EXAMINING THE ACADEMIC AND EXTRACURRICULAR EXPERIENCES AND

BEHAVIORS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ONLINE STEM COURSES

by

Whitney G. Keaton
A Dissertation
Submitted to the
Graduate Faculty
of
George Mason University

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in Partial Fulfillment of
The Requirements for the Degree
of
Doctor of Philosophy
IE Education

Committee:
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Chair
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Program Director

Dean, College of Education and Human

Development

Date: Summer Semester 2018

George Mason University
Fairfax, VA
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Examining the Academic and Extracurricular Experiences and Behaviors of High School
Students in Online STEM Courses
A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University

by

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Whitney G. Keaton
Master of Science
George Mason University, 2010
Bachelor of Science
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University of Scranton, 2003
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Director: Andrew Gilbert, Associate Professor
College of Education and Human Development
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Summer Semester 2018

George Mason University
Fairfax, VA




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 Dedication

This is dedicated to every student I have worked with in my fifteen years of teaching. I
believe that each student is a unique individual and requires an education that reflects
their needs. I also believe that all students have the capacity to thrive in the STEM
subjects if given the right opportunities. There is not one identifiable type of education
that works for every student. It is important that alternative options to traditional
education be explored, so that all students have the chance to find success.

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 Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my dissertation chair, both past and present, along with my
dissertation committee and professors throughout the doctoral program. My experience in
the doctoral program at George Mason University was nothing short of excellent and my
growth during this time as a student, educator and person has been due to each of the
individuals who I have worked with in my classes, research and through my portfolios. I
would not be able to name them all here, but I am thankful for each morsel of wisdom I
have been provided over this time.

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Dr. Andrew Gilbert has served as my dissertation chair for the past two years. In addition
to all I learned from him from having him teach one of my last classes in the program, I
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consider myself very lucky that he was willing to take on a student who was already part
way through the program. He has always been willing to take time out to talk to me about
my research and has helped me to grow as a researcher and writer. I am grateful for his
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patience and meaningful feedback on my ideas.

Dr. Leonard Annetta started out as my advisor and original dissertation chair from my
first day in the program. In addition, when he left George Mason University he
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generously agreed to continue on my dissertation committee. He worked with me on my

portfolios, getting research experience by allowing me to participate in some writing he
was completing, and his general support throughout the years were one of the reasons I
was able to make it through the program.

I met Dr. Jered Borup shortly before starting my dissertation and he and I quickly found
that we had a lot of similar research interests. He served as the methodologist on my
dissertation and gave me fantastic advice about how to conduct research in the online
learning environment. He is someone whose research has greatly influenced my own and
I feel thankful that I got to work closely with him throughout this process.

Lastly, I want to thank my family, specifically my husband and kids, for their support as I
worked through this program and dissertation. My children served as a constant source of
inspiration for me and my husband was always patient with the demands of the program.

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 Table of Contents

Page
List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix
List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... x
List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... xi
Abstract ............................................................................................................................. xii
Chapter One – The Potential of Online STEM Education .................................................. 1

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Importance...................................................................................................................... 6
STEM Education ......................................................................................................... 7
Online Education ....................................................................................................... 11
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Who Are the Students?................................................................................................. 13
Researcher Experience ................................................................................................. 15
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Purpose of this Study ................................................................................................... 18
Research Questions .................................................................................................... 19
Definition of Terms ................................................................................................... 21
Chapter Two – Literature Review..................................................................................... 23
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Online Schools ............................................................................................................. 25

History ....................................................................................................................... 25
Types.......................................................................................................................... 28
Successes and Areas for Improvement ...................................................................... 29
STEM in Schools ......................................................................................................... 31
Why STEM? .............................................................................................................. 31
Specialized STEM Schools........................................................................................ 31
Successes and Areas for Improvement ...................................................................... 34
Important Characteristics for Student Success in Online STEM Courses ................... 35
Learner-Human Interactions ...................................................................................... 38
Learner-Instructor.................................................................................................... 39
Learner-Parent ......................................................................................................... 42

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 Learner-Learner ....................................................................................................... 45
Learner-Content Interactions ..................................................................................... 47
Student Motivation .................................................................................................. 47
Technology Use....................................................................................................... 49
Rigorous Coursework .............................................................................................. 49
Engaging Learning Experiences .............................................................................. 51
Research Opportunities ........................................................................................... 54
Extracurricular STEM Opportunities ...................................................................... 55
Other Essential Features ............................................................................................ 56
Concerns for the Intersection of Online and STEM Education ................................... 59
What are We Missing? ................................................................................................. 62

