Halifax County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Mark Lineburg addresses the public at Clays Mill Elementary School on Tuesday on the possible consolidation of schools.
Josh Carlton/Gazette-Virginian
Close to 100 individuals including Clays Mill Elementary school staff, students, parents and community members filled the gymnasium of the Clays Mill Elementary School Tuesday evening to show their support in keeping the school open at a public hearing on the possible consolidation of elementary schools.
This was the third public hearing in a series of five where school board members and Halifax County Public School Superintendent Dr. Mark Lineburg are given a chance to hear the public’s concerns and questions on the possible consolidation of schools.
The school system plans to answer questions via email following the end of the public hearings.
“We make great things happen at Clays Mill,” said Clays Mill principal David Duffer as he opened the floor for the superintendent to speak to the audience.
Lineburg began his remarks saying, “I love Clays Mill Elementary School.”
He went on to state the challenges that HCPS face in its elementary schools is that 51{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of the elementary schools’ 4,259 seats are empty, and enrollment is on a steady decline.
At Clays Mill alone 69{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of the 508 available seats are empty.
“We have lost 500 kids in the last seven years, which is equivalent to losing two schools. Enrollment is declining because of the declining population in Halifax County,” said Lineburg.
He added, “It’s visible you have space in all of our smaller schools, but I want to remind you we don’t have all the answers.”
According to Lineburg, Clays Mill Elementary School needs “significant future facility needs” such as an updated parking lot, an HVAC system, window replacement and an electrical and plumbing upgrade.
Following Lineburg’s presentation, 16 Clays Mill students took the podium to fight for their school telling the school board, “We love Clays Mill,” “Don’t close Clays Mill,” and “We love the teachers and Mr. Duffer.”
Matt Gunn speaks in support of keeping Clays Mill Elementary open during a public hearing on Tuesday on the possible consolidation of schools.
Josh Carlton/Gazette-Virginian
One of the first adults to take the stand was Matt Gunn, who said he has had a child at Clays Mill since 2001 and has been on so many field trips he has begun guiding tours.
“This school has teachers from all over, one who travels from the east side of Clarksville every day and it is certainly not for the paycheck, it is the atmosphere here, the passion they have for the student’s education,” said Gunn.
He added, “The faculty and staff here are nothing short of excellent, they’re the best. We have a phenomenal principal in Mr. Duffer who cares just deeply about the students. This is the cleanest school in the entire school system, and it wasn’t cleaned today because you were coming, it is like this every day.”
Gunn said community schools were the way “we were brought up and it’s the way of life around here.”
Many of the students named all of their teachers, name by name and expressed how great of a job they do in the classroom.
Clays Mill is one of three schools the school board has been considering closing. Also up for consideration for closure are Meadville Elementary and Sinai Elementary. The school system currently has seven.
In proposals to the school board, a seven elementary school model would cost $45,773,534 for future facility costs, a six-school model would cost $44,066,508 in future facilities costs but would save $19,596,000 over 30 years and a five-school model would cost $43,727,436 and would save $44,610,000 over 30 years.
Nakelia Ross challenges the Halifax County School Board and Halifax County Board of Supervisors to think of the students during a Tuesday public hearing on the possible consolidation of schools at Clays Mill Elementary.
Josh Carlton/Gazette-Virginian
“Who’s thinking about today rather than 30 years from now, at what point, and time will we focus on now instead of 30 years from now,” said Nakelia Ross, another speaker of the public hearing.
“I challenge the school board to challenge the board of supervisors and say our kids matter,” she added.
After she spoke, audience members and chairwoman Kathy Fraley and ED-7 school board member Keith McDowell even rose to their feet to applaud her.
Jessica Trent, a mother of a student at Clays Mill Elementary, takes the podium during a public hearing of the possible consolidation of schools at Clays Mill Elementary on Tuesday.
Josh Carlton/Gazette-Virginian
Jessica Trent, a mother of a student who attends Clays Mill, also said, “I keep seeing numbers and numbers, but our children aren’t numbers, stop worrying about money and worry about our children.”
