September 2005 — Features

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Building a Virtual High School...click by click

By Sue Podoll and Darcy Randle

Time management. As with any educational setting, more than a third of the teachers noted time management as a concern. Two of the academy instructors have part-time contracts with the school district, while the remaining are adjunct faculty holding full-time teaching positions in addition to their online teaching loads. Currently, teachers in the online academy are contracted for an hourly wage based on seven hours each week for a 12-week period. This becomes a problem when you consider that the teacher is not always the one who developed the online course; thus, more time is spent working with students to complete the course. In addition, by their very nature, some types of assignments require more time to assess and evaluate.

Ensuring a Successful Online Experience

When teachers were asked to address which factors determined a student’s success as an online learner, all agreed self-motivation, self-discipline,and time management were most critical. This was supported by Andrew Zucker et al. (Virtual High School: Teaching Generation V, Teachers College Press, 2004) when they interviewed students who attended online courses offered in the Northeast and South in 1998- 1999. Instructors can encourage the students to work to make the online experience successful; however, they cannot do the work for them. Procrastination will not lead to a positive result in the virtual classroom, nor will a student’s unwillingness to communicate questions and comments to the instructor. Due to the lack of an actual physical presence in a classroom, it is imperative for students to actively engage in communication with other students and the instructor (William Thomas, Essential Principles of High-Quality Online Teaching: Guidelines for Evaluating K-12 Online Teachers, Southern Regional Education Board, 2003, www.sreb.org/programs/Ed-Tech/pubs/PDF/Essential_Principles.pdf.

Because online learning is not a traditional educational setting, students and instructors need to think outside of the box. Both must employ problem-solving strategies and flexibility when faced with new situations and difficulties. As a result, online learning provides students with the opportunity to take ownership and direct their own learning. Such skills are necessary in the world of education, and are essential to creating lifelong learners (Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam, “Assessment for Learning: Beyond the Black Box”pamphlet,University of Cambridge School of Education, 1999,

arg.educ.cam.ac.uk/AssessInsides.pdf). Furthermore, the use of computers and online learning empowers students to become active learners through the use of inquiry-based learning (National Association of State Boards of Education, Any Time, Any Place, Any Path, Any Pace: Taking the Lead on eLearning Policy, 2001, nasbe.org/e_Learning.html).

Teachers and students who participated in the first year of the Rapid City Academy Online program have found the overall experience positive despite the occasional technology snags. Although the instructors enjoyed the challenge of creating a successful learning experience for their students, most preferred to teach courses they developed themselves.