Remote Learning Enquiry

The onset of the lockdown from the COVID 19 pandemic left schools in Wales and across the world in need of creating an emergency curriculum for their learners as lessons switched from face to face to remote lessons. The switch from the standard curriculum model to remote learning was almost overnight which led to a conundrum of how to upskill pupils and staff to use remote learning remotely.

At Dwr y Felin, we decided to create a remote learning platform for our learners using an enquiry approach which had been developed in by participation in the Welsh Government National Professional Enquiry project.

The aims of the enquiry were to:

• Create a platform for our learners to engage in effective and engaging lessons remotely;

• Upskill staff to use the HWB platform to facilitate remote learning;

• Create a PLC to explore and research remote learning techniques through a supportive and collaborative network;

• Create an online resource to support the learners, parents/guardians and staff of Dwr Y Felin.

These combine with the ongoing aim to continue to explore new research as it becomes available, and continue to update the Dwr Y Felin Blended Learning website. 

The enquiry design was based on the Spiral of Inquiry methodology (Kaser & Halbert, 2017). The methodology is based on six phases: Scan, Focus, Develop a hunch, Learn, Take action and Check. 

• The data collection approach was largely qualitative in nature, which  involved a staff questionnaire to develop an understanding of the digital skills of the staff of Dwr y Felin. This was repeated at the end of the summer with all staff to gauge their development in light of the training offered. The Remote Learning PLC were offered an additional questionnaire at the mid point of the term to gauge progress.

• Staff were asked to identify whether they would like to be involved in the Remote Learning PLC. 30 teachers volunteered across a range of departments and the group was formed using Microsoft Teams. There were two key reading documents sent to all staff to read which gave an overview of what made a good remote learning lesson.

• Heads of departments were interviewed by S. Crowson & C. Davies to discuss the challenges facing the department in implementing a Remote Learning curriculum and what positives they had seen in the initial switch to remote learning.

• The Remote Learning PLC members were divided into smaller working parties to research the use of a range of remote learning applications and strategies. The focus areas were Resource Innovation (Starters & Scaffolding Learning), Video/Audio, Microsoft Stream /Flipgrid, PowerPoint Design & OneNote, Resource Innovation (Routines), Reviewing Understanding (AFL) and Pupil Voice.

• Weekly online meetings were held with the Remote Learning PLC to allow for the exchange of ideas and outcomes of academic reading in the PLC, showing of good practice and to attain feedback on the progression of the working parties.

• The Remote Learning PLC was run alongside Professional Learning opportunities for staff in the form of training videos and webinars to support the adoption setting and organising work remotely.

• As resources were developed, they were tested with the focus groups' classes and a resource reflection was completed and the resource tweaked in light of the reflection. The resource was then shared with the wider Remote Learning PLC to be tested more widely before being rolled out to all teaching staff.

• A professional learning offer was held with all staff for Remote Learning participants to share key findings from the research that had been taking place.

• The endpoint of the Remote Learning enquiry was to create a online resource for learners, parents and staff to continue to upskill  all stakeholders (this website) and to continue to work with the Remote Learning PLC to develop blended learning strategies for use from September 2020 onwards.

The concept of remote learning in education is not a new phenomenon, it has been a feature of curriculum design in Higher & Further education settings for some time. This meant that much of the academic literature available was written about College and University aged students. This meant that the search for literature on the subject of remote learning led to using educational websites, with most of the information being published recently.

The Education Endowment Fund conducted a rapid evidence review and concluded that the key consideration for supporting pupils in remote learning were:

·         Teaching quality is more important than how lessons are delivered

·         Ensuring access to technology is key, especially for disadvantaged pupils

·         Peer interactions can provide motivation and improve learning outcomes

·         Supporting pupils to work independently can improve learning outcomes

·         Different approaches to remote learning suit different types of content and pupils

(Education Endowment Fund, 2020)

We decided at Dwr y Felin that we needed to investigate creating a structure of what makes a good remote lesson, to deliver high quality teaching and learning. Paul Kirschner suggests that the teaching remotely is not the same as teaching in a normal classroom environment outlining the following aims when creating a lesson:

• Keep it short. “Try not to do all of what you normally do in your online class.”

• Prepare well. “Know what you’re going to say, don’t change it during class.”

• Provide structure. “List what students should do and see if they have done it.”

• Prepare students. “If you are going to talk about something, prepare them beforehand with stimulating their prior knowledge.”

• Give short assignments before and after and require them to be submitted to you. “Not complicated or profound, but things they can do in a few minutes and you can see whether they are prepared (before) and understand (after).”

• Make use of the online resources available. “Don’t try to do something better in an evening that that which has already been done well by someone else.”

(Kirschner, 2020)

The enquiry design was based on the Spiral of Inquiry methodology (Kaser & Halbert, 2017). The methodology is based on six phases Scan, Focus, Develop a hunch, Learn, Take action and Check. This  methodology was used throughout the intervention in order to test the effectiveness of the remote learning in smaller sub PLCs, feed into the Remote Learning PLC and then to the wider school being reviewed at each stage.

References

Education Endowment Fund, 2020. Rapid evidence assessment : Distance Learning, s.l.: Education Endowment Fund.

