Teachers’ lack of tech skills and their difficulty adapting to remote teaching, together with bandwidth problems, were the main challenges for international schools during the Covid crisis.
Gathering responses from 82 international schools around the world, a new survey by ISC Research looked at how schools dealt with learning technology during the Covid closures.
Of those surveyed, 41.5 per cent said that they experienced “significant challenges” delivering distance learning during schools closures.
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For those schools, the biggest problems were created by teachers’ difficulty adapting to teaching remotely: about 40 per cent chose the “Lack of teacher skills to adapt teaching to distance learning” as a challenge they experienced.
Internet restrictions and teachers’ lack of tech skills came next, both named by more than 30 per cent of respondents. In fourth place was lack of student access to a learning device.
Some respondents indicated that a problem was posed by new expectations from teachers with no time to prepare, the report adds.
Several schools also commented that socially distant assessment wasn’t always successful.
The most common problem respondents cited with assessment was lack of time: teachers didn’t have sufficient time to both support students with their distance learning and also review and assess the learning evidence that was submitted.
Terry McAdams, director of learning technology at Branksome Hall Asia in South Korea, said: “There was more planning required for online learning so marking was more work, too.”
Only 10 per cent of respondents said they hadn’t experienced any problem with online assessment.
On a more positive note, teamwork provided a safety net for school staff. Of the schools surveyed, 82 per cent said that support from colleagues had been “extremely beneficial” for teachers. Over 40 per cent said the same of parent support.
Overall, international schools are optimistic and feel positive about how they have handled teaching and learning during the Covid closures, according to ISC Research.
While almost all of them (99 per cent) had already a learning platform in place, more than four in five said the experience over the recent months has inspired them to change their plans regarding the use of learning technologies.
