"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
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
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 (6th ed.). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing,
Inc.
I feel like distance education has already started making an impact in the tradition classroom through the recent focus on student-centered learning and the development of teacher/ student observation tools such as ELEOT. Even though virtual learning is still relatively young, it will be interesting to see where it will go from here. You make some excellent points regarding class size, accessibility and state cooperation. I like your question about the potential of the federal government imposing legislation on virtual schools. I also wonder what extrinsic factor would have to come into play to motivate the Federal Department of Education to try and mandate legislation on virtual schooling across state lines. The U.S. Department of Education website indicates that, "the Federal contribution to elementary and secondary education is about 8 percent." It seems like they wouldn't want to waste their resources working to create and impose legislation on distance education with that small of a percentage of combined budgets at stake-- then again, I am often surprised at legislation!
ReplyDeleteI also like you point regarding the graduation rate. When I was looking at the policies for state virtual schools, I noticed that several had GPA requirements for students interested in participating. I thought that this was an excellent idea; however, I would also like to learn more about the SmarterMeasure Learning Readiness Indicator referenced by Simonson, Smaldino, and Zvacek (2015). I like that this indicator measures, "individual attributes, life factors, learning styles, technical competency, typing competency, and reading rate and recall" (pg. 300). This indicator gives students who might be excellent candidates for online learning, but who might fall short in terms of GPA a chance to participate.
References
The Federal Role in Education (2017). U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from: https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., & Zvacek, S. (2015). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (6th ed.). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.
In reference to the ratio of students to teachers in online schools, this was not a surprise to me. Students must understand as they move into the virtual world, more of the responsibility of the learning becomes theirs, therefore, students should not need as much of the teacher's time as a traditional student would.
ReplyDeleteI am concerned as well with the accountability measure of these virtual schools that are for profit. I also wonder what is the motive behind an organization (outside of a k-12 ) starting online virtual schools. According to Simonson, Smaldino, & Zvacek (2015), "the process of planning and organizing for a distance education course is multifaceted and must occur well in advance of the scheduled instruction". I am very interested in reviewing the research on for profit versus nonprofit virtual school graduation rates. I will check it out.
Reference
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., & Zvacek, S. (2015). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (6th ed.). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.