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Conclusions .................................................................................................................. 64
Chapter Three – Methods.................................................................................................. 67
Methodology ................................................................................................................ 68
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Setting .......................................................................................................................... 69
Participants ................................................................................................................... 72
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Data Collection Instruments......................................................................................... 75
Teacher Rubric........................................................................................................... 75
Semi-Structured Interviews ....................................................................................... 76
Artifacts of Student Work .......................................................................................... 77
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Other School Data...................................................................................................... 78

Procedure...................................................................................................................... 79
Phase 1: Selecting Participants .................................................................................. 79
Phase 2: Interviews .................................................................................................... 80
Phase 3: Artifact and School Data Collection ........................................................... 80
Data Analysis ............................................................................................................... 81
Limitations/Considerations .......................................................................................... 84
Chapter Four – Findings ................................................................................................... 87
Context of Participants ................................................................................................. 91
Thoughts on Online School.......................................................................................... 97
Benefits ...................................................................................................................... 99
Flexibility. ............................................................................................................... 99

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 Rigorous Courses. ................................................................................................. 101
Negatives ................................................................................................................. 102
Lack of Socialization. ............................................................................................ 102
Challenges of Independence. ................................................................................. 103
Learner-Content Interactions ..................................................................................... 104
Positives of Online STEM Courses ......................................................................... 104
Negatives of Online STEM Courses........................................................................ 106
Differences between STEM and non-STEM Online Courses ................................. 107
Self-Efficacy ............................................................................................................ 108
Motivation................................................................................................................ 109
Self-Regulation ........................................................................................................ 110

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Research ................................................................................................................... 111
In STEM Class. ..................................................................................................... 111
Outside of STEM Class. ........................................................................................ 112
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STEM Class Artifacts .............................................................................................. 113
Learner-Instructor Interactions................................................................................... 114
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Types of Interaction with Instructor ........................................................................ 115
Teacher Availability. ............................................................................................. 117
Benefits of Interaction with Instructor ..................................................................... 118
Obstacles and Challenges of Interactions with Instructor ....................................... 119
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Other “Instructors” for STEM Courses ................................................................... 120

Learner-Parent Interactions ........................................................................................ 121
Benefits of Interactions with Parents ....................................................................... 122
Monitoring. ............................................................................................................ 123
Encouraging. ......................................................................................................... 123
Instructing. ............................................................................................................. 124
Obstacles and Challenges of Interactions with Parents ........................................... 125
Learner-Learner Interactions ...................................................................................... 126
Types of Interactions with Peers.............................................................................. 126
Academic. .............................................................................................................. 126
Social. .................................................................................................................... 128
Benefits of Interactions with Peers .......................................................................... 129

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 Obstacle and Challenge of Interactions with Peers ................................................. 130
Summary of Qualitative Findings .............................................................................. 131
Reflections on Quantitative Data ............................................................................... 133
Chapter Five – Conclusions and Implications ................................................................ 141
Learner-Content Interactions ..................................................................................... 142
Self-Efficacy and Motivation .................................................................................. 142
Self-Regulation ........................................................................................................ 143
Rigor of Courses and Research................................................................................ 144
Learner-Instructor Interactions................................................................................... 145
Learner-Parent Interactions ........................................................................................ 146
Learner-Learner Interactions ...................................................................................... 147

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Additional Themes around Online Learning and STEM Education .......................... 149
Implications in the Field............................................................................................. 150
Implications for Practice .......................................................................................... 151
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Implications for Research ........................................................................................ 153
Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 155
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Appendix A ..................................................................................................................... 160
Appendix B ..................................................................................................................... 161
Appendix C ..................................................................................................................... 164
Appendix D ..................................................................................................................... 165
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References ....................................................................................................................... 169

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 List of Tables

Table Page
Table 1 Categories of Virtual Schools (Barbour and Reeves, 2009, p.405) ..................... 29
Table 2 Teacher-Reported Responsibilities of Parents (Borup, 2016, p. 72) ................... 43
Table 3 10 Critical Components of ISHS’s (Peters-Burton et al., 2014, p.67) ................ 52
Table 4 Demographic description of students rated by STEM teachers .......................... 73
Table 5 Demographic overview of students interviewed .................................................. 74
Table 6 Detailed description of each participant ............................................................. 96
Table 7 Key Findings and Recommendations from this study ........................................ 158

