Modality matters to parents who support K-12 online learners: A literature synthesis

In this literature synthesis we investigated parent perspectives on how instructional modality affects the type and amount of support parents need to provide their primary/secondary online learners. Informed by the Academic Communities of Engagement framework (Borup et al., 2020), we analyzed parents' perceptions of their support roles for primary/secondary online learning and their students’ support needs given the context of their instructional modality. An intensified need for parents to support primary/secondary online learning was reflected in the literature during the emergency remote teaching (ERT) of the pandemic. We searched ERIC and Education Full Text databases for articles with intersections of four constructs: student engagement, parental engagement support, adolescent online learning, and instructional modality. After identifying an initial corpus of literature, we searched citations and Semantic Scholar using Elicit, an AI-based tool, to triangulate our findings. We discovered how the design decisions online programs make regarding instructional modality can affect parental support roles, parental perception of online school support, other aspects of parents’ lives outside the online course, and students’ online learning support needs. This study affirmed the importance of purposefully designing teaching modalities to align with desired learning outcomes. A carefully designed blend of synchronous and asynchronous content, defined as bichronous instruction, can alleviate stress associated with parental involvement and improve students’ independent engagement. When designing bichronous learning, online programs should consider modality affordances, student engagement, and personal circumstances. This synthesis has implications for how modality decisions affect digital equity given concerns about privacy and discrimination in synchronous learning.