Virtual Reality Job Interview Training (VR-JIT) and Virtual Interview Training for Transition Age Youth (VIT-TAY) demonstrated initial effectiveness at increasing employment among transition-age youth with disabilities engaged in pre-employment transition services. We characterized activities and estimated the labor and non-labor costs required to…

In data collected from virtual learning environments (VLEs), item response theory (IRT) models can be used to guide the ongoing measurement of student ability. However, such applications of IRT rely on unbiased item parameter estimates associated with test items in the VLE. Without formal piloting of the items, one can expect a large amount of…

A common rationale for offering online courses in K-12 schools is that they allow students to take courses not offered at their schools; however, there has been little research on how online courses are used to expand curricular options when operating at scale. We assess the extent to which students and schools use online courses for this purpose…

This essay attends to how digital technology is shaping Christian religious education and its efforts of evangelization. It proposes that, while the use of digital technology has promise, an unreflective integration of digital technology can hinder Christian religious education's efforts of evangelization. This concern requires attention,…

We describe a long-standing weeklong K-12 STEM teacher workshop that shifted to a virtual platform in 2020. We re-engaged former participants during this STEM Institute with goals of (1) modeling ways to connect best practices for STEM education gained in previous workshops to a virtual environment, (2) providing space for teacher reflection on…

This article uses fixed effects models to estimate differences in contemporaneous and downstream academic outcomes for students who take courses virtually and face-to-face--both for initial attempts and for credit recovery. We find that while contemporaneous outcomes are positive for virtual students in both settings, downstream outcomes vary by…

In this paper, we discuss some concerns and recommendations of Saultz and Fusarelli (2017), offering nuanced and detailed views of online schooling from a different perspective. This includes addressing challenges regarding online learning such as fluctuating enrollments, financial concerns, quality assurance, and accountability. In addition, we…

Everything's going wrong in the classroom; the teacher's frustration level is so high that she's ready to walk out and try her hand at any other profession besides teaching. Just as things reach a peak, in steps the coach, who says, "Pause classroom!" To the teacher experiencing this scenario, it certainly seemed real. The classroom is,…

Functional analysis (FA) is an assessment procedure involving the systematic manipulation of an individual's environment to determine why a target behavior is occurring. An analog FA provides practitioners the opportunity to manipulate variables in a controlled environment and formulate a hypothesis for the function of a behavior. In previous…

This experimental study was intended to examine whether game-based learning (GBL) that encompasses four particular game characteristics (challenges, a storyline, immediate rewards and the integration of game-play with learning content) in an OpenSimulator-supported virtual reality learning environment can improve perceived motivational quality of…

"We used to send out books that looked like this," says Barbara Dreyer, as she holds the 500-page volume from one of the first-ever courses offered online by Connections Academy. "You could look at this information online, but, frankly, a lot of people were doing this," she adds, thumbing through the book's pages. Dreyer, has…

This case study used qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate challenges of learning and teaching research methods by examining graduate students' use of collaborative technology (i.e., digital tools that enable collaboration and information seeking such as software and social media) and students' computer self-efficacy. We conducted…

In 2010, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) reevaluated the status of Public Law 93-112, Sec 504, which protects against discrimination solely based on someone's disability. Recommendations and findings were reported to school districts around the country in a document called the Dear Colleague Letter of 2013. The GAO…

Researchers used case study methods to investigate a virtual learning lab (VLL) in a rural school district that was created in 2011 as a way to better meet the unique needs of exceptional students who are considered gifted. Data were collected through focus groups, classroom observations, interviews, and reviewing relevant documents. Topics…

Students are doing less hand-raising and more clicking as online classes become increasingly popular in K12 instruction, both in combination with brick-and-mortar classrooms and in independent full-time virtual schools. With online instruction comes a change in the nature of teaching, communicating with, and assessing students. As schools move to…