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 List of Figures

Figure Page
Figure 1 Growth and Evolution of U.S. Online Charter Schools (Waters et al., 2014, p.
381) ................................................................................................................................... 27
Figure 2 Students’ Percentage Grade in STEM Class versus Hours Logged into that
Class................................................................................................................................ 135
Figure 3 Average Rating of Students Given by STEM Teacher versus Time Logged into
their Class ....................................................................................................................... 136
Figure 4 Average Rating of Students Given by STEM Teacher versus Number of Live

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Classes Attended (out of 7 possible) ............................................................................... 137
Figure 5 Number of Live Classes Attended (out of 7 possible) versus Student’s
Percentage Grade in STEM Class .................................................................................. 138
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Figure 6 Average Rating of Students Given by STEM Teacher versus Percentage Grade
in their Class ................................................................................................................... 139
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 List of Abbreviations

Adequate Yearly Progress..............................................................................................AYP

Advanced Placement ....................................................................................................... AP
George Washington University Online High School........................................... GWUOHS
George Washington University.................................................................................... GWU
Inclusive STEM High School ....................................................................................... ISHS
K12, Inc...........................................................................................................................K12
National Research Council ........................................................................................... NRC
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ................................................. STEM

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 Abstract

EXAMINING THE ACADEMIC AND EXTRACURRICULAR EXPERIENCES AND

BEHAVIORS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ONLINE STEM COURSES

Whitney G. Keaton, Ph.D.

George Mason University, 2018

Dissertation Director: Dr. Andrew Gilbert

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The student perspective in research done in online and STEM education is largely

absent but is important for understanding how both of these areas can come together to
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best serve students. This study uses teacher ratings, school data and student interviews to

investigate the perceptions students in online STEM courses have of their past and

current educational experiences. Also, using an adaptation of Moore’s Framework of

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Interactions (Moore, 1989), the academic and extracurricular behaviors of these students

are examined in relation to their interactions with course content and humans, specifically

instructors, parents and peers. The results when looking at interactions with content

showed that the areas important to success in online STEM courses were self-efficacy,

self-regulation, rigor, and research opportunities. It was also found that the interactions

that students have with their instructors, parents and peers are different in this setting as

compared to a traditional learning environment. Teachers in online schools serve the role

of a facilitator that students felt was important to their success, but was not their only

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source of instruction. Parents took on many roles in this setting, including monitoring,

motivating, instructing and organizing. Learner-learner interaction looked the most

different from traditional schools because these participants generally had little

interaction with peers due to time and distance constraints. Implications of these findings

for students, schools, education and research are given.

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 Chapter One – The Potential of Online STEM Education

Online high schools hold promise in the areas of Science, Technology,

Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to help many different types of students. For

example, consider a student who has a strong interest in studying the health sciences and

wants to have the opportunity to experience all of the volunteer and internships that she

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can because success in STEM requires high expectations of students and access to real-

world situations (Bruce-Davis et al., 2014). To do this, she needs a more flexible
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schedule that can afford her the ability to spend an entire day with a doctor or an

extended stay working at the National Institute of Health. An online school could provide
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the flexibility for pursuing interests that require a non-traditional schedule (Thomson,

2010). Additionally, consider a very different student who struggles with traditional
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brick-and-mortar school because of some unique learning needs. He is very interested in

geology and knows he wants to pursue that in college, but he was not finding success in

his local school. He needs to find flexibility that will fit his learning needs and a school

with a strong science program to pursue his goals. Online learning can be beneficial for

those who need a more individualized approach (Thomson, 2010). Another student who

lives outside of the United States is a very strong mathematics and science student. He

finds the local public schools to lack the high-level courses that he wants to take. Without

any alternatives, he would have exhausted the mathematics and science curriculum before

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his senior year. Online schools can reach unique student populations, such as those who

live internationally or in very rural locations without access to all of the educational

opportunities they desire (Waters, Barbour, & Menchaca, 2014). By enrolling in an

online high school each of these students has different strengths and challenges, but each

has found significant success. This is a small sample of the plethora of success stories

from online high schools, but with these successes there are others who have not found as

much success. Attrition is a major concern in online education which is resulting in

financial consequences for schools and families as well as possible issues with student

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learning (Waters et al., 2014). It is very important that we know more about each of these

stories so that online education can improve, possibly even lowering these attrition rates,

specifically in the areas of STEM.

