Schools, from K12 to universities, rushed online after March 13, 2020. Sadly, the COVID-19 coronavirus and poor online education pedagogy and design went hand-in-hand thanks to this rush to deliver \u201ccontent\u201d without a clear strategy. Rushing to be online, instead of taking a week or two to prepare teachers and students, led to some of the worst digital versions of correspondence learning ever offered.<\/p>\n
Online education differs from traditional classroom instruction. The research on best practices covers accessibility, interface design (UI\/UX), student engagement, retention, and learning outcomes. I study accommodations and disability, including the costs of those accommodations. Under federal law, all students are promised a least restrictive, inclusive, and equitable learning experience. That\u2019s not happening with the COVID-19 rush to online delivery.<\/p>\n
Delivering content is not delivery an online education<\/strong>. It\u2019s shoveling out materials and ill-conceived assessments simply to finish the school year close to \u201con time\u201d as if that\u2019s the most important goal for administrators and state authorities.<\/p>\n Public K12 systems rarely have full learning management system (LMS) implementations. And a result, these schools through students and teachers into Google Classrooms and hoped for the best.<\/p>\n I teach online. I believe in the promise of online education. But, online education requires expertise to prepare, deliver, and assess effectively. You do not simply take a good classroom teacher, toss that person online, and assume you\u2019ll have a good online course.<\/p>\n By not taking time to move online, by not being willing to push the school year out a month, administrators and officials have help create a mess that is harming the perceptions of online education. I resent what is being called online education. So do students.<\/strong><\/p>\n Though K12 teachers do not train to teach online, a \u201ccrash course\u201d delivered online was possible. In fact, being forced to learn online would have helped teachers understand the situation before they were teaching students in the same environments.<\/p>\n As a parent of two elementary school students, I hate the online experience they are having. I do not blame the teachers, but I do blame those putting the teachers in this situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Schools, from K12 to universities, rushed online after March 13, 2020. Sadly, the COVID-19 coronavirus and poor online education pedagogy and design went hand-in-hand thanks…<\/p>\n