Students at the Applied Learning Lab at New Market Vocational Skills Center in Tumwater, Washington, take applied Math, Science, and English courses tailored to suit both their academic level and their chosen line of work. In addition to serving its own pupils, the center creates applied academic courses for students from 10 school districts in the South Puget Sound area.

The center utilizes Lotus/Macromedia Pathware to manage these self-paced courses. Tests are administered using Question Mark for Windows software in the Applied Learning Lab. Testing is done in both academic and vocational areas, helping students and instructors determine the success of program placement and student progress.

"We need to manage multiple testing events that are going on between each student and his or her curriculum," states skill center team leader David Forrester, who worked with Seattle-based educational consultant Georgia Requa to develop the software link between Question Mark and Pathware. "We need Question Mark and Pathware to work as one management system. The software allows us to reach out more to students who need individualized support by offering customized curriculum and testing programs."

Forrester works with a team of teachers Dana Mcnutt and James Bowers, Learning Advocate Jessica Shillander, and technology coordinator Derek J. Lohmeyer, who have contributed to the development of the program. The Center offers individualized courses not only to 700 students from 25 High Schools in the surrounding area, but also supports 150 students who spend full time in the center's vocational education programs, working towards completion of their high school requirements. The Applied Learning Lab is unique to the educational system because it can offer many students multiple level courses, skill levels, and testing all at once, giving teachers the opportunity to work with students one-on-one to move them through a customized education program.

With the help of state grant money, Forrester and his team have designed computerized courses, which allow them to manage a large scope of curriculum and organize it to fit each student's needs. Automotive Technology students, for example, can take assessments using Question Mark to find out if they are ready to move beyond the current unit of knowledge and skills they are learning in a particular area.

Forrester began working in the Applied Learning Lab six years ago. At that time, the lab ran the Pathfinder learning management system on a DOS operating system. With the switch to Windows, the center received special funding from the district and put a team together to develop multimedia-rich Pathware courses using CD ROMs, the Internet, and numerous software applications together with text supported material.

Teaching staff received Pathware and Question Mark training by working with educational consultants and spent a summer building specialized courses in Science, Math, and Communication, and then developed Question Mark tests. The center now supports eight self-paced courses: Earth Science, Applied Math, Math Applications and Connections, Physical Science, Algebra, Literature for Life and Work, Practical English, and Applied Communications.

Today, the center benefits from forty Workstations with 15" ViewSonic Monitors, P166 computers with 64Ram each, #+gig HDD, token ring NIC, and 16-32 speed CD ROMs. The system operates using OS / NOS / Webserver Software, Novell 5.1, Windows 95 RevC, and Windows Server 2000 Webserver IIS SQL v7.0.

The center is the only school in its consortium of 10 school districts with an open Windows-based learning lab that offers testing and courses on an individualized basis.

"We have an open system, so we can modify and create new courses as needed," explains Forrester. "Many educational software companies develop learning programs that are closed systems, so that schools buy a package of curriculum and testing which can't be modified or changed. We didn't want to get stuck with courses that would become outdated, so we chose to develop our own courses. That way we could stay current, be creative with our course content and offer individualized programs."

Although Question Mark is primarily used in the computer-based Applied English, Math, and Science courses, Forrester has discovered another avenue for its use as a learning tool. A number of students have used the software to create assessments for their vocational programs.

"Having the kids write their own assessments is a way to support the vocational programs on campus," explains Forrester. "They enhance their own learning process by writing their own questions, and using the software is a learning experience in itself. The kids really enjoy the activity, and they are building educational blocks for future students who will come to New Market."

The center is now planning to pilot a number of web-based courses using Pathware and Question Mark Perception software with the aim of enabling students to take online courses and quizzes from regular education and vocational programs in the area. Forrester sees real potential for using Web-based tests in the school system for pre-registration assessments like those used in colleges and universities to determine if a student is ready for a particular program.Also, the web-based system will connect community agencies with school resources, creating a larger web of support and resources for students and parents in the area.

"We could also use Perception surveys to find how well the students, parents, and community rate the success of what our program does," adds Forrester. "And we might be able to host tests for other schools in the area who do not have the funds or resources to put up a networking computer system."