Barbour, M. K., & LaBonte, R. (2017, October). Best practices in blended and distance learning in Canada. A presentation at the Building Student Engagement in Blended and Distance Environments, North Battleford, SK.

1. Best Practices in Blended and
Distance Learning in Canada
Michael K. Barbour
Touro University, California
Randy LaBonte
Canadian eLearning Network

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

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

4. • A number of scholars have documented the absence of
rigorous reviews of virtual schools (Barbour & Reeves,
2009).
• “based upon the personal experiences of those
involved in the practice of virtual schooling”
(Cavanaugh, Barbour & Clark , 2009)
• “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)
Best Practices

5. Emerging Best Practices
• design-based 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

6. • 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)
Emerging Best Practices

7. Emerging Best Practices
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)

9. Promising Practices
Teaching Online Open Learning (GAVS)
• https://www.openteachertraining.org/
K-12 Blended & Online Learning (KSU)
• http://mooc.kennesaw.edu/courses/k12-
blended.php
Virtual Teacher Specialization (UC-Irvine)
• https://www.coursera.org/specializations/virt
ual-teacher

10. Promising Practices
• 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)

11. Promising Practices
• 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)

12. Promising Practices
• Student orientation for readiness skills in
online learning
– Jason Siko (sikojp@gmail.com)
• Online Learning Orientation Tool (MVU)
– http://olot.mivu.org.

13. Associate Professor of Instructional
Design
College of Education & Health Services
Touro University, California
mkbarbour@gmail.com
http://www.michaelbarbour.com