Who Fares Best in a Virtual Environment?
By Emily Puro
While online education has shown great promise as an effective model for many students, virtual schooling is not for everyone. A briefing produced by the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) cites an analysis of several research studies focused on K-12 online learning, finding that students who succeed in online schools typically “enjoy technology, have strong language skills, and are visual learners; they also have consistent parent support and are involved in non-academic activities.”
One study cited in the briefing noted that virtual schools attract large proportions of students at the two ends of the achievement spectrum, those who are academically accelerated and those who have not been successful in traditional face-to-face courses. Other studies cited by NACOL found “successful online students are motivated, independent (and) self-directed,” and “those students who learn when presented with sound logical theories to consider seem to perform better than students who rely upon ‘hands on’ experience to learn.”
The online school environment can benefit “students that are distracted in the brick and mortar experience,” adds J.D. McMahan, head of school for the online high school Insight School of Oregon. “They’re able to focus more clearly because they don’t have those distractions. It’s a place where students that maybe feel antagonized or disenfranchised for some reason in a brick and mortar environment can find a sense of belonging.”
Salem-Keizer Public Schools’ SK Online program serves a variety of students who wouldn’t thrive in a traditional high school setting, says Mary Jean Sandall, principal of Roberts High School in Salem and supervisor of the district’s online programming. They serve medically fragile students who can’t attend school regularly, for example, and kids with social anxiety for whom the large school setting is unmanageable. Their graduates include an Olympic athlete and a high fashion model, both of whom were traveling too much to attend a traditional school. One student is completing her studies with SK Online while living in Japan after her father’s company transferred him overseas.
The Salem-Keizer school district also runs an online credit recovery program called Bridge, serving students who are out of synch with their peers and at risk of dropping out as well as students who already have dropped out.
“In the last several years we have definitely been making headway (in reducing Salem’s dropout rates),” says Sandall, “and we know that we are one of the programs that is assisting greatly with that intervention.”
Emily Puro is a Portland freelance writer and mom.
June 8th, 2010 | Category: Special Online Learning
