Michael Bacon

EDIS 5887

Self-Management in Virtual Learning: A Case Study

One of the largest challenges in virtual learning has been to ensure that students are

actually making it to their classes. Between internet access issues, increased distractions in the

home environment, and the inability of teachers to monitor students during less structured times,

it is not surprising that some students are struggling with attendance. For the students I work

with, self-management skills are a challenge in a normal school year, but under the current

circumstances, it is even more important to provide students with strategies and support to help

them succeed with virtual learning.

The student I selected for this case study, who I shall refer to by his initials YE, is a very

academically capable student. He is on grade level in all academic areas and actually was being

tested for gifted prior to the school closing last Spring. He has IEP goals in the area of self-

management and organization. I noticed during the early weeks of the school year that YE would

commonly miss at least one class a day and often more, despite usually being in at least one class

each day.

In early discussions, he expressed difficulty knowing when classes would begin and end

and finding the zoom links for each class. Knowing this information, I created a google doc

schedule with all of this in one place to see if this would help. Unfortunately, this resulted in only

minimal improvement and not on a consistent basis. I noted that there were particular issues in

the classes after the 1 PM lunch break. The attendance data from three weeks, with the google

doc schedule, but prior to any additional intervention, makes up the baseline data for this case

study. The percentages are calculated by taking the number of synchronous class blocks attended

divided by the total number of synchronous class blocks for the week.
 Michael Bacon
EDIS 5887

After three weeks of data collection, I implemented a new intervention to attempt to

improve YE’s self-management in virtual learning and thus his attendance rate. I provided him

with explicit instruction on setting calendar reminders for synchronous class meetings. I also

introduced a daily check-in procedure during his lunch break, where we could discuss how he

has done making it to class so far and go over the plan for the rest of the day. This intervention

seemed logical, as the student could take some ownership of the process with setting the calendar

reminders and the notifications would provide a more noticeable prompt to keep the student on

track. The check-in was strategically placed in the middle of the day, to provide the student with

a little more structure during an unstructured time and with a chance to self-evaluate before later

classes which he tended to miss more.

Over the next three weeks, I compiled attendance data from his classes in the same

manner as before. During the first two weeks of the intervention, there was a modest increase in

the student’s attendance in his classes, largely driven by greater attendance in his later classes.

There were only two days of synchronous classes during the first week, so it was unclear what

effect this had, but it was encouraging that the increase continued through the second week.

Unfortunately, there was a significant downturn in the third week, and the student missed 3 out

of 4 of the check-in sessions as well. The complete data table and graph can be found below.
 Michael Bacon
EDIS 5887

Week Attendance Rate

10/12-10/16 56.25%

10/19-10/23 43.75%

10/26-10/30 50%

BEGIN INTERVENTION

11/2-11/6 62.5%*

11/9-11/13 62.5%

11/16-11/20 37.5%
*Only two days of synchronous classes this week

Average attendance for first three weeks (baseline): 50%

Average attendance for second three weeks (intervention): 52.5%

In the end, the results of this intervention at this stage are inconclusive. While there

seemed to be improvement in the first two weeks of the intervention, a particularly steep

decrease in the third week resulted in minimal change in the average attendance rate in each set
 Michael Bacon
EDIS 5887

of three weeks (52.5% from 50%). It is very possible that missing the check-in sessions during

this third week may have contributed to the sharp decline. It would be necessary to collect more

data to provide more clarity on how effective (or not) the intervention was.