Running Head ARTICLE REVIEW

Article Review
Ryan Sean McKinney
Regent University

ARTICLE REVIEW
Article Review

Distance Learnings Effectiveness in K12

In the article by Jerilyn D. Harris-Packer and Genevive Sgol, they take an in depth and
factual look at the way online learning is getting the job done. They examine it from many angles
and look at a large range of students from a number of schools. They evaluated ten schools from
across the country and analyzed the data for both math and English to determine whether or not
it was an effective strategy to use online educational programs or if it hurt student performance.
While there are many ways I can go in this short post, I will focus on the tables provided
on pages 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14. The results for these ten schools were varied, but there are some
patterns to be seen. The first is that math almost always performed worse than reading when
taught online. In seated school, the two went back and forth, but math nearly always beat out
English for the bottom when it came to poor performance. Another pattern that can be seen is the
lack of bell curve. Nearly all the schools are heavy on one end or the other, be it pass or fail.
Those that were poor performers stayed poor performers online, and vice versa. However, in the
case of the bell school, South Carolina, all values dropped off the map except the middle ones.
They neither improved nor worsened, they simply grew increasingly mediocre. Thus, the data
seems to suggest that online school doesnt make students perform better or worse, it just
exaggerates the skew that already exists.
Libraries in Online Elementary Schools: A Mixed-Methods Study
This article, rather than take the whole of online school performance, focuses on one
aspect of the system. This aspect is that of the library. As every good student knows, you wont
get much of anywhere without a book. The article discusses the issue at length, but it mostly

ARTICLE REVIEW
boils down to the fact that online schools face a disconnect. Especially in the case of the lower
income schools, the libraries suffered. In the words of Hibbard, many teachers [have] little
knowledge on how the libraries (both the physical book library as well as Follett Shelf) [work]
and [have] no model of how to integrate these resources into their curriculum (86). So, rather
than rely entirely on either the physical or digital libraries, they needed something in the middle.
It wasnt from a lack of appreciation that the people didnt make use of the libraries, it was a lack
of understanding. So after studying the online schools, they found the key to success: librarians.
If no one was going make the work worthwhile for the kids, then what was the point? To solve
that problem, they used the librarians as the go between for students and books.
Capacity Building of Teachers Through Distance Mode Using Teleconferencing as an
Innovative Tool
This article deals with something I have hands on experience with. When in high school,
I got half my classes from teleconferenced instructors at our sister school. This article discusses
the effective nature of this method of class sharing. Upon testing the method, teachers agreed
with a wide margin that teleconferencing was not only useful for reaching students not able to fit
into their class, but it was easy to do and enhanced the teachera ability to effectively perform
their duties as an instructor. They also liked the ease of content communication. The only
complaint that the teachers had (and even then, it was small) was that the sessions tended to run
long. Without actually being in classroom with the students, there was a lack of connection that
made it a bit harder to remain engaged.
My Thoughts
So, with all this knowledge, paired with my personal experience, I would say that the
judgment is good. Distance education is the future.

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Works Cited
1. Hibbard, L., & Franklin, T. (2015). Libraries in Online Elementary Schools: A Mixed
Methods Study. TechTrends TECHTRENDS TECH TRENDS, 59(3), 85-91. Retrieved
December 10, 2015.
2. Jerilyn D. Harris-Packer & Genevive Sgol (2015) An Empirical Evaluation of Distance
Learnings Effectiveness in the K12 Setting, American Journal of Distance Education,
29:1, 4-17, DOI: 10.1080/08923647.2015.990768
3. Mahmood, S., & Mahmood, A. (2014). Building A Global Future Through Research And
Innovative Practices In Open And Distance Learning.Turkish Online Journal of Distance
Education, 13(2), 256-266.