Browsing by Author "Humphrey, Jeremy"

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    Common Behaviors and Supports for Successful Online Learning
    (2023-03-28) Humphrey, Jeremy; Dula, Mark
    The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate student behaviors when they transition to an online school at a selected school in Northeast Tennessee. This study aimed to determine specific behaviors that successful and unsuccessful online students showed when they first came to an online setting. In addition, it aimed to discover specific supports online schools can provide to increase student success in online schools. The sample consisted of 9 current or recently graduated students from the same online school in Tennessee at 10th grade or above. Data were collected using four focus group conversations where the participants were assigned different groups based on previous in-person TNReady assessments scores. Data were analyzed using Merriam & Tisdell’s (2016) step-by-step process: “naming the categories, determining the number of categories, and figuring out systems for placing data into categories” (p. 236). Common themes came from this process: (1) external student behaviors, (2) internal student behaviors, (3) family qualities, and (4) school qualities. These themes provide valuable information and feedback for current online schools and higher education in situations where students have never taken an online course. This study concludes that there are specific behaviors where online students are successful when coming from an in-person school. In addition, there are specific supports that online schools and teachers can utilize for new students. Future research should include qualitative studies on specific time management and self-discipline skills students use while learning online. Also, more qualitative data from the families and teachers on online learning could be beneficial since this study focused on student perspectives.