Many of the teachers at Clays Mill Elementary spoke out as well.
Natalie Long, a third-grade teacher at Clays Mill Elementary, addresses the school board in a public hearing at Clays Mill Elementary on Tuesday.
Josh Carlton/Gazette-Virginian
“I truly love this position and my students. Elementary schools build our counties academic foundation, and 20 to 25 students in a classroom is frankly too much,” said Natalie Long, a third-grade teacher at Clays Mill.
She added, “My son and I feel like we have found our forever home. The faculty and staff feel like a second family here.”
Long said research says small group instruction drives academic success.
Vickie Powell, a longtime teacher at Clays Mill Elementary who travels to work from Clarksville addresses Halifax County School Board on Tuesday at the public hearing on the possible consolidation of elementary schools.
Josh Carlton/Gazette-Virginian
“This is my 29th year in Halifax. I live in Clarksville and drive 80 miles a day because I want to be here. I just employ you to see the children not dollar signs. If y’all close this school you’re not only hurting us you’re hurting this county,” said Vickie Powell, a longtime teacher at Clays Mill.
ED-2 supervisor Jeff Francisco speaks during Tuesday’s public hearing of the possible consolidation of schools at Clays Mill Elementary School.
Josh Carlton/Gazette-Virginian
As the public hearing began to wrap up and many members of the crowd began to disburse because of the length of the meeting, ED-2 county supervisor Jeff Francisco took the podium.
“To say that the board of supervisors doesn’t believe in our schools is incorrect. Since I’ve been on it, it’s been number one,” said Francisco.
He added, “Do we want to close any schools? No. We do not want to close any schools, but another option is raising taxes. What I am hearing tonight is that people want to keep Clays Mill open. In order to equal the $2.3 million (in savings) it means a real estate tax increase of seven to eight cents.”
Francisco also made sure to praise smaller schools such as Clays Mill.
“A lot of kids out of district are coming here because this is a great school. They have a great principal, have great teachers and have great instruction. I truly believe that small schools like Clays Mill don’t only teach kids well, it helps in discipline, and it changes the kids’ lives because they have the personal attention here,” Francisco concluded.
Clays Mill Elementary School is ranked 126 out of more than 1,100 schools in the state and is in the top 30{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, according to US News and World reports.
Another public hearing on the possible consolidation of local elementary schools was held Thursday at Scottsburg Elementary School.
The final hearing will be held the following Thursday, on Oct. 28, at Meadville Elementary School at 6:30 p.m.
The landscape for digital learning has changed substantially due to the fact Robert Ubell published Going On-line in 2016: an explosion in outsourcing to on line program professionals, intensifying competition between would-be cheaters and technologies developed to thwart them — oh, and a international pandemic that turned practically every college student into an on-line learner and just about every professor into a technologist.
In a new ebook, Staying Online: How to Navigate Electronic Higher Education and learning (Routledge), Ubell, vice dean emeritus of on-line studying at New York University’s Tandon University of Engineering, delivers together his writings in Within Larger Ed and other publications about a wide range of topics.
He answered questions by means of e-mail about his new e book and the evolving landscape for on the internet discovering. An edited version of the exchange follows.
Q: As anyone who has led institutional technique around on-line education and learning and viewed the landscape closely considering that the late 1990s, do you feel the pressured experimentation of pupils, professors and institutions with remote instruction has appreciably (and forever) reshaped the standing and status of technological know-how-enabled mastering? And if so, in approaches that will maximize support for it?
A: Crisis online studying, regardless of its largely novice shipping last calendar year, was a genuinely huge offer — shock therapy for higher education and learning. According to a amount of latest experiences, remote instruction through the pandemic accelerated broader acceptance and growth of on the web mastering, revealing how immediately establishments have responded to extending on-line mastering and how unexpectedly positively learners and college have reacted. Just one survey this spring concluded that a greater part of college students are amazingly eager to continue to keep learning on line, though school say they now come to feel significantly much more confident about remote schooling than at any time.
