Online & Virtual Learning

BENEFITS

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• Any time, any place, any pace: Students can learn when they’re most alert and fit school around family, work or health needs. Michigan Virtual found this flexibility can help with logistics, social interactions and academic outcomes, partly by increasing engagement.michiganvirtual

 

• Self-pacing: Students who had taken virtual courses named scheduling flexibility, control over their own learning and working at their own pace as the top benefits. edtechmagazine

 

• Lessons stay available: Students can go back to recorded lessons and materials whenever they need them. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

 

• More courses: Students in rural or underserved areas can take AP, electives, world languages and credit recovery courses their schools don’t offer. cdn2.hubspot

 

• Students who can’t attend in person: It helps students who travel, have physical disabilities or have health problems.cdn2.hubspot

 

• Students with learning differences: Reported benefits include more independence, flexible schedules, less sensory overload, better self-esteem and less stigma.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

 

• Adult learners: It widens access for people balancing jobs and families.ajet.org

 

• The U.S. Department of Education meta-analysis found online students did modestly better than face-to-face students on average. The advantage was significant mainly for blended learning, not fully online courses.journals.sagepub

 

• A meta-analysis of 2020–2023 studies found a modest positive effect (g = 0.34). The effect was stronger in medicine, engineering and the sciences and negative in social sciences.tandfonline

 

• Blended learning beat fully online learning in a recent meta-analysis, with effect sizes around 0.6.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

 

 

 

HOW TO

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Design the Course

• Match each lesson’s objectives, assessments, materials, activities, and tools to one another. This alignment sits at the center of the Quality Matters K–12 Rubric and the National Standards for Quality Online Courses. qualitymatters

 

• Write objectives students can measure, and say plainly what they’ll be able to do.nsqol

 

• Include a course overview that shows students how to get started and where to find everything. qualitymatters

 

• Build every unit the same way, with about the same number of lessons, so students know what to expect.michiganvirtual

 

• Give students one central place for assignments and announcements, and keep communication simple.edutopia

 

Establish Teaching Presence

• Plan for teaching presence, which the Community of Inquiry framework defines as three things: design and organization, guiding discussion, and direct instruction.online.suny

 

• Send welcome messages, regular announcements, and feedback that you start yourself. In K–12 online courses, these teacher-initiated messages are linked to better outcomes and higher satisfaction. michiganvirtual

 

• Respond quickly. Award-winning online instructors were rated highest for prompt answers and timely feedback.ies.ed

 

• Give meaningful feedback at least once a week, and return graded work within a week.teaching.resources.osu

 

• Spend your time on teaching rather than administrative tasks. Teaching-focused behavior predicted higher student satisfaction, and administrative behavior predicted lower satisfaction.michiganvirtual

 

• Set up small-group work, show students how to respond to one another, and use peer feedback.ies.ed

 

• Draw on what students already know and have experienced.ies.ed

 

• Choose project-based work over memorization. Low-level recall tasks hurt outcomes in Michigan Virtual courses, and projects helped. michiganvirtual

 

• Encourage discussion, and help students think about who will read their work.michiganvirtual

 

• Use breakout rooms for jigsaws, think-pair-share, and gallery walks.

 

Design Media for How Students Learn

• Pair words with relevant images instead of using words alone.

 

• Remove anything extra, such as decorative graphics or background music.

 

• Highlight the most important ideas with arrows, bold text, or emphasis in your voice.

 

• Narrate graphics instead of putting the same text on screen.

 

• Split lessons into short sections students can move through at their own pace.

 

• Introduce key terms before the main lesson.

 

• Use a friendly, conversational tone and a real human voice.

