Virtual Schools: Distance ed in K12

After Michael Barbour's class I had the thought that we know so very little about distance education for K-12 especially grades lower than high school. However, we are quickly moving to having more and more of these distance programs. I was disappointed that more had not been done to analyze the effectiveness and effects on the students. At first I thought, man our government is irresponsible for pushing some of these programs at times and yet not funding research to find out more about them. Then I thought that perhaps the responsibility falls as much on educators and educational researchers as it does the government. Anyway, my feelings of the need for research were confirmed in this week's readings:

"Little empirical research has been performed to determine [distance education's] effectiveness in elementary and secondary settings. Questions remain about the educational needs best addressed through online learning as well as its impact on school improvement and learner outcomes. Programs of research informed by early lessons learned are needed to inform the future development of online learning. "

As I looked through the conclusions and findings of the 8 research projects that were funded I did not find much that helped answer the educational needs that would be best addressed through online learning. In fact I found that most of the articles said that there was a need for more research or that perhaps there were problems with the random samples or the implementation of the experimental design. I can understand that it could be difficult to do an experiment design in an educational settings. Educators, and parents may not want their children to be randomly assigned to different groups like lab rats if they feel they may not "make it" or that it may not give them the experience they think they should have.

Anyway, the other problem that seemed glaring to me was stated in the article:

"Research on K-12 online learning rarely has been conducted in a sustained, systematic manner. There is a pressing need for efforts to organize and systematize research on the effectiveness of K-12 online learning."

Recommendations:

What good is a critic with no better plan right? I don't think I have the answers but it seems to me that there are some great research opportunities here. If a group of experienced researchers could formulate a systematic plan with a set timeline to evaluate the effectiveness of K-12 distance learning based on what we already know and ensure that the studies will really get at what we want--effectiveness then I have to think that our government would take the responsibility to fund such an undertaking. As a tax payer I for one would want to know if these distance educational experiences are going to help our children. I'd also want to know at what point these experiences are most effective and with which content areas.

Quotes taken form http://www.ncrel.org/tech/synthesis/synthesis.pdf

Blended Learning

I've been slacking on my blog but hope to dive into this a lot over the next little while and get into the blogs of all the rest of the distance ed students.

I've been thinking about what we discussed tonight and here are a couple of take home messages I pulled from the discussion:

Don't take technology and just do what you would do in a F2F setting with it. One of the things we should think more carefully about as designers and teachers is taking technology and distance ed tools and using them to figure out how its strengths and differences can transform pedagogy for the better.

Another way of putting this is--use blended learning to change pedagogy rather than enhancing what's already there. Use technology to do things we cannot do otherwise. Transform the class not just make it more productive.

I like this idea but do struggle with it a little bit. In the little experience I have this seems very difficult. I haven't seen any kind of "products" including technology, or other materials for that matter, that have changed pedagogy. What I have seen is that it can help reinforce a change in one's learning/teaching philosophy, methodology, and style or take away from that change but not actually make it. There has to be something more to make a shift like that. With that said I think there are isolated instances where the technology seemed to change the dynamic of a course which appeared as a change in pedagogy. My personal feeling on this is that the teacher using that technology has already begun to transform their pedagogy and the technology is reinforcing that change.

In addition, I will shamelessly generalize and say that the tendency of most teachers, myself included, is to use technology to improve what is already there. Because of that tendency I think we are much better off trying to figure out and look for ways to use technology to do things we cannot do otherwise despite the argument that it may not transform our pedagogy.

Findings

Articles from The American Journal of Distance Education
Chaney, B. H., Eddy, J. M., Dorman, S. M., Glessner, L., Green, B. L., & Lara-Alecio, R. (2007). Development of an Instrument to Assess Student Opinions of the Quality of Distance Education Courses. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 145-164.

1) Proved that combining the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, and Dillman's four stages of pretesting to develop a distance course evaluation assessment results in a culturally sensitive valid and reliable instrument.
2) Created the SASODE http://ohi.tamu.edu/survey.html which is proven to assess student perceptions of quality distance education.

Conrad, D. L. (2008). From Community to Community of Practice: Exploring the Connection of Online Learners to Informal Learning in the Workplace. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 3-23.

1) Interest and support of the workplace in employees' learning activities is key to their success.
2) Participation in online community did not distract from or disturb learners' involvement in their workplace community.
3) Participation in online community did not significantly contribute to the sense of an enhanced workplace community with colleagues.

Flowers, J., & Cotton, S. E. (2007). Impacts of Student Categorization of Their Online Discussion Contributions. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 93-104.

1) The process of self-categorization decreased cognitive messages (p=.018) in forums but significantly increased organizational (p=.003) and social units (p=.001).
2) The decrease in cognitive messages is likely due largely to the impact of self-categorization (the researchers concluded that this is similar to the effect of heavier instructor monitoring in a synchronous environment which was said to interfere with students' "idea generation, emotional expression, and creative ideas"

Gaytan, J., & McEwen, B. C. (2007). Effective Online Instructional and Assessment Strategies. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 117-132.