But the nation’s headlong dive into digital schooling very last 12 months was not an solely radical departure. In excess of the past many years, on-line education and learning moved like an plane on a runway, getting off slowly and gradually at initially and then persistently, to occupy an ever increased share of increased instruction. If you seem at this eloquent graph, cleverly devised by the ed-tech guru Phil Hill from federal info, you are going to see how the on line wind has been blowing, with household enrollments sliding as on the internet steadily rises. These traits, obvious for many years, but etched in sharper reduction in the pandemic, are now more perilous than at any time.
Two realities account for these altered instructions: the campus downturn is mostly a direct final result of the nation’s skidding variety of high university graduates, whilst the online climb will come from the country’s vastly switching economy, swelling with fantastic numbers of learners who must function to go to school, filling virtual classes with nontraditional pupils.
To get paid digital degrees, midcareer adult learners are also enrolling in remote lessons to get a leg up on securing a far more fulfilling stake in our postindustrial overall economy. Together with fresh new batches of 19-yr-olds, educational leaders need to now go after nontraditional and midcareer pupils, Nowadays, digital schooling has a double obligation, not only critical in securing the continuation of larger instruction, but as an ethical exercise.
Q: If on line/electronic/virtual studying is heading to be a significant portion of a lot more (if not most) faculties and universities likely forward, what are the most significant problems they will have to confront? Are the difficulties additional technological, educational or organizational?
A: All 3, actually, considering that colleges that have not still joined the rush online will will need to get their ducks in a row, generating positive they have almost everything they require in place, with up-to-the-minute electronic magic, advanced pedagogy to keep learners glued to their screens and dynamic leaders, holding the online ship floating and flexible.
But there’s but a fourth necessity: industrial acumen. Colleges and universities confess they are not extremely excellent at it, but they will have to have to get up to pace to exploit electronic recruitment, at which for-profits and OPMs are considerably forward in any other case, even if they grasp the suitable digital abilities, they might be outmaneuvered. Helpful electronic recruitment involves nevertheless a different art that bigger education and learning has been hesitant to follow — investing really serious funds on internet marketing. To realize success, schools and universities will will need to crack some stuffy outdated behavior.
Q: You near your new guide with an admirably genuine chapter about previous assertions that, on 2nd assumed, you comprehend skipped the mark (at minimum partially). How did your intellect alter about large open up on the web courses and streaming movie instruction?
A: Transforming one’s brain is an necessary element of the human issue. If we get trapped in childhood, relatively than currently being open to experience, how would we ever master to adore olives or other foods most children uncover unappetizing? I dug my heels in opposing MOOCs and streaming video simply because they each lacked what I held as the gold common of top quality digital education — leaning forward in energetic college student engagement, somewhat than sitting down back again, passively viewing lessons.
But immediately after decades of adhering to how students essentially participated on-line, I discovered that electronic instruction is not a a single-sizing-fits-all garment, but a coat of numerous colors. It turned out that even even though learning science tells us that energetic participation is the most successful way of discovering, MOOCs and streaming videos can be a useful substitute to conventional training. Certainty is the bullheaded enemy of thoughts-altering conduct.
Pupils run on the playground at a key school in Longnan city, Northwest China’s Gansu province, on Aug 31, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]
An modification to China’s sports regulation that emphasizes bodily education, the sports activities market and combating doping is predicted to enable the region further acquire into an global sporting activities power.
The draft revision of the Law on Physical Culture and Athletics, which was submitted to China’s best legislature on Tuesday for 1st evaluation, outlines updated prerequisites for guaranteeing adequate sporting activities participation by college students on campuses, steps to boost the well balanced enhancement of the athletics field and new actions to avoid doping in sports.
The evaluation by the Standing Committee of the Countrywide People’s Congress this 7 days marks a phase toward the revamping of the a long time-old legislation to adapt to modern sporting activities progress throughout a wider array of issues.
