Continuity of Instruction

    When the world transformed during the pandemic in 2020, the world of education underwent a complete shift from face-to-face to online. In a matter of days, educators were expected to transform their teaching into virtual lessons. As we have learned from that experience and prepare for the future of education, the continuity of instruction is vital. The continuity of instruction refers to strategies and practices that ensure learning continues uninterrupted, even when faced with unexpected disruptions. Let's discuss a few key elements to the continuity of instruction for educators.

Instructional Design

    Engaging students is always a top priority for educators-- whether they are teaching face-to-face or virtually. Keeping students engaged with the content improves student understanding of the material. One key aspect of engagement is instructional design. According to the Continuous Learning Rubric v2.1, instructional design should "integrate instruction and technology to engage students with instruction, materials, and teachers". To accomplish this, educators must be intentional about the way they design the course, record their lessons, create informational graphics, and assess student understanding. A professor at the University of San Diego, Lisa Evans, has recently published tips for effective instructional design practices. See the graphic below for the list of tips.

Tips to Instructional Design by Meredith Barker    

For more information about each tip, read the full article which can be found here.

Professional Development

    The importance of effective and helpful professional development grows as education continues to shift and transform. The Continuous Learning Rubric v2.1 states that school districts should "provide opportunities for teachers and staff to receive the appropriate professional development". Although districts should be intentional about providing these essential opportunities, if they do not, educators can seek them out on their own. ClassLink acknowledges educators' learned skills and discusses the need to continue to deepen their skillset when stating, "while most teachers have some training around online learning, most haven’t had to use those skills until now. Meaning they need support and a refresh focused on both technology and instruction" (Kemble, n.d., 2020, para. 3). Seeking out opportunities for professional development concerning technology and instruction is always beneficial for teachers and will enhance teaching strategies and skills. For professional development opportunities click here. Additional ways to support teachers can be through:

• Trainings
• Assistance with course development and delivery
• Technology support
• Workload, compensation, and reward systems

(Simonson & Zvacek, 2024, p. 314-316)

Assessment and Data

    Once the information has been taught to students, it is essential for educators to evaluate the effectiveness of their lesson through assessment. Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2016) define the four levels of evaluation as follows: "Did they like it? Did they learn it? Will they use it? Will it matter?" (as cited by Simonson & Zvacek, 2024, p. 324). These four evaluation levels can be accomplished through formative and summative assessments. Assessments can be through:

• Google Forms
• Google Meets:
  • Having formal or informal interviews with students about the material.
  • Having class meetings and discussions.
• Google Docs for papers or essays
• Canva for presentations.
• Adobe Spark for presentations.

    If educators implemented the use of these platforms to evaluate their students according to the four evaluation levels, they would accomplish Standard 29 of the Continuous Learning Rubric v2.1, which states that educators must "securely collect formal and informal data that is actionable and accessible to understand students' instructional and socio-emotional needs".

References:

Continuous Learning Rubric v2.1. (n.d.). Google Docs. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lXAwsLWBfNslkhIGxHqgojVjmV5n8KIrR7SCmZnNqsA/edit?gid=1587779846#gid=1587779846

Evans, L. (2025, April 16). 12 Instructional Design Best Practices [+ Tips for success]. University of San Diego Online Degrees. https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/instructional-design-best-practices/\

Kemble, J. (n.d.). Learning Continuity Guidebook: Develop Teacher & Student Capacity. https://www.classlink.com/blog/learning-continuity-guidebook-part6

Simonson, M., & Zvacek, S. (2024). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (8th ed.). Information Age Publishing, Inc.

 Student Motivation in Distance Learning

Is student motivation in learning important? 

    Researchers, Huang and Wang (2022) concluded through their research that, "the effect of relatedness satisfaction on students’ academic achievement was completely mediated by the extent to which they emotionally and behaviourally engaged in online learning activities" (para. Conclusion 4). Furthermore, they state, "effectively motivating and engaging students in the online classroom is critical to the quality and effectiveness of online education (Chen & Jang, 2010; Ferrer et al., 2020, as cited by Huang and Wang, 2022, para. 2). Simply put, the more engaged students are throughout a course, the higher their success and academic achievement tends to be.

    As an educator, keeping students engaged and motivated to learn is one of the biggest priorities and challenges. All students are motivated differently. In traditional face-to-face teaching, it is easy to see if a student is not engaged and motivated because they are most likely not paying attention during instruction-- they are playing with a pencil, looking around, daydreaming, or putting their head down. In online distance education, it is much harder to detect when students are not engaged or motivated. Too often, it is detected when it is too late —when a student misses an assignment due date or an assignment is turned in that contains many misconceptions. How do distance educators ensure students are motivated before assignment completion?

