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Stepping into a virtual learning environment can help struggling students interact with curricula in a new way, begin learning with a clean slate, and provide more flexibility to accommodate work or family obligations, say educators and experts working online with students who are at risk of academic failure.
But none of those factors will make such students successful unless they have the support and resources they need to engage with the material and the motivation to work hard for their credits, experts stress.
"The way online learning is set up, it puts the control of the learning on the shoulders of students," said Jeanne Repetto, an associate professor in the department of special education at the University of Florida, in Gainesville. "They feel the confidence and control, which is why online learning can be good for this population."
When students do not take responsibility for their own learning, however, and their virtual teachers cannot maintain steady communication with a support team, such as a school contact or parent, the students are much less likely to be successful, said Michelle Lourcey, the director of credit recovery for the North Carolina Virtual Public School, or NCVPS.
"Our teachers are constantly working with [students] and parents to keep them [on track,] but if there's no motivation and no accountability at the school level," the students may not make it through, she said.
Typically, NCVPS assigns a distance-learning adviser, or someone at the student's home school, to each student to prevent that problem.
"We have found that if we can get the student feeling success in the first unit, they'll stay with us," said Ms. Lourcey.
At-risk students in virtual education are generally grouped into credit-recovery programs that help students who have fallen behind obtain the credits they need to graduate.
NCVPS had 2,200 credit-recovery enrollments out of a total of 17,000 enrollments in the spring of 2011. During the summer, out of 10,000 total enrollments, 3,000 were for credit recovery.
Building strong teacher-student relationships is key to helping struggling students be successful, said Ms. Lourcey.
"With at risk students, if they feel valued, that is very powerful," said Darlene Schaefer, an English teacher at NCVPS. "If they know that there's somebody out...