in Eugene and the Portland suburb of Beaverton are together learning high school math and science in the PersonalProfessors.com online learning community. The focus of this unique model is on teaching and interaction instead of the standard text and pictures of other Web-based learning systems. Using unique streaming technology, PersonalProfessors.com faculty are able to teach on the Internet via a standard whiteboard coupled with voice. As in a classroom with a chalkboard, the method allows teachers to illustrate examples, work math problems, and give dynamic instruction in real-time. Faculty hold regular live office hours for drop-in question and answer sessions, and moderate discussions on the material where they also post thought questions, math problems, and links to related Web sites. All lessons are only 15-20 minutes in length, and each lesson is archived for review and self-paced learning.

“We believe in a human-centered approach to online learning” says Michael Hosking, Ph.D., founder and president of Renaissance Education Group, Inc., the developers of the PersonalProfessors.com model. Hosking, who formally was a professor at Davidson College, a top ten national liberal arts college, feels that “online education providers have, to this point, failed to grasp the most fundamental mechanisms of learning high level math and science material- expert instruction from real teachers embedded in an interactive community where students can get immediate help and build a personal understanding of the material.”

Hosking’s teaching background informed his design of PersonalProfessors.com; “My experience teaching at a top college reinforced this basic understanding of how students learn, and it was clear to me that rather than using the Web as a publishing medium for text and pictures, we ought to be using it as a communication tool to provide instruction and interaction.”

Students in the Eugene HomeSource and the Beaverton Village Home alternative schools are being instructed in algebra, geometry and biology. New courses to round out the high school math and science curriculum are planned, including physics, chemistry and upper level mathematics.

About Renaissance Education Group, Inc.
Renaissance Education Group, Inc. is an education company located in Portland, OR. It was founded by Michael Hosking, Ph.D., a former professor of biology at Davidson College. PersonalProfessors.com is the company’s Web-based education system and comprises the company’s advanced learning management system through which they currently deliver science and math educational instruction.

For more information about Renaissance Education Group or PersonalProfessors.com, call 503-827-4233 or visit their website at www.PersonalProfessors.com

Michael Hosking
Renaissance Education Group
(503) 827-4233
michael@PersonalProfessors.com