On Monday (3/2/2020) Eastside Preparatory School made the call to convert our school to an online school to support the community in reducing the spread of Covid-19. We had no cases in our community, yet, being in Kirkland it was only a matter of time before someone in our community was going to be affected either directly or indirectly. We chose to take action before that happened. Since Monday, many other organizations in the area, including schools, have come to similar conclusions.
What follows is an effort to answer some of the questions that surround our decision and our implementation of an online learning program. Our hope is that this is the first of many resources that we are able to share more broadly as other organizations struggle with the logistical and philosophical constraints surrounding Covid-19.
What follows is necessarily a simplification of the many hours of conversation we have had as a Senior Leadership Team. All of these responses and approaches are attributable to the collective intelligence of that group and the feedback from our faculty as we began our training and implementation programs.
What online learning does Eastside Prep already have in place?
We had Canvas, OneNote, and Microsoft Teams already in place. Eastside Prep has been using Canvas since 2012 and OneNote since 2005. We adopted the Class Notebook system in 2015 as well. We have been using Office365 since 2011. Having those resources available and a faculty that was experienced with them allowed us to layer on a single product, Microsoft Teams, to move our existing model to fully online. We were able to produce the proper import files from our student information system and populate classes with teachers and students in under a week. So, while we did not have any existing online learning taking place, our faculty were familiar with the tools required through their continued efforts to teach the most engaging in-person classes that they can. We have been working with Microsoft Education over the last five years and they have been wonderfully responsive to our frequent questions as we accelerated our implementation of these systems. They have built an impressive collection of tools. This would not have been possible to accomplish even five years ago.
How are you shifting to full online learning?
After a week of snow days last winter, we started exploring the possibility of running school online for extended snow closures in the future. Much of the groundwork had already been done on what it would take and which systems we would use. We would not have been able to move this quickly if those pieces weren't already in place. In terms of this week, we just completed a remote training with teachers. 70+ teachers joined a virtual faculty meeting on Teams to go through the system and guidelines. As in most technical roll-outs, the most important thing to get right is a shared understanding of how the new system is meant to operate. We have an amazing faculty that simultaneously notices details that might be problematic AND helps us solve those problems.
Are students participating by webcam?
Yes, all of our students have laptops as our school has operated with a 1:1 laptop program since 2005. These are equipped with web cams and microphones (though we recommend using a wired/dedicated microphone and headphones). Students can blur the background of their video feed if they choose but otherwise they participate via webcam. Faculty are meeting by division on Thursday to discuss the best protocols around meetings of this type.
How does it work?
Students are all joined to the Eastside Prep domain upon enrollment. That gives them access to email and all other resources associated with Office 365. Over the past few years, we have been moving more and more resources to the cloud in an effort to be more resilient in case of power outages. Through Office 365, we use School Data Sync to provision courses in Microsoft Teams by exporting from our student information system. We also use our student information system to populate Instructure's Canvas product. With those pieces in place we are able to schedule an online meeting with the proper groups of students (and absorb the drop/add changes in the first few weeks of the term). Classes then proceed at their regularly scheduled time. Because we are limited in the amount of movement that we can create with students tethered to their devices, the school is moving towards having meetings to start the class and then having the students break off to produce work. Our understanding of how to do this most effectively will evolve rapidly so we have some back channel mechanism for teachers to share tips and ask for help.
Will they have to be in place at their computers at a certain time, etc?
We're running our regular school day from 8am to 3:30pm daily. Students are expected to participate in each class during its regularly scheduled meeting time as well as advisory sessions and class meetings. We're holding a regular school day—just online.
Why did the school decide to make this shift?
The threat was genuine, and we felt that we had an ethical responsibility to take steps to stop the transmission of the virus. Social distancing has, thus far, been shown to be the only effective response.
What accommodations are being made for students who lack internet access or computers at home?
This was a topic discussed immediately as we want all our students to be able to access our online learning. We are asking students to phone their advisors this week if they have any difficulties maintaining internet access. We will purchase and deliver devices to anyone not otherwise able to participate.
Did the school conduct any research ahead of time to determine whether that is an issue for any students?
We do a fair amount online under ordinary circumstances; we think we know what conditions some students are facing.
How long could this be sustained?
For as long as it takes for us to feel that the safety and health of our students has been addressed and we are able to reconvene on campus.
What lessons do you think other districts could learn from the preparation for this when it comes to shifting to distance learning?
Practice distance learning when you DON'T need it. We've attempted to do that in the past, and for one reason or another, we've failed to do it. We are definitely learning by doing now!
Resources
Shared openly at the time for other schools facing the same decisions:
- COVID-19: A Pragmatic Response Guide Word
- Eastside Prep and Distance Learning Word
- EPS COVID-19 Communications PDF
Originally published on LinkedIn, March 6, 2020.