 

• Present content in more than one way, including text, audio, video, and simulations.udlguidelines.cast

 

• Let students show learning in different ways, such as writing, video, audio, or visuals.udlguidelines.cast

 

• Give students choices and connect work to their interests and lives.udlguidelines.cast

 

• Caption videos, provide transcripts, and let students adjust text size and contrast.teaching.uic

 

• Make sure the course is accessible and easy to use, and link to technical and academic support.qualitymatters

 

Monitor Pacing and Progress

• Provide pacing guides and encourage students to follow them. Students who moved steadily through the course did best.michiganvirtual

 

• Step in early when students fall behind. Students who make little progress early rarely catch up and often withdraw.michiganvirtual

 

• Use data from your learning platform and other tools to see who needs support.ies.ed

 

• Arrange an on-site mentor who can give online students real-time support.michiganvirtual

 

Assess 

• Make sure assessments measure the stated objectives, and share clear grading criteria.qualitymatters

 

• Use auto-graded quizzes for focused practice, but don’t lean on them. Teacher-graded work makes up most of the course points.michiganvirtual

 

• When students are behind, steer their effort toward teacher-graded assignments. michiganvirtual

 

• Give feedback students can act on.udlguidelines.cast

 

Teach Digital Citizenship

• Teach students to use technology safely, ethically, and responsibly, and model it yourself. This is its own standard for online teachers.nsqol

 

• Keep growing as an online teacher and act professionally online.nsqol

 

 

 

ADDITIONAL TEACHING HINTS

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• Give students one central place to find assignments and announcements each day.

 

• Keep the communication plan as simple as possible.

 

• Post a digital agenda for each unit with the lesson outline, links, the reason for each activity, and homework.

 

• Teach and practice routines the same way you would in person: model them, remind students, and give them practice.

 

• Hold “learn your technology” days to practice things like submitting work and joining live lessons.

 

• Set a procedure for each virtual feature, such as when to use chat and when to stay muted.

 

• Write short, clear directions with numbered lists and subheadings instead of large blocks of text.

 

• Cut visual clutter, and break long lectures into short videos that each cover one key idea.

 

• Use a mix of media, including video, images, audio, simulations, and games.

 

• Organize videos into playlists by unit or topic.

 

• Make lessons interactive with live polls, chat responses, and quick understanding checks.

 

• Use breakout rooms for turn-and-talk, jigsaws, think-pair-share, and gallery walks.

 

• Give assignments that require students to work together.

 

• Have students respond to each other’s thinking in chat and share their screens to show their work.

 

• Alternate demanding activities with lighter ones, and build in regular brain breaks.

 

• Start each class with a greeting, and let students see your face.

 

• Open live sessions with a connection activity such as a stretch, music, or a storytelling check-in.

 

• Keep your tone conversational and let your personality come through.

 

• Contact families at least once a week.

 

• In hybrid classes, build one shared culture so in-person and remote students don’t split into “us and them”.

 

• Let students go back to materials and recorded lessons at any time.

 

• Use a mix of live and self-paced work, and save live meetings for discussion and interaction.

 

• Give students more than one way to show what they understand.

 

• Give students checklists for independent work that lay out the steps and milestones.

 

• Answer emails quickly and return feedback promptly, since that’s how students know you’re there.

 

• Use frequent short formative checks during lessons.

 

• Use auto-graded tools like Google Forms or Quizlet for instant feedback, and use rubrics for work you grade in depth.edutopia

 

 

 

 

CHALLENGES

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• Many students lack devices or reliable internet. That gap, often called the digital divide, is still a major problem for K–12 virtual education. files.eric.ed

 

• Black and Hispanic/Latinx households had less reliable internet and devices, and their children spent fewer hours on remote learning.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

 

• Asking simply whether a student has broadband or a laptop misses unreliable connections and shared devices.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

 

• Research has repeatedly found high dropout rates and low performance among K–12 online students.digitalcommons.sacredheart

 

• Stanford’s CREDO study found that students in full-time virtual charter schools made learning gains “significantly worse” than students in traditional charter and public schools. nepc.colorado

 

• Learning losses from remote learning didn’t simply fade once in-person classes resumed. In one study the gap grew over time. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

 

• Students in foundational math courses, and students taking courses for credit recovery, were more likely to fall behind. michiganvirtual

 

• Online learning demands time management and self-discipline, which many K–12 students find hard.files.eric.ed

 

• Weak self-regulation is a significant reason students drop out of online courses.files.eric.ed

