The impact of virtual learning on students’ aspirations in rural and regional New South Wales (Australia)

In Australia, and particularly in its most populous state of New South Wales, school students from rural and regional backgrounds do not perform as well as their metropolitan-based peers on national standardized tests or high-stakes state examinations and they consistently report having lower aspirations than urban students. Behind these outcomes, rural and regional students demonstrate lower levels of engagement and attendance at school, and fewer of them complete school or study at university. This “remoteness gap” correlates with socio-economic status, but this only partly explains the stubborn and persistent educational outcome gaps. Research found that in-school factors such as school climate, access to expert teachers and high-quality curriculum materials for a broad range of subjects were as predictive of educational aspirations as school characteristics, such as size and type, and more than family and student characteristics and experiences. Critically, however, access to expert teachers and high-quality curriculum materials are not always available to rural and regional students. This study of the Virtual Learning Collaborative revealed that through a network of schools in rural and regional New South Wales, students overcame entrenched access and equity structural barriers by accessing virtual courses not available in-person at their school. They not only matriculated and then accessed their preferred university courses but also reported gains in their academic self-concept and self-regulation skills from studying a course virtually. In the analysis, academic buoyancy emerged as instrumental in developing students’ academic confidence (related to academic self-efficacy) and provided a novel theoretical contribution to addressing the rural-urban education gap through virtual learning networks.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Mockler Giles, Wendy

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kalantzis, Mary
• Cope, William
• Zhu, Xinran
• You, Yu-ling

• Rural Education
• Virtual Learning
• Educational Equity
• Academic Achievement Gap
• Remote Learning
• Australia Education
• Academic Buoyancy

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Wendy Mockler Giles

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129889

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129889