Working Hard for a Living: Impressions of K-12 Online Educators

Monday, 6/29/2009, 3:30pm–4:30pm WWCC 159, Table: 6

K-12 online distance education is a rapidly growing area. Currently, 42 states have K-12 either supplemental and/or full-time online programs, and with the remaining states in the planning stages to offer online programs in the future (Watson & Ryan, 2007). The latest predication, based on current trends, is that 50% of all high school classes will be offered online by the year 2019 (Christensen & Horn, 2008). This raises the question concerning the characteristics of the teachers in this field, the reasons they became involved with online teaching, and their overall experiences.

The purpose of this study was to gather data regarding the K-12 online teachers including how they came to teach in an online environment, the advantages to online teaching, and the challenges and pitfalls that are unique to online teaching. From the findings of this study, university and virtual schools can adapt their professional development programs to best meet the needs of K-12 online educators.