EdGate Powers Podcast #4- with Mark Masloski
For some students, a traditional school schedule cannot provide everything they need to stay on track. A student may be homebound, arrive at a new district late in the school year, need to recover a credit, or require a modified version of a course to succeed. Jefferson County Educational Service Center's Virtual Learning Academy was built around those realities, providing schools with a flexible online curriculum that can be adapted to individual students rather than requiring every learner to follow the same path.
In this episode of the EdGate Powers Podcast, Rich Portelance speaks with Mark Masloski, Director of the Virtual Learning Academy at Jefferson County Educational Service Center (JCESC), about how the program has grown from a resource for homebound and non-traditional students into a K–12 platform with more than 300 courses. Masloski explains how the organization supports schools with everything from individual course units to complete online programs, while maintaining a close connection between curriculum, standards, student data, grading, and the educators responsible for supporting learners. He also shares how the Academy approached expanding into Virginia, using standards crosswalking and Gap Analysis to identify what its existing curriculum already covered and where additional work was needed.
What makes the JSESC Virtual Learning Academy's approach particularly distinctive is the way curriculum development continues after a course goes live. Subject-matter consultants work with instructional designers to build courses, students test the materials and provide feedback, and the educators who helped create a course can continue teaching it and identifying improvements in real time. Masloski also discusses how his team uses AI for course alignment, question analysis, and scenario-based activities, while reviewing the technology's output before putting it into practice. For him, keeping courses relevant means continually paying attention to what students are interested in, how technology is changing, and what teachers actually need to spend their time doing.
In this episode, you will learn:
- How an online learning program can support homebound, non-traditional, credit recovery, and other students who need greater flexibility.
- How Jefferson County ESC uses a large K–12 course catalog to give schools options for individual student needs.
- How standards crosswalking helped the Virtual Learning Academy prepare its curriculum for expansion into Virginia.
- How Gap Analysis can reveal where existing curriculum meets standards and where targeted revisions are needed.
- How AI is being used to accelerate course alignment, question analysis, and the creation of realistic learning activities.
- Why human review remains important when using AI to develop educational content.
Why This Conversation Matters
Online learning is not simply a matter of putting courses on a screen. Schools need programs that can respond to circumstances that do not fit neatly into a traditional schedule, while still giving students access to appropriate curriculum, instruction, and support. Jefferson County ESC's experience shows how a flexible online model can allow a school to provide only the courses or units a student needs, while teachers and staff remain involved in the student's progress.
Expanding that kind of curriculum beyond its original state brings another layer of complexity. When Jefferson County ESC pursued approval in Virginia, the team did not simply take its Ohio curriculum and assume it would transfer; it examined the differences between the states, prioritized the courses needed by incoming students, and used Gap Analysis to determine where content needed to be strengthened. The process also demonstrated the value of being able to respond when standards change, with the team able to use ExACT to identify remaining gaps in newly released Virginia English standards much faster than it could have done manually.
Join Rich and Mark as they explore how education leaders can use online learning, standards alignment, AI, and ongoing feedback to create more responsive educational experiences for students who need something different from the traditional classroom. Their conversation offers a practical look at how technology can remove work from educators' plates, keep curriculum relevant, and give schools more flexibility to meet students where they are.
Learn how flexible education can go above and beyond to help schools respond to student needs.
Mark Masloski is the VLA Director at Jefferson County ESC, overseeing support for over 100 teachers and 150 school districts across Ohio, Virginia, and surrounding states. He develops curriculum content for asynchronous online learners and leads the VLA team to ensure high-quality educational delivery. Mark holds a BA in History with certifications in Grades 7-12 Social Studies and K-12 Intervention Specialist from Muskingum College, and an MA in Education Curriculum with a focus on Educational Leadership from Salem International University. With over three decades in education, his career includes roles such as Adult Education Instructor, Intervention Specialist, Athletic Director, Head Boys Basketball Coach, and special education department leader, serving at various schools including East Guernsey, Conotton Valley, Edison Local, and Steubenville City Schools.
Rich is passionate about eEdTech and helping people discover pathways to successful careers. He leverages his many years of business experience in strategy, product development, brand creation, and sales & marketing as a frequent industry speaker and sought-after consultant.
Beginning his career in digital marketing and web development, Rich was recruited into the private, independent school market to help usher in digital technologies and social media. During this time, Richard served as a student advisor and was nominated to serve on the CAIS (Connecticut Association of Independent Schools) Technology Commission. In 2012, Rich joined York & Chapel, a brand and digital transformation agency where he began working with secondary and higher ed clients, developing strategies for student engagement and pathway creation. In 2014, Richard founded CareerPath, a SaaS engagement platform. Over the past ten years, Rich has given back to the industry as an advisor to numerous EdTech startups, and generally has had a blast doing what he loves to do — help others succeed.
Questions Answered
During the podcast, we discuss questions related to how schools can best respond to students whose circumstances make traditional classroom participation difficult.
- Why do students need an online education center, and what types of classes does it offer?
- How many students are using the Virtual Learning Academy platform?
- How does the Jefferson County Educational Service Center’s Virtual Learning Academy obtain and align its curriculum with the standards of a new state?
- Does using the ExACT Platform’s Gap Analysis tool help speed up the process of aligning curriculum to state standards?
- Does it matter that the ExACT Platform uses AI and machine learning for standards alignment, and is there any downside to using that technology?
- What are the central components and practices required to develop curriculum from the drawing board to the classroom?
- How does the Jefferson County Educational Service Center’s Virtual Learning Academy support students who cannot attend their school's live classes?
- How might gaming in education affect the Jefferson County Educational Service Center’s Virtual Learning Academy in the future?
- What should educators understand about the pace of change in education today?
- How can smart edtech improve education and support the adoption of online learning?