Engaging Online K-12 Students

Abstract

Online learning for K-12 is the fastest growing segment of education. Advantages include access to courses for college and career readiness; world languages; science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), including electives that might otherwise be unavailable to students. However, K-12 students increasingly miss valuable interactions present in face-to-face classes and, as such, engaging students in online courses can be difficult. For this reason, teachers in an online setting must be flexible and creative and find approaches to make the online classroom feel more like a face-to-face classroom. This would include finding ways to decrease the cognitive and emotional distance often associated with not seeing a teacher or fellow students. It also presents the case of school leadership need for exercising caution while implementing school policy to encourage appropriate social media behaviors.