1) Online courses are being taught by more females, majority are white, at least 50 years old and experienced faculty.
2) Considerably more females are enrolling in online courses than males. Majority are 1) white, 2) undergraduates 3) education majors. They enroll mainly because of convenience factors.
3) Strategies for maintaining online instructional quality: open communication with students, rigor, variety in instructional methods, requiring interaction.
4) Effective online assessments should include: wide variety of regular assignments, feedback based on a rubric, e-mail messages, chat room conversations, and discussion board postings.
5) Effective assessment techniques: projects, portfolios, self-assessments, peer evaluations, weekly assignments with immediate feedback, timed tests and quizzes, and asynchronous type of communication using the discussion board.
6) Only 34% of the study population responded which may skew some of the responses.

Jones, J. G. (2008). Issues and Concerns of Directors of Postsecondary Distance Learning Programs Regarding Online Methods and Technologies. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 46-56.

1) Main concerns are cost, support, vendor lock in, digital divide/technology access.
2) Interestingly noted that less attention was paid to quality or the level of the teachers and satisfaction of the instruction.

Keeler, C. G., & Horney, M. (2007). Online Course Designs: Are Special Needs Being Met? American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 61-75.

1) The list of instructional design elements of barriers or helps for students with special needs is long and sometimes contradictory.
2) 38 design elements were defined as critically important to the design of Web sites for people with disabilities.
3) These elements fall into five categories: accessibility, Web site design, technologies used, instructional methodologies, and support systems. Some of the examples are:
· Allow easy disengagement of pop-up windows.
· Provide visual text equivalents.
· Provide alternatives for moving images.
· Determine the pervasiveness of graphics per page based on the course's target population.
· Ensure required and optional materials are available in accessible formats with instructions.

Moisey, S. D., Ally, M., & Spencer, B. (2006). Factors Affecting the Development and Use of Learning Objects. American Journal of Distance Education, 20(3), 143-161.

Factors facilitating the development and/or use of learning objects:

1. Good examples of learning objects 2. Online resources (recommended Web sites containing information to assist with learning object design and development) 3. Availability of resources to assist with the evaluation of learning objects (MERLOT, Learning Object Analysis Sheet).

Barriers:
1. Defining the term learning object 2. Amount of work involved and skill deficits 3. Structure of repositories 4. Lack of learning objects in some disciplines 5. Quality of learning objects in repositories 6. Granularity of learning objects 7. Metatagging and cataloguing in repositories 8. Copyright and intellectual property.

O'Leary, P. F., & Quinlan Jr., T. J. (2007). Learner–Instructor Telephone Interaction: Effects on Satisfaction and Achievement of Online Students. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 133-143.

· In general, online course exceeded expectations (65%).
· Statistical tests yielded no evidence that the phone call had an effect on student satisfaction.
· Statistically significant effect between phone call and grade but most likely not practical (p=0476).
Factors that may affect the conclusions were timing of the phone call and number of calls.

Offir, B., Bezalel, R., & Barth, I. (2007). Introverts, Extroverts, and Achievement in a Distance Learning Environment. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 3-19.

· There is a relationship between cognitive style and achievement levels.
· Introverts attained significantly higher achievement than extroverts (85.16 vs. 80.05 mean).
· Attributed to cognitive style. Both had challenges. Extroverts had challenge with limited interaction and interaction constraints whereas introverts felt more tension.

Seo, K. K. (2007). Utilizing Peer Moderating in Online Discussions: Addressing the Controversy between Teacher Moderation and Nonmoderation. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 21-36.

· Substance rate was higher for the peer-moderated group (p<.01).
· Moderated groups had more substantive responses.
The conclusion is that student moderation elicits more meaningful interaction.

Theoretical Framework

Summary:

Can an article lack a theoretical framework? I guess if you dig enough you could pin it to some kind of theory but I didn't think that was the point. It seems to me that a discipline has a set of theories to help organize and guide the knowledge that is found while doing research. One challenge that this presents is that if a theory is not explicitly mentioned in an articel unless one knows most of the theories for that discipline then it will be hard to see the theoretical framework in which a study was carried out. Either this is the case for 60% of my articles or they simply did not have a theoretical framework to guide them but rather they were finding holes or things that had not been looked at that dealt with technology or a social component of distance education and studying it. So can an article lack a theoretical framework? I would say it automatically does if the initial planning was not based on some theory.

None specifically mentioned (6)

Jung's theory on cognitive style (1)

Transactional distance (2)

Various other theories pieced together (1-2)

Theoretical Framework

Chaney, B. H., Eddy, J. M., Dorman, S. M., Glessner, L., Green, B. L., & Lara-Alecio, R. (2007). Development of an Instrument to Assess Student Opinions of the Quality of Distance Education Courses. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 145-164.

