When moving to online learning, there are several best practices to observe. Some of them pertain to how you deliver your materials, others deal with your time and expectations.

1. Communication to Students and Parents

• • Follow your district's guidelines and protocols for communication, but make sure that you are communicating directly with both parents and students.

  • Your communications should include: the goals/objectives students are working toward, the support systems available, and the work they need to complete.

  • Help parents understand the expectations of the online coursework with guides for online learning like this one.

  • Review the recommendations for setting online boundaries for students from PA Professional Standards and Practices Commission

2. Being Mindful of Social-Emotional Needs

• • Check-in with how students are feeling and provide them opportunities to share.

  • Students will want to hear back from you - leverage video and audio messages and feel free to be the same playful educator you were in the classroom. Check out this article on Creating a Sense of Presence in the Online Classroom.

  • Try to include your face in all webinars and videos, start them with "Hello."

3. Organizing Materials and Sequencing Instructions

• • Organize your lessons, identifying clear objectives for each learning task so that students see value in the work.

    • • Use a guide like this one to outline every lesson.

  • Be as specific as possible with your requirements for tasks and identify how long you think they will take.

    • • When possible, offer students a checklist for their work such as this Weekly Overview document or Example Module Checklist.

  • Consider what needs to be synchronous and what can be moved to asynchronous. You may need to collaborate with your teams, colleagues, and/or content areas when planning synchronous instruction so that courses do not meet simultaneously. Confer with your administration and any guidelines they may offer. Consider this bandwidth matrix to help you identify solutions to potential bandwidth concerns when learning.

  • Consider chunking learning and creating playlists. Look at this article on nonlinear curriculum for ideas.

4. The Reality of Time

• • ALWAYS consider that assignments done at home may take twice as long due to many factors, so you should prioritize what you are asking students to do. The hard fact is, you're not going to be able to still do it all. Focus on what is absolutely essential and critical.

  • The following guidelines are available from the Continuous Learning Task Force Guidance from the state of Kansas (page 13) for the amount of work students should be doing per day:

    • • Pre-K : 30 minutes

      • Grades K-1: 45 minutes

      • Grades 2-3: 60 minutes

      • Grades 4-5: 90 minutes

      • Grades 6-12: 30 minutes per teacher (3 hours max in a day)

5. Utilizing Video

• When using video in your lessons, there are several findings to consider. If bandwidth is a concern, consider this bandwidth matrix before choosing video as an option. Students with limited bandwidth may be unable to stream your videos.

• A great rule of thumb with students is to make sure that any videos you want them to watch are no longer in length than their grade level. That said, in this empirical study on video production and student engagement, the following findings and recommendations were identified:

  • • Segment your videos into chunks shorter than 6 minutes - shorter videos are more engaging.

    • Include your face whenever you possibly can.

    • Speak fairly quickly and with high enthusiasm to engage your learners.

6. Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners

• • When considering the needs of your students consider the following:

    • Accessibility for Students: NCDAE Cheatsheets

    • Employ the Universal Design for Learning with your students: Measuring UDL in Online Learning

      • You can find more information about the UDL Guidelines on our Special Education Page!

      • You can find more information about working with EL Learners on our EL Page!

      • You can find more information about working with Gifted Learners on our Gifted Page!

7. K-4 - Designing Content for Caregiver instead of Student

• • Materials for the K-4 student should be directed to the parent or guardian to deliver or facilitate.

8. Consider how to Support Offline Learners

• Review our page on resources and strategies for learners who cannot get online.

• Think about how you can assist students Solve Social Distancing.