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The Potential Impact of Online/Distance Education for K-12 Special Education Students: A Meta-Analytic Investigation

Received: 8 January 2016    Accepted:     Published: 9 January 2016
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Abstract

The present meta-analysis is a comprehensive investigation of the effectiveness of online/distance educational opportunities on student achievement specifically for students with disabilities in grades K-12. An overall effect size of d = -.015 was calculated from 7 studies for a total of 54 different effect size measures, based on a sample of data from n = 24,031 participants. These results suggest that the achievement level of the typical students with disabilities did not differ from the achievement of students in the control group. However, further investigation indicates that students with disabilities experiencing online/distance education performed better than comparable students with disabilities who were in traditional face-to-face classrooms. Study demonstrates that sub-categories can be used to further the understanding of how the use of online/distance education could serve as one solution for shrinking the achievement gap for exceptional individuals. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Published in International Journal of Elementary Education (Volume 5, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijeedu.20160501.12
Page(s) 8-16
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Online Education, Online Learning, Distance Education, K-12, Special Education, Meta-Analysis

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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Karen H. Larwin, Matthew J. Erickson. (2016). The Potential Impact of Online/Distance Education for K-12 Special Education Students: A Meta-Analytic Investigation. International Journal of Elementary Education, 5(1), 8-16. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijeedu.20160501.12

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    ACS Style

    Karen H. Larwin; Matthew J. Erickson. The Potential Impact of Online/Distance Education for K-12 Special Education Students: A Meta-Analytic Investigation. Int. J. Elem. Educ. 2016, 5(1), 8-16. doi: 10.11648/j.ijeedu.20160501.12

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    AMA Style

    Karen H. Larwin, Matthew J. Erickson. The Potential Impact of Online/Distance Education for K-12 Special Education Students: A Meta-Analytic Investigation. Int J Elem Educ. 2016;5(1):8-16. doi: 10.11648/j.ijeedu.20160501.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijeedu.20160501.12,
      author = {Karen H. Larwin and Matthew J. Erickson},
      title = {The Potential Impact of Online/Distance Education for K-12 Special Education Students: A Meta-Analytic Investigation},
      journal = {International Journal of Elementary Education},
      volume = {5},
      number = {1},
      pages = {8-16},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijeedu.20160501.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijeedu.20160501.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijeedu.20160501.12},
      abstract = {The present meta-analysis is a comprehensive investigation of the effectiveness of online/distance educational opportunities on student achievement specifically for students with disabilities in grades K-12. An overall effect size of d = -.015 was calculated from 7 studies for a total of 54 different effect size measures, based on a sample of data from n = 24,031 participants. These results suggest that the achievement level of the typical students with disabilities did not differ from the achievement of students in the control group. However, further investigation indicates that students with disabilities experiencing online/distance education performed better than comparable students with disabilities who were in traditional face-to-face classrooms. Study demonstrates that sub-categories can be used to further the understanding of how the use of online/distance education could serve as one solution for shrinking the achievement gap for exceptional individuals. Implications and limitations are discussed.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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    T2  - International Journal of Elementary Education
    JF  - International Journal of Elementary Education
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    AB  - The present meta-analysis is a comprehensive investigation of the effectiveness of online/distance educational opportunities on student achievement specifically for students with disabilities in grades K-12. An overall effect size of d = -.015 was calculated from 7 studies for a total of 54 different effect size measures, based on a sample of data from n = 24,031 participants. These results suggest that the achievement level of the typical students with disabilities did not differ from the achievement of students in the control group. However, further investigation indicates that students with disabilities experiencing online/distance education performed better than comparable students with disabilities who were in traditional face-to-face classrooms. Study demonstrates that sub-categories can be used to further the understanding of how the use of online/distance education could serve as one solution for shrinking the achievement gap for exceptional individuals. Implications and limitations are discussed.
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Author Information
  • Department of Educational Foundations, Research, Technology and Leadership, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio, USA

  • Department of Special Education, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, USA

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