Barbour, M. K. (2012, April). Primary and secondary e-learning: Examining the process of achieving maturity. An invited paper presented at the annual general meeting of the Virtual Learning Network-Community, Wellington, New Zealand.

1. Primary and Secondary
e-Learning: Examining the
Process of Achieving Maturity
Michael Barbour, Wayne State University

3. Research Purpose
To capture, in a range of ways, information that
will contribute to the knowledge base about the
development of virtual schooling in New
Zealand, in particular, how the Learning
Communities Online Handbook is being used
to assist and inform this development.

4. Research Questions
1.(a) What common barriers do e-learning
clusters face in their development towards
maturity and sustainability?
2.(b) How have mature and sustainable clusters
overcome those barriers?
2.What are some examples of how networked
schools are emerging in the New Zealand
context?

5. Research Questions
1.(a) What common barriers do e-learning
clusters face in their development towards
maturity and sustainability?
2.(b) How have mature and sustainable clusters
overcome those barriers?
2.What are some examples of how networked
schools are emerging in the New Zealand
context?

6. Research Visits
• 9 current or emerging clusters
• 3 VLN-related projects
• 13 schools
• 1 health school
• Te Kura
• 9 tertiary institutions

7. Research Visits

8. Data Collected
• Interviews
– 10 current & former ePrincipals
– 8 Principals & Deputy Principals
– 12 eTeachers, eDeans & Facilitators
– 18 Students
• Observations
– 12 video conferencing session
– 10 asynchronous work locations
• Document Analysis
– reports, courses, data, school newsletter, cluster info, etc.

9. Learning Communities Online Handbook, 2011

10. Common Obstacles
• Lack of vision
• Funding, resources
and the role of the
ePrincipal
• Lack of inter-cluster
and intra-cluster co-
operation

11. Lack of Vision
• process of creating a vision
for an e-learning initiative is
critical and was clearly
evident in this data
• clusters with greatest
support were those able to
articulate a vision that went
beyond the provision of
distance education courses
& opportunities that the
tools could provide
• sustainable vs. mature

12. Funding, Resources & Role of the ePrincipal
• Resources
• leadership
• teachers (both to teach
the courses and to support
students at the local level)
• professional development
• asynchronous (e.g., LMS) &
synchronous (e.g.,
videoconferencing, bridge
& etc.) tools

13. Funding, Resources & Role of the ePrincipal
• Funding
• participating schools
– put in a teacher, get access to
enrolments
– contribute money or % of a
teacher for cluster leadership
• no formal mechanism for
heavy users
• challenges with funding
when original national
programme ends

14. Funding, Resources & Role of the ePrincipal
• Role of the ePrincipal
• little consistency in job
description
• principal of an online
school
• need/case for Ministry
support
– largest clusters have 300-400
enrolments (80-100 FTEs)
– some clusters have 5-10 FTEs

15. Lack of Inter- & Intra-Cluster Co-operation
Art History 5 Clusters + Te Kura
Level 3 Calculus 5 Clusters
Level 2 Physics 4 Clusters
Level 3 Physics 4 Clusters
Level 3 Spanish 4 Clusters
30 courses 2+ Clusters

16. Lack of Inter- & Intra-Cluster Co-operation
• Do the eTeachers of these
same courses communicate
with each other?
• Have each of the eTeachers
designed their own
asynchronous course
content that is housed in
the learning management
system?
• Do each of the eTeachers of
common courses have
access to each other’s
course materials?

17. Lack of Inter- & Intra-Cluster Co-operation
• Do the five level three calculus • Is it possible for a student to register
eTeachers interact with the level three for level one mathematics with SILC
mathematics eTeacher or the four this year and become comfortable with
level three statistics and modeling the way in which their teacher uses
eTeachers? their video conferencing classes and
with the resources and material
• Do these ten level three maths provided in their LMS only to have to
eTeachers interact with the two become familiar with a completely
eTeachers responsible for level two different method of synchronous
mathematics and/or the one eTeacher instruction and asynchronous material
responsible for level one mathematics? and resources that appear completely
foreign to them next year when that
student enrolls in level two
• Outside of the senior secondary level, mathematics offered by OtagoNet?
have the two Year 7-8 Te Reo Maori
eTeachers ever interacted with the
two level one Te Reo Maori eTeachers
or the single level three Te Reo
eTeacher?

18. Moving Forward
• E-Learning Clusters
– coordinate activities between
clusters
– examine the role of VLN
leadership & whether there is
geographic or like-minded
rationalisation that can occur
• Ministry of Education
• continue services
• create content repository
• fund regional leadership

19. Future Research
• a national survey of
distance education
activity & processes
– # of students
– # of teachers
– # of courses
– which courses
– resource model
– technologies/software
• include VLN clusters,
Loops, Te Kura, health
schools, tertiary groups

20. Your
Questions
And
Comments