Literature Base

I have often argued that the literature base on virtual schooling, and for that matter distance education at the K-12 level is weak. The research based for virtual schooling, and again distance education at the K-12 level, is even weaker.

If you look at the literature on virtual schooling, I argue that the literature for virtual schooling is relative new and is primarily being published in doctoral dissertations or by private research centers. Unfortunately the amount of published research evidence in this body of literature is limited, as the vast majority of it is based upon the personal experiences of those involved in the actual practice of virtual schooling. Outside of these quasi-action research attempts, the next largest group of virtual schooling literature is evaluations of specific virtual schooling contexts - most of which are paid research endeavours (not that there is anything wrong with paid research, but it does raise questions about objectivity).

There are some that disagree with me. I even had one individual suggest that if you search for virtual school in Google Scholar you come up with a wide range of entries - all of them part of the literature on virtual schooling. While this is probably true, let's take a look at what Google Scholar turns up.

The first page of listing for "Virtual School".

• The Development of Cooperation: Five Years of Participatory Design in the Virtual School - password protected
• The Virtual School: An integrated collaborative environment for the classroom - descriptive article based upon the author's experience with their own project
• In Search of a Virtual School - a descriptive piece that speculates about the future and the role of virtual schooling in that future
• The Virtual School Library: Gateway to the Information Superhighway - a book that appears to be a collection opinions from those in the field
• Virtual Schools: Trends and Issues, A Study of Virtual Schools in the United States - a descriptive report of the state of virtual schooling in the United States
• Personally tailored teaching in WHURLE using conditional transclusion - password protected
• Using Virtual Environments in Special Education - a quantitative study with 23 participants
• Managing the evolution of a virtual school - a chapter in a book, appears to be the opinions of someone from the field

The first page of listing for "Virtual High School".

• An evaluation of the Virtual High School after one year of operation - an evaluation of the Virtual High School from 1998
• Is Choice Important in Distance Learning? A Study of Student Motives for Taking Internet-Based … - a research study by Margaret Roblyer on both commuity college and virtual high school students
• Fostering Effective Instruction in a Virtual High School: A Netcourse for Teachers - an article reporting on the experiences of a individual from the Virtual High School
• The World's the Limit in the Virtual High School- an article reporting on the experiences of two individuals from the Virtual High School
• The World Wide Web: A Technology to Enhance Teaching and Learning? - password protected
• The Virtual High School: teaching Generation V - book summarizing five years of evaluation of the Virtual High School
• An evaluation of the Virtual High School after two years of operation - an evaluation of the Virtual High School from 1999
• The online course experience: evaluation of the virtual high school’s third year of implementation … - an evaluation of the Virtual High School from 2000
• The Design, Development, and Implementation of LUDA Virtual High School - an article that details the experiences of the creation of a single district-wide virtual high school
• Online Learning in Virtual High School - password protected

So, how much research do we have here? While this is only one example to test my theory, how do you think my argument holds up?

Are these valid statements? Is the literature base on virtual schooling, and for that matter distance education at the K-12 level is weak? Is the research based for virtual schooling, and again distance education at the K-12 level, is even weaker?

Tags: virtual school, cyber school, high school, education