The State of Remote Learning By Paul Richards, Marketing Director at PTZ Optics Secondary schools, colleges, and universities are doing their best to adapt to remote learning. Educational professionals are following the stay-at-home orders mandated by governments throughout the world for the safety of students and educators. While some have executed this mission more fluidly than others, now is the time for all schools to assess their technology needs and plan for the future. The State of Remote Learning With remote learning likely here to stay in some form, adapting learning environments today will be critical to education. School administrators have been tasked with satisfying students and instructors with a better experience in the Fall semester of 2020. Online offerings should continue to enable equity of experience, regardless of a student’s location. Rounding out that experience is the on-demand aspect that is at the forefront of today’s learning environments. Everyone knows that Covid19 completely shifted in-person education to fully remote. This had massive, worldwide implications for Higher Education and K-12. The changes have new implications for both students and teachers. Challenge: Being ready for remote learning, access to technology, planning Advantage: On-demand access without fear of exposure to people during a pandemic What’s Working With Online Learning? Hybrid learning is giving students more opportunities to learn in many ways says Christine Hagedorn a professor at Rosemont College in Pennsylvania. Hagedorn says that she can tell her students are engaged with the online lectures, activities, and assignments by watching the amount of time they are spending interacting with the online learning content. Yet, with so much change going on in Higher Education Hagedorn 41 |
noticed that every teacher was handling their online learning time with students differently. In fact, The Chronicle of Higher Education study finds that 70% of school administrators are investing in education for teachers specifically about online education. Another teacher, Drake Finney from Lake Havasu High School who shared his insights
during the “State of Remote Education 2020” live panel, said students are learning. There was a moment Drake shared with us about a mother who asked her son to stop watching his phone at the dinner table only to find that he was watching an online course. Drake has been using a green screen and virtual background setup for his Zoom calls with his high school students. Drake says the background is more than just fun to look at, it keeps the students engaged. Drake is also using the Google Classroom online setup to organize his courses. Drake says the online learning system from Google keeps everything organized for students. New Study on the State of Remote Education The Chronicle of Higher Education surveyed instructors on some of the challenges they faced shifting to a remote model. The statistics below help to illustrate some of the changes happening in higher education. ▶ More than 60% of instructors said students’
