Graduate Student Discovery Session: Exploring Flexibility at a Full-Time, K-12 Virtual School
Concurrent Session 3
Brief Abstract
This study departs from past literature that characterizes flexibility as a universally positive or negative experience of online learners, to understand flexibility as a relative, individual process (Houlden & Velestianos, 2019). This qualitative case study explores how 15 full-time virtual students (11th and 12th graders) perceive and experience flexibility (of time, pace, place, and pedagogy) when learning online at a K-12 virtual school.
Extended Abstract
Abstract
Most proponents of flexibility, and critics alike, have little more than anecdotal evidence to support their claims about the benefits or drawbacks of flexibility (Houlden & Velestianos, 2019; Velestianos & Houlden, 2019). Nevertheless, past literature positions flexibility as an irreplaceable component of online learning (Almutari & Abraithen, 2018; Naveed et al., 2020). This study will depart from past literature that characterizes flexibility as a universal experience of online learners to explore flexibility as a relative, individual process (Houlden & Velestianos, 2019). This exploratory, qualitative case study investigates how virtual high school students (specifically 11th and 12th graders) at Alabama Connections Academy (ALCA) perceive and experience flexibility (of time, pace, place, and pedagogy) when learning online. Approximately 15 returning virtual students were selected as participants for this study. Student participants were asked to answer open-ended journal questions about their online learning experience for 5 days, and then participate in a 1:1 zoom interview about their perception of flexible learning policies and their online learning experience. By exploring ALCA students’ perceptions of and experiences with flexible online learning, scholars, and practitioners may better understand how students experience flexibility in a 100% virtual learning environment. This qualitative study is still in progress (as of September 2022) but so far, the data shows a range in the virtual student experience and a possible dichotomy between perceived and experienced flexibility. By learning more about the virtual student experience, including what students value and/or wish to change about current flexible learning policies, educators can craft policies to build more equitable online learning environments, making flexibility more beneficial for, and potentially more accessible to, all virtual students.