Written by David Uhlhorn

It doesn’t take long for a new teacher in our WELS schools to realize that today’s schools are different from what they remember. Wanting what is best for their children, parents are looking for additional opportunities for their children to excel. To meet this need, schools are offering additional courses and activities, while the amount of time allowed for learning remains the same. Teacher schedules are limiting students’ course selections.

There must be a different way to do this. Creating online courses is a way to help schools provide more course choices to students and meet students’ scheduling needs.

Can online replace traditional face-to-face teaching?
When comparing online delivery to a traditional face-to-face (F2F) course, is it even possible for students to gain the same education? Much research has been done on that subject. Cavanaugh & Jacquemin (2015) listed many of those studies. In one study, Larson and Sung (2009) found that there was no significant difference in students who take F2F versus online versus blended learning. Similarly, McLaren (2004) stated that students taking online business courses scored the same as those that took the same course F2F. Atchley, Wingenbach, & Akers (2013) reported that students in an online math course performed better than a F2F course (0.35 GPA better). In addition, schools and students were not required to purchase textbooks. Finally, more specifically to high school math, Ashby, Sadera, & McNary (2001) said in their report that students taking an online math course were less likely to drop the course, and they performed the same as F2F students.

These reports seem to show that online courses can be effective and produce the same results as F2F courses. However, these online classes are not being created to permanently replace F2F courses, but only to help by offering a different way.

What have Lutheran schools already done?
Area Lutheran High Schools Online (ALHSO) began in 2012 to offer online courses to high school-aged children attending Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) high schools. Each year, the number of students has increased, and more courses have been added. In 2016, ALHSO began offering a few courses to grade schools, and those numbers too have increased. This finding suggests that online opportunities are attractive to WELS schools, and the need is there to offer these types of courses.

How can we do this?
There are many online resources available to supplement and manage the delivery of online courses. ALHSO uses Moodle as the learning management system (LMS) to distribute courses to their students. Moodle is free and can be set up relatively quickly. Another common LMS schools use is Blackboard.

In math, a resource that is already in use in many algebra F2F courses is the Khan Academy website (www.khanacademy.org). The website was created in 2006 to help students master basic concepts so they could free up time to learn more math concepts (Cargile & Harkness, 2015). Other curricula have websites that offer similar help.

Another resource all schools already have is an onsite teacher to assist with the online course. O’Dwyer, Carey, & Kleiman (2007) noted that students not only benefited from an expert online instructor, but also an onsite teacher who could help them stay focused and answer questions.  Finally, many schools are becoming “Google schools” or are using Microsoft’s Office 365, and teachers are using this to distribute course content to their students in a blended classroom. Content is online for students to work on at their convenience, but F2F instruction is also given.

A different way
F2F classes are not going away. Many students just don’t care for the online format. For other students, however, online courses are a different and effective way to learn. Online courses can help schools by offering more content, can help teachers who already have a hundred jobs to do, and can help the students and parents who are looking for more.

David Uhlhorn ’(99, MS Ed ’17) currently serves as an instructor at Manitowoc Lutheran High School. He recently completed a Master of Science in Education with an emphasis in Educational Technology through MLC. This blog is a brief summary of his thesis, “An Online Algebra 1 Course.”

CLICK HERE to read David’s entire thesis.

Resources
Ashby, J., Sadera, W. A., & McNary, S. W. (2011). Comparing Student Success between Developmental Math Courses Offered Online, Blended, and Face-to-Face. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 10(3), 128–140.

Atchley, W., Wingenbach G., & Akers, C. (2013). Comparison of Course Completion and Student Performance through Online and Traditional Courses. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, (4).

Cargile, L., & Harkness, S. (2015). Flip or Flop: Are Math Teachers Using Khan Academy as Envisioned by Sal Khan? TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 59(6), 21–28. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-015-0900-8

Larson, D. K., & Sung, C.-H. (2009). Comparing Student Performance: Online versus Blended versus Face-to-Face. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 13(1), 31–42.

O’Dwyer, L. M., Carey, R., & Kleiman, G. (2007). A Study of the Effectiveness of the Louisiana Algebra I Online Course. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 39(3), 289–306