The following was written by Karen Swan, the James Stukel Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Illinois Springfield and an expert on online and blended learning. The op-ed was published by the New York Times on April 6, 2011.
"High school and middle school students are easily distracted, which is precisely why I do think they can benefit from online classes.
Online learning can actually be less distracting than being in a classroom of 30 students.
The majority of online classes for adolescent students involve a good deal of interaction with course materials and tutors that can be very engaging. A study of students enrolled in the Virtual High School, for example, found that 75 percent of the students passed their courses with a C or better while 25 percent got a D, F, or Incomplete or dropped it."
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