What
is the eLearning Program?
The eLearning Program was
successfully “piloted” in five school districts in SC during the 2018-19 school
year. GCSD wrote and extensive application and is proud to have been
accepted as a part of Cohort #2 for the program beginning with the 2019-2020
school year.
Districts that are a part of this
pilot program can use eLearning days for an individual school or for the entire
district for varying situations beyond the control of the district (ice storms,
floods, hurricanes, natural disasters, etc.). The day(s) will be counted
as students attending school in PowerSchool as long as they complete work
within the guidelines. This will serve to not only keep students moving forward
in learning, but also prevent the district from having to create a “make-up”
day of attendance later in the school year. GCSD will use Google
Classroom as our Learning Management System for this project.
The program specifies that
students must be “engaged in learning” a minimum equal to 200 minutes to be
acceptable.
Implementation
Our eLearning LMS (Learning
Management System) is Google Classroom. Since
this is a pilot program, as much training as possible was done up front and will
continue all throughout the year to make it a successful venture. Students will be taught how to complete work
“offline” in the event that Wi-Fi is not available. Students will be able to take home school
devices, or may opt to use their own devices at their residence. Assignments per subject will be loaded into
Google Classrooms for completion.
Teachers will utilize Virtual Field Trips, Discus, the State Library, streaming
video, Video tools, Google Docs, Slides, Drawing, and Sheets as assignments.
Communication
about the eLearning Project
Teachers will have “Virtual Office
Hours” while at home, to give students opportunities to communicate. Teachers and students can communicate with
each other within the LMS for clarifying questions about assignments using some
of the following, but not limited to Google Classroom Private Comments, Remind,
Email, Class Tag, Class Dojo, etc.
eLearning
Mock Day (Trial Run)
The district set aside a day for all
to practice the eLearning assignments, called a “Mock” eLearning day. This will allow the IT team and the Instruction
departments to prepare for the day.
Communication between students and
teachers (as far as instruction) should be seamless (as though the Teacher and
the students were NOT at school). Regular interaction from teachers may
be necessary to assure a meaningful experience.
Teachers will create assignments for
each subject in a shortened version, and will allow students to go to, at least
all four of the core areas to practice. In the best-case scenario, it is recommended
that the “mock” practice take place at the beginning of all classes…and not in one
area for the whole day, because teachers are not available in the other
subjects while the eLearning is being conducted
For
An Actual eLearning Day
Kindergarten through Grade 2
students will take home “Learning Packets” preceding an official eLearning day.
Grades 3-12 students will either use the school devices, (or opt to use their own)
and engage through our LMS, which is Google Classroom.
Teachers will have assignments
loaded into their individual Google Classrooms. All assignments
collectively, should be a minimum of 200 minutes of engagement per student for
each official eLearning day. Students
will work and turn in assignments via Google Classroom. Schools are to work with students on a
case-by-case basis with issues of connectivity at home. Students will
have 5 days from the return to school to complete makeup work given as a
part of the eLearning day. Work not
completed within the five days will be graded according to the
district/school/teacher’s grading policy, and the student will be marked
absent.
Feedback
After a “mock” eLearning Day, a
survey will be administered to various constituents (district staff, teachers,
parents, students, non-instructional staff, etc.) in the school community to
determine how the project went, if there were issues, and to allow us all to
concentrate on improving the pilot project process.
Non-Instructional
Staff
eLearning Days will also take into
account projects for non-instructional staff members as well, such as:
Maintenance Staff, Teacher’s Aides, Clerical Personnel, Bus Drivers and
Cafeteria staff.
Teacher's
Virtual Office Hours
Teachers will be available to answer
questions that may arise concerning assignments using Email, Google Classroom,
Google Meet, or Remind. Your teachers should share the best options.
Office Hours will be:
- Elementary Teachers: 8:30 am - 10:00 am
... and ... 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
- Middle and High Teachers: 10:00 am - 11:30 am
... and ... 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Teachers will inform students
beforehand concerning the best way to contact them during these hours:
Email, Google Classroom, Google Meet, or Remind.
Leadership
Team
Administrators, Curriculum Coaches and
Guidance team members will be monitoring through Google Classroom throughout
the day.
Instructional
Technology Coaches
The Instructional Tech Coaches for
each level are available to instruct, coach, teach and model the use of the
Google Classroom for effectively conducting an eLearning mock day and an actual
eLearning Day. They will be monitoring classes around the district on an
eLearning day.
