Abstract

Despite the recent explosion in the numbers of school students choosing to take virtual courses, dropout rates are usually reported to be higher than in face-to-face courses. To help address this problem, the North Central Educational Regional Laboratory (NCREL) commissioned the development and evaluation of an Online Student Support Site (OSSS) for virtual school students. This online diagnostic and instructional product was based on previous research to identify qualities and skills students need in order to be successful virtual learners. OSSS uses the Educational Success PRediction Instrument (ESPRI) to identify school students who would be at-risk of failure in virtual courses, and provides units of interactive, online instruction matched to capabilities that ESPRI indicates they lack. This paper: (1) summarizes research on identification of and assistance for at-risk virtual students, and (2) describes systematic design procedures used to create and formatively evaluate the site.

Citation

Roblyer, M.D., Blomeyer, R. & Rankins-Reed, R. (2006). Systematically Designed Online Support for Virtual School Students: A Theory Into Practice Product. In C. Crawford, R. Carlsen, K. McFerrin, J. Price, R. Weber & D. Willis (Eds.), Proceedings of SITE 2006--Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 521-527). Orlando, Florida, USA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved August 11, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/22091/.

Keywords

• Evaluation
• Instructional Design
• Schools
• Students