#7 The Importance of DL Research with Jasmin Poor at Roper Mountain Science Center

Show Notes

Dr. Jasmin Poor is a decorated veteran of distance learning and brings to the podcast her deep experience with both teaching and research.  She discusses her perspective on homeschooling and digital school, balancing virtual experiences with on-site visits, the most surprising things she's learned from her research on distance learning, what led her to a career in the field, and why she believes distance learning has great value in today's educational landscape.

Dr. Poor is the virtual field trip teacher and coordinator for Roper Mountain Science Center. Her research on the impact of virtual field trips on students’ interest in STEM was published in a textbook. She is also an adjunct professor for several universities supporting undergraduates and graduate students in education. Jasmin’s impact on the virtual world includes focusing on creating high quality and engaging programs for students around the world to increase their interest in science.

Host Links:
Browse amazing virtual learning opportunities at CILC.org

Seth's  Banyan Global Learning prepares students for real life with live virtual learning experiences in Character Education: banyangloballearning.com

Creators and Guests

Host

Allyson Mitchell

SF

Host

Seth Fleischauer

TM

Host

Tami Moehring

What is Why Distance Learning??

Why Distance Learning? is a podcast about the decisions, design choices, and assumptions that determine whether live virtual learning becomes shallow and transactional—or meaningful, relational, and effective at scale.

The show is designed for education leaders, instructional designers, and system-level practitioners responsible for adopting, scaling, and sustaining virtual, hybrid, and online learning models. Each episode examines the structural conditions under which distance learning actually works—and the predictable reasons it fails when it doesn’t.

Through conversations with researchers, experienced practitioners, and field-shaping leaders, Why Distance Learning? translates research, field evidence, and lived experience into decision-relevant insight. Episodes surface real tradeoffs, near-failures, and hard-won lessons, equipping listeners with clear framing and language they can use to explain, defend, or redesign distance learning models in real organizational contexts.

Hosted by Seth Fleischauer of Banyan Global Learning, and Allyson Mitchell and Tami Moehring of the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, the podcast challenges outdated narratives about distance learning and explores what becomes possible when live virtual education is designed intentionally, human-centered, and grounded in evidence.