An obstacle to the epidemic. Distance learning

25 June 2020

Due to the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic, most countries imposed quarantine borders, cities, and educational institutions. The situation will complicate the transition to distance learning, but do not panic. It is necessary to implement with great control the methods that are resorted during the “usual” quarantine associated with the annual flu.

It should be borne in mind that the obstacle to the spread of coronavirus infection should be accompanied by a large explanatory work on medical methods of combating the virus and preventive measures.

Let Jobsora.com examine in stages how to organize the transition to distance education, and what should be done for the effective operation of educational institutions.

Preschools

All preschoolers are immediately transferred to home learning. Parents and guardians are provided with advisory information containing the norms and standards of child education, in accordance with age. Methodological materials are distributed that tell about the infection, its distribution options and methods of dealing with it. In matters of upbringing, care and maintenance of the child for the entire period of quarantine, the responsibility lies entirely with the parents.

The work of preschool educational institutions for the entire period of quarantine is prohibited.

Schools

To effectively transfer students to home learning, due to the threat of a massive spread of infection, it is necessary to take measures to digitize curricula and programs for each parallel of study. It should be done for all of subjects. At the same time, access to the materials should be available to all teachers of a particular subject, employees of the administration at any time.

It is necessary to take emergency measures to bring to the attention of working personnel, teaching staff, administration and students methods of combating the disease and methods of its initial diagnosis. Create telephone lists of emergency medical facilities.

Since distance measures require the availability of computing power for storing and processing information, documents, grades tables, summary reports, students' finished work, abstracts, working protocols, it is necessary to provide online access to them for all participants in the educational process. Provide it everyone in accordance with their competence and position.

School methodologists and head teachers should provide for the unimpeded communication of all teachers, their access to administrative documents, school orders. Timely provide reference materials that relate to the work of the teaching staff involved in remote work for the period of quarantine.

Consider the transition to a remote form of work (learning):

Students must be provided with materials that are directly related to the educational process (specifically the subject being studied). It can be electronic articles, textbooks, digitized books from the school library, etc. Publication of links to materials is allowed in thematic communities, personal correspondence with students (parents);
For parents of students who switched to distance learning, easy access to information regarding the performance of their children is organized. For this, you can use ready-made software solutions or use third-party developments (many schools have their own electronic portals);
For the purpose of operational monitoring of academic performance, document storage is organized on the server of the educational institution to record the grades and works of students submitted after conducting thematic control and verification work. Software packages for the implementation of the task, the teaching staff chooses independently;
To coordinate the work of teachers, an uninterrupted mobile (Internet) connection is introduced;
The head teachers and methodologists of the school monitor the execution and implementation of the orders of the district education department. The development and implementation of working documentation, bringing its content to employees remains with the head teachers of the school;
Access to the school’s server (cloud storage, mail) is remotely controlled by a staff system administrator or computer science teacher;
The overall coordination of the “mid-level remote education institution” remains with the principal.

During the quarantine period, it is necessary to exclude the personal transfer of certificates or documents from the parents of students personally. All workflow is translated into electronic format. The mechanism for certifying school documents in electronic format is being developed by the district department of education. Any abnormal situations that may be associated with the learning process, taking into account the working time of the teaching staff or administrative tasks, are solved in telephone or video mode, using modern ICT methods.

All changes in the work plan and difficulties in the implementation of the learning process, teachers report to the head teacher or director. The higher management systematizes the information and transfers it to the district department of education, awaiting further orders.

Higher education institutions

The similar measures are for institutes and universities. Employees of the educational institution provide electronic access to general guidelines, lecture lists. Between the curators of the groups and the elders, stable mobile communications are being established for fast communication and solving on-duty issues. Remote access to teaching aids is implemented through regular computing power. In special cases, it is necessary to provide for remote lectures in video mode.

Students, teachers, and administration workers are informed about methods of combating infection, recommended medications, and methods of providing first aid.

The general nature of the measures required to be taken is as follows:

Ensuring free remote communication of students by group / stream / course. For such connection any chat rooms, online rooms, social networks are suitable. The choice of the method implementation method is up to the students. Performance control is assigned to the head of groups, curators, deans of faculties;
It is planned to create cloud storage for the exchange of educational information, if one is absent. The task is performed by full-time computer engineers or computer science teachers;
A separate communication channel is being created for educators, methodologists, and administration workers of each faculty. It is allowed to use any available methods that do not contradict the current legislation;
The possibility of remote lectures by teachers. Organized the possibility of communication with students, the issuance of training materials, and the reception of finished tests;
It is the responsibility of teachers to select educational materials that are relevant to the items in the current curriculum, if none are available in the electronic library;
Working questions between participants in the educational process are carried out in a hierarchical order.
For the entire period of quarantine, all entertainment events related to the life of the university are excluded. Any abnormal situations are handled by telephone with the curators of the groups who decide to transfer the information received to higher authorities.

Courses and seminars

Any educational activities are also subject to transfer to distance learning. In accordance with the specification of courses, seminars, other events, methods of communication between the participants of the educational process are quickly developed. In a short time, it is planned to lay out educational and methodical material and students' work. We are working on free online communication of all course participants with curators. Implementation methods are selected by each group independently.

Digitization of working documents is being carried out for operational monitoring of performance, maintaining reporting documentation, issuing certificates of completion of courses.

Software and software tools necessary for the implementation of tasks are selected and implemented by persons conducting the courses.