PART ONE
Overview
1
ONLINE, BLENDED, AND DISTANCE EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS
An Introduction
Tom Clark and Michael K. Barbour
The last decade has seen dramatic growth in the use of online, blended, and distance learning approaches in elementary and secondary education around the world. Online learning is a type of distance education, the key element of which is āthe separation of teacher and learner during ... a majority of the instructional processā (Verduin & Clark, 1991, p. 11). Watson and Kalmon (2005) defined online learning as āeducation in which instruction and content are delivered primarily over the Internet.ā
As depicted in Table 1.1, the history of Kā121 online learning begins with the concepts and systems that made it possible. The independent study high school launched by the University of Nebraska in the 1920s served as a model for distance and online learning programs later on. Enrollments in 1935 were almost all at the University of Nebraska. By 2004ā2005, Kā12 independent study enrollments peaked at 174,000 nationwide, but about 40% were in online courses (D. Gearhart, personal communication, March 31, 2006).
TABLE 1.1:
Key dates in the history of Kā12 distance and online learning
1921 | Educational radio broadcasting begins at Ohio School of the Air |
1929 | University of Nebraska begins supervised independent study high school |
1951 | School of the Air launched in Australia |
1953 | Educational television broadcasting begins at University of Iowa |
1961 | Purdue University pioneers airplane-based Kā12 instruction |
1965 | Computer-based Kā12 learning experiments at Stanford, and a year later at Illinois |
1971 | Educational broadcasting via geosynchronous satellite begins using NASAās ATS-1 |
1980s | Audio and computer conferencing technologies used in Kā12 instruction |
1980 | Development of USENET |
1982 | Development of SMTP e-mail and Internet Protocol Suite |
1987 | Norwegian distance learning expert Morten Paulsen predicts creation of a āvirtual schoolā |
1989 | Timothy Berners-Lee demonstrates key functionalities of the World Wide Web |
1990s | Many states and regions develop broadband networks for Kā12 instruction and other uses |
1996 | University of Nebraskaās CLASS program, Florida Virtual High School, and the VHS consortium begin offering web-based high school courses during the school year |
1996 | Florida Virtual School launched; many state virtual schools follow |
2000 | Online charter school provider K12 Inc. founded; Connections Academy launched a year later |
2009 | State virtual school programs exist in 27 states, report 320,000 course enrollments |
| Full-time online schools exist in 24 states, enroll about 175,000 students |
2011 | More than a million estimated enrollments in Kā12 online learning |
2013 | State virtual school programs exist in 26 states, report 740,000 course enrollments |
| Full-time online schools exist in 29 states, enroll 310,000 students |
| More than 75% of school districts offer online or blended learning options |
2014 | State virtual schools served 741,516 course enrollments (one student enrolled in one semester-long course) in 26 states in SY 2013ā14. |
| Fully online schools served 316,320 students in 30 states in SY 2013ā14. |
Note. Clark (2012); Watson, Murin, Vashaw, & Gemin (2014)
A wide variety of distance education technologies were used in Kā12 education in the United States from the 1930s through the inception of web-based instruction in 1991. Educational radio broadcasts began in 1921 at the Ohio School of the Air (Saettler, 2004). The Wisconsin School of the Air served 330,000 students in classrooms at its peak in 1996 (Bianchi, 2002). Educational television programming began in 1933 at the University of Iowa (Kurtz, 1959), and a network of educational television stations began to appear in the 1950s, after the Federal Communications Commission (1952) reserved TV channels for this purpose. Educational broadcasts from airplane-based transmitters began in 1961 (Jajkowski, 2004), but were supplanted when educational satellite broadcasts began in 1971 (Singh, Morgan & Rosenbaum, 1972). By 1985 the TI-IN network provided high school courses to 150 receive sites in 12 states (Pease & Tinsley, 1986). In the 1980s and 1990s, many states and regions developed broadband networks for educational video programming and other purposes (Hezel Associates, 1998).
A series of technological breakthroughs set the stage for the emergence of web-based instruction. Networked computers, the Internet, e-mail, the Web, and broadband were all needed before Morten Paulsenās 1987 vision of a āvirtual schoolā became a reality in the 1990s and 2000s. A virtual school is āan educational organization that offers Kā12 courses through Internet- or Web-based methodsā (Clark, 2001, p. 1). Laurel Springs School probably offered the first Kā12 online program in 1991, using text-based distance education for course delivery in the pre-web era (Laurel Springs School, 2011). University of Nebraskaās CLASS program (Smith & Northrup, 1998), Florida Virtual High School (Florida Taxwatch Center, 2007), and the Virtual High School Consortium (Kozma, Zucker, & Espinoza, 1998) all began offering web-based high school courses during the 1996ā1997 school year.
The U.S. Department of Education estimated over 1.8 million enrollments in Kā12 distance education courses in 2009ā2010, many of which were in online courses (Queen & Lewis, 2011). The number of U.S. enrollments, specifically in Kā12 online courses, grew to well over a million by 2010ā2011 (Watson et al., 2011). From 2009 to 2013, the number of state virtual schools offering state-supported supplemental online learning stagnated, while the number of full-time programs grew, but both types of programs experienced robust enrollment growth. By 2013, 26 of the 50 U.S. states had state virtual schools, a decrease of one state since 2009, while 29 states had fully online multidistrict online schools, an increase of five states during the same four-year period. Course enrollments in state virtual schools grew 119% during this period, while student enrollments in fully online multidistrict programs grew 77%.
District-led programs were also growing rapidly in numbers and enrollments. By 2013, researchers estimated that more than 75% of school districts in the United States offered online or blended learning options (Watson, Murin, Vashaw, Gemin & Rapp, 2013). Other program types saw little growth in 2013-2014. Course enrollments in the 26 state-level virtual schools had leveled off at about 742,000, a 1% increase from the prior year. Fulltime online schools served students in one more state than in 2012-2013. Their 316,000 enrollments represented a 2% increase (Watson, Pape, Murin, Vashaw, & Gemin, 2014).
The emergence of Kā12 blended learning has brought online learning into the mainstream. Piccianno and Seaman (2009) defined blended learning as āpart online and part traditional face-to-face instructionā (p. 1). Staker and Horn (2012) defined blended learning as āa formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace, and at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from homeā (p. 3).
Internationally, there has been a similar explosion of Kā12 online and blended learning activity in the last few years. In Canada, the estimated number of online enrollments grew from around 25,000 to 245,000 during the 2000s (Barbour, 2012b). Among 54 countries responding to a 2010 survey, 65% reported that online and blended learning opportunities were available to at least some students (Barbour et al., 2011). In 2011, five years after opening its first online school, China reported about 600,000 enrollments in 200 online schools.
Consideration of the rapidly evolving field led us to ask the following question: What are some key policy and practice needs in the field that might be addressed through advice from experts and program leaders? We believe that the tremendous growth in Kā12 online and blended learning programs in recent years is creating new needs for policy development, infrastructure building, teacher/leader training, and program development in areas such as curriculum, instruction, technology, and management.
As blended learning approaches bring online learning into the Kā12 mainstream, universities need to prepare Kā12 teachers and administrators for the incorporation of online and blended learning into their professional practice. Kā12 educators need to learn new ways of teaching and supporting learning. Policymakers need to address related policy and funding issues. This book is designed to meet these needs through chapters contributed by experienced practitioners and experts in the field on key program components and important policy issues.
While North America has taken the lead in development of Kā12 online learning and the number of students participating is growing, whether this is having a positive educational impact on student achievement is not yet clear (Barbour, 2012a). The United States has fallen behind many other nations in high school student achievement, based upon recent Program for In...