Barbour, M. K. (2007, October). Lessons learned in researching virtual schools: The Newfoundland and Labrador experience. An invited presentation by the Canadian Institute of Distance Education Research. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/513/990

1. The Development of a
Research Agenda:
Learning in a Virtual
School Environment
Michael Barbour
Wayne State University

2. Newfoundland and Labrador
• area of the island is 43,359
square miles, while
Labrador covers 112,826
square miles
• according to the 2001
census population for
Newfoundland and Labrador
was 512,930 (down from
551,795 in 1996)
• 305 schools (down from 343
just three years ago)
• 81,458 students (down from
118,273 a decade ago)
• average school size 233
pupils (over 40% have less
than 200) 1

3. In the Beginning
• Teacher in a district-wide, asynchronous, web-
based distance education program
• Became interested in:
– how interaction through discussion forums
affected student performance
– achievement and retention differences between
web-based and classroom students 2

4. Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation
The CDLI was founded in December 2000
by the Department of Education, in
response to the recommendations of
the 1999 Sparks-Williams Ministerial
Panel on Educational Delivery.
The vision of the Centre is to
• provide access to educational opportunities
for students, teachers and other adult
learners in both rural and urban
communities in a manner that renders
distance transparent;
• eliminate geographical and demographic
barriers as obstacles to broad, quality
educational programs and services; and
• develop a culture of e-learning in our
schools which is considered to be an
integral part of school life for all teachers
and students.

5. Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation
Synchronous – Online
• 30% to 80%, depending on subject
area
• taught via a virtual classroom (e.g.,
Elluminate Live)
Asynchronous – Offline
• remainder of their time
• taught via a course management
system (e.g., WebCT)
• usually consists of independent work
from posted homework or
assignments or from their textbooks

6. Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation
• You Will Learn – briefly lists, in student friendly language,
the instructional outcomes for the lesson;
• You Should Know – lists, and when necessary
elaborates on, knowledge and skills students are
expected to have mastered prior to the lesson;
• Lesson – is self-explanatory and may be broken into
multiple pages;
• Activities – contains further instructional events the
student that students need to carry out in order to master
the lesson outcomes; and
• Test Yourself – offers an opportunity for the student to
gauge the degree to which the outcomes were achieved.

7. In the Beginning
• District-based administrator for a province-
wide virtual school
• My interests shifted to:
– how school-based teachers were affected
– what affect individual student learning students
had on student achievement
– could instant messaging be used as a tool to create
an online community 3

8. Some Findings: Mediating Teachers
• They had quite a burden placed upon them
due to the wide range of duties and time
commitment associated with these new
responsibilities
• In addition to the time associated with the
position, in many cases the mediating
teachers responsibilities did include technical
and instruction aspects
• Teachers provided content-based assistance
above and beyond their contractual
obligations to the school or the school district

9. Some Findings: Learning Styles
Students with the assimilative learning style (KB) tend to perform
better than students from any of the other three learning styles.
Students with the convergent learning style (KB) tend to perform
better than students from the divergent and accommodative learning
styles.
Students who are visual learners perform better than students who
are tactile learners, who perform better than auditory learners.
While there are few differences in student performance based upon
Gardner’s multiple intelligences, students who have aptitudes for
“Musical-Rhythmic” and “Verbal-Linguistic” appear to be lower
than the other five intelligences.

10. Some Findings: Instant Messaging
• IM is a tool that students feel comfortable in
utilizing, given the amount of use during
personal time.
• Students personally feel that IM assists both in
their learning and their sense of “knowing”
their virtual classmates.
• Based on these trends, e-teachers should give
consideration to adopting a more formal role
for IM in their e-Learning environments.

11. What Kind of Research?
• Typically survey based, with
some statistical analysis
(usually descriptive
statistics)
• Primarily concerned with
issues of implementation
and practice
4

12. Starting the Ph.D.
• Was interested in online
learning in the K-12
environment
• Began with an interview
study that examined
what is good course
design for web-based secondary school
students
• Followed up with an examination of
secondary student perceptions of useful and
challenging aspects of online learning
5

13. Some Findings: Web-based Design
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.

14. Some Findings: Student Perceptions
• 86.8% indicated that they were satisfied with their virtual school
courses
– only 5.3% selected either of the two dissatisfaction options
– only 7.9% indicated that they were less satisfied with their
virtual school compared to their classroom-based courses
• 63.2% of students indicated they were more satisfied with their
virtual school courses
• a little surprising, given that 50% of students stated that their
virtual school courses were more difficult than their classroom-
based courses
• students reported to spending between three to six hours per
course each week
• only 10.5% of the students indicated that they could access the
Internet at home, while 34.2% said they could accessed at a
public library and 76.3% could accessed at a friend’s home
• 81.6% stated that the reason they took the course through the
virtual school was because it was the only way the course was
offered, 47.4% wanted to try one, and 26.3% of the students
indicated it was a required course

15. Some Findings: Web-based Design
• Students indicated that they don’t use the web-based content
that much.
• Barriers to using the web-based content included:
– the amount of work assigned during offline time.
– how little e-teachers actually used it.
– Students may not trust it.
• Web-based design:
– Students don’t like text.
– Students enjoy the various media that the Internet is able
to offer.
– Students want multimedia used to explain concepts and
provide information.
– Students want to have a good set of notes.
– Students find the review questions, particularly “Test
Yourself” quizzes, quite useful.

16. Becoming a Researcher
• Gained some research skills
(surveys, interviews, focus
groups, statistical analysis)
• Began to ask better
questions
– are there performance
differences?
– why do these differences
exist?
– are there things that can be
done to account for these
differences?
6

17. Some Findings: Student Performance
Public Exam Final Course Average
Web delivered rural 61.7
(n = 826)
69.3
(n = 3,452)
Web delivered urban 65.7
(n = 11)
66.3
(n = 81)
Web delivered total 61.8
(n = 837)
69.2
(n = 3533)
Classroom delivered rural 62.3
(n = 15,384)
68.5
(n = 90,190)
Classroom delivered urban 63.1
(n = 23,080)
67.7
(n = 115,029)
Classroom delivered total 62.8
(n = 38464)
68.1
(n = 205219)
# of missing cases 1,029 (2.6%) 5,650 (2.6%)
Total # of cases 40,330 214,402

18. The Dissertation
• Case study of the virtual school students in one
rural school
• What are students actually
doing when they are
engaged in virtual
schooling?
1. What are the students’ experiences
during their synchronous time online?
2. What are the students’ experiences during their asynchronous time
online?
3. When students require content-based assistance, where do they
seek that assistance and why do they choose those sources?
7

19. Trends
Synchronous Time
• students tended to stay on task during this time
(although not always)
• students tended to rely upon each other more
than the online teacher for help
• students tended to communicate using text
rather than audio

20. Trends
Asynchronous Time
• when the students decided to
work, they worked well
• students decided to work less
than half of the time
• students would complete work in
a collaborative effort, particularly
in the mathematics and sciences
• asynchronous time was easy to
give up for other school related
activities

21. Trends
Turning for Help
• students primarily relied upon each
other for help
• local class size played an important role
– the smaller the class the more likely
the students were to turn to their online
teacher as opposed to a school-based
teacher
• student colleagues, teachers (both
online and school-based), and general
Internet searches were primarily the only
sources students used for help, even
though they had access to a textbook,
supplemental material in WebCT, a live
tutor available in the virtual classroom
after schools and during the evenings

22. Lessons Learned

23. Contact Information
Michael K. Barbour
Assistant Professor
Instructional Technology Program
Wayne State University
mkbarbour@gmail.com
http://www.michaelbarbour.com