“It can be been more than 20 years due to the fact the regulation was enacted (in 1995). It has been lagging far driving the development of the sports activities sector in our country,” claimed He Yiting, a member of the NPC’s Social Development Affairs Committee, which is main get the job done on the modification.
“The speedy evolving athletics organization, reforms to our country’s athletics governing system and the hosting of important international events, such as the Beijing 2022 Wintertime Olympics, have identified as for much more thorough and competent authorized security in the sporting activities sector, thus creating the revision an urgent need to have.”
The draft modification suggests students’ efficiency in sports competitions and functions on campus should really be a significant component of total assessments in universities, and that time established apart for PE lessons should not be taken over by training tutorial topics. Each and every college student ought to be guaranteed at least an hour of exercise a working day.
College-dependent sporting activities clubs and substantial-stage competitions need to be organized on a frequent foundation, and an insurance program masking accidents in the course of exercising has been proposed.
“It can be pretty vital to make it compulsory through the legislation amendment that the high quality and time of faculty-centered sports activities functions can be confirmed,” mentioned Jia Jinlong, a PE instructor from the Xiaotun campus of Beijing’s Fengtai No 2 Center University.
“When I was a university student, I hated it when our PE courses gave way to other courses. Now I can make sure that my classes will not be taken above as prior to.”
The draft also urges the country’s central sporting activities governing system, regional authorities, Point out-owned and personal organizations to promote public use of products and services in sports activities coaching, exercise advice, sports activities-associated leisure, leisure and tourism.
The fight in opposition to doping is highlighted as a new chapter in the modification that details the duties of sports activities governing bodies, well being authorities and educational departments at all stages to act aggressively versus the use, offer and instigation of effectiveness-maximizing drugs.
Actual physical training (PE) aims to strengthen students’ actual physical health. On the other hand, some wounded college students believe that some features of PE can exacerbate present injuries or even trigger them.
Elliana Sabahi, a dancer and freshman in PE I, statements that dancing caused her knee challenges, but managing places additional pressure on her knee.
“I’ve carried out independent PE of all a long time of my center faculty, so this is my initially time actually carrying out PE, and that is kinda how I uncovered out that working was definitely hurting my knees,” Sabahi said.
Sabani believes that managing is a excellent actual physical activity as it can support men and women in quite a few methods, but she thinks it is not effective to her owing to her injury.
Not like the induce of Sabahi’s injuries, managing triggered Ava Farrell, a freshman and swimmer, knee joint difficulties. She been given a doctor’s take note, which excuses a scholar from participating in activities that could worsen the harm. In spite of not functioning any more, Farrell said that the personal injury affects her existence as a swimmer.
“It has manufactured it more difficult to kick at swim apply and press off the wall, which would make me slower,” Farrell claimed.
Ava Farrell, an injured student, tends to make her way to course following lunch. (Lauren Elliott)
Nevertheless, Carlmont’s PE application does not offer you just operating for pupils. Farrell defined that in just about every week, her class participates in various pursuits, Smart Business.
“Some of the days are diverse. Monday we do strength schooling in the pounds room, Tuesday and Wednesday we do golf, and then Friday we do yoga,” Farrell stated.
In addition to owning diverse pursuits in PE I, Carlmont’s PE program also gives sophomores the choice to choose fat education, dance, or PE II for their graduation needs.
Jack Hitchcock, a sophomore with rotator cuff tendinitis, is having body weight schooling for his last yr of PE. Hitchcock statements that accomplishing pullups at residence and doing on-line PE caused his harm.
“I got it previous year’s on-line PE. I was performing the PE class and also functioning out in my area. I did a ton of pullups, and I believe my form was mistaken, or I did much too several,” Hitchcock stated.
Moreover, Hitchcock suggests weightlifting is distinctive from the previous PE lessons he has taken because there is no functioning, and you can choose what you do. With far more freedom more than what college students can get the job done on, learners have the prospect to avoid actions that bring about or worsen injuries.
