Abstract
Early in 2020, it became clear the COVID-19 pandemic was on its way toward disrupting the status quo in education in a substantial manner. As schools reacted by moving teaching and learning online, teachers, staff, parents, students, and other stakeholders were thrust into a world of learning previously discussed in this journal, but unknown to most in the field of special education. In this introduction to the special issue on online learning, we highlight key themes across the six articles, as well as lay out a vision for additional research and development that is required in our field.
The end of the 2019-20 school year, and entirety of 2020-21 will not be forgotten any time soon. As waves of confusion, fear, disinformation, and anxiety spread across the globe stemming from COVID-19, nearly all schools made the decision to move learning online. While some schools and educators were well suited to make this sudden change, most were not (National Academy of Education, 2021). One fortuitous lesson was that teaching online does share some pedagogies and practices with face-to-face instruction (Smith et al., 2016a). However, the field also quickly realized educators need professional development and other software and hardware supports to approach the level of effectiveness taken for granted within the face-to-face learning environment. While knowledge about effective online learning does exist (Alamri & Tyler-Wood, 2017), the entire American education system is simply not well suited to make immediate and unscheduled changes on a widespread scale. Yet, that is exactly what took place.
Despite the varied challenges of the pandemic, side-by-side with medical workers, front line practitioners in schools were absolute heroes in keeping our communities running, and helping students making at least some positive progress toward standards and other goals. That educators were able to make significant and essentially instantaneous changes to their practice while themselves facing the daily anxiety stemming from the threat of personal and family illness is nothing short of remarkable. This special issue is dedicated to all educators who woke up each morning and did their best to support the learning and other needs of students with and without disabilities while learning to teach online on the fly.
In addition to the challenges facing educators, students and families, especially those with disabilities and from disadvantaged backgrounds showed resiliency, but also suffered. As online instruction became the dominant mode of teaching, the size of the gap between students from families with and without means to reliable technology, supervision, and quality instruction was exposed (Soland et al., 2020). The true amount and cost of learning loss, especially for students with disabilities and those from underprivileged backgrounds will likely never be fully known (Kuhfeld et al., 2020). The coming years need to be filled with remediation and high-quality instruction to help these vulnerable and underserved students make needed gains. That being said, despite numerous obstacles, positive learning in the online environment is possible (Fitzgerald et al., 2012; Morgan et al., 2016; Straub & Vasquez, 2015; Sublett & Chang, 2019).
Online Learning Is Not New
Although the COVID-19 pandemic was the first substantial introduction to online learning for many educators, parents, and students, in fact, online learning has played an important role in the field of education for students with disabilities for years (Smith et al., 2016a). Readers are encouraged to revisit a special issue on online learning in Journal of Special Education Technology (JSET) published in 2016 (Volume 3). In that special issue, the Principal Investigators and other colleagues from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) funded Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities (http://www.centerononlinelearning.res.ku.edu) provided empirical evidence from studies detailing methods and results for students with disabilities in online learning. Topics included an introduction to personalized learning using online learning options (Basham et al., 2016a), providing accommodations and modifications in the online environment (Carter & Rice, 2016), aligning UDL design principles to various offerings within the online learning environment (Basham et al., 2016b), design and delivery of online reading instruction (Pace & Mellard, 2016), and implications for teacher preparation and online learning (Smith et al., 2016b).
Other articles from JSET and other journals from the field of special education have also focused on online learning for students with disabilities. For example, Morgan and his colleagues (2016) taught students with disabilities online social skills in an online environment. Fitzgerald and colleagues (2012) used an online strategy instruction approach for supporting reading abilities of students with learning disabilities. Straub and Vasquez (2015) provided online writing instruction to students with LD. These are but a few recent examples of empirically validated practices for supporting online instruction to students with disabilities. The goal of this special issue is to provide educators, family members, and other stakeholders with a series of six Technology in Action articles that can be immediately used to support outcomes for students with disabilities.
Introduction to the Special Issue Articles
Articles Focused on Explicit Instruction in Online Instruction
A key theme across the articles is how to provide explicit instruction in the online environment. Explicit instruction is a key high-leverage (McLeskey et al., 2017) and evidence-based practice (Archer & Hughes, 2011) for supporting the needs of students with disabilities. Thus, transferring this practice into the online environment is critical. To begin, Holly Long, Emily Bouck, and Larissa Jackubow wrote “Explicit Instruction in Mathematics: Considerations for Virtual Learning.” The team provides an introduction to the use of explicit instruction for teaching mathematics in the online environment. Readers are likely familiar with the I do (modeling), we do (guided practice), and you do (independent practice) nature of explicit instruction (Archer & Hughes, 2011). Long and colleagues present links and descriptions for a range of synchronous and asynchronous strategies that can support implementation of this critical practice in the online environment. In addition, their list of tools and practices includes notes on the pros and cons of each, which can help readers make informed choices about adoption and implementation.
Another piece with explicit instruction provided in the online environment at the core is by Dane Marco Di Cesare, Tara Kaczorowski, and Andrew Hashey. The team wrote a piece titled, “A Piece of the (Ed) Puzzle: Using the Edpuzzle Interactive Video Platform to Facilitate Explicit Instruction.” The focus of this article is how new and existing instructional videos can be utilized within the Edpuzzle system to add questions and other opportunities for students to respond to prompts. Use of frequent opportunities for students to respond to prompts is a key aspect of explicit instruction. Their article comes with a companion website with detailed instructions for using Edpuzzle.
