Virtual Learning: Surprising, Concerning, and Confusing

"The education process in its new form becomes a supervised process, rather than a fully controlled process since virtual learning changed the education process pattern represented by the triangle (student, teacher and content) by increasing the importance of both “student” and “content” factors and transforming the main task of the “teacher” from “Teaching” to "Tutoring”," (Aldikanji & Ajami, 2016).

     I feel that the quote above is a good summary of virtual learning. Although virtual learning in the K-12 environment is still in its infancy, there is no denying the impact it has had on education. It has helped to transform the learning process for those involved. I would like discuss some of the aspects I consider to be either surprising or concerning, and would like to address a few questions I still have. I focused this review based on Virtual Schools offering full-time enrollment in programs. This information may not include blended/distributed learning environments.

Surprise

Accessibility

     "According to the National center for Educational Statistics (2012), approximately 11% of all undergraduate students have some kind of disability requiring support services and/or accommodation," (Simonson, Smaldino, Zvacek, 2015, p. 291). This was a surprising number for me. Combine that with the requirement that courses must be accessible by all students, and it becomes very difficult to administer distance education.

State Cooperation

     I have always thought about the differences in K-12 institutions between states, but I had not thought about the post-secondary. I was surprised to find that state authorization is required for colleges to enroll students in online programs. (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p. 295) With so many ads for Phoenix and Grand Canyon, I had assumed it was open to anyone in the country.

Class Size

     Although Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek cited that even experienced teachers should only have between 20-25 students in a course. I found in my research that the average virtual program has a 34:1 student to teacher ratio. This is both a surprise and a concern, but I found it more shocking than anything if the teacher is willing. This number climbs to 44:1 when looking specifically at the for-profit institutions. (Barbour et al., 2017)

Concern

For-Profit Institutions

     Online instruction has led to a host of new education providers across the United States. Some of these were founded as non-profit and some hosted by public education, but the lion's share of students are enrolled in full programs are using for-profit institutions at both the K-12 and Higher Ed. This does not necessarily include the students enrolled in a blended-learning program. These programs have less accountability and typically have a higher drop-out rate. (Barbour et al., 2017)

Graduation Rate

     The graduation rate for students enrolled in virtual programs is far below the national average for traditional programs. This could be for a number of reasons, but I feel it is predominately due to lack of student readiness to take distance courses. Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek recommend "that incoming students have the appropriate level of readiness, including commitment, self-discipline, and time management skills to be successful in an online environment," (2015, p. 300).

Question

     I learned a lot about virtual learning throughout my readings, but I probably have more questions now than I did to begin with. I guess the biggest question would be related to government oversite. Should virtual schools continue to be managed at the state level even though they stretch across state lines, or should the federal government set more rigid guidelines that have to be met by any program that operates in multiple states?

References

Aldikanji, E., and Ajami, K. (2016). Studying Academic Indicators Within Virtual Learning Environment Using Educational Data Mining. International Journal of Data Mining & Knowledge Management Process, 6(6). Retrieved from:  https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1612/1612.01090.pdf

Barbour, M., Davidson, C., Gulosino, C., Huerta, L., Moron, G., Molnar, A.,… Shank, C. (2017) Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2017. Retrieved from: http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/virtual-schools-annual-2017

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., & Zvacek, S. (2015). Teaching and Learning at a Distance (6^th ed.). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Using Google Classroom In Bibb County Schools

"A course management system allows teachers to manage their classes, assignments, activities, quizzes and tests, resources, and more in an accessible online environment," 

(Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p. 138).

     During my time in education I have had experience with several course management systems (CMS). Students have been taking ACCESS through the state of Alabama for several years. Our system also maintained a Moodle account for several years. Our students have used both Compass Learning and Edmentum software for online course work and credit recovery. We have never had a uniform system that everyone used. At this time I feel that Google Classroom would be a good fit in our system.

