Barbour, M. K. (2015, April). Best practice in online learning. A Sevenstar Academy School Leadership Technology Series webinar, Cincinnati, OH.

1. Best Practices in Online Learning
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Presenter: Dr. Michael Barbour

2. Best Practices
• A strategy that shows promise
• A systematic study is designed to investigate
that strategy
• Aspects of the strategy are refined
• Large scale studies are designed to test the
strategy
• Strategy is found to be highly effective in a
variety of contexts over multiple studies
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3. Best Practices
• A strategy that shows promise
• A systematic study is designed to investigate
that strategy
• Aspects of the strategy are refined
• Large scale studies are designed to test the
strategy
• Strategy is found to be highly effective in a
variety of contexts over multiple studies
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4. Promising Practices in Online Learning
4
Presenter: Dr. Michael Barbour

5. What Does The Literature Say?
• “based upon the personal experiences of
those involved in the practice of virtual
schooling” (Cavanaugh et al., 2009)
• described the literature as generally falling
into one of two general categories: the
potential benefits of and challenges facing K-
12 online learning (Barbour & Reeves, 2009)
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6. What About The Research?
• “a paucity of research exists when examining
high school students enrolled in virtual
schools, and the research base is smaller still
when the population of students is further
narrowed to the elementary grades” (Rice,
2006)
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7. Is This A Problem?
• “indicative of the foundational descriptive
work that often precedes experimentation in
any scientific field. In other words, it is
important to know how students in virtual
school engage in their learning in this
environment prior to conducting any rigorous
examination of virtual schooling.” (Cavanaugh
et al., 2009)
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8. Is This A Problem?
• the practice of K-12 online learning began
around 1991 and has been growing
exponentially since 2001
• how long must we wait for the research to
catch up?
Barbour (2013)
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9. What Does The Research Say?
• Comparisons of student performance based upon delivery
model (i.e., classroom vs. online)
• Studies examining the qualities and characteristics of the
teaching/learning experience
– characteristics of
– supports provided to
– issues related to isolation of online learners
(Rice, 2006)
• Effectiveness of virtual schooling
• Student readiness and retention issues (Cavanaugh et al.,
2009)
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10. 10

11. Virtual School Teacher Roles
• 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)
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12. Virtual School Teacher Research
• Lack of reliable and valid empirical research
– most research is based on teacher perceptions
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13. 13
Study Results
Online
Teaching
DiPietro et al.
(2008)
37 Best practice for
effective asynchronous
online instruction
Online Course
Design
Barbour
(2005, 2007)
7 Principles of effective
asynchronous course
design for adolescent
learners

14. DiPietro et al. (2008)
• general characteristics – 12 practices
• classroom management strategies – 2 practices
• pedagogical strategies: assessment – 3 practices
• pedagogical strategies: engaging students with content
– 7 practices
• pedagogical strategies: making course meaningful for
students – 4 practices
• pedagogical strategies: providing support– 1 practice
• pedagogical strategies: communication & community –
5 practices
• technology – 3 practices
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15. DiPietro et al. (2008)
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16. Barbour (2005, 2007)
Course developers should:
1. prior to beginning development of any of the web-based material, plan
out the course with ideas for the individual lessons and specific items
that they would like to include;
2. keep the navigation simple and to a minimum, but don’t present the
material the same way in every lesson;
3. provide a summary of the content from the required readings or the
synchronous lesson and include examples that are personalized to the
students’ own context;
4. ensure students are given clear instructions and model expectations of
the style and level that will be required for student work;
5. refrain from using too much text and consider the use of visuals to
replace or supplement text when applicable;
6. only use multimedia that will enhances the content and not simply
because it is available; and
7. develop their content for the average or below average student.
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17. 17
Study Results Methodological Limitation
Online
Teaching
DiPietro et al.
(2008)
37 Best practice for
effective asynchronous
online instruction
Interviews with teachers at a single,
statewide virtual school that were
selected by virtual school
administrators. Online teacher
beliefs were not validated through
observation or student
performance.
Online Course
Design
Barbour
(2005, 2007)
7 Principles of effective
asynchronous course
design for adolescent
learners
Interviews with teachers and course
developers at a single province-wide
virtual school that had a strong
synchronous delivery model. Beliefs
were not validated through
observation or student performance

