Amanda Wine

There are three distinct themes that arise in looking at online teachers and how satisfied they are with their job:  flexibility, communication, and support (Borup & Stevens, 2016).  In any aspect of education, there are grumbles among teachers of little things that are frustrating.  In traditional settings, those grumbles, as well as teacher needs and support, are readily discussed and corrected.  There is a ready-made group of individuals who can help in any aspect of your teaching.  There are more issues in getting support with online courses.  You can't necessarily walk down the hall to talk to a colleague.  Getting the support you need is more of a challenge.  Having a supportive administration is key to success, whether you are in traditional or online classes.  I was surprised that teacher satisfaction increased with more professional development (PD) opportunities because most PD I have attended has not been helpful in working wit...

The K-12 online learners need more support due to their ages, so they need different strategies than higher education students.  The goal is for students to learn.  Knowing what pitfalls they are likely to experience enables a teacher to plan for them in advance and already be working to minimize any issues.  Student needs continue to be very different in online courses, just as they are in classrooms, but addressing those needs takes more creativity.  Students get much more individualized instruction in online classes, and more active student-teacher involvement (Davis & Niederhauser 2007).  Teachers can provide activities to match each student's needs, whether it is remediation or extension activities.  Getting students to do their work is more of a challenge because they can just turn off their computer and ignore their classwork, instead of having a person walk over to them several times per class to provide encouragement or assistance (Borup, G...

K-12 Online Learning What did I learn?      Online courses provide opportunities for many students to take classes in a different environment that better suits individual needs.  Students needs are as different as students.  They are gifted, struggling learners, athletes, medically fragile, and average kids looking for something different in their education ("What does a typical online student look like" video).  Students are able to work at their own pace, but still have hard deadlines to meet rigorous course curriculum.  They can choose  classes that are not available at their school, and flexibility to work at the speed that best meets their needs.  Students need to understand that online courses require more work, not less, than what you get in a classroom.  There is more accountability and responsibility placed on the student to keep up with the course work, ask questions, and be motivated to complete the course.  Students ...