Instructional Design

     Atsusi Hirumi stated in 2005 (as cited by Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015) that "a system is a set of interrelated components that work together to achieve a common purpose," (p. 146). Google Classroom fits that description. Google Classroom uses all of the G Suite apps and tools to provide the teacher with a user friendly management solution. We have already begun making the push into the G Suite apps. We have used Google Calendar and Drive for years to share events and documents across the district. All students and teachers have a G Suite account and we are moving to Gmail this summer. 

     Google Classroom allows teachers to not only combine these tools in an easy to use system, but it allows them to build class rosters and set up each course individually. To make things easier the teachers and the students are already familiar with the individual programs.

Teaching

     "In general, teaching has moved away from traditional approaches in classroom settings,"(Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p. 167). K-12 instruction has been a little slower in this transition. There are still a large number of students who benefit from the "traditional classroom" setting. Not every student is meant to be a distant learner. Bibb County has taken steps to offer courses through online instruction. We are currently using Edmentum's online courses. Google Classroom would allow teachers to do more hybrid, distributed learning. Students would still come to a traditional classroom, but teachers would have the option of including assignments online. This would help to end forgotten or lost assignments and would help prepare the students for computerized coursework. 

    Teachers could add students from their traditional class to a Google Classroom. They could post reminders, links, announcements, and assignments to this classroom. Students would always have access to due dates and submissions. Teachers would benefit from not having to worry about giving out make up work to students who were absent. This would also help children who have discipline or medical issues. 

Thanks to #GoogleClassroom, #k12 teachers spend more time teaching and less time photocopying https://t.co/dxrzc46PmJ via @EdTech_K12

— Wesley Lawley (@wes_lawley) June 19, 2017

Students 

     Almost all of our students today are familiar with Google. Students use Google Search and YouTube on a regular basis. Google Classroom allows students to utilize these programs in their instructional setting. As stated above, for now Bibb County would be mostly interested in using Google Classroom for distributed learning i.e. "face-to-face instruction that incoporates some form of technology-based learning experience," (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p. 170). This facilitates not only the students who need the face-to-face instruction, but also the ones who thrive with modern technology. It allows for more differentiated instruction. Google Classroom allows teachers to assign activities to individual students, groups, or entire classes. This gives students prior experience with online instruction to help them succeed with future distance education courses. (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p. 193)

Support Materials

     With almost the entire Google App arsenal at their disposal, teachers have many choices on distributing support materials. Teachers can share videos through YouTube, documents and presentations through Drive, and use Blogs and Drive for collaboration. Teachers have a centralized place to post their syllabus, schedule, rubrics, etc. Students can elect to print the material or just refer to the digital copy within the course. Google is limited in some of the design elements and some teachers may prefer this simplicity. Others can always elect to use Google Sites to create a free class webpage that offers much more to site design.

Assessment

    In my opinion student assessment is the biggest drawback of using Google Classroom. There are many tutorials dedicated to building quizzes and tests using Google Forms, but you are still limited in what you can assess using this. Many math and science teachers would find it hard to use Google for any assessments beyond multiple choice and essay. It also takes a lot of work to set up automatic grading. Bibb County already has an English teacher who "distributes" his entire English 10 course through Google. Students collaborate on assignments, blog reflections, and create content all using Google Apps.

See Mr. Simmer's English 10 course here: https://sites.google.com/site/bibbcoenglish10/

Summary

     I hope to continue the movement to Google Classroom. As more teachers get familiar with the platform I want to offer more Google Classroom workshops. I have to get the teachers onboard with the transition. Teachers and students could benefit from the embedded online instruction and organization. It could save time for teachers and give the students more control over their instruction. It would also allow students in Bibb County who do not take ACCESS classes the experience they need with online courses.

Teaching in the 21st century does mean teaching 21st generation. It means helping and monitoring the students to learn and implement 21st century skill. So teachers must be very welcoming to any new technology to ensure the best learning in the virtual classroom besides the physical classroom. (Iftakhar, S. 2016).

