Andy Grover, Melba School District superintendent, is giving the final subcommittee report to the Students Come First technology task force, this one on online learning implementation. Grover said his panel recommends that funding for online courses paid out to providers through "fractional ADA" should be by credit hour. It's also backing the idea of an online portal where parents could see what online classes are available for their students. "Something we've spent a ton of time on was talking about the quality of an online course ... what makes it a good online course," he said. The panel sent out a request for information to more than 4,000 online course providers. "We don't know exactly what kind of feedback we're going to get from these different entities, but we do know that there is some interest brewing out there on it," he said. "That's exciting for us."

The subcommittee also is calling for a review by the state Department of Education of the differences in funding between online courses and regular courses.