John Romig and Kat Alves wrote “Implementing opportunities to respond in virtual teaching environments.” Their focus is dissemination of online tools and practices that help in the creation and delivery of various types of opportunities for students to respond to prompts in content area courses. They highlight a range of low- and no cost technology tools to help keep students engaged during online learning.
Finally, for this section, Renee Speight and Suzanne Kucharczyk wrote “Leveraging Positive Behavior Supports to Improve Engagement in Virtual Settings.” A common request among teachers and parents during the pandemic and unscheduled online schooling was how to address unwanted behaviors. Positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) is a well-known and researched framework for supporting prosocial student behaviors during face-to-face instruction, and also have applicability in the online domain. Speight and Kucharczyk provide numerous examples of how PBIS practices can transfer into online supports for students including teaching new behaviors, providing feedback and reinforcement, and keeping students engaged through numerous opportunities to respond to prompts.
Article Focused on Strategy and Problem-Solving Instruction
To accompany explicit instruction, especially in mathematics, students need strong instruction for using strategies and solving problems. Sarah Cox, Jenny Root, and Deidre Gilley contributed, “Let’s See that Again: Using Instructional Videos to Support Asynchronous Mathematical Problem-Solving Instruction for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” The focus of this article is problem solving practices, including modified schema-based instruction (MSBI) in the multimedia domain for students with ASD. The team presents example resources, and ideas for data collection and use of visual schedules. Although the article focuses on students with ASD, the practices are applicable across a range of disability categories.
Articles Focused on UDL and Platforms for Communication and Instruction
The principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can be used when designing and delivering instruction in online and face-to-face environments. Kavita Rao, Caroline Torres, and Sean Smith wrote “Digital Tools and UDL-Based Instructional Strategies to Support Students with Disabilities Online.” In this article, Rao and colleagues provide helpful guidance around how the various UDL guidelines support online learning supports and options for teachers and students. This article should help educators of all grade levels and content areas think about how the UDL principles and guidelines can enrich their existing instruction.
Finally, Sarah Katz wrote “Utilizing GoogleMeets™ to Implement Prompting Strategies During Instruction.” This article also focuses on supports for students with ASD, and how they can receive needed prompts using technology. GoogleMeets™ is a web conferencing platform that can help facilitate professional development for teachers, communication amongst professionals and family members, and also to provide direct services to students. Recommendations for using this platform in flexible ways are presented.
Key Questions for Future Research in Online Learning
Some of the technologies introduced in the articles within this special issue have more empirical evidence to back their use than others. We are just beginning to understand issues that students with disabilities face learning in online environments given it being brought to scale without planning or warning. Some of these issues are related to initially getting students engaged in lessons and keeping them engaged throughout the entire lesson. For example, are polls and icons (e.g., using hand raise or chat function in Zoom) during synchronous online environments effective at keeping students engaged at high levels during lessons? Are they effective at helping students understand skills and content or better supports needed? Are break out rooms helpful for students to learn skills and content at the same level or better than small groups in face-to-face learning environments? Finally, overall, how effective is online learning compared to traditional face-to-face learning?
Also, we need more research to better understand how proficient teachers are at using technology to keep students engaged and on-task during online and distance learning. Since universities rarely teach preservice students how to teach in online environments (e.g., both synchronous and asynchronous), can teachers utilize the tools effectively to assess student engagement over the internet? If teachers are using other types of technology for modeling and guided practice stages of learning, are these technology tools effective? For example, if teachers use the whiteboard during an online session to teach the steps of solving a mathematical problem (e.g., double-digit multiplication), was it effective for students to learn the skill? Further, if teachers record the actual lesson, will students access it later to enhance their understanding of the mathematical skill? These are empirical questions that should be addressed.
We know that at some point technology may become distracting for students. Mayer (2009) points out that reducing extraneous information should reduce cognitive load for students. Therefore, at what point do different aspects of technology become distracting during lessons? For example, should teachers be using the chat function during instruction or does it take away from students’ focus on learning content during the lesson? Are certain tools more effective based upon the content or skills of the lesson being taught?
Call for Papers in JSET
As editors of JSET, we are always looking for high quality research articles that provide evidence that new or existing technology tools, apps, products, or approaches are effective for students with disabilities. We especially welcome replications of past studies, so the confidence with which existing technologies can be recommended across settings and types of students can be bolstered. Field trials of commercial products are also welcome and needed. Too often schools and families are quick to adopt a new piece of technology or app based on its features and promise of effectiveness. That said, developers in the for-profit sector have an active disincentive to not subject their product to independent field trials. This is because if schools and other consumers are willing to purchase the product without empirical evidence, the risk of an independent researcher concluding and reporting that the product “doesn’t work” is too great. Therefore, the duty is left to researchers and educators to determine effectiveness and disseminate to the field.
JSET welcomes a range of research designs. A non-systematic review of published articles across the past 5 years reveals a large percentage of single case designs for students with autism spectrum disorders. This is appropriate given the field of special education. However, we as editors would like to see more group design studies being submitted and accepted. We also want to see papers that study impact of technology on a range of learners with disabilities. Finally, while we do not receive very many qualitative studies, we are always interested in publishing high-quality research from that paradigm.
Conclusion
As society overcomes the pandemic, online learning and the lessons learned during these unprecedented days will remain. Schools and teachers are now far more prepared to design and deliver instruction in the online realm than they were even a short time ago. This will help serve a range of purposes such as making up snow days, supporting students who cannot learn in the physical school, providing remediation to needy students, and other practical applications of teaching that may arise.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