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Specialized STEM education has been around since the early 1900’s in the form

of technical schools (Erdogan & Stuessy, 2015). In more recent years, the United States

has fallen behind other countries in STEM progress (Raju & Clayson, 2010) and because
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of the decline in undergraduate students entering into STEM majors, there has been an

increase in creating more inclusive and specific types of STEM programs (Scott, 2012).

If students who are interested in mathematics and science are provided with more

rigorous courses, expert instruction and peer interaction, they have been found to be more

likely to pursue STEM in college and their careers (Subotnik, Tai, Rickoff & Almarode,

2009).

Online education is a fairly new phenomena, starting in the late 1990’s because of

some state and federal mandates to introduce more online and blended learning (Barbour,

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2014). These schools started as public institutions but have since expanded to many

public and private offerings throughout the country and are now present in 48 states

(Hawkins, Graham, Sudweeks & Barbour, 2013). According to the 2015 Keeping Pace

Report, Hundreds of thousands of these students are enrolled in full-time online schools,

while millions are taking supplemental online courses in addition to attending a physical

school (Gemin, Pape, Vashaw, & Watson, 2015). While the methods of online delivery

can vary between different online schools, the access and flexibility that these schools

can provide has potential to fill a void in the current education system.

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Knowing the perceptions and experiences that students have in online STEM

courses could explain what is and is not working to identify possible solutions. Students’
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voices are important to tell us how they feel about their educational experiences and what
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works for them. Most current research in these areas focuses on school structures (Means,

Wang, Young, Peters & Lynch, 2016; Peters-Burton et al., 2014; Roblyer, 2008),

teachers’ perspectives (Borup, 2016; Bruce-Davis et al., 2014; DiPietro, Ferdig, Black &
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Preston, 2010), or parent involvement (Borup, 2016; Hasler-Waters & Leong, 2014).

While a few researchers have started to look at the students’ perspective (Hawkins et al.,

2013; Kim, Park, Cozart & Lee, 2015; Oviatt, Graham, Borup & Davies, 2016), there is

very little in the current literature about online education from the student voice and this

is important for us to be able to build strong programs (Waters et al., 2014). Finding

information from all stakeholders, including the students, in online and STEM is

important because it can help us to develop knowledge that can make these areas of

education more robust.

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 Another area important to developing strong educational programs is finding

features that can lead to student success. While cognitive skills are important, there are

other factors that can be just as important for academic success. Bowles and Gintis

(1976) found that people’s non-cognitive skills were more important than cognitive and

were the skills that employers sought out in their employees. In fact, Lleras (2008) also

found that social skills, work habits and extracurricular activities led to higher

educational attainment and greater earnings in the workforce. These are behaviors, both

social and academic, rather than cognitive skills. Behaviors can be defined as skills and

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dispositions beyond cognitive ability that may be learned through training and

development (Le Deist & Winterton, 2005). Determining behaviors that lead to success
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affords an opportunity to assist students improve their academic success and potentially
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lead to greater future outcomes.

When discussing behaviors in online settings, this can be done through the lens of

the framework of types of interaction developed by Moore (1989). He explained that

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there are three types of interaction in distance education: learner-content, learner-

instructor, and learner-learner. Learner-content interaction is when student have internal

discussions about the information they encounter in the course or elsewhere. Learner-

instructor is the most common understood interaction and involves instructors stimulating

student’s interest of what is being taught. This type of interaction also involves helping

students organize and self-direct their learning, so this could also be expanded to

students’ interactions with advisors/mentors. Drysdale, Graham, and Borup (2014)

looked at a shepherding program at and online high school and found that this

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relationship involved many of the characteristics that Moore included in the learner-

instructor relationship, such as building caring relationships, understanding student

backgrounds and facilitating content interaction. In addition to learner-instructor, it is

also essential to online education to look at the interactions that learners have with their

parents. Hasler-Waters and Leong (2014) described the changing parental role in online

education to include organizing, motivating and monitoring and Borup (2016) explained

that parental involvement is important to student success, so learner-parent interactions

will be added to this list. The last type if interaction described by Moore is learner-learner

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interaction. This is essential for learning and is an important skill for students’ future

involvement in society (Moore, 1989), and while it is difficult in online education, it is

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important to incorporate. Moore’s types of interactions can be a basic framework to pull
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from when discussing types of behaviors in online education.