Although attempts were designed to call PE division chair David Heck and other Carlmont PE instructors pertaining to guidelines for hurt students, all were unavailable. Pupils and Carlmont’s PE mission statement demonstrates the belief in the great importance of physical nicely-staying and remaining secure.
“Know your body and know your boundaries and do not do a little something that you know is heading to hurt you,” Sabahi reported.
The education sector was among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools across the globe were forced to shutter their campuses in the spring of 2020 and rapidly shift to online instruction. For many higher education institutions, this meant delivering standard courses and the “traditional” classroom experience through videoconferencing and various connectivity tools.
The approach worked to support students through a period of acute crisis but stands in contrast to the offerings of online education pioneers. These institutions use AI and advanced analytics to provide personalized learning and on-demand student support, and to accommodate student preferences for varying digital formats.
Colleges and universities can take a cue from the early adopters of online education, those companies and institutions that have been refining their online teaching models for more than a decade, as well as the edtechs that have entered the sector more recently. The latter organizations use educational technology to deliver online education services.
To better understand what these institutions are doing well, we surveyed academic research as well as the reported practices of more than 30 institutions, including both regulated degree-granting universities and nonregulated lifelong education providers. We also conducted ethnographic market research, during which we followed the learning journeys of 29 students in the United States and in Brazil, two of the largest online higher education markets in the world, with more than 3.3 million
and 2.3 million
online higher education students, respectively.
We found that, to engage most effectively with students, the leading online higher education institutions focus on eight dimensions of the learning experience. We have organized these into three overarching principles: create a seamless journey for students, adopt an engaging approach to teaching, and build a caring network (exhibit). In this article, we talk about these principles in the context of programs that are fully online, but they may be just as effective within hybrid programs in which students complete some courses online and some in person.
Exhibit
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Create a seamless journey for students
The performance of the early adopters of online education points to the importance of a seamless journey for students, easily navigable learning platforms accessible from any device, and content that is engaging, and whenever possible, personalized. Some early adopters have even integrated their learning platforms with their institution’s other services and resources, such as libraries and financial-aid offices.
1. Build the education road map
In our conversations with students and experts, we learned that students in online programs—precisely because they are physically disconnected from traditional classroom settings—may need more direction, motivation, and discipline than students in in-person programs. The online higher education programs that we looked at help students build their own education road map using standardized tests, digital alerts, and time-management tools to regularly reinforce students’ progress and remind them of their goals.
Brazil’s Cogna Educação, for instance, encourages students to assess their baseline knowledge at the start of the course.
Such up-front diagnostics could be helpful in highlighting knowledge gaps and pointing students to relevant tools and resources, and may be especially helpful to students who have had unequal educational opportunities. A web-based knowledge assessment allows Cogna students to confirm their mastery of certain parts of a course, which, according to our research, can potentially boost their confidence and allow them to move faster through the course material.
At the outset of a course, leaders in online higher education can help students clearly understand the format and content, how they will use what they learn, how much time and effort is required, and how prepared they are for its demands.
The University of Michigan’s online Atlas platform, for instance, gives students detailed information about courses and curricula, including profiles of past students, sample reports and evaluations, and grade distributions, so they can make informed decisions about their studies.
Another provider, Pluralsight, shares movie-trailer-style overviews of its course content and offers trial options so students can get a sense of what to expect before making financial commitments.
Meanwhile, some of the online doctoral students we interviewed have access to an interactive timeline and graduation calculator for each course, which help students understand each of the milestones and requirements for completing their dissertations. Breaking up the education process into manageable tasks this way can potentially ease anxiety, according to our interviews with education experts.
2. Enable seamless connections
Students may struggle to learn if they aren’t able to connect to learning platforms. Online higher education pioneers provide a single sign-on through which students can interact with professors and classmates and gain access to critical support services. Traditional institutions considering a similar model should remember that because high-speed and reliable internet are not always available, courses and program content should be structured so they can be accessed even in low-bandwidth situations or downloaded for offline use.
