Barbour, M. K. (2014, June). Online and blended education: What does it look like? An invited keynote presentation to the Binghamton University's Virtual Advanced Placement Conference, Binghamton, NY.

1. Michael Barbour
Sacred Heart University

2. Online Learning
 virtual school = supplemental
 cyber school = full-time
Blended/Hybrid Learning
 blended = online & F2F at the same time
 hybrid = online or F2F

3. Davis (2003)

6. Stalker & Horn (2013)

7. Stalker & Horn (2013)

8. Stalker & Horn (2013)

9. Stalker & Horn (2013)

10. Stalker & Horn (2013)

11. Stalker & Horn (2013)

12. Stalker & Horn (2013)

13. Stalker & Horn (2013)

14. Stalker & Horn (2013)

15. Virtual School Designer: Course Development
 design instructional materials
 works in team with teachers and a virtual school to construct the
online course, etc.
Virtual School Teacher: Pedagogy & Class Management
 presents activities, manages pacing, rigor, etc.
 interacts with students and their facilitators
 undertakes assessment, grading, etc.
Virtual School Site Facilitator: Mentoring & Advocating
 local mentor and advocate for student(s)
 proctors & records grades, etc.
Davis (2007)

16. Copyright
 who owns the content?
Expertise/Training
 “more than 31% of teachers reported receiving no training
in online lesson design” (Rice & Dawley,2007, p. 26)
 to create one hour of training it took 43 hours for
instructor-led, 79 hours for basic e-learning, 184 hours for
interactive e-learning, and 490 hours for advanced e-
learning (Chapman Alliance, 2010)
Lack of Research to Guide Practice
 studies have focused on unreliable and invalid measures
 primary data has been teacher and developer perceptions
 no open access research-based standards

17. Similar to classroom-based teaching,
with differences
 time management, creation of materials,
understanding current technology and working
with a student one-on-one (Kearsley &
Blomeyer, 2004)
 work differently to have positive
communication and assessments, using non-
verbal communication, time is needed for
teachers to become comfortable with
technology, shift occurring from teacher-
centered to student-centered learning (Easton,
2003)

18. Online teaching is more work
 class size limit (official & unofficial)
 asynchronous instruction in particular
Lack of reliable and valid empirical
research
 most research is based on teacher perceptions
What is known about teacher training
 learn online in order to teach online
 works in team with teachers and a virtual school to
construct the online course, etc.

19. Critical to the success of students
 research has shown the presence of active facilitators
increase student performance (Roblyer, Freeman, Stabler,
& Schneidmiller, 2007)
 a trained facilitator also has a positive impact on student
performance (UNC-Chapel Hill)
Facilitator should…
 monitor student activities
 support students soft learning skills
Facilitator should not…
 provide regular tutoring
 provide significant or substantial technical assistance

20. Lack of professional development
 less than 40% of online teachers reported to
receiving any professional development before they
began teaching online (Rice & Dawley, 2007)
Lack of teacher preparation programs
 less than 2% of universities in the United States
provided any systematic training in their pre-
service or in-service teacher education programs
(Kennedy & Archambault, 2012)

21. Haughey &
Muirhead (1999)
preferred characteristics include the highly motivated,
self-directed, self-disciplined, independent learner who
could read and write well, and who also had a strong
interest in or ability with technology
Roblyer & Elbaum
(2000)
only students with a high need to control and structure
their own learning may choose distance formats freely
Clark et al. (2002) students were highly motivated, high achieving, self-
directed and/or who liked to work independently
Mills (2003) typical online student was an A or B student
Watkins (2005) 45% of the students who participated in e-learning
opportunities in Michigan were either advanced
placement or academically advanced students

22. • “enroll approximately the same percentages of black students
but substantially more white students and fewer Hispanic
students relative to public schools in the states in which the
company operates”
• “39.9% of K12 students qualify for free or reduced lunch,
compared with 47.2% for the same-state comparison group.”
• “enroll a slightly smaller proportion of students with disabilities
than schools in their states and in the nation as a whole (9.4%
for K12 schools, 11.5% for same-state comparisons, and 13.1% in
the nation).”
• “Students classified as English language learners are
significantly under-represented in K12 schools; on average the
K12 schools enroll 0.3% ELL students compared with 13.8% in
the same-state comparison group and 9.6% in the nation.”
Miron, G. & Urschel, J. (2012). Understanding and improving full-time virtual schools. Denver, CO: National
Education Policy Center.

24. Director of Doctoral Studies
Sacred Heart University, USA
mkbarbour@gmail.com
http://www.michaelbarbour.com
http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com