Online and Hybrid Learning: Insight and the Current Trends
Challenges, Growth, and Regulation from Virtual School Researchers
What's happening around the world with online and hybrid learning?
This was the question asked by researchers Michael Barbour and Paul Bacsich in a presentation at a recent online event hosted by the Digital Learning Collaborative (DLC).
The DLC is a membership group that brings together professionals in the digital learning community and publishes a range of other products such as its reports. It is managed by the Evergreen Education Group founded by John Watson. While its outlook has increasingly become more global it still retains a strong US focus.
In this article I summarise the key points from the presentation and try to weave in some of my own thoughts.
Note - the focus is on school age online learning (not university).
Paul opened with a global overview and insight into where virtual schools are located. In his words '“it’s patchy.”
There is also a global issue when defining terms in online education. Michael made the point that we get terms such as hybrid school, virtual school, cyber school, online school, home school, hyflex (high what?) and the terminology is a difficult issue. This is certainly something for marketers in the sector to think about.
Paul and Michael made the point that a virtual school is where learning is 100% online. Outside of the US and Canada, only a few countries have significant levels of school distance digital learning. However a the criteria for a virtual school still varies and can differ by factors such as the modality of study (full or part time).
The most important countries in their view were the UK and Australia.*
In the UK, the number of virtual schools has grown to around 50, up from just 21 in 2012. Contrary to what some UK media suggest, this increase is not solely a result of the pandemic. Virtual schools have a much longer history, dating back to the 1980s, with their growth driven by a range of complex factors.
* Update: Michael messaged me to say that he would: “put several of the Asian nations at the top, with South Korea being at the very top. Singapore and Hong Kong are close. In the post-COVID world, Saudi Arabia are making leaps and bounds. Australia, New Zealand, and Canada all have a history that dates more than 100 years.”
In the online learning guide I publish, one of the biggest challenges is mapping different criteria. It is a complex ecosystem and whilst I know the numbers are still a way off, there are patterns and commonalities you can take from it.
One is that they are all fee paying. The second is that there is a trend towards providing pupils with “bolt-on” learning or skills which tends to complement a pupil’s existing school studies.
Take: if you are an educational organisation that can offer both, together with the academics, skills, bursaries, and super-curriculars, I think that is compelling.
Moving on he made the point about the EU which operates a strict conformance to the UN Convention on Rights of a Child. This restricts virtual schools to focus only on certain pupils including those who are in hospital, expatriates, or refugees. Take: For online schools I would like to see more impact case studies on how they are supporting pupils who are remote and full-time.
Geographically, rural and island locations still feel virtual schools are “second rate.” Take: Virtual schools have a significant role to play in demonstrating their impact and expanding access to a broader range of socio-economic groups.
The next part looked at the economics and funding. In some countries virtual schools are free. However, outside US, Canada and Australia, virtual schools are not usually state funded and free but private and charge fees. In Sweden and New Zealand fees are zero.
Moving on to their third point, Paul looked at the idea of exporting distance learning to other countries. This has “not occurred at scale.”
Whilst there have been attempts - such as Pearson and its partnership with Harrow School Online, this ended and, as many of you know, the team setup Highgrove Education which is where I find myself now.
Interestingly, UK players such as Kings Interhigh are beginning to look at exporting online schooling to other countries through Paul’s neat definition of a “common currency”. In this case the currency of A levels, IB, pre-GCSEs and other qualifications. I liked his idea that here organisations were also “copying the UK university playbook.”
Moving on from this third point, there was a focus on regulation. The vast majority of national jurisdictions have no or minimal regulations governing school digital learning. This is alarming. This is a contrast to some countries in Asia where there are five year plans for digital learning.
The talk concluded with a final pitch on research.
There is a lack of research on school digital learning. It is ignored in most international agency reports and digital learning colleagues lack guidance and training on being critical of edtech.
Michael summarised by highlighting that we need a new global study on school (or K-12) digital learning which is:
multi country,
multi stakeholder and
multi funded.
Wouldn’t it be great to see a global collaboration like that? Or perhaps it could be an open resource or an AI GPT.
Summary Takeaways
Overall this was a helpful presentation and great to see two academics collaborating to put it together. It should have been a 45 minute slot to allow more time to for discussion. Definitions remain a key issue and if the sector is to develop it needs to consider this and be more creative. Online learning is expanding, and the sector must continue to improve accessibility by increasing transparency and providing case studies and evidence of its impact.
Thank you for taking the time to read this far. You can support my work by subscribing to receive future newsletters.
If you know someone who would find this newsletter valuable please refer them.