As a teacher who works in a uniquely remote community at an online school, I am interested in the complexities of online learning. I work in the Gulf Islands School District, which is a network of ten schools spanning five islands. Specifically, I teach at 64GO, which is the district’s online school, and the school is in the second year of operation. Right now, I am thinking most about policies governing online learning in British Columbia, as well as isolation and engagement in online learning.
Policies Governing Online Learning
I am curious to know the history and policy behind online schools. In British Columbia, there are approximately 70 online learning schools. Policy for the online schools is currently evolving, and as of July 1, 2023, a new online learning policy came into force in British Columbia. The policy is noted to set out roles and responsibilities for Online Learning in the public and independent school systems. There is also an Interim Procedures Guide that provides procedures and guidelines for Provincial Online Learning Schools and District Online Learning Schools in the province. Interestingly, a new framework was also recently developed called the New Accountability and Quality Assurance (AQA) for online learning schools. As noted in the framework, the purpose is to create equity of access and outcomes to high quality K-12 online learning experiences. I am interested to see the change that follows and the support this might bring for students while these policies unfold and are implemented. What impacts with the new AQA framework and review process have on existing online schools?
Isolation and Engagement in Online Learning
As a teacher at an online school, I am interested in what the impacts of isolation are in this remote community, as well as how to increase student engagement. In terms of isolation, many of my students work independently from home do not have a big network of peers. Often, students are geographically isolated in a community with few peers their age. Conversely, some choose isolation due to anxiety and other reasons and do not spend time in their community. While I have seen students who are isolated do very well in terms of meeting their educational goals, I am curious how isolation impacts their learning and well being long term. Looking at data from the latest MDI in 2021-2022, only 22.2% of grade 8 students in the Gulf Islands School District are considered to be thriving, or considered to have high well being. The MDI uses a well-being index that is a score based on a students’ self assessment of five measures including: optimism, self esteem, general health, happiness, and absence of sadness. In the Gulf Islands School District, 51.1% of grade 8 students are considered in the range of low-well being. It is important to note that the researchers stated data from grade 8 students were the lowest overall versus other grades provincially.
Thinking about student engagement, I see varying levels of engagement in 64GO, and this could be tracked by age and course. There is a wide range of engagement. After the first year, we reviewed our levels of student engagement and success based on course completion. As noted in my other blog post, we learned that:
- 58% of students engaged and completed their course or program,
- 14% of students had limited engagement and continued their course or program the following year at 64GO or transferred back to a bricks and mortar school,
- 13% of students engaged and did not complete their course or program; and
- 16% of students registered but never engaged.
I am interested to look further into the levels of engagement and completion by age, course. I could also consider the definition of engagement itself. For example, I keep weekly records of students I have communicated with by phone, text, in person, by video call, and by email. I could consider looking at these records and narrowing down the type of student that engages less than others. The topic of quality versus quantity of engagement is something to think about, as is how I can measure engagement with online learning.
As I learn more and have more experience as a teacher at an online school, I have more questions. I am looking forward to delving into one of these topics further as I develop my focus.
