Background/ContextEarlier research on various forms of distance learning concluded that these technologies do not differ significantly from regular classroom instruction in terms of learning outcom...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/016146811311500307

The Effectiveness of Online and Blended Learning: A Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Literature

Meta-analysis provides a method of quantitatively summarizing and comparing empirical literature to reduce Type I and Type II error. The meta-analysis described here indicates a slight student preference for a traditional educational format over a distance education format (average r = .031, after the deletion of outliers), and little difference in satisfaction levels. A comparison of distance education methods that include direct interactive links with those that do not include interactive links demonstrates no difference in satisfaction levels. However, student satisfaction levels diminish as additional information is added to the available channel of instruction (e.g., written to audio to video). The findings support those of researchers arguing that distance education does not diminish the level of student satisfaction when compared to traditional face-to-face methods of instruction.

Comparing Student Satisfaction with Distance Education to Traditional Classrooms in Higher Education: A Meta-Analysis

Virtual schooling was first employed in the mid-1990s and has become a common method of distance education used in K-12 jurisdictions. The most accepted definition of a virtual school is an entity approved by a state or governing body that offers courses through distance delivery - most commonly using the Internet. While virtual schools can be classified in different ways, the three common methods of delivery are by independent, asynchronous or synchronous means. Presently, the vast majority of virtual school students tended to be a select group of academically capable, motivated, independent learners. The benefits associated with virtual schooling are expanding educational access, providing high-quality learning opportunities, improving student outcomes and skills, allowing for educational choice, and achieving administrative efficiency. However, the research to support these conjectures is limited at best. The challenges associated with virtual schooling include the conclusion that the only students typically successful in online learning environments are those who have independent orientations towards learning, highly motivated by intrinsic sources, and have strong time management, literacy, and technology skills. These characteristics are typically associated with adult learners. This stems from the fact that research into and practice of distance education has typically been targeted to adult learners. The problem with this focus is that adults learn differently than younger learners. Researchers are calling for more research into the factors that account for K-12 student success in distance education and virtual school environments and more design research approaches than traditional comparisons of student achievement in traditional and virtual schools.

The reality of virtual schools: A review of the literature

Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools Diane Ravirch New York: Knopf, 2013. 416 pages. $14-34 USD/Paperbac Diane Ravitch spent decades advocating metrics and alternatives for elementary and secondary public school reform, including some years in government implementing the current assessment-as-accountability regime, but, by 2006, she doubted her own prescription for public school ills. This itch in her mind turned into two books, The Life and Death of the Great American School System, a careful mea culpa regarding testing and a data-driven attack on data-fixation, and, most recently, Reign of Error. As a New York University research professor of education, she also founded an organization, the Network for Public Education (NPE). All of these efforts are aimed fundamentally at the primary and secondary educational systems in the U.S., but the arguments are relevant to community colleges, particularly in the Obama administration. Community colleges today face such questions of "reform"--Ravitch often puts this word in doubtful quotes--and the community college may fall for the same hoax. Ravitch outlines the view of "reformers" in chapters 3-8 of Life and Death and chapters 2-4 and 14-20 of Reign of Error as seeing schools preparing children to become participants in the society's economy. This vision, argues Ravitch, emphasizes two elements: standardized tests and social engineering. Standardized tests are the first social modality by which academic competition is exercised. At this level, a child is getting practice and developing skills that suit one for a competitive economy: self-control, the efficient use of instrumental reason, calculations of utility, innovation, initiative-taking, and so on; but more specifically, job-relevant skills come along eventually, and by assessing disaggregated skills instead of the aggregated judgment that grades make, the system can more precisely sort its future workers. Educational services deliverers get their own grade, from their output--from the scores that their students make, assessed over time. The other element comparative testing emphasizes is a social engineering aspect: that people of differential abilities and aptitudes will be sorted by testing into those career and academic pathways in which they will be comparatively advantaged--on the Adam Smith and David Ricardo model, more or less. Market utility is the appropriate standard of judgment for an individual, according to the reformers' view, because it is the standard of judgment for a collectivity. The strength of corporations (the "bottom line") and countries (military, GDP) is similarly assessed quantitatively. In advanced societies, the citizen labor force is stratified according to performance, which is measured by one "earning what one deserves"--by differential monetary life outcomes. A well-formed education system thus prepares each person for the slot in the economy in which she is most apt to attain her greatest comparative advantage--that which will, among the measurable outcomes, result in her maximum lifetime income-earning potential. Privatization melds public and private interest, in this view, because it allows maximum room for competitive pressures to sort out to any desired level of detail the most efficient producers of society-specific, needed workforce skills. Assessing student learning disaggregated by skill performance facilitates tracking students into the most contributory pathways and prepares them for competitive job-hunting and job-keeping. Similarly, assessing instruction drives teachers and teaching institutions into the most efficient delivery of the most demanded knowledge and skills. Anything that gets in the way of this quantized, data-driven approach is a market inefficiency--as well as, on the reformers' view, a social anachronism and a political albatross. …

Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools

This review provides a comprehensive examination of the literature surrounding the current state of K-12 distance education. The growth in K–12 distance education follows in the footsteps of expanded learning opportunities at all levels of public education and training in corporate environments. Implementation has been accomplished with a limited research base, often drawing from studies in adult distance education and policies adapted from traditional learning environments. This review of literature provides an overview of the field of distance education with a focus on the research conducted in K–12 distance education environments.

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A Comprehensive Look at Distance Education in the K–12 Context

The literature related to online learning programs for K-12 students dates to the mid-1990s and builds upon a century of research and practice from K-12 distance education. While K-12 online learning programs have evolved and grown over the past decade, the amount of published research on virtual schooling practice and policy is limited. The current literature includes practitioner reports and experimental and quasi-experimental studies, both published and unpublished. This paper reviews open access literature in K-12 online learning and reports on a structured content analysis of the documents. Themes in the literature include steady growth and a focus on the benefits, challenges, and broad effectiveness of K-12 online learning. In addition, newly developed standards for K-12 online learning are emerging in descriptions of effective practices.

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Research and Practice in K-12 Online Learning: A Review of Open Access Literature

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study was commissioned by the Distance Learning Resource Network (DLRN) at WestEd, a research, development and educational services organization. The author would like to thank Peg Kinder, Director of DLRN, for sponsoring the study, and Deb Little, Paul Little and Karen Schellenberger for their assistance in the process of conducting an online survey of a national peer group of virtual schools, and developing a continually growing online listing of virtual schools. The Center for the Application of Information Technologies at Western Illinois University, which sponsored the first version of this study in 2000, continues as a co-sponsor of the new study. Thanks to Phyllis Lentz of the Florida Virtual School for her advice on online survey items, and to Kelly Hall of Illinois State University for help in presenting the survey data. The support of CAIT Executive Director Michael Dickson and the assistance provided by Kathy Lawhon of CAIT in the initial study are also greatly appreciated. This report provides a summary and analysis of virtual school activities and trends across the United States. The virtual school movement can be considered the "next wave" in technology based K-12 education, joining proven distance learning delivery methods. Virtual schools are defined for the purposes of this study as educational organizations that offer K-12 courses through Internet-or Web-based methods. The results of a March 2000 study, Virtual High Schools: State of the States, informed planning for this revised and updated edition, as did other recent studies of virtual schools. While the March 2000 study focused on state-level, state-sanctioned virtual schools, the present study looks more broadly at the different types of virtual schools. This study provides analysis on trends based in part through an online survey of state approved or regionally accredited schools conducted from July through August 2001. A peer group of 44 virtual schools was surveyed, with email and telephone follow-up conducted to reach a response rate of 75% (N=33). Highlights of this online survey include: Ø The trend from 'virtual high schools' to 'virtual K-12 schools' continues Ø $300/semester was the most reported tuition, but prices varied greatly Ø Calculus AB was the online AP course offered by the most schools Based on extrapolations from this survey, a " ballpark estimate " was reached that 40,000 to 50,000 K-12 students will enroll in an online course in 2001-2002. At least 14 states have a planned or operational state-sanctioned, …

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Virtual Schools: Trends and Issues. A Study of Virtual Schools in the United States.

Although distance education is growing in importance in the United States, little research has focused on the attitudes of American college and university teachers toward college‐level distance education and toward the use of specific media in distance education provision. The attitudes of both participating and nonparticipating faculty toward distance education need further examination, since teaching innovations cannot succeed without their support. This study examines the receptivity to college‐credit distance education of faculty members in two‐ and four‐year higher education institutions. The research questions focused on general receptivity to distance education, the relationship between professional characteristics and attitude toward distance education, the connection between previous distance education experiences/ familiarity and receptivity, and on attitudes toward different distance education media and methods.

Tom Clark

Papers

Research and Practice in K-12 Online Learning: A Review of Open Access Literature

Virtual Schools: Trends and Issues. A Study of Virtual Schools in the United States.

Attitudes of Higher Education Faculty toward Distance Education: A National Survey.

A Synthesis of New Research on K-12 Online Learning

Online Learning: Pure Potential