The technology is just one element of creating seamless connections. Since remote students may face a range of distractions, online-course content could benefit them by being more engaging than in-person courses. Online higher education pioneers allow students to study at their own pace through a range of channels and media, anytime and anywhere—including during otherwise unproductive periods, such as while in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. Coursera, for example, invites students to log into a personalized home page where they can review the status of their coursework, complete unfinished lessons, and access recommended “next content to learn” units. Brazilian online university Ampli Pitagoras offers content optimized for mobile devices that allows students to listen to lessons, contact tutors for help, or do quizzes from wherever they happen to be.
Adopt an engaging approach to teaching
The pioneers in online higher education we researched pair the “right” course content with the “right” formats to capture students’ attention. They incorporate real-world applications into their lesson plans, use adaptive learning tools to personalize their courses, and offer easily accessible platforms for group learning.
3. Offer a range of learning formats
The online higher education programs we reviewed incorporate group activities and collaboration with classmates—important hallmarks of the higher education experience—into their mix of course formats, offering both live classes and self-guided, on-demand lessons.
The Georgia Institute of Technology, for example, augments live lessons from faculty members in its online graduate program in data analytics with a collaboration platform where students can interact outside of class, according to a student we interviewed. Instructors can provide immediate answers to students’ questions via the platform or endorse students’ responses to questions from their peers. Instructors at Zhejiang University in China use live videoconferencing and chat rooms to communicate with more than 300 participants, assign and collect homework assignments, and
set goals.
The element of personalization is another area in which online programs can consider upping their ante, even in large student groups. Institutions could offer customized ways of learning online, whether via digital textbook, podcast, or video, ensuring that these materials are high quality and that the cost of their production is spread among large student populations.
Some institutions have invested in bespoke tools to facilitate various learning modes. The University of Michigan’s Center for Academic Innovation embeds custom-designed software into its courses to enhance the experience for both students and professors.
The school’s ECoach platform helps students in large classes navigate content when one-on-one interaction with instructors is difficult because of the sheer number of students. It also sends students reminders, motivational tips, performance reviews, and exam-preparation materials.
Meanwhile, Minerva University focuses on a real-time online-class model that supports higher student participation and feedback and has built a platform with a “talk time” feature that lets instructors balance class participation and engage “back-row students” who may be inclined to participate less.
4. Ensure captivating experiences
Delivering education on digital platforms opens the potential to turn curricula into engaging and interactive journeys, and online education leaders are investing in content whose quality is on a par with high-end entertainment. Strayer University, for example, has recruited Emmy Award–winning film producers and established an in-house production unit to create multimedia lessons. The university’s initial findings show that this investment is paying off in increased student engagement, with 85 percent of learners reporting that they watch lessons from beginning to end, and also shows a 10 percent reduction in the student dropout rate.
Other educators are attracting students not only with high-production values but influential personalities. Outlier provides courses in the form of high-quality videos that feature charismatic Ivy League professors and are shot in a format that reduces eye strain.
The course content follows a storyline, and each course is presented as a crucial piece in an overall learning journey.
5. Utilize adaptive learning tools
Online higher education pioneers deliver adaptive learning using AI and analytics to detect and address individual students’ needs and offer real-time feedback and support. They can also predict students’ requirements, based on individuals’ past searches and questions, and respond with relevant content. This should be conducted according to the applicable personal data privacy regulations of the country where the institution is operating.
Cogna Educação, for example, developed a system that delivers real-time, personalized tutoring to more than 500,000 online students, paired with exercises customized to address specific knowledge gaps.
Minerva University used analytics to devise a highly personalized feedback model, which allows instructors to comment and provide feedback on students’ online learning assignments and provide access to test scores during one-on-one feedback sessions.
According to our research, instructors can also access recorded lessons during one-on-one sessions and provide feedback on student participation during class.