Various: 160 articles reviewed using theories from some of these, none specifically mentioned
Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (1999)
Dillman's (2000) four stages of pretesting
Social ecological model



Conrad, D. L. (2008). From Community to Community of Practice: Exploring the Connection of Online Learners to Informal Learning in the Workplace. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 3-23.
· None really but stretching we could say the theory of distance education increasing life-long learning and different types of learning
Flowers, J., & Cotton, S. E. (2007). Impacts of Student Categorization of Their Online Discussion Contributions. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 93-104.
· Moore's transactional distance



Gaytan, J., & McEwen, B. C. (2007). Effective Online Instructional and Assessment Strategies. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 117-132.
· The Illinois Online Network strategies for online instructional strategies
· University accreditations



Jones, J. G. (2008). Issues and Concerns of Directors of Postsecondary Distance Learning Programs Regarding Online Methods and Technologies. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(1), 46-56.
· None really. Implications of information technologies: why, what and how.



Keeler, C. G., & Horney, M. (2007). Online Course Designs: Are Special Needs Being Met? American Journal of Distance Education, 21(2), 61-75.
· None really. Accommodating individuals with special needs



Moisey, S. D., Ally, M., & Spencer, B. (2006). Factors Affecting the Development and Use of Learning Objects. American Journal of Distance Education, 20(3), 143-161.
· Learning object articles outlining studied areas of learning objects – no solid theory noted(Wiley quoted)



O'Leary, P. F., & Quinlan Jr., T. J. (2007). Learner–Instructor Telephone Interaction: Effects on Satisfaction and Achievement of Online Students. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 133-143.
· Various theories including transactional distance and others that discuss learner-instructor interaction



Offir, B., Bezalel, R., & Barth, I. (2007). Introverts, Extroverts, and Achievement in a Distance Learning Environment. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 3-19.
· Jung's theory on cognitive style



Seo, K. K. (2007). Utilizing Peer Moderating in Online Discussions: Addressing the Controversy between Teacher Moderation and Nonmoderation. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(1), 21-36.
· None really. Debate of moderation in online discussions. Should it be teacher moderated or non-moderated? Or a student moderator?

Post-Industrial Distance Education

So I have no where else to put my notes and thoughts from one of the articles I read today so I wanted to put them up here.

Mass communication/production and independent learning VS Post-industrial approach to distance education (personalized and collaborative)

Computer mediated communication
• Asynchronous text based application
• Computer conferencing
> Collaborative
> Not replicate classroom convention


Synchronous and asynchronous discussions on computer. Synchronous is more available but he says that as more people join a computer mediated synchronous discussion it can become complex, confusing and misguided.

“There is little understanding of when real-time interaction, mediated through communications technology, is most useful to enhance learning.”

Computer conferencing is a post-industrial technology
Written word goes hand in hand with higher thinking. Computer conferencing often involves writing so could be a potentially powerful technology.
Some argue that higher order thinking is seldom possible without writing.
The challenge: interpersonal dynamics and social climate

Collaboration is more than simply exchanging information or passing on instructions. Collaborative learning necessitates critical discourse for the purpose of going beyond information exchange. Meaningful collaborative learning ‘creates “added value” and new understandings amongst the members of each group’.

That is, it is the constructive development of connected ideas and coherent knowledge-structures through group communication.

Computer conference is doomed to failure without an active moderator.
Computer conferencing is dependent upon three main moderating functions. 1) contextualizing, 2) monitoring, and 3) meta-communication.

Contextualizing: provides general organization or communication model and focus.
Writing by nature takes out contextualization, one option to overcome it is meet face to face initially

Monitoring: recognizing and prompting individual contributions.

Meta-communication: addresses agenda, relevance, overload and weaving in connections, identify themes and summarize the discussion.

If I were ever teaching a distance ed course. I think for the first few days I would have the students read through a few key things, including parts of the syllabus and then for the first day of class, instead of having class, you have a ten minute video conference meeting with each student so they can ask questions and you can set up some of the class and establish a connection so that you can have “contextualized” distance interactions for the rest of the semester. In fact I think I would try and do this more than once during the semester. The other thing I might entertain is a phone conference with all the students in the second week so that they could get to know each other along with a post on a blog or access to each other's facebook (or whatever else will achieve the objective)so they can get to know each other better.


Ideological biases and implications of computer conferencing: clash between industrial and post-industrial education due to changes in technology and goals.

Summary of Methods

If I had to summarize what methods were used in my articles I would say:

1) Heavy on the qualitative data.
2) Very little quantitative data that mostly comes form Likert scale type questions.
3) Most studies used methods such as interviews, questionnaires, surveys, and analysis of student work and discussions.
4) Most of them mentioned the description research method. I don't know all the implications or ins and outs of that method but it seems to consist of the above three things.
5) Data and information was analyzed to find trends and commonalities from which conclusions were made.