Kaser, L. & Halbert, J., 2017. The Spiral Playbook : Leading with an inquiring mindset. s.l.:C21 Canada.

Kirschner, P., 2020. Tips for effective teaching if you have to teach at a distance. [Online] 

Available at: https://www.kirschnered.nl/posts/Tips_for_effective_teaching_if_you_have_to_teach_at_a_distance

Initial Reading Links

Smith, S., 2020. Reflecting on remote teaching: Exemplifying several strategies. 

Worth, D., 2020. Coronavirus: How to maximise distance learning. 

Rapid Evidence Assessment - EEF

Initial Data Collection

A range of data was collected, pre-intervention. Initial findings from staff are outlined below.

Staff Questionnaire

To gauge the overall confidence of the staff in implementing remote learning for pupils, staff were invited to complete a questionnaire as we went into lockdown measures in the UK as a starting point for the research project.  The data collection showed that at that point on 43% of staff surveyed were confident in delivering a remote learning experience for their pupils. This underlines the massive task faced educational practitioners across Wales at this time. 

To try and drill down into the specific skills or applications staff were confident were using we focused on two ways that we implemented remote learning at that time through the VLE and Microsoft Teams. It was found that at this only 45.3% of staff felt they had a competent or complex understanding of using the VLE, with 54.7% having a basic or no understanding of the VLE. When asked Microsoft teams 23.8% of staff felt they had a competent or complex understanding of teams with 76.2% having basic or no understanding. 

The third question of the questionnaire focused on specific features of the Microsoft Teams application and how confident staff were in using them. The data suggested that the majority of staff at that point had basic or no understanding of in creating teams, creating assignments, giving feedback and collaborating with others through the Microsoft Teams. This is likely due to the majority of staff exposure to using teams being limited to small trials within their own lessons. Formal staff training was planned for the summer term 2020 before the COVID outbreak.

If you would like to further explore the questionnaire findings please use the link below.

Link to Summary of Questionnaire Findings

Final Data Collection

A range of data was collected, post-intervention. Final findings from staff are outlined below.

Staff Questionnaire

To gauge the overall confidence following the implementation of remote learning over the lockdown period and professional learning opportunities undertaken, staff again were invited to complete a short questionnaire.  This questionnaire had developed to include significantly more data points as new methods of delivering remote learning were explored.

The data collection showed that the all the teachers surveyed now felt that they could deliver a remote learning environment for the pupils which showed an increase of 57% from the initial survey. Also 83.7% of staff felt they had a competent or complex understanding of using the VLE to deliver remote learning and 95.3% of staff had a competent or complex understanding of Microsoft Teams.

To see what strategies of professional learning were most effective during the period, they were asked to rate the impact of each offering.

The Remote Learning PLC showed to have no impact for 2.3% of staff, Low impact for 7% of staff, Moderate impact for 51.2% of staff and 25.6% said it had a high impact on their professional development with 14% being non-applicable. Though these results were skewed as not all staff in the survey participated in the Remote Learning PLC but responded to the question instead of stating N/A. If the results just accounted for full participants in the PLC (28 Responses), the results would show a low impact of 3.58%, a moderate for 57.14% of staff and a high impact for 39.29% of staff.

Staff were also asked to rate their confidence in delivering blended learning. The results showed that 33% of staff were extremely confident, 63% were somewhat confident and the remaining 4% were either somewhat not confident or extremely not confident. 

If you would like to further explore the questionnaire findings please use the link below.

Link to Summary of Findings

Impact

• Post intervention, 96% of staff felt that they were able to implement a remote learning environment for their pupils, which was a 53% increase from the initial survey.

• Post intervention, 97% of participating staff felt that the Remote Learning PLC had a moderate or high impact on their remote learning professional development.

• Post intervention 95.3% of staff had a competent or complex understanding of Microsoft Teams compared to 23.8% prior to the intervention.

• Staff understanding of the tools available greatly increased during the intervention period. See graphs below for details.

• Academic literature on remote learning was generally in relation to Higher Education institutions and not the secondary school environment.

• The initial questionnaire did not encompass opinions using some applications such as Microsoft Stream and Flipgrid as these were discovered and explored during the process of the project. 

• Not all staff were available for all meetings at the same time, so meetings were recorded to overcome this issue.

• Collection of pupil voice was limited to a small group due to the need to gain permission from parents/guardians.

• Access to devices for staff was an issue, with a large variance in what was available. This was overcome by the school lending computers to staff.

• Staff training sessions were generally limited to a online meeting environment due to COVID-19 restrictions.

• Due to the nature of the HWB platform there are limitations to the applications that can be accessed by pupils.

• Members of the Remote Learning PLC lead workshops to show effective remote learning practices in whole staff INSET (Completed July 2020)

• Explore how the developed competencies in remote learning can be leveraged to develop meaningful blended learning experiences for our pupils.

• Use the knowledge gained from remote learning to complement the projects being created by AOLE's for KS3 pupils.

• Continue to develop the Dwr Y Felin blended learning website as new educational applications become available on the HWB platform.

• Continue to collect pupil voice of how they find using blended learning platforms in both an academic and pastoral context.