18. Virtual School Teacher Research
• design-based research approach
to first five years of VHS
– SRI International were external
evaluators
• identified seven goals and
focused all of their research and
evaluation
• resulted in:
– three annual evaluations
– one five-year evaluation
– two subject specific evaluations
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19. Virtual School Teacher Research
• based on University of Florida’s Virtual
School Clearinghouse initiative
– AT&T Foundation-funded project from
2006-2009
• designed to provide K-12 online learning
programs, particularly statewide
supplemental programs, with data
analysis tools and metrics for school
improvement
• 13 of those K-12 online programs were
outlined in a publication entitled Lessons
Learned for Virtual Schools: Experiences
and Recommendations from the Field
Black, Ferdig, DiPietro (2008)
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20. Virtual School Teacher Research
Online teaching is more work
• asynchronous instruction in particular
• CDLI class size limit (official & unofficial)
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.
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21. Virtual School Teacher Research
Role of the parent
• full-time environment
– parent is responsible for significant instruction
– Programs need to consider how to measure (Liu,
Black, Algina, Cavanaugh, & Dawson, 2010) and foster
it (Borup, Graham, & Davies, 2013; Halser Waters,
2012; Klein, 2006)
• overall findings
– parental involvement tends to decrease as student
performance increases (Borup, Graham, & Davies,
2013)
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22. Virtual School Teacher Research
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)
Teaching Online Open Learning
• https://www.openteachertraining.org/
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23. Virtual School Facilitator Research
• Presence of an active, engaged local level
support person (Roblyer, Freeman, Stabler, &
Schneidmiller, 2007)
• Facilitator that focuses on soft learning skills,
not necessarily content (Barbour & Mulcahy,
2004, 2009)
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24. Virtual School Facilitator Research
National Research Center on Rural Education
Support, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
• training program that was provided as a part of
this research initiative included topics such as
issues for the first day of school, how to talk
about and support online assignments, potential
student fears, helping to develop time
management skills, assisting with the problem of
too much work, what to do when students
become disengaged, and how to ease students
who are worried about their grades (Irvin,
Hannum, Farmer, de la Varre, & Keane,2009)
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25. Virtual School Facilitator Research
National Research Center on Rural Education Support, University of
North Carolina-Chapel Hill
• Those who undertook the training were retained at a higher rate
than students attending schools where the Virtual School Facilitator
did not participate in the training (Hannum, Irvin, Lei, &Farmer,
2008)
• Effective facilitators were described as having being individuals who
had “a good, working relationship, who were consistently
responsive in their interactions with the teacher, and engaged with
and interested in their students”(de la Varre, Keane, & Irvin,2010,
pp. 202– 203)
• Facilitator was important in sharing the teacher presence with the
Virtual School Teacher in the online learning environment,
increasing the students sense of community and decreasing the
sense of isolation felt by students (de la Varre, Keane, & Irvin, 2011)
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26. Virtual School Student Preparation
• Educational Success Prediction Instrument
– technology use and technology self-efficacy (10
items)
– achievement beliefs (6 items)
– risk-taking (6 items)
– organization strategies (3 items)
Roblyer, Davis, Mills, Marshall, & Pape (2008)
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27. Virtual School Student Preparation
• Student orientation for readiness skills in
online learning
– Jason Siko (sikojp@gmail.com)
• Online Learning Orientation Tool
– http://olot.mivu.org.
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28. Director of Doctoral Studies
Sacred Heart University, USA
mkbarbour@gmail.com
http://www.michaelbarbour.com
http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com
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