In mixed, hybrid or training models blended They respond to situations in which the decision can be made to determine the face-to-face and non-face-to-face parts that make them up. In our case, we are faced with a slightly different need, that of knowing how we can design programs that deal with situations where face-to-face attendance is not possible unexpectedly.
Although the answer to this question would require a larger space, in this text we have summarized it in 5 basic strategies:
- Develop a contingency plan to reduce uncertainty when dealing with periods of discontinuous or intermittent in-person presence and considering the risk of inequalities.
- Design in-person and online moments so that they are fluid and reversible.
- Incorporate a use of synchrony and asynchrony that is sustainable and takes advantage of the potential of the latter.
- Diversify information gathering mechanisms for evaluation.
- Redefine an organization that supports teachers to better face this situation.
Developing contingency plans: towards a model of discontinuous or intermittent face-to-face presence
In the next academic year we will have to deal with the concept of “discontinuous or intermittent in-person learning”. The course may start in person, but institutions must be prepared to fully support students for an entire course, in which we will have moments of intermittence in which we will have to do it online.
We don't know the levels of adoption of online learning in the new normal, but we do know that they will likely be higher than before 2020. Institutions must have new levels of digital infrastructure - technology and support - to provide reliable support to students.
Schools, as well as the administration, must begin to develop contingency plans that include programming that contemplates the achievement of each competence in two different environments - in-person and virtual - and establish the links that will allow linking the activities that are done in one environment with the other. The discontinuous in-person model is forced upon us by the impossibility of coinciding in the space in a given period, probably of indeterminate duration. We will have moments of "blackout", which we will have to make very bright. Our teachers are capable of illuminating them, if they have the appropriate support and training. In these plans, we must always add a well-designed communication strategy, aimed at families so that they have all the information and it is easy for them to understand their role in this modality of discontinuous in-person learning.
Although many of the aspects that have generated a situation of educational inequality in recent days could be greatly alleviated by applying the strategies discussed in this text, we must not forget that there are a series of requirements that are essential to obtain good performance from the virtual part of the discontinuous face-to-face model. Specifically, Internet access by all families must be resolved, as well as access to devices among family members. Similarly, it must be guaranteed that teachers can have the necessary tools at home to be able to carry out non-face-to-face teaching sufficiently.
Design in-person and online moments so that they are reversible
We should not design in-person moments on the one hand and virtual moments on the other. It is about designing them all as if they were a continuum, even though we do not know when each one will arrive. We must apply the concept of a 360º environment to digital reality as well. Only in this way will we be able to give meaning to the whole. We must link in-person and virtual moments together, so that when appropriate, the two flow with absolute naturalness.
It is very important that this design facilitates teaching and learning how to use virtual environments efficiently during face-to-face classes, both by teachers and students (learning digital competence). We must keep in mind the principle that says that learning is not only what happens when the teacher is watching.
The usual result of putting this principle into practice is, for some, the concept of the flipped classroom. But it is not exactly that. It is a great limitation to think that in the online period the basic activity of the students must be reading or viewing content. There are many other learning activities that can be developed virtually, either individually or in groups: synthesis exercises, case analyses, virtual role-playing games, debates, projects… The criteria for deciding which activities to use must be given to us by their possibilities of interaction (in person or virtually) and the motivation they can generate among students to get them involved. Obviously, in order to apply these methodologies in an online environment, teachers must be trained.
Source: https://www.motorpasion.com.mx/
Incorporate a distribution of synchrony and asynchrony that is sustainable and takes advantage of the potential of the latter.
Virtual or digital environments are very underused, especially with regard to the value they can bring to the teaching and learning process. To get the most out of them, the design must be developed from a non-face-to-face situation. When it is done the other way around, the lack of experience in the fully online mode greatly limits the design and execution of activities and resources that the digital environment provides us, because we think about it from a face-to-face and, therefore, limiting perspective. The use of synchrony and asynchrony is a good example of what we have just said.
Interaction will no longer be permanently synchronous because maintaining it this way is unsustainable. We must discover, value and apply in the design of programming the use of asynchronous mechanisms as intimately intertwined parts of the teaching and learning process flow. Just as, as we have said before, the moments of presence and non-presence must be designed simultaneously, we must do the same with the moments of synchrony and asynchrony.
