Naperville School District 203 has renewed its e-learning program with some added improvements based on a survey of staff, parents and students.
The e-learning plan allows students and staff to work virtually as needed during severe weathers, electrical outages or incidents in which school might otherwise be canceled and extra days added to the end of the school year to make up for the lost time.
District officials, who say the e-learning plan ensures uninterrupted online learning and makes the school calendar more consistent, had to submit their plan to the Regional Office of Education for approval by this week.
In a recent survey of 10,266 people, 73% of respondents were in favor of e-learning in lieu of emergency days.
This includes 64% of parents or guardians, 75% of students and 88% of staff, results show.
Parents found that expectations were clear and teachers were accessible, but expressed interest in some form of synchronous interaction with students. Synchronous learning is when the students interact with a teacher in real time.
As a result, the district revised its e-learning day plan so that all students in kindergarten through high school will hold a synchronous 30-minute morning meeting with their classroom, homeroom or first-period teacher to get started and understand the learning for the day, said Jayne Willard, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.
Early childhood educators will host an online, school-wide reading event or have an author visit.
Lessons will be available by 9 a.m. for students to access online. The district will also offer two office hour sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, for students to get educator support.
The district will make all efforts to call an e-learning day as soon as possible and in most circumstances will not use e-learning days for consecutive days, Willard said.
The district website will be updated to include more information about tech support. About 34% of students experienced some sort of technical difficulties, the survey said, but nearly 90% of staff reported no problems.
While high school students may be more independent with their schoolwork requirements, teachers do practice with younger students on how to access online applications on their devices so they can be comfortable with them should an e-learning day be called, Willard said.
“We know this does not replace a face-to-face full day of learning,” she said. “We also know that this is hopefully something we don’t have to access often, but we know that we have to have the ability in certain times too.”
Board member Kristen Fitzgerald, speaking at the board’s June 17 meeting, cited Advanced Placement classes as one example where having e-learning days was a benefit to students. E-learning days provides high school students taking the AP tests for college credit as another means to study for the exams which take place in early May instead of having an emergency day at the end of the school year when the exams are over, Fitzgerald said.
Board President Kristine Gericke said expectations for students or teachers do not change when learning virtually. It is just a change of venue.
The only board member to vote against the e-learning plan was Melissa Kelley Black, who said she did not believe the survey had a lot of depth or feedback, and many parents could have missed it.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
