Barbour, M. K. (2013, February). Voracious appetite: Examining the role of the teacher in relation to K-12 online learning. Learning & Sharing Distributed Learning Conference, Vancouver, BC.

1. Michael Barbour
Wayne State University

3. 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)

4. Developed by team on behalf of the
online program
 a team of teachers, multimedia specialists,
instructional designers
 work for hire/contract
Developed by the online teacher
 hired to teach a non-existent course
 course developed throughout semester

5. Copyright
 who owns the content?
 what happens if teacher leaves?
Expertise/Training
 “more than 31% of teachers reported receiving no training in online
lesson design” (Rice & Dawley,2007, p. 26)
 to create one hour of training it took 43 hours for instructor-led, 79
hours for basic e-learning, 184 hours for interactive e-learning, and
490 hours for advanced e-learning (Chapman Alliance, 2010)
Lack of Research to Guide Practice
 studies have focused on unreliable and invalid measures
 primary data has been teacher and developer perceptions
 no open access research-based standards

6. Similar to classroom-based teaching, with
differences
 time management, creation of materials,
understanding current technology and working
with a student one-on-one (Kearsley & Blomeyer,
2004)
 work differently to have positive communication
and assessments, using non-verbal
communication, time is needed for teachers to
become comfortable with technology, shift
occurring from teacher-centered to student-
centered learning (Easton, 2003)

7. Online teaching is more work
 CDLI class size limit (official & unofficial)
 asynchronous instruction in particular
Lack of reliable and valid empirical research
 most research is based on teacher perceptions
What is known about teacher training
 learn online in order to teach online
 works in team with teachers and a virtual school to construct
the online course, etc.

8. Critical to the success of students
 research has shown the presence of active facilitators increase
student performance (Roblyer, Freeman, Stabler, &
Schneidmiller, 2007)
 a trained facilitator also has a positive impact on student
performance (UNC-Chapel Hill)
Facilitator should
 monitor student activities
 support students soft learning skills
Facilitator should not
 provide regular tutoring
 provide significant or substantial technical assistance

9. Support for the facilitator
 the allocation of one teaching per school for
each 175 students to support the delivery of
CDLI courses (Shortall & Greene-Fraize, 2007)
 schools that had students participating in
supplemental distributed learning were
eligible to receive 0.125 of a full-time
equivalent for the local or school-based
support of their students engaged in
distributed learning (Barbour, 2011)

10. Lack of professional development
 less than 40% of online teachers reported to
receiving any professional development before they
began teaching online (Rice & Dawley, 2007)
Lack of teacher preparation programs
 less than 2% of universities in the United States
provided any systematic training in their pre-
service or in-service teacher education programs
(Kennedy & Archambault, 2012)

11. Canada
 cautiously supportive
United States
 supportive of programs that use unionized teachers
 violent opposition to most full-time programs and cyber
charter schools
New Zealand
 supportive, even proactively pushing Ministry
Brazil
 strictly opposed

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