Before I get into the details of this blog post, a quick thanks and shout out to all who wrote in to respond to my last post on AI, AGI, and education. There is so much to think about regarding how AI is going to impact all of education, and our DLAC community is at the forefront of tackling these issues. If you have ideas but haven’t had the chance to weigh in yet, please do!
Teachers like online options too
As the national zeitgeist increasingly seems to be shifting in a school choice direction, it’s valuable to note that not only do students and families benefit—teachers benefit as well.
In our DLAC Executive Committee meetings and other discussions with members, we often hear that many online and hybrid schools aren’t having the challenges with finding and retaining teachers that traditional schools deal with. To be clear, there is still an issue in that very few new teachers get much, if any, pre-service exposure to teaching online. Online schools still have to offer extensive professional learning opportunities. But for the most part teachers in online and hybrid schools seem more satisfied with their jobs than teachers in traditional schools.
Why? For many of the same reasons that students report. Teachers like the flexibility of online schools, they appreciate the opportunities to get to know their students better than they often did in a traditional classroom, and they embrace the challenges of connecting and engaging with students remotely.
A few quotes from a recent EdSurge article highlight these points (I’ve changed the order of the quotes below):
“[F]or [Molly] Hamill, and thousands of other teachers, instructing through a virtual school is a way to attempt striking a rare work-life balance in the education world…
‘So many of us have said, ‘I felt so burned out, I wasn’t sure I could keep teaching,’ Hamill says, adding she felt similarly at the start of her career as a first grade teacher. ‘But doing it this way helps it feel sustainable. We’re still underpaid and not appreciated enough as a whole profession, but at least virtually some of the big glaring issues aren’t there in terms of how we’re treated.’…
Nik Osborne, senior vice president of partnerships and customer success at Pearson, says it’s been easy to both recruit and keep teachers: roughly 91 percent of teachers in the 2024-2025 school year returned this academic year…
According to NCES, the retention rate for all K-12 public school teachers is 84%, suggesting that Pearson’s numbers reflect higher teacher satisfaction and mirror what we hear from DLAC members.
That’s not to say teaching online is easy! Just like for students and families, it’s not always the best option for teachers. But for some, teaching online is a viable alternative to traditional teaching.
DLP—teacher presenters were rock stars!
Speaking of teachers, the presenters at our online Digital Learningpalooza, many of whom are online teachers in DLAC member schools, deserve accolades.
I moderated several sessions, and even though I had high expectations for the presenters, I was still amazed by how good they were. And I was reminded—of course they’re good, they’re online teachers who do this all the time!
To some of you this point may be obvious because you see online teachers in action routinely. For me, watching teacher/presenters interact with participants, use breakout rooms seamlessly, navigate whiteboards, etc. was so impressive. Thanks to all the presenters who showcased their skills!
Post-secondary online learning
It’s been a few months since I covered online learning numbers in post-secondary institutions, so I’m providing a quick update courtesy of some number crunching from Phil Hill, building on federal data from IPEDS.
The latest numbers: for the most recent full school year (2023-24), 66% of college students took one or more online courses. This includes both students taking one or two online courses as well as those who took all their courses online.
For any readers with particularly sharp memories recalling that Phil and IPEDS reported a lower number a few months ago, the new higher number doesn’t reflect a sharp increase as much as it is a different data set—full year numbers versus fall semester. The lower online numbers in the fall semester don’t fully reflect rolling enrollments and different starting points during the school year.
The bottom line: Two-thirds of all college students took at least one online course as of two years ago, and having good online teachers in their K-12 courses provides the foundation for their continued success in college online courses.
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