Yes, we can do SEL Online – A case study from Stanford Online High School

by Tomohiro Hoshi and Tracy Steele

Can we address students’ needs for social emotional learning (SEL) in an online school environment? Our answer to the question is yes. We will share our story as a case in point.

Stanford Online High School (OHS) is an accredited online high school within Stanford University, serving students in 7th-12th grades from around the world. Instruction and extra-curricular events (including clubs, assemblies, etc.) happen primarily online, while students enjoy several in-person events throughout the school year, too.

Common Questions

A common question that we frequently encounter is whether students can develop SEL skills in the online environment. OHS students don’t sit together in a classroom or greet each other in the hallway. They normally study from home or any other place of their choosing, which often differs from where their peers might be. How can we provide opportunities for social interactions and emotional development in such an environment?

Key Ingredients

Key ingredients for our method to enable SEL online include an interactive online platform and an intentional design in pedagogy and curriculum. First, OHS students meet with their teachers and peers regularly in each course through a video-conferencing system. They can talk to each other, use slide programs, and the whiteboard, work together in groups on a project, and use in-class text messaging. In this way, they perform similar tasks to what they might normally be doing in brick-and-mortar classroom environments.

Based on the interactive virtual classes, we have designed our teaching methods to intentionally provide students frequent and regular opportunities for SEL in class. Our approach is underpinned by the kernels of learning approach, as promoted by The Harvard Graduate School of Education. We believe various teaching methods promote development of SEL competencies as defined by the CASEL framework.

For instance, the basic pedagogical design of all OHS courses is the flipped classroom format. Students learn the material for the day in our learning management system by completing their reading, watching assigned lectures, and working on specific assignments. Students then attend a live virtual class to have critical discussions on topics of the day, work on problem sets with other students, and engage in discourse with their teacher and peers.

Nuts and Bolts

The pre-class part of the flipped class method helps students develop self-management skills. They need to work on the material independently based upon the work schedule they create for themselves. It provides great opportunities for self-discipline and organizational skills. Teachers and counselors carefully scaffold students in developing and improving these skills by providing direction and guidance inside and outside the online classroom.

The interactive classes help students develop social awareness and associated skills. They learn how to communicate their ideas clearly, respect different perspectives on challenging topics, and learn how to build and maintain relationships with each other. Teachers can select topics of discussion intentionally in order to best scaffold students at an appropriate level of their SEL development. 

Beyond the online classroom, teachers develop assignments that strategically cultivate students’ SEL skills, such as self-awareness and self-management.  For example, teachers may provide revision opportunities for students after receiving grades and feedback on an essay. Students then can learn to receive and incorporate critical feedback, track their progress, and practice the development of a growth mindset by having an opportunity to incorporate differing strategies to improve their paper.

Peer review can be incorporated with written assignments and student projects, which support students in developing responsible decision-making and relationship skills. Students have the opportunity to consider their peers’ work while learning to provide productive feedback, and by deciding what needs to be said and how. They need to be able to do so, while retaining their healthy relationships as classmates and, in many cases, friends.

Results

While these may be examples of useful strategies directly applicable to the course discipline and content, how well do they work in helping develop students’ SEL competencies? To find out, Stanford Online High School (OHS) participated in a two-year SEL student self-assessment organized by the California Association for Independent Schools (CAIS) from 2017-2019. Among the 33 peer institutions participating in the study across the entire state, Stanford OHS was the only online school. 

In the four areas of SEL assessed by the study: growth mindset, grit, learning strategies, and self-efficacy, Stanford OHS students scored in the top quartile among all participating schools, across all measures. In addition, students’ scores in these areas remained the same or increased across the measures over the two-year period.

These findings dispel common misconceptions that students who attend online schools lack SEL skills or opportunities to develop them. By infusing the education design with SEL opportunities, we can help students develop SEL skills and competencies in online schools.

About the Authors

Tomohiro Hoshi, Ph.D., and Tracy Steele, Ph.D., serve as Head of School and Director of Student Support at Stanford Online High School (OHS) and have both been working over a decade at the school to cultivate a supportive school environment that fosters students' independence, strength of character, and a lifelong pursuit of knowledge.