 

• Flexibility can work against students. Those who studied “anytime, anyplace” most often had the lowest pass rates.michiganvirtual

 

• Students who make little progress early rarely recover and often withdraw. michiganvirtual

 

• A sense of isolation is one of the most consistent problems in distance learning. It’s linked to dropping out, lower achievement, and dissatisfaction.irrodl

 

• A review of 51 studies of pandemic remote learning found three main groups of challenges: readiness to use the technology, adjusting to learning online, and physical and mental health.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

 

• Online learning environments have been associated with more anxiety, depression, and psychological distress among students. frontiersin

 

• The GAO found that special education services, especially occupational, physical, and speech therapy, were particularly hard to deliver remotely.gao

 

• Many students with disabilities need more structure and more direct contact with teachers and peers than online schedules provide.files.eric.ed

 

• Most teacher preparation programs didn’t train teachers to teach online.research-repository.griffith.edu

 

• Adapting materials takes a lot of time, and teachers need technical and administrative support. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

 

• Elementary teachers find it especially hard to help young students learn to use the technology. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

 

• Classroom and behavior management is harder online, particularly with younger students.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

 

• Teachers reported weak student engagement and attendance, feeling disconnected from students and colleagues, and blurred lines between work and home. cde.state.co

 

• Teachers face screen fatigue and the pressure to be constantly available to students and parents.tandfonline

 

• Emergency remote teaching lowered teacher well-being and motivation. Teachers in low-income and public schools were among the hardest hit. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

 

 

 

 

WHAT NOT TO DO

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• Don’t move face-to-face lessons online unchanged. Recording the same lecture you’d give in class “isn’t an effective method in either setting”. online.uark

 

• Don’t recreate a full school day on video calls. It can shut out students without broadband or cameras, students with learning disabilities, and English learners. IDRA

 

• Don’t misjudge how much students can handle. Overestimating their capacity is a common first mistake, and online workloads should fit what a regular class period would hold.online.uark

 

• Don’t change the course structure from unit to unit. A predictable structure helps students keep pace. michiganvirtual

 

• Don’t let objectives, assessments, and activities drift apart. Alignment is central to quality standards. Quality Matters

 

• Don’t scatter work across too many platforms. Juggling several systems complicates organization for teachers and students. PMC

 

• Don’t put up walls of text or cluttered screens. edutopia

 

• Don’t add decorative images, background music, or interesting but irrelevant details. Extra material hurts learning. onlinelibrary.wiley

 

• Don’t narrate over slides that show the same words on screen. Redundant text overloads learners. onlinelibrary.wiley

 

• Don’t post long, continuous lectures. Break them into short segments students can move through at their own pace.onlinelibrary.wiley

 

• Don’t depend on low-level recall tasks. In Michigan Virtual courses, memorization activities hurt outcomes and project-based work helped. michiganvirtual

 

• Don’t post content and then disappear. Welcome messages, announcements, and feedback that you start yourself are linked to better outcomes. michiganvirtual

 

• Don’t let feedback pile up. Aim for meaningful feedback at least weekly and graded work returned within a week. Ohio State University

 

• Don’t let administrative tasks crowd out teaching. Administrative behavior predicted lower student satisfaction. michiganvirtual

 

• Don’t flood students with long emails or too much information at once.snhu

 

• Don’t assume that requiring communication will raise satisfaction across the board. michiganvirtual

 

• Don’t lecture for long stretches without any interaction. notion4teachers

 

• Don’t require cameras on. University teaching centers advise against blanket camera requirements because of privacy, bandwidth, and equity concerns.

 

• Don’t hold live meetings that aren’t needed. Save them for discussion and interaction. edutopia

 

• Don’t ignore platform security settings, or show up without a plan for when someone gets disconnected. thatisevil

 

• Don’t wait to step in. Students who make little early progress rarely catch up and often withdraw. michiganvirtual

• Don’t let students save all their work for the end of the course. Cramming and doing assignments out of order are linked to poor performance. michiganvirtual

• Don’t assume families can act as teachers at home.  Wiley