Survey on obstacles to remote learning

Designed to give school leaders a pulse check on their communities, a recent national survey highlighted opportunities, challenges and differences in perception when it comes to communications, connectivity, tech support and other components of the remote learning experience. Here are some of the highlights.

• Uneven access to devices makes getting assignments a challenge (20% have problems).
• Parents overestimate how often their students have a quiet place to work.
• Some parents say they didn’t receive schedules and learning goals.
• Teachers report overwhelmingly using their LMS—but few other educational technology programs.
• There’s tech support for teachers. For students, not so much.

2020 Remote Learning Survey Research Results. (2020). BrightBytes and ISTE.https://www.brightbytes.net/rls-researchx

OER in K12 settings study

A recent report examined the adoption of OERs in K-12 setting. OER curriculum represents a small portion of all K-12 recent adoptions, at slightly over 5%. Those who select OER view the overall quality as slightly better than commercial alternatives, and considerably better on multiple specific aspects of teaching and learning, such as extending the core knowledge to novel tasks and situations, and collaborating with others. This study was conducted prior to the closures of U.S. schools brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, and the resulting education landscape is bound to have an impact on districts’ plans, including the curricula they choose. However, the key findings of the survey - and the impact that OER can have on teaching and learning - remain true, and reflect the growing support for OER across the education continuum.
Seaman, J., & Seaman, J. (2020). What we teach: K-12 educators' perceptions of curriculum quality; OER. Oakland, CA: Bay View Analytics.
http://onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/k-12_whatweteach.pdf