We need to discover the potential that asynchrony has for learning, and value it as a mechanism that gives us more agility and flexibility. It gives us this and it gives it to the students, allowing them to use the devices they have at home at different times, contributing to the redistribution of these resources. In addition, we must learn to use it, also, during the period of in-person learning, to facilitate the change of environments in a fluid manner.
Diversify information gathering mechanisms for evaluation
Evaluation mechanisms must be diversified. To carry out evaluations, information must be accumulated from different sources. In this way, if at a given time some cannot be used, others can be activated.
We must firmly commit to a formative assessment model, and reduce to a minimum the moments of purely summative or qualifying assessment. The diversification of mechanisms should allow us not to always have to depend on the physical identification of the student. Assessment should be able to be in-person and not in-person; synchronous and asynchronous; individual and group; in addition to implementing self-assessment, hetero-assessment and co-assessment systems and assessing the contribution that learning analytics can have on the system as a whole.
A very important aspect is to take into account the degree of sustainability of the evaluation models in the situation of discontinuity, which allows us to cope with it without putting into risk the exhaustion of our resources, both temporal and personal.
Redefining an organization that supports teachers to better face this situation
Some teachers have said these days that they are overwhelmed by the tangible and emotional workload caused by the high number of hours they have had to spend in front of a camera or answering students' messages in real time. Many have had the feeling that they were spending 24 hours a day, 7 days a week attending to their class group(s). This cannot be repeated.
It is true that by learning and practicing the strategies mentioned above, the workload of teachers should decrease. But that alone will not be enough. There is a misconception that online education is cheaper, and that this is because it works with fewer resources. This is not true. If you want to offer quality online education, or an online modality in a context of discontinuous quality face-to-face teaching, you have to assume certain costs that are strictly necessary. And you also have to assume a certain degree of new learning organization.
The ratios must be adjusted to this new situation, so that the teachers' working hours are redistributed taking into account that there are two spaces (virtual and face-to-face), and that both must be attended to. Ratios are a key element to guarantee good support in the learning process in online education. While some models advocate the "industrial" model of traditional distance education (Peters, 1973) - where the idea was to reach, by any means, "everyone" - technology and the current situation recommend adequate ratios so that teacher-student and student-student interaction can occur, in a significant way, in the virtual environment. Likewise, the functions of tutoring should be reconsidered in this dual context.
The use of support teaching staff in these circumstances, which would also allow teachers to be prepared and trained for the future development of compulsory education in an increasingly digitalised society, would be a resource that administrations should consider. For example, the possibility of creating new positions of assistant teachers in virtual contexts. Those temporary teachers who are without a position, or who only occupy short periods of substitution, could do this task, which should be adequately remunerated, in line with the important teaching work they should carry out.
Similarly, it could be considered that students who have to do internships also do online teaching internships, supporting teachers who, during these specific periods, must work from home (in this sense, it is very important to highlight that teachers for the future are needed who have internalized and experienced the digital reality, and this must be done during the initial training period that qualifies for the exercise of professional practice).
It would also be necessary to dedicate hours of the teaching staff's academic calendar to their more intensive training in the teaching and learning process in virtual environments (digital teaching competence). Not as it has been understood until now (how can I deliver content to my students), but with this more realistic, complex and efficient understanding of the discontinuity of periods and methodologies to make learning possible. This should be combined with the participation of other teaching figures who would support and expand the teaching dedication of the teaching staff.
Finally, it is worth noting how some very nearby countries have already started working not only on the present, but, and this should be celebrated, on preparing for the future. On April 21, the Council of Ministers of the Government of Portugal approved resolution 30/2020, which establishes, from national educational policies, the need to provide "children and young people with the digital skills necessary for their full personal and professional development, as well as equal opportunities to access quality digital educational equipment and resources and investment in the digital skills of teachers and trainers in the context of the training modalities of the National Qualifications System." This is a good sign of the way forward.
This post is the translation into Spanish of the one published on the project's website We open education from the Jaume Bofill Foundation May 6, 2020.
