User:Alyssa.kraus/sandbox

Spencer's Comments

When you say, "teaches students entirely or primarily online or through the internet," the last part means the same thing. You can take out either "online or" or "through the internet"

Where is the the "definition" of online school coming from?

An online school (virtual school or e-school or cyber-school) teaches students entirely or primarily online or through the internet. It has been defined as "education that uses one or more technologies to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor synchronously or asynchronously". Online education exists all around the world and is used for all levels of education (K-12, college, or graduate school). This type of learning enables the individuals to earn transferable credits, to take recognized examinations, or to advance to the next level of education over the internet.

Number of Students Taking Distance Courses by Level (2012-2015)

Students who are of the age 30 or older, tend to study on online programs at higher rates. This group represent 41% of the online education population, while 35.5% of students ages 24-29 and 24.5% of students ages 15-23 participate in virtual education.

Percentage of Students Taking Distance Courses (2012-2015)

Virtual education is becoming increasing used worldwide as seen in the "Digital Learning Compass: Distance Education Enrollment Report 2017". There are currently more than 4,700 colleges and universities that provide online courses to it's students. In 2015, more than 6 million students were taking at least one course online, this number grew by 3.9% from the previous year. 29.7% of all higher education students are taking at least one distance course. The total number of students studying on a campus exclusively dropped by 931,317 people between the years 2012 and 2015. "Experts predict that as the number of those studying in college continues to grow and diversify the student population, we'll see greater numbers enrolled in distance learning".

Instructional Model

Instructional models vary, ranging from distance learning types which provide study materials for independent self-paced study, to live, interactive classes where students or pupils work with a teacher in a class group lesson. Class sizes range widely from a small group of 6 pupils or students to hundreds in virtual school.

The courses that are independent and self paced are called asynchronous courses. Typically for this type of learning the students are given the assignments and information, and are expected to complete the assignments on the due date, on their own time. There is no time when the class meets, usually the only interactions that takes place are through discussion boards, blogs, and wikis.

On the other hand, synchronous online courses happen in 'real time'. The instructor and students all interact online at the same time either through text, video, or audio chat. In addition to the scheduled class time, there is usually additional assignments to complete.

Hybrid, sometimes also called blended, courses are when students learn and interact both in person and online. Theses classes meet in person during the semester in addition to computer based communication.

Advantages and Disadvantages:

Advocates of online schools and online learning point to a number of advantages:

• There is a lack of costly and tiring travel involved; with a much greater dependability of lessons. Weather disrupting transport is almost irrelevant (though an area subject to frequent power cuts will suffer consequent disruptions). Similarly common health disruptions through minor illness or injury, will not halt learning, because the physical demands are so much less. Transcripts of lessons can plug short absences.
• Many students and pupils who have personal or health conditions that make physical school difficult or impossible.
• Control of bullying is easier, as access to a group can be instantly adjusted when a problem is raised. They can also be closed out instantly pending investigation. The automatic recording of all exchanges is a powerful investigation aid; although this has privacy implications it is also a reassurance.
• Individuals and families who need flexible arrangements. However, synchronous learning does impose limits due to timezones, which tends to divide online schools in Europe and Asia from North America.
• The integration of internet resources provides a huge library of content, and students/ pupils quickly become adept at online research. Independent minded students, those with specialist skills and ambitions, can develop at their own preferred pacing using net resources.
• There is a greater flexibility for self-learners or gifted students to explore learning beyond the standard curriculum.
• Online schools can be equalizers, as age, appearance, and background are far less obvious. Groups can be categorized by personal ability.
• Students and pupils benefit from exposure to others in different cultures of the world, which enriches understanding of history, geography, religions and politics, and develops social skills.
• Part-time students with jobs or family commitments, benefit from the flexibility of online schedules.
• For asynchronous education, a student may study, learn, or do their homework when they have available time. Therefore this gives the students flexibility with their time.
• Online learning is effective and efficient at providing education to a large number of people no matter the physical distance between the students and professors.
• This type of education "develops higher order skills such as collaborating across time and place and solving complex real-world problems".
• The ability to avoid the requirement of traveling to a physical school.
• When a rural or small school does not have the teaching staff available or capability to instruct a course that they would otherwise be unable to teach, virtual schooling opens up this opportunity.
• Cost effective for schools or districts because virtual education allows a teacher to instruct more students than in a face-to-face classroom setting.
• Typically the courses online are less expensive.

In contrast, some disadvantages of virtual school includes:

• Students do not interact with their instructors or peers face-to-face, which lends itself to a "lack of socialization". This unless supplemented using online groups such as Elluminate or Wimba, or by attending other social activities outside of school.
• There is an added challenge of staying focused while in the home environment. In fact, many students report that staying on task is the most difficult aspect of learning online.
• The cost of starting up an online school is expensive.
• Not everyone has access to digital technologies which would prohibited them to attend virtual schools, though in some cases, local libraries or community programs may offer access to computers and research materials.
• Due to the fact that virtual schools are still relatively new, there are no seldom methods of evaluating their effectiveness in educating their students.
• Online students, on average, do substantially worse than students in the same face-to-face. See https://www.brookings.edu/research/who-should-take-online-courses/ for more information about the studies done about this claim.
• It is common for technology to be unpredictable, glitch, or not function correctly.
• Obtaining a job with an online degree may be harder because potential employers may be skeptical of the credibility of these virtual programs.
• The assignments may not actually be assessing the ability of the students because many answers can be found on the internet.

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) developed a set of standards released in September 2007 and updated on October 12, 2011. These standards will help monitor online programs and ensure that every provider of education is accredited.

Peer Review:

Confused about the wording of "methods options"

Include more data/examples about online schools having poor performances