Barbour, M. K. (2015, March). Brief overview of research on rural students and online learning. A webinar presentation to the Regional Education Laboratory - Southeast's Alliance for Online and Blended Learning.

1. Brief Overview of Research
on Rural Students
and Online Learning
Michael K. Barbour
Director of Doctoral Studies
Sacred HeartUniversity

2. Distance Education & Rural Schooling
• 394 randomly selected school districts
• 85% of school districts had used or
were using distance education
• 81% were using it to offer advanced-
level courses
– 35% using it for foreign language
– 12% for algebra
• most common barriers
– district barriers – not needed, funding,
not a priority
– logistical barriers – scheduling, difficult to
implement
– personnel barriers – not trained to
support distance education or not
available to support distance education
Hannum, Irvin, Banks & Farmer (2009)

3. What Have We Learned?
• “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)
• 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)
• “based upon the personal experiences of those
involved in the practice of virtual schooling”
(Cavanaugh et al., 2009)

4. Academic Tracks in Newfoundland & Labrador
• English language arts
• mathematics
academic stream - graduation,
college, university, etc.
basic stream - graduation, trade
school
virtual school program only offers
academic streamed courses

5. Enrollment - English Language Arts

6. Enrollment - Mathematics

7. Mulcahy, Dibbon and Norberg (2008)
• study of rural schooling in three schools on the south coast
of the Labrador
• found two had a higher percentage of students enrolled in
basic-level courses
• speculated because the only way students could do
academic course at their school was online, some students
specifically chose the basic stream to avoid taking an online
course
Students who enroll in the basic stream are not eligible for
post-secondary admittance!

8. 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)
Three Roles of Virtual School Teachers

9. • 7 principles of effective
web-based design for
adolescents (Barbour, 2005;
2007)
• descriptive instrument for
virtual school courses
(Keeler, 2004; 2006; Keeler
& Anderson-Inman, 2004a;
2004b)
Research on Virtual School Designer

10. Research on Virtual School Teacher
• 37 best practices in
asynchronous online
teaching (DiPietro, Ferdig,
Black & Preston, 2008)
• synchronous online
teaching strategies - e.g., in
second languages, learner-
centered principles,
projecting social presence
(Murphy & Coffins, 2003;
Murphy & Rodriguez-
Manzanares, 2007; 2009;
Nippard & Murphy, 2007)

11. Research on Virtual School Site Facilitator
• “Student ability to handle
distance education courses
appears to depend more on
motivation,
self-direction, or the ability to
take responsibility for individual
learning. Because of these
determinants of success,
facilitators that are directly
working with students day by
day are key to the success of the
program.”
Access Alabama evaluation
(Roblyer, Freeman, Stabler &
Schneidmiller, 2007)

12. Research on Virtual School Site Facilitator
• “As has been well known, but
rarely documented, the success of
distance education in the province
of Newfoundland and Labrador
has been in large part due to the
assistance provided by teachers in
our rural schools above and
beyond their contractual
obligations to the school or the
school district.”
Centre for Distance Learning and
Innovation - Newfoundland and
Labrador (Barbour & Mulcahy, 2004;
2009)

13. Research on Virtual School Site Facilitator
• “The study thus far has found that
the program reduced drop-out rate
(i.e., student in an individual
course and schools leaving the
distance program), but did not
appear to affect student
learning. Based on the qualitative
data, the teachers felt that the
presence of a facilitator was
crucial.”
Created a training program for
school-based language arts
facilitators in rural schools in North
Carolina (Hannum, Irvin, Lei &

14. Research on Virtual School Site Facilitator• “The TEGIVS project has
attempted to build virtual school
competencies by developing a
tool that can be shared within the
teacher education community.
Initial findings suggest that such
a tool can influence future
educators' thinking about
teaching and learning in the 21st
century.”
Iowa State University teacher
education program (Davis,
Compton, Niederhauser &
Lindstrom, 2005; Davis, Demiraslan
& Wortmann, 2007; Davis et al.,

15. The Challenge
Whether online learning
can be suitable for all K-
12 students?
(Mulcahy, 2002)

16. Your
Questions
and
Comments

17. Assistant Professor
Wayne State University, USA
mkbarbour@gmail.com
http://www.michaelbarbour.com
http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com