In order to determine what the perceptions of students are in online STEM

courses and investigate the behaviors that lead to success, we first need to understand
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how online and STEM education started and what the existing research says. This study

will explore the evolution and development of STEM and online education and what

factors have led to the programs that exist today. Further, evidence for factors that are

important for student success in STEM and online education will be investigated. This

grounded theory study will focus on the student voice through interviews and collection

of school data and artifacts to find theories behind the experiences that online high school

STEM students have and what behaviors and interactions may lead to their success.

Grounded theory is a methodology that is flexible and interpretive in nature and allows

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research to be done without a prior hypothesis (Schwartz et al., 2013). This is important

to this study because discovering theories about students’ experiences and behaviors in

online STEM education is the primary goal. The outcome of this study has the potential

to fill a gap in the literature that exists in online STEM education.

Importance

Equitable access to education is a consideration that needs to be made in all forms

of education research. A report by the NRC (2013) explained that success of STEM

education depends on students having fair access to “challenging learning opportunities

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and instructional materials, teachers’ capacity to use those opportunities and materials

well, and policies and structures that support effective educational practices" (p. 4).
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Online education can be a road to equitable access because of its flexible nature and
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ability to reach all students. The research done in some of the STEM and online schools

has not always been representative of all types of students. For example, a study done by

Roblyer and Davis (2008), while it had a large number of participants, was done in a
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school with a homogeneous population and a very high dropout rate. Adding to this body

of knowledge and creating a wider diversity of participants would be helpful to informing

this area of investigation.

Students need to feel like a valued member of their school and according to

Walker and Greene (2009) this can be done through support from teachers and peers and

finding relevance in what they are learning. To do this, educators need to know what

research shows to lead to success and be able to support students to attain that success. A

literature review of virtual school that spanned over 4 years found that many of these

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schools were not able to properly support their students despite the support structures

being present (Barbour & Reeves, 2009). There are some general best-practices that have

been found in online education, but these are not generalizable and it is important to see

if they apply to a larger population and also to specific content areas (DiPietro et al.,

2010). Finding the factors important for success in online STEM education can help

make equitable access and student success a reality.

Online and STEM education are both fast growing participants in the educational

landscape. While the programs have been developed and implemented based largely on

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educator’s experience and beliefs, the research has not kept up with this rapid expansion.

While some online and STEM programs are private and may have more freedom to adapt
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and try new things, many are state-sanctioned and have to meet the standards set by
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government. Policy change in education depends on the legislative and executive

branches of our government, but they are often slow to act on educator’s

recommendations (Raju & Clayson, 2010). While this fact remains, the more evidence
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there is for changes needed in education, the more likely it can eventually be changed.

STEM Education

Because of the decreasing rate at which American students are entering the STEM

pipeline and the fact that the country is falling behind others in STEM progress, there has

been an increase of focus on STEM education (Raju & Clayson, 2010). LaForce et al.

(2016) explained that jobs in the area of STEM will increase over the next decade more

rapidly than any other type of jobs. Because of this, it is vital that we are educating and

encouraging students in a way that can make them competitive in this workforce. STEM

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schools were originally formed to give gifted students a rigorous STEM education, but

have evolved more recently into more inclusive atmospheres that allows all types of

students to have access to a future in STEM (Peters-Burton et al., 2014).

Specialized STEM schools were around in the form of technical training schools

before the more recent push in STEM education, but they have become more defined and

specific in nature more recently. In the 1980’s, the National Consortium for Specialized

Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology (NCSSSMST) was formed

which created STEM schools that were less like manual training schools and more geared

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towards getting students into undergraduate STEM majors (Erdogan & Stuessy, 2015).

While researchers recently have been looking at the similarities and differences in STEM
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schools along with what seems to be working, further research is needed to know more
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about the long-term impacts of the various types of STEM schools (Scott, 2012).

A significant consideration in this type of education is a lack of equity to different

populations. One of the most important ways to level the playing field is to make sure
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that all students have comparable access to high quality STEM programs. There are

opportunity gaps in science due to differences in teacher expectations and physical school

factors like laboratory facilities (NRC, 2011). This study by the NRC found that more

important for equal opportunity for students than teacher qualifications was the overall

school context, such as the culture and conditions. Having teachers who hold students to

high standards and having access to science resources that allow all students to best learn

science is important to all demographics. These factors may differ between varying

socioeconomic areas which can change the quality of STEM education for urban or rural