This document summarizes research on rural virtual schooling and the roles of various participants. It finds that while distance education is commonly used in rural districts, there is limited research on K-12 online learning. Most studies describe potential benefits and challenges. The roles of virtual school designers, teachers, and site facilitators are discussed, with research finding that site facilitators who work directly with students are key to program success. Open questions remain about online learning suitability for all students.

1. Rural Virtual Schooling:
Research on the Teaching
and Learning Experience
Michael K. Barbour
Assistant Professor
Wayne State University

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

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

4. Enrollment - English Language Arts

5. Enrollment - Mathematics

6. 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!

7. Virtual School Designer: Course
Development
Three Roles of Virtual School Teachers
• 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)

8. Literature Reviews
• Rice (2006)
Journal of Research on Technology in Education
• Barbour & Reeves (2009)
Computers and Education
• Cavanaugh, Barbour, & Clark (2009)
International Review of Research in Open and
Distance Learning

9. 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)

10. Research on Virtual School Designer
• 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)

11. 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)

12. 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)

13. 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)

14. 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 & Farmer, 2008)

15. 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.,
2007)

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

17. Your
Questions
and
Comments

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