On April 10, District 127 implemented their first e-learning day, and they are now beginning to reflect on their use in the future. The day was designed to provide students with testing accommodations a quiet environment and other students with a learning experience outside of the classroom.
The decision was made after speaking with districts who had already began their implementation.
“We talked to other districts that had already done e-learning days and kind of learned lessons from them about the things that we needed to put into place, including the attendance mechanisms,” said assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction Tracey Landry. “Then we began crafting the who, what, where, why, when, and how of that day. We outlined why we were doing it and what the expectations were.”
After the e-learning day, a survey was sent out in hopes of collecting feedback and finding places to improve before creating e-learning days in the future.
“We are at the point where we are gathering data back through a survey that was sent to parents, teachers, and students,” said associate principal of curriculum Dr. Jeff Schagrin. “We’re now just beginning to debate and reflect on it. We’re waiting to see the entire feedback portfolio before any decisions can be made.”
Another factor that could impact future e-learning days is legislation. E-learning was made available due to recent legislation, but now it could be amended so it is no longer an option.
“There’s been legislation introduced to try to limit e-learning and to put some criteria about how e-learning is used within schools,” said Principal Dr. James Roscoe. “E-learning has become part of a wider legislative conversation, and we don’t know where that conversation will take us quite yet.”
According to Schagrin, the e-learning day was a success in completing the goal they had for it.
“We achieved the goal of having a really great testing environment for the students that needed it while providing appropriate course content and creating a day of learning even though students weren’t here in the building,” Schagrin said.
Although e-learning had its successes on April 10, it is still under review for future implementation. According to Roscoe, e-learning is not being considered necessarily for a last minute remedy to snow days, but used after adequate planning.
“My personal philosophy is that the best experience that kids can have is being with their teacher face-to-face, but you know these are days where we are trying to make the best experience possible for the kids,” Roscoe said.