UK Online Schools Impact Survey Launching
Major UK Paper Will Look at Innovation in Education and Evaluate the Impact of Virtual Schooling Models on Traditional Education at Primary and Secondary School Levels
Those of you who follow me on LinkedIn may have seen that we recently launched an online schools impact survey which forms part of our UK research paper titled: Innovation in education: Evaluating the Growing Impact of Virtual Schooling Models on Traditional Education in Primary and Secondary Education. The study will be featured in Education Sciences MDPI journal which is headed by Prof. Dr. Paul Bacsich, Prof. Dr. Sara de Freitas and Dr. Bieke G. M. Schreurs.
According to the special issue information: “Virtual schools have existed in many countries for at least the last 20 years and were early adopters of digital technology. However, apart from in the US, they have remained ‘below the radar’, largely ignored by mainstream researchers and policy makers. Nevertheless, their numbers have been steadily growing and, in the last few years, the subsector has begun attracting interest from investors.” One of the many objectives of the work to create the UK paper is to therefore form a better understanding of the online school sector.
For the purpose of the survey and this piece, ‘online school’ refers to an educational institution that delivers a structured curriculum for primary and secondary levels within UK education. These schools employ teaching staff and maintain regular student-teacher interactions, facilitating learning through digital technologies. Pupils are on-roll and attend classes, view recorded classes and complete lessons remotely, from any location with internet access.
As many of you may know, I have been following the space for some while (although not nearly as long as Paul) and have attempted to tabulate the sector here with the Online Learning Guide. Back in October 2023 I also wrote about the news that submissions for case studies on virtual schools were being welcomed.
The last major public study on this area was for the EU Virtual School and College Education for Teenagers and Young Adults (VISCED) in 2011-12. Smaller private studies have been undertaken in the period 2012-20 but nothing major since. If you are involved in UK edtech and digital learning, I would welcome the survey being shared to help us create a more detailed understanding of the space.
UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man online school impact survey - Information
You can access the survey link to complete here and we are collecting responses from UK online schools. The deadline is 30th September and we can provide the survey in an alternative format if that's easier for you. The authors are Charlotte Doody, Independent Researcher, myself and Dr Bieke Schreurs, University of Amsterdam.
For more information on the Education Sciences MDPI Special Issue can be found here.