Increasing Student Motivation

    Keeping students engaged throughout the course requires intentional effort from the teacher. Simonson and Zvacek, researchers, recently concluded four things an educator can embed into their online class to maintain student motivation:

1. Relevance: Students are more apt to care about the content they are engaging with if it has relevance to them. "Consider ways to tie course discussions and assignments to local or regional happenings, events of interest to students, or long-term professional goals" (Simonson & Zvacek, 2024, p. 193)
2. Presence: Students need to be able to 'see' their educator throughout the duration of the course. This could be done through video meetings or pre-recorded instructional videos. Not only should educators create opportunities for themselves to be seen, but they should also provide ways for students to communicate with each other. After all, "ask any child what they like best about school and the answer is likely to be, 'I get to see my friends'" (Simonson & Zvacek, 2024, p. 193). 
3. Perseverance: Educators should share stories of their own perseverance to encourage their students to continue to persevere in their own academic courses. "Teachers can share stories of how they ovvercame difficulties or persisted when they felt like quitting to remind students that success is more about effort than talent" (Simonson & Zvacek, 2024, p. 193).
4. Communication: Students are more likely to be engaged when they feel connected to the educator. One way to connect with students is by communicating with students individually. This can be accomplished by emailing students individually, addressing the student by name and checking in, or providing feedback about the course.

Print this infographic (which contains the information above) to keep as a quick reference sheet to help keep your students engaged.

Motivating Students by Meredith Barker

If you want to dive even deeper into keeping your students engaged, watch the video below for more ideas!

References:

Huang, Y., & Wang, S. (2022). How to motivate student engagement in emergency online learning? Evidence from the COVID-19 situation. Higher Education, 85(5), 1101–1123. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00880-2

Simonson, M., & Zvacek, S. (2024). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (8th ed.). Information Age Publishing, Inc. 

Online Learning

 Online Learning

    In 2020 the world shifted and morphed into new norms and expectations due to the pandemic. Masks, curb-side pick-up, grocery delivery, and quarantines became the new normal. Not only did the pandemic affect our day-to-day routines and procedures, but it also transformed the world of education-- forcing teachers and students to learn a whole new virtual world of education. As a 4th-grade teacher at the time, I transitioned from teaching using a whiteboard and encouraging class participation, card games, and endless side conversations about their baseball games, ballet recitals, and weekend plans to online teaching through videos, Google Slides, and digital curriculum. Now, "hundreds of conferences deal with some aspect of distance education, and almost every professional organization's publications and conferences have shown a huge increase in the number of presentations and articles related to distance education" (Simonson, 2008, p. 4). The switch to virtual learning had and still has its challenges, but it can also be successful in many ways when incorporating research-based practices.

Successes Online

    During the 2020 pandemic, I was extremely fortunate to be teaching in a district that already had one-to-one devices for students. In face-to-face instruction, our classroom already relied heavily on Google Classroom as a learning tool, so students continued to use many of their in-person learning tools at home. This made the switch to online learning easier, as students were already familiar with our online learning platforms and tools. Students could navigate through their assignments with ease and familiarity. Additionally, as their teacher, I felt comfortable using online teaching platforms to assign, assess, and evaluate student learning. Although each of my lessons was not perfect, we now have better research to use as guidance when creating online instructional material. According to Times, the characteristics for success in online courses include:

• Short videos of six minutes or less
• Interactive drills and tests
• Online discussions for sharing and collaboration
• Online mentoring

(Lohr 2020, as cited by Simonson, 2024, p. 5).

Challenges Online

    During my brief time teaching online, I realized how much my instruction and virtual classroom lacked a sense of community. Although my students were familiar with the academic side of online platforms, they were not familiar with online tools that increased classroom community. Recently, researchers concluded "from laptops and tablets to Virtual Reality headsets and digital whiteboards, these technologies have greatly enhanced the learning experience and made it easier for students to collaborate and engage with course material" (Garlinska et al., 2023, para. 4.1). If I could go back to that time, I would incorporate some of these technologies to keep students engaged and collaborating with each other. I would also prioritize meeting via video conference with my students as the benefits are numerous including:

• Real-time interaction
• Accessibility
• Improved engagement
• Cost-effective
• Increased flexibility

(Garlinska et al., 2023, para 3.9)

    I believe a classroom community is vital to learning, and that is something my class was missing during online learning throughout the pandemic.

If you are looking for more ways to increase classroom community in your online teaching classrooms, watch the video below for additional tips and guidelines to incorporate.

References:

Garlinska, M., Osial, M., Proniewska, K., & Pregowska, A. (2023). The influence of emerging technologies on distance education. Electronics, 12(7), 1550. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12071550

Simonson, M., & Zvacek, S. (2024). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (8th ed.). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.