Blog Viewer

Are Your Remote Operations Fully Supporting Hybrid Learning?

By Joel Hill posted 09-15-2020 09:53 PM

  
Flexibility matters more than ever this year. Many districts are either currently implementing (or planning to implement) some variation of a hybrid learning model, and it’s likely that many more will find it necessary to further adapt their operations by the time we reach winter break. Having the tools and best practices in place to operate your district remotely can help you cope with changes and maintain the most stable hybrid learning environment possible for students.

Hybrid education calls for more than distance learning solutions for students. The entire school needs remote operations capabilities to adequately support teachers and staff, especially with the constant possibility that social distancing protocols or stay-at-home orders may be ratcheted up during the school year. Also, families need to stay connected to what’s happening in the classroom (whether that be in person or virtually).

In short, hybrid learning success depends on conquering K-12 remote operations challenges like:
  • Securing data & online systems
  • Remote teacher & staff training
  • Remotely managing finance & HR
  • Keeping families engaged
  • Empowering students & teachers

In this article, we’ll cover keys to success that go beyond finding distance learning solutions. Read on to assess your school’s or district’s remote operations capabilities and find out where teachers, students, parents, and your staff may need additional support.

Data security in the hybrid learning environment
It’s always wise to build remote operations on a solid foundation of data security, especially when it comes to student data, finance, and HR. And with the sudden shift to remote working creating vulnerabilities, it’s critical to reassess your data security measures now—before a potential breach. If your technology leaders aren’t sleeping well, your data storage and remote access connections likely need an upgrade.

Consider hosted software products that offer industry-standard security. Housing data on your own servers potentially exposes your school or district to serious data security risks. You could be targeted by hackers, or data could be lost or destroyed in the event of a catastrophic event like a major storm or a flood.



Also, make sure your provider offers cybersecurity training for both your IT staff and all school employees. This ensures systems are used correctly and that data stays safe as it’s entered and shared throughout your school or district.

Training teachers and staff remotely for the hybrid learning environment
Set teachers and staff up to succeed in the hybrid learning environment by supporting them with appropriate training and professional learning opportunities they can access from anywhere. Providing, easy, secure remote access to professional learning lets them stay on track with learning goals on their schedule. With social distancing protocols constantly changing, 24/7 access to online training helps ensure it gets done.

Your professional development system should offer teachers and staff courses relevant to the hybrid learning environment, including data security around new processes. Your system’s security can truly only be as strong as those using it, so ensuring the appropriate training gets done is key to trouble-free remote operations. Teachers and staff should be able to set, pursue, and track their learning goals whether they’re on campus, at home, or outdoors using a secure online connection.

Consider choosing a system that enables virtual collaborations through online portals, communities, and frequent live webinars. Even when teachers and staff are working from home, collaboration still makes learning fun and effective.

Make remote K-12 finance and HR operations standard
Doing business digitally saves time and money—and it can keep you up and running in the event of a sudden school closure. Districts already using online tools to onboard new hires, handle school business, or manage payroll and paying vendors found themselves at an advantage in the spring when schools closed in response to COVID-19. However, these districts didn’t make the switch in preparation for a nationwide school shutdown—they made it to save time and money by eliminating stacks of paperwork, hours spent printing and faxing, and postage costs.

Read more about virtual onboarding for the hybrid education era.

With today’s most capable online K-12 systems and established industry data security standards, it’s a great time to take your finance and HR operations online. Look for systems that connect, allowing finance and HR teams to work together more easily and streamline workflows, whether they’re in the same building or working from home.

Blended learning strategies for constant family engagement
Keeping families connected to what’s going on in the classroom (whether at school or in a virtual environment) continues to be a critical factor in student success. And blended learning presents unique challenges. Core to your strategy should be simplifying communications with intuitive, online tools, so families stay informed on student performance and operational updates. Forms should be easy to fill out online, from anywhere, including your enrollment process.

Simplicity starts with taking your enrollment process online. Even without social distancing protocols in place, online enrollment eases many pain points for families. An online enrollment system should allow them to fill out all necessary forms and information from home, auto-filling demographic data once it is initially supplied to make the whole process faster, easier, and more accurate.

If your enrollment tool enables family opinion surveys, this can be a great way to get a quick read of current sentiments and preferences during the school year. The ability to quickly build, distribute, and collect surveys helps your school or district respond to the concerns and needs of families while inviting them into the discussion around important decisions that impact their kids’ safety and learning.

Empowering students and teachers for hybrid learning success
These days, we simply don’t know what the next week will bring when it comes to keeping students, teachers, and staff safe. To stay prepared for sudden operational changes, teachers and students need access to teaching and learning materials from anywhere. This includes grading, lessons, assignments, and assessments, as well as collaboration tools. Highly capable distance learning solutions stand ready to support learning continuity even if we experience sudden school closures like we did going into the spring.
Teachers need access to more than their grade book when working from home. Make sure that the same student performance analytics data they have on their computer at school is available to them online.

How does your school or district stack up?
K-12 education continues its transformation every day. This time last year, hybrid learning and remote operations may not have been the front-of-mind issues they are now. But the transition was already happening. Now, it’s clear that digital systems deliver the flexibility schools and districts need through uncertain times—not to mention the time and money savings, valuable resources for every school and district.


Joel Hill is Field Sales Representative at PowerSchools Group LLC. 484.602.7158 | joel.hill@powerschool.com
 

#BudgetingandForecasting
#TechnologyToolsandTrends
0 comments
48 views

Permalink