Journal of Special Education Technology

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.

A large number of students with and without disabilities—including students at-risk—are currently learning online through synchronous and/or asynchronous instruction. As such, it is important for educators to be equipped with evidence-based practices—or at the minimum research-based practices—that can be adapted or modified to teach students online, including the area of mathematics. This article discusses how educators can adapt and implement explicit instruction—an evidence-based practice for teaching students with disabilities in mathematics—to educate students with disabilities and those struggling or at-risk in mathematics within an online environment. In addition, this article presents resources for free and paid technology as well as additional considerations when implementing explicit instruction in an online environment.

Whether to embrace “flipped” pedagogy or to problem solve during a pandemic, many teachers utilize video to deliver instruction to students. Watching a video can be a passive activity without a person or a tool to facilitate active engagement. As a result, many teachers find the need to look for tools, methods, and platforms to engage learners, add elements of interactivity, and incorporate effective instructional practices into their video lessons. In this manuscript, we describe how a specific technology, Edpuzzle, can help facilitate video lessons that include explicit instruction elements such as eliciting frequent responses, offering supported practice, providing immediate affirmative and corrective feedback, and monitoring student performance. When paired with well-designed videos, teachers can use this tool to deliver effective instruction in an asynchronous environment.

Teacher-provided opportunities to respond are a powerful strategy for improving behavior and academic outcomes of students with disabilities. However, online instruction makes opportunities to respond more challenging to implement. For the purposes of this article, online teaching refers to synchronous instruction taking place via video conferencing software (e.g., Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Canvas Conferences, Blackboard Collaborate). This article presents strategies teachers can use to elicit individual responses from students through oral responses, response cards, and action responses.

High-levels of classroom engagement and on-task behavior have been linked to positive outcomes for students. In traditional classroom settings when levels of on-task behaviors are low, teacher integration of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) can facilitate improvement in student engagement. PBIS strategies such as creating clear routines and expectations, explicit instruction on expected behaviors, acknowledging behavior, and a high level of opportunities to respond have demonstrated efficacy for improving engagement across grade levels. As teachers increasingly adjust their teaching to virtual platforms these evidence-based practices should continue to be a part of their instructional repertoire. Unfortunately, teachers may have little experience in leveraging such practices to improve engagement in virtual classrooms. With the recent shift to virtual instruction due to the pandemic, it is important teachers are equipped with knowledge and skills to implement PBIS in virtual classroom settings to improve student outcomes. This manuscript provides a how-to guide to support teachers and administrators in effective and efficient use of PBIS in online platforms to bridge the gap in practice. Steps and an implementation checklist are included to improve virtual learning engagement by utilizing tools within online platforms such as Zoom and GSuite to clarify virtual expectations and increase student demonstration of expected behaviors.

The Pandemic has required teachers to find ways to provide high-quality instruction in a virtual format. Video-based instruction (VBI) is a version of technology-aided instruction that has been effectively used in classrooms to improve mathematical outcomes for students with disabilities. This manuscript describes how a special education teacher can utilized VBI through free online platforms (i.e., SeeSaw, Loom) to implement a mathematical problem solving instructional strategy (modified schema-based instruction; MSBI) for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) while at home. MSBI utilizing VBI has successfully been used by teachers and researchers to improve additive and multiplicative problem solving skills for students with ASD. This manuscript describes how special education teachers can support students and their caregivers by providing high-quality problem solving instruction in a virtual environment.

In online and blended learning environments, students may experience learning barriers that are more pronounced than in the traditional classroom. When designing online instruction, teachers can use digital tools along with instructional strategies to reduce those barriers. Digital tools have various instructional and assistive features, which can provide supports for students with disabilities as well as other learners. This article addresses how teachers can make meaningful use of various digital tools in alignment with the three principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to reduce barriers and support students to meet learning and affective goals. The article describes how various commonly available digital tools coupled with instructional strategies provide supports for representation, action and expression, and engagement for students in online learning environments.

Students with developmental disabilities and communication delays, particularly autism spectrum disorder (ASD), participate in academic instruction through a continuum of services and environments. This includes the use of web-conferencing and screen-sharing platforms to deliver instruction across a variety of settings. The use of systematic prompting often includes stimulus and response prompts, both of which can be conducted via a distance education platform. This column provides three procedures to deliver instruction to students with ASD via GoogleMeets™. These include addressing environmental considerations, prompting while web-conferencing, and using the screen-sharing feature to provide these prompts.