An online school that has provided almost 20 million lessons during lockdown is to make part of its service available offline after consultation with teachers and parents.
Oak National Academy, which was created by teachers at the start of lockdown and subsequently backed by a £4.34 million government grant, has been accessed by around 220,000 online users every day, according to its End of Term Report, published today.
However, the report says that around a quarter of teachers said, in a consultation, that their pupils didn’t have internet access at home, so the academy has now “prioritised resource downloadability” so teachers can print materials that can be used even where home learning does not allow for video streaming.
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The report also says that, wherever copyright allows, teachers will be able to download, edit and print resources to support lesson planning and help students without access to internet-enabled devices.
Oak National Academy to publish lesson plans
Oak said it would also publish its whole 2020-21 lesson plans “so schools can use the resources more flexibly and reorder them to suit their curriculum”, after its survey found that 40 per cent of teachers who don’t use Oak said a lack of alignment with their school’s curriculum was the reason.
Its report states: “In response, we’ve worked with subject experts, subject associations and teachers to identify and teach the most popular topics taught in school. And we’ve published our entire plan of lessons for next year, with the majority being made available by September so schools can use the resources more flexibly and reorder them to suit their curriculum.”
Matt Hood, principal of Oak National Academy, said it will be remaining open as a free, optional resource for the 2020-21 school year because “many uncertainties lie ahead”.
He says in the report: “As we develop from our initial emergency response, our work has been shaped by the feedback of teachers, school leaders and parents. It is they who we want to serve, and so I’m delighted to share some very early findings about how they’ve used Oak to date, and what we’ve learned from them.”
Oak’s findings also include:
- 19,927,910 lessons have been accessed.
- 181 million minutes or 344 years’ worth of video lessons have been watched.
- Pupils answered over 71 million quiz questions in 12 million quiz responses.
- 86 per cent of teachers would recommend Oak to other teachers.
- The main benefit teachers saw of using Oak was reducing workload.
- 78 per cent of parents chose the quality of lessons and teachers as their “favourite” part of Oak National Academy.
- On average, around 220,000 users accessed the platform each day