6. Include real-world application of skills
The online higher education pioneers use virtual reality (VR) laboratories, simulations, and games for students to practice skills in real-world scenarios within controlled virtual environments. This type of hands-on instruction, our research shows, has traditionally been a challenge for online institutions.
Arizona State University, for example, has partnered with several companies to develop a biology degree that can be obtained completely online. The program leverages VR technology that gives online students in its biological-sciences program access to a state-of-the-art lab. Students can zoom in to molecules and repeat experiments as many times as needed—all from the comfort of wherever they happen to be.
Meanwhile, students at Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas are using 3-D games to find innovative solutions to real-world problems—for instance, designing the post-COVID-19 campus experience.
Some institutions have expanded the real-world experience by introducing online internships. Columbia University’s Virtual Internship Program, for example, was developed in partnership with employers across the United States and offers skills workshops and resources, as well as one-on-one career counseling.
Create a caring network
Establishing interpersonal connections may be more difficult in online settings. Leading online education programs provide dedicated channels to help students with academic, personal, technological, administrative, and financial challenges and to provide a means for students to connect with each other for peer-to-peer support. Such programs are also using technologies to recognize signs of student distress and to extend just-in-time support.
7. Provide academic and nonacademic support
Online education pioneers combine automation and analytics with one-on-one personal interactions to give students the support they need.
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), for example, uses a system of alerts and communication nudges when its digital platform detects low student engagement. Meanwhile, AI-powered chatbots provide quick responses to common student requests and questions.
Strayer University has a virtual assistant named Irving that is accessible from every page of the university’s online campus website and offers 24/7 administrative support to students, from recommending courses to making personalized graduation projections.
Many of these pioneer institutions augment that digital assistance with human support. SNHU, for example, matches students in distress with personal coaches and tutors who can follow the students’ progress and provide regular check-ins. In this way, they can help students navigate the program and help cultivate a sense of belonging.
Similarly, Arizona State University pairs students with “success coaches” who give personalized guidance and counseling.
8. Foster a strong community
The majority of students we interviewed have a strong sense of belonging to their academic community. Building a strong network of peers and professors, however, may be challenging in online settings.
To alleviate this challenge, leading online programs often combine virtual social events with optional in-person gatherings. Minerva University, for example, hosts exclusive online events that promote school rituals and traditions for online students, and encourages online students to visit its various locations for in-person gatherings where they can meet members of its diverse, dispersed student population.
SNHU’s Connect social gateway gives online-activity access to more than 15,000 members, and helps them interact within an exclusive university social network. Students can also join student organizations and affinity clubs virtually.
Getting started: Designing the online journey
Building a distinctive online student experience requires significant time, effort, and investment. Most institutions whose practices we reviewed in this article took several years to understand student needs and refine their approaches to online education.
For those institutions in the early stages of rethinking their online offerings, the following three steps may be useful. Each will typically involve various functions within the institution, including but not necessarily limited to, academic management, IT, and marketing.
Assess your current online offerings. An initial diagnosis could provide an understanding of how satisfied students are with the existing online experience, their expectations and preferences, and the competitive landscape.
The diagnosis could be performed through a combination of focus groups and quantitative surveys, for example. It’s important that participants represent various student segments, which are likely to have different expectations, including young-adult full-time undergraduate students, working-adult part-time undergraduate students, and graduate students. The eight key dimensions outlined above may be helpful for structuring groups and surveys, in addition to self-evaluation of institution performance and potential benchmarks.
Set a strategic vision for your online learning experience. The vision should be student-centric and link tightly to the institution’s overarching manifesto. The function leaders could evaluate the costs/benefits of each part of the online experience to ensure that the costs are realistic. The online model may vary depending on each school’s market, target audience, and tuition price point. An institution with high tuition, for example, is more likely to afford and provide one-on-one live coaching and student support, while an institution with lower tuition may need to rely more on automated tools and asynchronous interactions with students.
Design the transformation journey. Institutions should expect a multiyear journey. Some may opt to outsource the program design and delivery to dedicated program-management companies. But in our experience, an increasing number of institutions are developing these capabilities internally, especially as online learning moves further into the mainstream and becomes a source of long-term strategic advantage.
