Barbour, M. K. (2008, June). What’s going on at the other end? Presentation at the Illinois Virtual High School Summer Meeting, Springfield, IL.

1. What’s Going On At
The Other End?
Michael K. Barbour
Instructional Technology
Wayne State University

2. Newfoundland and Labrador
• area of the island is 43,359 square
miles, while Labrador covers
112,826 square miles
• population of 508,955 in 2006
(down from 551,795 in 1996)
• 81,458 students in 2006 (down
from 118,273 in 1996)
• 287 schools in 2006 (down from
432 in 1996)
• average school size 220 pupils

3. Pre-Ph.D. Research
• Effects of individual
student learning style and
web-based design on
student performance
• The use of instant
messaging as a tool for
community building
• The role of school-based
or mediating teachers

4. Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation
Synchronous – Online
• 30% to 80%, depending on
subject area
• taught via a virtual classroom
(e.g., Elluminate Live)
Asynchronous – Offline
• remainder of their time
• taught via a course
management system (e.g.,
WebCT)
• usually consists of
independent work from posted
homework or assignments or
from their textbooks

5. Dissertation Study
1. What are the students’ experiences
during their synchronous time online?
2. What are the students’ experiences
during their asynchronous time online?
3. When students require content-based
assistance, where do they seek that
assistance and why do they choose
those sources?

6. Case Study - Beaches All Grade
• K-12 school
• student body of 108
• teaching staff of 15
• 12 students taking 8 different virtual school
courses
– some taking one, others taking two or three

7. Data Collected
• January to June 2006
• 4 monthly interviews
• 15 weeks of journal responses
• 4 different surveys
• 38 in-school classes observed
• 27 synchronous classes from 13
different courses observed
• 13 asynchronous course
management systems observed

8. Trends – Question 1
Synchronous Time
• students tended to stay on task
during this time (although not
always)

9. Trends – Question 1
Synchronous Time
• students tended to rely upon each
other more than the online teacher for
help

10. Trends – Question 1
Synchronous Time
• students
tended to
communicat
e using text
rather than
audio

11. Trends – Question 2
Asynchronous Time
• when the students
decided to work,
they worked well

12. Trends – Question 2
Asynchronous Time
• students decided to
work less than half
of the time

13. Trends – Question 2
Asynchronous Time
• students would
complete work in a
collaborative effort,
particularly in the
mathematics and
sciences

14. Trends – Question 2
Asynchronous Time
• asynchronous
time was easy to
give up for other
school related
activities

15. Trends – Question 3
Turning for Help
• students primarily
relied upon each
other for help

16. Trends – Question 3
Turning for Help
• local class size played an
important role – the
smaller the class the more
likely the students were to
turn to their online teacher
as opposed to a school-
based teacher

17. Trends – Question 3
Turning for Help
• student colleagues, teachers
(both online and school-
based), and general Internet
searches were primarily the
only sources students used
for help, even though they
had access to a textbook,
supplemental material in
WebCT, a live tutor available
in the virtual classroom after
schools and during the
evenings

18. Initial Implications
• Synchronous
instruction is both
what makes the
CDLI different
from other virtual
schools and is
where the majority
of “teaching”
occurs.

19. Initial Implications
• Teachers don’t
“teach”
asynchronous,
they simply assign
independent work,
and as such
students don’t
make good use of
asynchronous
time.

20. Initial Implications
• Many students
don’t know about
all of the resources
available to assist
them and even
when they do know
about them they
tend not to take
advantage of them
– instead preferring
to use human
resources.

21. Your
Questions
and
Comments

22. Assistant Professor, Instructional
Technology
Wayne State University
mkbarbour@gmail.com
http://www.michaelbarbour.com