Online learning, benefits and concerns

Online learning is something I have no experience with as a teacher, so this unit has been very interesting. I was honestly surprised to learn about Michigan's place as a leader in online public education, and regret that I am only learning now about the many opportunities here for students, when I am preparing to move out of state.

Dr. Siko has put forward a number of scenarios to help think through the advantages and drawbacks of online learning. I found these scenarios to all be very realistic, and I'd like to address each individually.

The first scenario is that of a small rural district that cannot offer certain classes, such as calculus. This is certainly one of the most obvious advantages of online learning, offering students classes they couldn't otherwise take. I fully support this use, but the one concern I have would be the financial burden on these districts. These sorts of districts generally do not have large budgets, and providing online courses for numerous students could be a large burden. Michigan's section 21f of the State School Aid Act does limit a district's financial liability to 1/12 of their foundation allowance, per semester, but I don't know enough about district budgets to know how helpful this is. It seems that on a very tight budget, 1/12 is still a lot to have to pay out, and I imagine rural districts that may most need online alternatives may be least able to afford this financial hit.

The second scenario is about a parent demanding online learning to avoid a specific teacher. I actually worried about this scenario myself in my comment on the last post, and I will repeat my statements here. I wrote that "I'm also curious if we'd see students start avoiding unpopular teachers or classes by using online alternatives. Could this be a way to "weed out" bad teachers? Or would students start to avoid only the "tough" teachers, leaving some of our strongest, most experienced teachers with few students? If administration notices a high percentage of a teacher's students jumping ship for virtual classes, what should they do about it?"
Alan echoed my concerns, noting that "it would be frightening to be a strong, tough teacher...bullied into changing their coursework or requirements so students would remain interested in taking their classes."

I genuinely think this is a scenario administrators will find themselves in more and more often. Legally, I don't imagine there is any way to force students to take a course face-to-face if they don't want to. There are only 5 reasons to deny a student enrollment in online courses per 21f, and "student is merely trying to avoid a particular teacher" is certainly not one of them. In this sense, the administrator's hands are tied. So can you prevent this is likely a no. Should you prevent this is a definite yes, in my mind. Teaching is not meant to be a popularity contest, and administrators should ensure students receive the best education they can, not that they receive the easy education they may want. How administrators can stop students from bailing on teachers who assign homework (the horror!) or prefer short answer to multiple choice assessments (impossible!) is a mystery to me. Perhaps administrators need to come up with a really good pitch to convince the parent. Perhaps citing online course failure rates? Or in this specific scenario, the lab experiences an online chemistry course can't replicate?

The third scenario is about responsibility for a student's test performance after transferring in from a subpar cyberschool. I have seen this play out not with cyberschools, but with charter schools, and I know the result is frustration for teachers and the school. There's a whole other debate to be had here about evaluations and standards based on growth vs. proficiency, but we'll leave that for another day. I'd like to see students who have been in a school district for less than a full year not count towards a teacher's or school's evaluations. However, in the given scenario, I don't think there's much for a teacher to do other than to support that student as much as possible. The main thing that needs to be solved here is shutting down cyberschools that are failing to educate their students.

In the fourth scenario, a teacher is asked to be a "facilitator" for online students but is not provided any extra release time. This is clearly unfair, but I am certain this is taking place, and may be a problem many of us face in the future, as districts see the earning potential of online learning. Not everyone will likely agree with me here, but I'd say talk to the teacher's union! This is exactly the type of situation unions are meant for. Teachers put up with a lot, but they shouldn't be forced to take more burdens on without compensation or accommodations.

The final scenario deals with a senior diagnosed with leukemia who wants to graduate on time. This is a situation where I have seen online learning used successfully. In these cases, my district also provides a home based instructor who aids and checks up on the student. This is another great example where online learning is incredibly beneficial, but it is important that the student receives support in transitioning to online courses.

The district I've been working in seems poorly equipped to deal with a number of the changes needed for online learning. I admit I haven't spent a long time in the district, but I don't believe they've been public at all about coping with the online learning trend. The course guide doesn't mention general online classes, and the district website does not either. The one exception is dual enrollment, which is only available to juniors and seniors and is aimed at high achieving students. I know a number of students who have taken great advantage of dual enrollment, but it's very much restricted to advanced students, who are already being served well in my district.
I will note that the district has a number of alternative high schools, including math and science, performing arts, career prep, and alternative education. I have students who are bussed back and forth during the school day so they can take certain courses at these other schools. I suspect that the district would rather funnel students to these existing alternatives rather than enrolling them in online courses.

A second look at virtual schooling

I found this week's readings to be very interesting. Overall, I think my picture of online learning was fairly accurate, though I now know many more specifics. I was already aware of the many different factions offering online courses, and neither of the readings this week convinced me that this is a good idea. I would never want to see all online courses being created at the state level, as I believe non-profit organizations may have a lot to offer, and I do believe that some large and well established companies, such as Pearson, may do a very good job developing content. However, I also believe not all of the for-profit suppliers are of sufficient quality. I was pleased to see in the Keeping Pace Report that many states have either a state-run virtual school or have government agencies providing active oversight of online course offerings, in an attempt to assure quality. This also is connected to my fears about unqualified teachers, as I see now that while there are no across-the-board qualifications to teach an online course, individual states can set requirements. 

I was wrong in assuming that most virtual schooling is done from home. The Keeping Pace Report clearly states that most students are accessing online learning from a physical school or other learning center location. While I knew this was possible, I didn't realize it was so prevalent. The Barbour article also made a distinction between virtual schooling, which is often supplemental or part time and provided through public schools, and cyber schooling, which is full-time and more closely associated with charters and the home-schooling movement.

I was not at all surprised by Barbour's evidence that research on virtual schooling is simply not sufficient at this point in time. I was particularly struck by the fact that so many online students in Florida reportedly dropped out of courses, between 25 and 50 percent! Some studies fail to take into account this sort of information, and thus give very skewed results. Another part of the difficulty in researching online learning is, of course, in the fact that it can take so many different forms. Just a look at the Keeping Pace Report’s 3 pages of definitions gives a good picture of how complicated the online learning landscape actually is. 

I also found Barbour’s assertion that asynchronous classes are not taught nearly as well as synchronous classes online to be in line with my own expectations. I agree that asynchronous courses require different teaching skills than a classroom teacher normally uses, and that it's easy in the asynchronous model for very little actual teaching to occur. This is similar to my assertion that it's too easy to teach these kinds of classes poorly. 

This actually flies in the face of the several of NACOL's "myths" about online learning. They say it's a myth that online courses are easy to teach, and a myth that students are more likely to cheat online. They're correct that these aren't necessarily aspects of all online teaching, but I think calling them myths is really presenting an overly rosy picture. 

Indeed, I felt the 10 "myths" were really a lot of hype. Yes, I believe they are "myths" in the fact that they are not necessarily true of online learning, but many of them seem like common pitfalls that require a lot of careful planning and work to be avoided. This includes myth 4, that online students are isolated; myth 7, that online courses are easier; and myth 10, that online courses are an add-on burden to schools and teachers. Again, I believe all of these are IDEALLY untrue, but can easily become true if intentional steps aren't taken to avoid them.

Lastly, I will say that I was surprised by the fact that Michigan offers all public school students, grades 6-12, the opportunity to take up to 2 online courses each term. I was also surprised that they had so much choice, from MVS courses, district and ISD offerings, or community college offerings. I am curious how many students are aware of this, as I know only a few students who take advantage of this, and these are mainly advanced students and those who need credit recovery.