Why Distance Learning?

In this episode of Why Distance Learning, Seth Fleischauer, Allyson Mitchell, and Tami Moehring welcome Yuliya Kosko, founder of Svitlo Education, to explore how live virtual learning becomes a lifeline in the darkest of times. They discuss the founding of Svitlo School during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and how distance learning has supported nearly 2,000 Ukrainian students with free, high-quality instruction amidst trauma, displacement, and daily threats to safety. Yuliya shares how her all-volunteer team, spanning multiple continents, builds meaningful community and resilience through online education—even when students are logging in from bomb shelters.

This powerful conversation makes the case that when done intentionally, virtual learning can create stability, connection, and even joy in crisis.

Key Topics Discussed:
  • Founding an online school during wartime and scaling it to serve thousands.
  • The role of distance learning in supporting displaced, traumatized, and underserved students.
  • Building emotional safety and student engagement in a virtual community.
  • Supporting volunteer teachers and maintaining a strong international team.
  • Why culture, structure, and creativity matter even more in crisis.
  • The importance of equipping students not just with knowledge, but with hope and vision for the future of Ukraine.
Guest Bio:
Yuliya Kosko is the founder and director of Svitlo Education, a free online school for Ukrainian children affected by war. A former primary school teacher in London and co-founder of EducAd Consulting, Yuliya has used her deep experience in international education to create a thriving virtual community that supports both academic growth and emotional healing. Svitlo means “light” in Ukrainian—a name given by one of her first students, and a mission Yuliya embodies every day.

Episode Links:
Host Links:
  1. Discover more virtual learning opportunities and resources at CILC.org with Tami Moehring and Allyson Mitchell.
  2. Seth Fleischauer’s Banyan Global Learning provides meaningful global learning experiences that prepare students across the globe for success in an interconnected world.

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.