Remote learning during a crisis isn’t typical online learning
Students live in a time where they can choose to attend a course in-person or online. Rushing to remote learning during the COVID-19 crisis brings about challenges for teachers and students not found in traditional online course programs.
With 10 years of experience in digital learning delivery, I have witnessed a surge in content all over social media about best practices, pitfalls and the dark-side of Zoom for online classrooms.
Some of us have been sheltering in place for longer than 6 to 8 weeks at this point during the COVID-19 crisis and it’s starting to show as Zoom lectures that were initially a lifesaver for educators, have still led to college students requesting tuition refunds and complaints from high school parents that digital content isn’t challenging their child.
The truth is that learners who signed up for in-person courses did so for a reason.
It’s natural for learners to be disappointed or feel that they are getting less value for their money. At this stage in the middle of an international health crisis, I can’t say they are wrong.
A typical for-profit 6 week online course with pre-recorded video lectures can take up to 4 months to develop and produce, with project budgets ranging from $20k to over $125k. I speak from personal experience working with large universities and for-profit schools. Beyond a zoom call from your home, there are film studios and video editors, animators and art directors taking part in online course production all over the world. I’ve witnessed the revenue from such courses hit multiple millions of dollars in enrollments with learners feeling engaged and fully invested in completing these digital learning experiences.
Naturally during an emergency where schools had to close ASAP, the transition to remote delivery is starting off as hardly more than a basic conference call featuring a couple of PDFs in Canvas. This is not a bad thing. It is perfectly understandable why remote delivery is where it is and why students may be struggling at home to access and complete this content. (It’s an emergency for a reason.)
Here at edCircle.org we are in the middle of helping a number of institutions move their 2020 summer campus programs online. Below are some key things to keep in mind for educators and administrators:
Tips for moving current courses into the digital realm.
1. The resources used to design a typical in-person course should still be leveraged during online development. This is not the time to tap your IT department for designing and launching courses without labor from curriculum designers, teachers and admins. All hands on deck.
2. Listen to your students. If they are having trouble focusing on schoolwork during the crisis, address it - give students space to voice their concerns.
3. Listen to your staff. Maybe an app you want to use for writing essays is too complicated for them to learn on the fly. Find another.
4. Online teaching does not mean you get to do less work. Young students still need monitoring of their online behavior, health and safety. Adult learners still need encouragement and community engagement.
4. Be professional. I know you’re at home just like the students but we still have to show them how a professional adult should conduct themselves during a video conference. At minimum follow some of these tips from Tom Ford.
