Categories: Technology
Summary:
Barbour's work summarized much of the recent (circa 2010) research on K-12 Online Learning. Discussions on research included the difficulties in student retention and completion, postulating that who taught, who learned, and how the learning was accomplished, the qualities of the teaching/learning experience, and learner attributes.
Citation-worthy:
"Rice (2006) categorized the research into k-12 online learning as falling into two categories: comparisons of student performance based on delivery model (i.e., classroom vs. online), and 'studies examining the qualities and characteristics of the teaching/learning experience'(p. 430). This second category was subdivided into three additional areas: characteristics of, supports provided to, and issues related to isolation of online learners. Cavanaugh et al., (2009) identified two similar categories in their review of the research: effectiveness of virtual schooling and student readiness and retention issues" (Barbour, 2010, p. 8).
"In their synthesis of a series of quantitative K-12 online learning studies. Smith et al. (2005) recommended future research focus upon seven areas:
1. interprefing "equal of better" achievement findings;
2. understanding and improving student persistence;
3. instructional models that lead to student process skills;
4. issues related to student satisfaction and motivation;
5. idenfifying and remediating characteristics for successful online learning;
6. leveraging the features of online learning systems; and
7. discriminating online learning based upon a variety of educational contexts" (Barbour, 2010, pp. 9-10).
"The following year. Rice (2006) recommended:
• Improve the quality of research that examines the critical components of learning directly related to younger learners.
• Continue and expand on the development of predicfion instrucfions that help identify successful learner attributes.
• Develop organized student evaluation systems to facilitate consistent data collection,
• Investigate the relationship between student supports and at-risk student needs in reladon to distance education.
• Investigate the social and cognitive aspects of distance education and the effect of knowledge construction.
• Develop valid and reliable tools for identifying interactive qualities in course design and instruction. (p. 442)" (Barbour, 2010, p. 10).
"Smith et al, (2005) identified seven potential barriers that researchers needed to overcome to be able to conduct effective research on K-12 online learning. These barriers included:
1. access to critical data that are often not publicly available or even viewed as proprietary;
2. distributed nature of online learning and the need to involve multiple organizations in multiple jurisdictions;
3. the need to understand the school culture, but also be able to maintain a professional distance from that which is being studied;
4. the lack of high quality, reliable, and valid assessments;
5. study fime frames not matching up with school years or funding cycles;
6. insufficient funding to research and evaluafion of K-12 online learning; and
7. the almost exclusive focus by the Department of Educafion on success as measured by student achievement on standardized tests" (Barbour, 2010, p. 10).
