Author: mvlriorg

A University of Maine doctoral candidate is seeking research participants for a Skype/Zoom/Hangout based study concerning high school teachers’ experiences in both the brick-and-mortar and virtual classrooms. The study is entitled, “A Multiple Case Study of Secondary School Teachers’ Understanding of Learning Relationships in Virtual Schools: Implications for Teacher Identity.” Current virtual high school teachers… Read more

I taught English language arts, reading, and English as a Second language classes in a junior high for almost 10 years. In that time, I became really interested in how teachers decide not just what to teach, but what to teach with. Originally, the “what to teach with” was text. I was that teacher with… Read more

By Cynthia Clark Doctoral Candidate, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Findings from dissertation study, February 22, 2016 In order for deep learning to occur in online secondary science courses, effective methods for inquiry must be developed so that students can engage in authentic scientific experiences and scientific argumentation practices. This blog post pertains to the… Read more

By Dr. Jered Borup Introduction and Background Learning online can be especially challenging for many students because they need to master the content while they simultaneously develop the knowledge and skills required to learn online (Lowes & Lin, 2015). This is especially true for online students who are attempting to recover credit from a class… Read more

As the implementation of blended learning environments grows, educators and decision-makers are increasingly asking what works, or what will work for their students. Blended learning is defined here as the integration of in-person learning and technology. The existing research base on blended learning in K-12 settings is young (Ferdig & Kennedy, 2014). While there exists… Read more

This is Part III in Scout from University of California’s three-part series, Gradebook analysis with R. If you missed Part I or Part II, click here for Part I and here for Part II In Parts I and II we showed how to clean, tidy, explore and plot your gradebook data. Now it’s time to… Read more

This is Part II in Scout from University of California’s three-part series, Gradebook analysis with R. If you missed Part I, read it here. You can also read Part III here. In Part I, we worked through loading, cleaning, tidying and summarizing gradebooks exported from an LMS. While it’s true that approximately 80% of data… Read more

This is Part I in Scout from University of California’s three-part series, Gradebook Analysis with R. You can read Part II here, and Part III here. Gradebooks are rich sources of information. Hidden among the test, quiz and homework scores often lie important insights into the curriculum and student performance. While assessing a curriculum’s overall… Read more

On April 2, 2016, the Highlander Institute and the Christensen Institute showcased the best blended learning implementers from across the nation in Providence, Rhode Island, at the Blended & Personalized Learning Conference. The conference featured national district, building and classroom leaders answering questions in small, intimate fireside chats along with tactical and hands-on workshops showcasing… Read more

Academic research in the field of effective practices specific to blended and online learning in K-12 classrooms is still “young,” so the lack of data to define those practices and build the resources to prepare teachers to excel when teaching in blended and online environments is not surprising. However, as the pedagogy emerges and the… Read more