NACOL Research Committee

Well, it looks like I am running to be one of the co-chairs of the North American Council for Online Learning’s research committee.  For the past two years, this committee has been chaired by Dr. Cathy Cavanaugh at the University of Florida.  In trying to figure out her replacement, as she decided to step down, the committee decided to have two chairs or co-chairs: one from the K-12 environment and one from “other organizations”.  The “other organizations” tag represents higher education, business and industry, and other non-K-12 entities – which would be where I fall.

Over the past couple of years, the research committee has brought forward research briefs on topics like:

• NACOL Access and Equity in Online Classes and Virtual Schools, by Raymond M. Rose with Robert L. Blomeyer, Ph.D. (November 2007) - at least I think this one had its origins in the research committee
• NACOL Professional Development for Virtual Schooling and Online Learning, by Niki Davis and Ray Rose with NACOL Research Committee Working Group (November 2007)
• …and the committee will be releasing another one titled “Online Teacher Support Programs: Mentoring and Coaching Models” at the Virtual School Symposium later this month

For the coming year, in our discussions at the last meeting some of the topics that we discussed as possible things to look into for 2008-09 included (and I am quoting from Dr. Cavanaugh’s meeting summary here):

• Virtual school models that show promise for at-risk students
  • Supplemental virtual school vs at risk or cyber charter students – why are they successful? What are they doing differently? (discussion about choice of terms) What support structures are in place that facilitate at risk students regardless of where they take their online course.) Perhaps case studies – interviews of programs that publicize working with and having success with at risk students. Narrow data collection to those that advertise programs targeting at risk
• Teaching world languages online
  • Perhaps first of a series on different content areas. Investigate different approaches
• Professional development for online teachers
  • Looking at university programs and vendor programs, states with teacher qualifications for online teaching, and states with standards addressing online experiences
• Advanced Placement performance of online and face-to-face students
  • Possibly addressing completion rates, exam take rates, level of student readiness, scores, increased opportunities to take an AP course

For my part, I was asked for a statement that the members of the research committee can use to judge my candidacy against the other individual based upon these five questions:

1. Nominee name
2. Nominee represents K-12 schools or another organization (choose one)
3. Nominee profession, title, place of work
4. Nominee reason for interest in the position of chair
5. Nominee viewpoints about the next year of the committee’s work for NACOL

Here is what I wrote:

Michael Barbour

I am an Assistant Professor in the Instructional Technology program at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.  I primarily teach in our K-12 technology integration program where I focus upon using the Internet as a tool for teachers.  I have been researching virtual schooling in Canada and the United States since the mid-1990s.  I first got involved in virtual schooling as a teacher, course designer, and district-based administrator.  This happened around the same time I was finishing my Master’s degree, and I became interested in not just how online worked at the K-12 level, but why it worked.

As an organization, NACOL has taken a lead role in describing how K-12 online learning works and encouraging various stakeholders and other interested parties to get involved in our community. Through the research committee, we have the opportunity to begin to analyze and explain why K-12 online learning works – something that is needed to accompany the vast amount of practitioner-based literature that is available.  As a researcher in the university environment who has had an interest in and been involved with K-12 online learning for the past decade, as co-chair of the research committee I can assist in continuing to bring this direction to the committee.

Compared to other areas of distance education, K-12 online learning still does not have a strong literature base. Further complicating our understanding of K-12 online learning is that the vast majority of this literature is based upon the experiences and/or opinions of practitioners in the field and not on systematic research. Over the past two years the research committee has taken steps to address this gap, however, there is still more work needed to continue to identify what we know based upon reliable and valid research, and what opportunities exist for the evaluators, researchers, and graduate students who are interested in filling those holes. As such, the research committee must be able to explore these issues with the support of NACOL, regardless of the outcome of such exploration. Specifically, over the next year I would envision the research committee taking steps to synthesis the existing body of research on K-12 online learning, and to identify areas where research is needed to help grow the field.

Donna Scribner, who has been serving as Dr. Cavanaugh’s vice-chair for the past year, was acclaimed as the K-12 co-chair. I’ll let you all know how the election for the “other organization” co-chair turns out.