Increasing Access to Online Learning for Students With Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were alarming reports of children missing out on online special educational activities due to a lack of access to those resources. We evaluated a simple, online intervention using a concurrent multiple baseline design across three second-grade students with disabilities who unreliably accessed the remote curriculum. The dependent variable was the number of daily assignments completed. During baseline, the teacher provided students and parents with educational activities via Google Classroom and the teacher contacted parents when a student missed educational activities. For intervention, the teacher implemented a task analysis that listed five daily assignments. Students earned preferred rewards contingent on completing all activities. Results showed that the intervention was effective in increasing engagement in online learning.

Automated summary

During the COVID-19 pandemic, reports of children missing out on online special education activities due to lack of access prompted a study to evaluate an online intervention. Using a task analysis and reward system, the intervention successfully increased student engagement in online learning.