|
BY JOHN WATSON
A blog post from a while back that discussed an article critical of online learning included this quote from the original article:
“There is little comprehensive information about the curricula, student-teacher ratios, how much actual teaching occurs, or what if any academic supports are provided by the schools.”
My blog post went on to say:
“I’m not clear on what “comprehensive” means in this paragraph. It is clear that there is a lack of general understanding of many of these issues, including within colleges of education and among policymakers. But at DLAC we host a research community that includes university professors and NGO representatives, as well as organizations such as Michigan Virtual University, which publishes extensively on these topics. In addition, teaching strategies, academic supports, and related topics are a focus of many DLAC sessions. Within the digital learning community, this information is widely available.”
This topic is worthy of further discussion for a few reasons. The most important of these reasons is that there is not only a lack of understanding about online learning, but also a lack of recognition regarding how much information about online learning is available including from government and academic sources. These sources often validate online learning as a viable modality by the very existence of the research. In other words, a journal wouldn’t publish articles on a topic that its editors believe is unimportant.
Educational Psychologist recently published a special issue that looks at online learning in K-12 education. The articles range from fairly general to highly specific.
“Online learning—learning that involves interactions that are mediated through using digital, typically internet-based, technology—is pervasive, multi-faceted, and evolving, creating opportunities and challenges for educational research in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Leanna Archambault of Arizona State University, Heather Leary of Brigham Young, and Kerry Rice of Boise State write in their abstract:
“The growing shift toward online learning has brought new expectations for teachers, including skills needed to combine content knowledge with engaging pedagogical strategies that leverage the affordances of technology. As a result, online pedagogy has become increasingly relevant in modern-day schools. The challenge is understanding the nature of online pedagogy, the skills needed for teachers to succeed in online settings, and the theoretical underpinnings surrounding why these skills are essential. This article unpacks the foundational components of online pedagogy, comprised of five pillars grounded in the principles of learner-centeredness, constructivism, and situated learning. These pillars include the ability to (a) Build Relationships and Community, (b) Incorporate Active Learning, (c) Leverage Learner Agency, (d) Embrace Mastery Learning, and (e) Personalize the Learning Process. We describe their theoretical underpinnings, discuss related literature, and consider implications for teacher education with subsequent implications for scholarship across educational technology, educational psychology, and the learning sciences.”
The presence of one issue of one journal doesn’t prove much, of course. But it’s not hard to find plenty of other journal articles and academic sources. For example:
“North Carolina State University researchers released findings from an analysis of 284 different studies on the challenges and best practices for teaching K-12 classes online – an effort launched during the COVID-19 pandemic to help teachers and administrators as they transitioned rapidly to online instruction.”
Or see the Journal of Online Learning Research. Or the Handbook of Research on K-12 Online and Blended Learning. Or the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute and their research database. Or Michael Barbour’s blog. Or many other examples that exist and can be found without much effort.
In addition, we have a research group meeting at DLAC, and several research-focused sessions on the main program. “Diverse Lenses on Improving Online Learning Theory, Research, and Practice” is based on the special issue of Educational Psychologist and will feature researchers from Indiana University, Michigan State, Purdue, George Mason, and Arizona State.
The next time someone says “online learning isn’t well understood,” be ready to respond with “I assume you mean that you don’t understand it—because plenty of other people do.”
|