We have found that leading organizations often begin with quick wins that significantly raise student experiences, such as stronger student support, integrated technology platforms, and structured course road maps. In parallel, they begin the incremental redesign of courses and delivery models, often focusing on key programs with the largest enrollments and tapping into advanced analytics for insights to refine these experiences.
Finally, institutions tackle key enabling factors, such as instructor onboarding and online-teaching training, robust technology infrastructure, and advanced-analytics programs that enable the institutions to understand which features of online education are performing well and generating exceptional learning experiences for their students.
The question is no longer whether the move to online will outlive the COVID-19 lockdowns but when online learning will become the dominant means for delivering higher education. As digital transformation accelerates across all industries, higher education institutions will need to consider how to develop their own online strategies.
The government’s residence-schooling strategies have not absent down perfectly with the affiliation representing people opting for this expressing it is “greatly disappointed” that its provides to cooperate in drafting the relevant regulation were disregarded.
The Malta House Training Association’s most important bone of contention problems the prerequisite of a teacher’s warrant for mother and father and guardians to household-university their young children, as the schooling act, that came into drive this thirty day period, stipulates.
In a letter to Education and learning Minister Justyne Caruana, it requested to open the way for collaboration with the voluntary organisation to exhibit the revisions required for house training to turn out to be a fact on a par with intercontinental benchmarks.
Mothers and fathers intrigued in home-schooling their children can implement from March 2022, the Instruction Ministry introduced.
But the men and women it instantly problems reported they ended up ignored, irrespective of quite a few requests for meetings to give their enter. “We sought this interaction as we recognise there is a lack of knowledge in Malta about dwelling instruction, which has led to numerous people leaving to obtain this suitable,” the MHEA reported.
According to the instruction act, handed in 2019, mom and dad would have to have to have a instructing warrant and a licence.
They could now educate their have kids presented they also experienced a legitimate reason, for illustration in the case of families who move countries commonly and mothers and fathers who continuously vacation because of to their do the job.
Mothers and fathers would also have to existing an academic programme and syllabus that incorporated social and actual physical education and learning factors to avoid college students just sitting down powering a display screen.
The association – which has been lively due to the fact 2016 and upholds the principle that mom and dad are primarily responsible for their children’s training – has also pointed out the deficiency of ideal for recourse, or attraction, should an application be considered unsuccessful, with an improved danger of hefty fines for the non-compliant.
As the legislation presently stands, households in Malta will not have the similar obtain to house education as all those in Europe, the US, Canada and other nations where it is acknowledged that house-educated small children follow programmes that do not have to have the parents to maintain a teaching diploma.
“This is not a school location nor ought to it seem like just one. The part of the educator is to connect college students to pathways of discovering, usually by way of accredited programmes, main to tertiary and additional analyze,” it stated.
Residence-education gave family members the option to offer you their kids an education and learning by fostering curiosity, all-natural processes of discovery and essential wondering.
Records clearly show that residence-schooled young children go on to more study and schooling, excelling in tertiary schooling due to the fact they are accustomed to carrying out analysis and can rapidly grasp college standards of mastering, the MHEA said.
“An instruction that is totally free and obligatory is a worthy privilege that every single little one is entitled to. However in 21st-century Malta, we are continue to in a place where most family members do not have the ideal to decide on the sort of education their little ones acquire.”
In clarifying the opening day of purposes to the Directorate for High quality and Expectations in Training from March 1, the Training Ministry experienced also highlighted that residence-education was “not an alternate understanding route for retaining kids at property in incredible situations such as a pandemic”.
The MHEA, in change, welcomed all steps for the security of vulnerable kids and young men and women, affirming the want for important checking to ensure household-schooled children are acquiring the genuine education their mother and father declare they are.
To date, the association mentioned, it has gained no reply and no acknowledgement to its letter from the training authorities.
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