by Jolanta Maria Nitoslawska-Romer, M.Ed.
International Director of Academic Affairs, BE+Live
Figuring out how to create a learning community where students, their parents, and you can honestly share what is working or not may take some time and effort. Still, it’s time and effort that is very well spent. It is about gathering data for continuous improvement and then acting upon it. If you don’t have the data, there is no way of knowing if your online classes are effective or not, and it’s so easy to kid yourself.
You have spent so much time preparing your virtual class: setting up the bulletin board or whiteboard in the background, designing borders, making anchor charts, and word walls, and you have planned it well. You are sure that it’s a great class, but then, to your surprise and anguish, you find that your kids are not engaged, and have boring looks on their faces. Yet, you need to finish your program, those pages have got be filled out: that’s what your coordinator and your principal, and the parents expect.
So you plod along and try to motivate your students to get that work done. And, by the end, you know it didn’t really go that well, but you tell yourself that a) the kids were tired: it was their third class that day b) they are stressed out, but so is everyone. The situation is not ideal, some kids have no idea of what needs to be done, but the books have got to be filled out, the lesson has got be learned, and it’s really not your fault if the kids are not engaged.
But it is! And you know it! But really, you don’t have any data about what went well and what did not. You have nothing but a gut feeling that it just didn’t work out, and perhaps you need to plan differently for the next class. You are not quite sure what needs to be done: you feel you can’t really talk to your coordinator or your principal or your BE+Live coach without admitting that the lesson just did not work out. Cuz, who likes to admit that they’re not good at something or that something is a failure?
In Part I of this blog last week I talked about a the study that may give all of us some clues about what data we need to collect in an ongoing fashion. The goal is to ensure that we are indeed creating a learning environment where each of our students, at whatever level (and that’s the hard part), is participating, engaging, and acquiring the knowledge and skills they need.
In those award-winning courses, instructors were adamant that the secret lies in surveys that continuously provide data. This way, instruction and learning engagements keep being adjusted based on the gathered data. This means immediate and remedial action, as opposed to action taken at the end of a bimester or trimester. Thus, data gathering has to be ongoing. Data has to be readily available so that decisions can be made. Does that mean that you need to conduct a student or a parent survey from scratch to gather this kind of data? Also, do keep in mind that it’s not only about the student getting the content but even about accessing it effectively. Here are some tools that Youki Terada proposes:
- The Making Caring Common Project at Harvard University has a 5-question Covid-19 Check-in Survey focused on student wellness.
- Educause, a technology-focused nonprofit, developed a longer survey on the transition to remote learning. It’s geared toward higher ed but can be adapted for K–12 schools.
- In May, the Hawaii Department of Education administered a 29-question survey—and published survey results that provide insight into the support that students may need.
- The Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington analyzed seven national K-12 student surveys and identified key areas that teachers should be aware of as challenges to online learning: from students feeling concerned about falling behind to “distractions, lack of motivation, and lack of social connections”.
Terada also identified a set of questions that are commonly used. They are mostly meant for upper-grade students, but you can adapt them to use with parents of younger students.
- How comfortable do you feel using technology for our virtual classroom? (You can use a Likert scale here, with a score of 1 being “not at all comfortable” and a 5 being “very comfortable.”)
- Have you encountered any technical issues, such as not being able to connect to the internet or not being able to hear other students or me talking?
- Are assignments clear? Are you able to access them?
- Are you having any trouble finding assignments, links to articles, or other documents online? Is the virtual space well organized?
- Do you feel like your voice is heard?
- Do you feel like you belong in our virtual classroom?
- What can I do to improve our online classroom?
It is important to clarify that the purpose of any one of these surveys is to collect information so as to improve the online learning situation. Explain that students will not be graded on these answers, or won’t be in trouble if they point out real problems. Again, the focus is on creating an effective Learning Community.
Real-time feedback is also possible while using such tools as Zoom. The non-verbal feedback tool enables students to display an icon such as “raise hands” or “thumbs up” next to their name. This can give you an idea if they are ready or not or whether they understand. Use these tools or any other similar ones to know where students are at.
Your LMS may also have some built-in tools, such as discussion boards: you and your students can use them to field questions. In BE+Live, it’s called a forum, and teachers can use it to address private or whole class issues. Students who may be shy about asking for help online in front of others may feel more comfortable here. But, as usual, it behooves the teacher to make it a welcoming space.
And then there are apps such as Seesaw, Pear Deck, and Edpuzzle*. You can integrate them into your forum to collect feedback, to ensure that the experiences you are setting up are indeed student-centered. “Empathy in design is crucial. Put yourself in the shoes of your learners, and you will put them first in your design,” writes Susan Shroeder, an instructional designer, and professor at the University of Cincinnati.
“Flipgrid is a fantastic oral communication application that is easy to use,” writes high school English teacher Kyleen Gray. In this video-sharing platform, teachers pose a prompt that students respond to via a short video. What a great way to collect feedback informally and interactively! Research suggests that Flipgrid can boost students’ feelings of connectedness in an online classroom, increasing their willingness to ask for help.
We hope that some of these tips and tools will help you figure out how best to ensure student engagement and learning in these special times. Don’t forget that we are here to support and help you, so do let us know what other topics you would like us to explore.
CLICK here to send your comments, questions or concerns.
* (https://web.seesaw.me/)- a digital platform where students create and reflect upon their learning
(https://www.peardeck.com/remote-learning)- an interactive formative assessment tool
https://edpuzzle.com- making videos interactive and student-centered
Adapted from Youki Terada’s article
Reading the Virtual Classroom Is Hard, but It Can Be Done
https://www.edutopia.org/article/reading-virtual-classroom-hard-it-can-be-done
accessed Aug 6, 2020
Follow us!