Walking into the half-empty, columbia blue halls covered with social distancing signs and directional arrows for the first time in six months excited many students who chose to attend in-person school.
Even though we’re unable to offer a smile or hug to our now-masked teachers, that small sense of normalcy should have felt right — that is, until the lack of learning time we are now given is taken into consideration.
By the time hybrid learning began, most students were finally settled into the online learning schedule. Some rolled out of bed and over to their computers right at 7:39 a.m., while others had a strict 6 a.m. schedule in place for personal success. Most importantly, students were in class five days a week and learning new material for five to six hours a day on a structured schedule.
As soon as SMSD announced that high school students would return to campus with a hybrid-model schedule starting Monday, Oct. 26, it was undeniable that the first weeks back would be filled with uncertainty and confusion for students and teachers. But the current system isn’t making the cut for efficient learning, with students getting almost half the class time they would online and not being held accountable for material on their remote days.
The hybrid system has students with last names A-Lamb attending school in-person on a block schedule Monday and Tuesday, and students with last names Lamc-Z attending class on Wednesday and Thursday. On the days each cohort — or last name group — isn’t there, they have “remote” classes. Friday classes are completely remote for all students.
The problem is that this schedule only requires students to attend each class twice a week — leaving remote days completely up to the individual student to learn the material on their own and stay productive. Students are required to check into their seminar for five to 10 minutes via WebEx on the days they are online for attendance, but other than that, the day is mostly up to them. Following the school’s recommendation, most teachers aren’t requiring students to join WebEx on the days they are remote. While a few classes do request students’ attendance on the days they’re remote, there are dozens more that don’t make up for the lack of time spent learning.
Teachers have been told to post remote work for students on Canvas, but the tasks seem to consist of assignments the second half of the alphabet hasn’t been introduced to — forcing students to self-teach or fill out pointless busy work like six repetitive Anatomy worksheets or redundant review videos.
As for the days students are in classes, teachers will likely use these days for assessments or labs to prevent cheating and dishonesty on the exams. The drawback? We don’t get to spend that valuable time in-person learning content and material to do well on those tests.
While some standard-level classes have the flexibility to omit content from the curriculum they don’t have enough time to learn, AP or IB classes likely won’t get through all of the information to ensure students’ success on AP or IB exams. Those students don’t get any leeway, as they need to learn the information by the test date in May — if not in class, then on their own. Some AP teachers are assigning videos for the students to watch at home on top of class lectures and assignments in order to cover all material.
Other teachers have opted for a flipped classroom approach to hybrid learning. In a flipped classroom, students watch lectures for homework and complete assignments during online or in-person days, ensuring enough time for questions and hands-on learning. With very few options, this seems to be the best approach to hybrid learning that all teachers who are willing, and able, should take.
Something else teachers can improve on is clarity in instruction on remote days. Logging onto Canvas and seeing a mere list of assignments is not how we are going to improve on the current learning situation. The district or school has the ability to standardize how teachers organize their Canvas page — especially where they post information for online students so that everyone knows where to look.
The district also has the ability to make changes to its hybrid policy to make the schedule more effective. Attendance should still be mandatory on online days for students to WebEx into class in order to ensure students are getting as much learning time as possible, while still having responsibilities.
No teacher, student or system will be completely flawless and effective amidst the current COVID-19 crisis, and no one person or board is to blame. But there needs to be change, and that can start with something as simple as teachers being more clear about instruction on remote days, or experimenting with a flipped classroom to ensure maximum learning time for all students.
This system just isn’t cutting it— for both teachers and students. Understandably, the current conditions make in-person learning challenging in the first place, but only seeing teachers and learning content twice a week is an inferior alternative to at least having the consistency of learning remotely every day of the week. Although teachers, the school and the district have the chance to make the most of it with simple alternatives such as opting for a flipped classroom, enforcing mandatory attendance on remote days or even simply reorganizing Canvas to make remote instruction clear to make hybrid learning more effective.