Check out this quick overview of how easy it is to use!

References

[Google for Education].  (2017, March 15). Classroom 101 [Video File]. Retrieved from:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIN-EtPa0lw&feature=youtu.be

Iftakhar, S. (2016). Google Classroom: What Works and How? Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 3. Retrieved from:  http://jesoc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/KC3_35.pdf

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., & Zvacek, S. (2015). Teaching and Learning at a Distance (6^th ed.). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Online Training: The good, the bad, and the ugly

"Distance education can be as effective as any other category of instruction," (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p. 9). This is a very bold statement that is backed up by research. Looking at this statement, the phrase 'can be' jumps out at me. Just as traditional face-to-face learning, online learning is only as effective as the presenter.

     I have experienced distance learning on many different topics. This experience ranges from how to use a new state department tool, all the way up to using virtual machines to manage a district network. As with any course you take, some online training sessions are much more effective than others. It states in the textbook "Interaction in distance education is important," (Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek, 2015, p. 72). This is very evident in most of the sessions of which I have participated. I find it much more effective if I can ask questions or be trained on specific items.

    First I would like to look at "the ugly" online training. Since moving up to district technology coordinator I end up in more ugly trainings than good ones. I consider an ugly training to be one that may have good information, I just can't follow or stand to watch. This can be due to a bad presenter, poor sound, or poor video. I have attended several of these live and have had to watch prerecorded sessions and follow up with questions. Take a look at the following quick video to see what I consider an ugly training.

   

     I consider this to be an ugly video because there is no voice-over or captions and the music is annoying to me when I am trying to solve a technical problem. This is a short video, and if you are an expert at group policy, then surely you should know how to add captions to your screen capture. Although this is not online training by definition. It is a video linked from an online training I was participating in. 

   Next I would like to talk about "the bad" online training. We all probably have a long list of trainings we have sat through we would consider bad. Each one of these would have different criteria of what we consider bad. On page 72 in their book, Teaching and Learning at a Distance, Simonson, Smaldino, and Zvacek list 22 best practices in distance education. I personally feel that it only takes missing one or two of these to be considered bad.

   

     In my opinion, some of the worst trainings I have had to sit through are part of the MyActiveHealth Heatbeats with PEEHIP. You may disagree with me, but sitting through some of those videos and quizzes makes me want to get healthier to just not have to watch anymore. I get very little out of them because they are such a time drain. You get no interaction other than quiz grades, and if you have any questions you have to call in. That defeats the purpose since calling in can replace the heartbeats anyway. These would be much better if they offered a chat session and a little more user freedom. 

     That brings me to "the good" online training. I have had several of these through the years. I would consider my experiences with the University of Montevallo to be good sessions. For me they meet all of the 22 Best Practices. I have also had good experiences with some vendor training. I have had several online trainings on software that went above and beyond. They were interactive and taught by experts. For me quick feedback is a must. If I have trouble with something, I do not like sitting a waiting for ever to get help. I like to figure things out for myself, so when I do ask for help I have usually wasted all my patience trying to figure it out myself. 

     Herbert Rau stated in his 2014 paper Learning Styles and Online Discussion Posts that "it is apparent that online instruction presents different challenges for effective teaching and learning as compared with face-to-face instruction, and it is important that the instructor recognizes these challenges to be effective," (Rau, 2014). This is the major factor that presenters need to understand. An online audience that may or may not be watching a session live, will have different needs and understanding than in person. You cannot use facial expressions and context clues to guide your instruction. 


Rau, H. (2014) Learning Styles and Online Discussion Posts. Sage Open, 14,1. 
     Retrieved from: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244014527988.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., & Zvacek, S. (2015) Teaching and Learning at a 
     Distance (6th ed.). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

[Tricks that Make you Smart]. (2015, March 26). Retrieved June 12, 2017, 
     from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UZXYMVCkMw&feature=youtu.be