Education Week - March 4, 2020 - 11

Coronavirus
Prompting
E-Learning
Strategies
By Mark Lieberman
On the relatively rare occasions
when disaster forces K-12 schools to
close for a prolonged period of time,
e-learning has helped fill the gap in
instruction.
Asian countries affected by the
SARS outbreak in 2003 turned to virtual instruction. When Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans in 2005,
Louisiana Virtual School expanded
its capacity to welcome students who
weren't previously enrolled. Sixth to
12th graders who lost their homes
to Hurricane Sandy in 2012 kept
learning, thanks to New York state's
e-learning platform and donated elearning program licenses from several companies.
The coronavirus outbreak has
prompted similar action in China
and Hong Kong, where schools are
closed indefinitely amid concerns
over a virus that has claimed more
than 2,800 lives and infected more
than 83,000 people worldwide. Several private companies have begun
helping schools offer virtual instruction to students, China's Ministry of
Education has begun uploading K-12

courses to a national online database,
and numerous American universities
with Chinese campuses have transitioned to online courses.
Fifteen people in the U.S., plus 40
passengers on the Diamond Princess
cruise ship, have confirmed cases of
the illness, for which typical symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath, according to the CDC.
The agency is investigating a patient in
California who may have the disease
despite not having recently left the
country or been in contact with someone who has. During a press conference last week, President Trump urged
the public not to panic, while officials
from his administration said they expect more cases of the disease in the
U.S. The CDC website says the public
health risk is "high" in the U.S. and
globally, though the immediate risk
to the average American remains low.
"It's not a question of if this will
happen but when this will happen

and how many people in this country will have severe illnesses," Nancy
Messonnier, a top CDC official, told
reporters and lawmakers last week.
Hospitals have begun stockpiling
resources in case the threat worsens,
and K-12 schools are sending home letters to parents urging frequent handwashing for themselves and their children and keeping sick children home
from school. Several schools have also
canceled trips to China, as well as Chinese exchange programs. As global officials ponder declaring a "pandemic,"
the threat of school closures stateside
inevitably looms.

Conducting 'Online Practice'
Schools across the country use
virtual learning for more common
occurrences, such as spikes in flu-related absences or inclement weather.
Twelve states currently have explicit
policies for "e-learning days," which

It's not a question of if this will happen
but when this will happen and how many
people in this country will have
severe illnesses."
NANCY MESSONNIER
U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION

Niranjan Shrestha/AP

tries with known outbreaks may be
asked additional health questions,
Carvalho said.
With high turnover in superintendents' offices, this will be the first
potential epidemic that many leaders
will be facing, Domenech said. And
the needs may differ from community
to community.
Superintendents in rural communities, where healthcare may not be as
readily available, will have to take that
into consideration.
And while technology has improved
drastically in recent years making it
easier for districts to continue classes
even if schools are closed, access to
computers and the internet vary from
community to community.
While money may be a concern as
schools ramp up prevention efforts,
Domenech said that will not be the
primary worry for district leaders.
"I assure you they will do whatever needs to be done," Domenech
said. "I don't want to go as far as
saying, 'budgets be damned.' But
when it comes to making decisions
about the lives of kids, they will
make those decisions-budgets be
damned."
Districts also have to strike the right
balance in their responses to avoid
creating unwarranted fear and panic.
There are things that need to be done
now, and others that will become necessary as the need arises, Carvalho
said.
For example, the district may
have to consider eliminating or having fewer and smaller assemblies,
staggering dismissal times so fewer
numbers of students leave and enter
at the same time, and increasing the
frequency of cleaning.
"In conditions like these, there is a ...
delicate balance between awareness,
information, preparation, avoidance
and quite frankly over stimulating
a concern that can lead to a certain
degree of unwarranted ... fear," Carvalho said. "We don't want that. We
want to strike a balance."
Reporter Mark Lieberman contributed
to this story.

A student at
Matribhumi school in
Bhaktapur, Nepal, in
January, wears a mask
as a precautionary
measure. There has
been at least one
confirmed case of a
new coronavirus
infection in the
Himalayan country.
A teacher, left, also
wears a mask as a
precautionary

Niranjan Shrestha/AP

measure.

means they're prepared to take students online in the event of a snow
day or other emergency, according
to a report from the Digital Learning Collaborative. Districts in several
other states without formal policies
have also experimented with taking
students online when circumstances
necessitate, the collaborative report
says. Schools that enroll students who
do not have access to a computer at
home, or that haven't provided students with digital devices, might find
this approach more difficult to pull off
on a moment's notice.
Students in Rensselaer Central
schools in Indiana got an early preview of sorts for the district's response
to a potential widespread coronavirus
outbreak. Flu sent absentee rates in
the district's middle and high schools
soaring above 20 percent the week of
Jan. 20. Before health officials could
formally request a shutdown, the district closed Thursday and Friday of
that week, said Curtis Craig, the superintendent.
The district had previously been
deploying e-learning in the event of
inclement weather.
Craig said the biggest key to success
in unexpected e-learning situations is
to have adequately prepared students
and teachers prior to the emergency.
"If you can run the kids through
some online practice while they're
here at school, it's much, much better. If online isn't completely different than what they're doing in school,
that's even better," Craig said. "If the
kids are used to going to a studentmanagement system to go online to
submit their assignments, then it's not

a completely different experience for
them."
Getting the length right for an
e-learning day assignment is critical,
Craig said. It should be long enough
to keep the students engaged but
not so long that they tune out or get
overwhelmed. Lessons with some
built-in online components, like short
YouTube clips, work particularly well,
he added.
K12 Inc., one of the country's largest
for-profit online education providers
for K-12 schools, has developed protocols for dealing with a sudden surge
of e-learning needs during previous
incidents, such as flooding in Baton
Rouge, La., and Houston, according to
Karen Ghidotti, the company's senior
vice president of customer experience.
Schools offering online education to
students in a situation like a coronavirus outbreak need to keep in mind
that students might be unusually distressed, Ghidotti said. A "very solid and
consistent learning" experience is essential so that students who might have
a sick family member or otherwise fear
contracting the disease have a steady
academic presence they can rely on.
Ghidotti's team also urges schools
to keep parents and students clearly
informed of the e-learning options:
how to access them, how they work,
what's expected from them. On the
company's end, an emergency situation generally prompts contact with
local officials and sometimes involves
lifting existing caps on the number of
students who can "enroll" in an online-charter offering, she said.

Directions for Parents
Schools without built-in online protocols have options to quickly implement e-learning programs, too. Several schools in China and Hong Kong
reached out in recent days to Century
Tech, a U.K.-based company that offers a learning platform powered by
artificial intelligence. The company's
customer-success teams worked
quickly to enroll students and assign
courses. "We can get schools up and
running in about three hours," said
Charles Wood, the company's head
of international.
The Century Tech platform identifies topics students are struggling to
grasp and offers them relevant lessons. Teachers can track students'
progress and intervene when necessary.
Schools that designate a single project leader to serve as an intermediary
between the company and parents
and students have been most successful, according to Wood.
He also recommends that teachers
set aside specific times to interact via
virtual conference with parents and
students to address misconceptions
about the platform and to suggest
techniques students can use to break
up their time in front of a screen.
"How many hours are you spending
in front of a screen, reading a book,
interacting with your siblings or parents?" Wood said. "It can come from
the schools giving clear directions to
parents. But it needs to come from the
parents, too, in a way that's empowering the students to think about selfregulation."

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Education Week - March 4, 2020

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