Narratives from the Online Frontier: A K-12 Student’s Experience in an Online Learning Environment

Abstract

Despite a large increase in the number of students enrolled in online courses, published research on student experiences in these environments is minimal. This article reports the narrative analysis of a series of interviews conducted with a female student at a brick-and-mortar school enrolled in a single virtual school course. Her narratives describe a student who often struggled with the content in her online course and was reluctant to interact with her online teacher. When she interacted with people online, it was using text, because she was shy and the hardware often did not work. Darlene’s experiences, likely typical of many K-12 online students, highlight a system in need of better strategies for the design and delivery of its educational opportunities.

A Systematic Review of Studies Exploring Help-Seeking Strategies in Online Learning Environments

“…Instructors should frame help-seeking mechanisms based on learners' diverse temperaments and the majority of opportunities brought by technological developments . Instructors can take a more active role in their students' help-seeking efforts by managing educational technologies to alleviate technological difficulties students may incur (Barbour et al, 2012;Mundia et al, 2016). Further exploration into how instructors can integrate activities that promote digital literacy within their courses as an instrumental activity is needed.…”

IT Blueprint for an Effective Online Learning System with a Blended Approach for Upper Secondary Education System During COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Underneath the materials being given, the educator must also be properly prepared to teach in a blended learning system [5], [6], [12]. At the moment, developing country like Indonesia is suffering due to a lack of trained educators [13].…”

“…At the moment, developing country like Indonesia is suffering due to a lack of trained educators [13]. Without proper training and numbers, it will also affect the way blended learning is conducted and may prove more detrimental than beneficial for the student's studies [5].…”

“…As mentioned by author [5], regardless of student performance if teachers are unreachable or content is unavailable then the students will have problems with their studies should they need these resources. Resource support deals with issues mentioned before, where the educator must ensure that there are teachers or tutors that can be contacted online easily as well as ensuring that additional materials are available to the student.…”

“…By applying some active learning strategies, it will encourage students to participate actively during their online study time [4]. However, regardless of the student's active participation, if the teachers are hard to reach and the course is poorly designed, then it will still be a detriment to the student's education [5]. As such, a complete support system will be needed for the students on top of a well-designed online and offline environment to ensure that students are successful in their studies.…”