Four Ways to Prepare for Remote Learning in Advance

Remote learning days happen for many reasons—from inclement weather to illness to planned staff development. 

The good news is that through the use of technology, those e-learning days don’t have to mean a shorter holiday break or tacked-on days at the end of the school year.

Instead, it's increasingly common for districts to get credit for instructional minutes even while school doors are closed by using what are commonly being referred to as e-learning, digital, or virtual learning days. 

You guessed it—in between fun and games in their free time, students are connecting with their teacher and turning in their assignments, all from the comfort of their own homes.

Sandy Mountain, principal at Random Lake Elementary School in Random Lake, Wisconsin, said it best:

“This isn’t just, ‘There’s a folder with some worksheets in it in case we don’t come to school one day. Just sit there and do those worksheets.’ That’s not the goal. [Instead, it’s,] ‘How do you make that learning continuous? Here’s where we left off in the class on Tuesday, now Wednesday, you’re at home. Here we go.”

If your school or district is using Exact Path to power personalized learning, like Principal Mountain’s does, then you know that you already have access to an online program that can be used around the clock from any Internet-enabled device of your students’ choosing.

Just take it from someone who’s already put this tool to work for her school’s virtual learning days:

“We had two virtual days. You cannot tell looking at the usage numbers that we were not in the building those days. We had just as many logins as we did on a very typical school day.”

To ensure that your remote learning days are as thoughtfully organized and successful as Ms. Mountain’s, we’ve assembled four ways that you can use Exact Path to turn school closures into virtual learning days.
 

1. Continue Your Individualized Approach, Even While Remote Learning

As long as students have completed a diagnostic assessment (or you’ve uploaded scores from one of our assessment partners, like NWEA), then all of your learners have access to an individualized learning path of “just-right” curriculum that they can continue working on, wherever they are. 

You can also rest assured that each remote learning lesson is designed to include direct instruction, practice, and a Progress Check so that students can be successful independently. 

And, when they show signs of struggle, know that automated Building Blocks immediately trigger targeted support to get them back on track.

2. Deploy Assignments to Keep to Your Scope and Sequence

In addition to allowing students to work wherever they are in their remote learning journey, it’s just as important that they’re gaining on-grade-level knowledge and skills. 

To do this, you can easily search for content by standard or skill and create a class or small-group assignment in just a few clicks. 

So, you were supposed to teach fractions today? Not to worry, find the curriculum components you want students to work on and build a digital assignment to quickly deploy so that learning never skips a beat.

3. Turn At-Home Learning into a Class Challenge

Engaging students in remote learning can be challenging, as most would likely rather be binging their favorite show than doing schoolwork, so you might need to build in some extra incentives to get them working. To motivate them, consider incorporating a competitive element.

We’ve put together a contest toolkit to help you design and implement your own motivational classroom challenge. 

If you haven’t used this feature already, here’s a recap: set a goal around time spent remote learning or skills mastered, and assign a prize of your choosing. 
 

You can organize a little class celebration if everybody takes part or simply award individuals who rise to the challenge. 

4. Set a Targeted Remote Learning Intervention Plan in Motion

As the educator, Exact Path offers real-time insight into how students are making progress in their learning paths. Did students fail a Progress Check? Are they working through a Building Block module? You’ll know it. 

Real-time notifications, coupled with our friendly Knowledge Map, make it easy to see where learning gets off track. 

And, even when remote learning students are not in the classroom, you can still glean meaningful information and make a plan to right the ship directly from Exact Path. Begin by reviewing student answers on the recent Progress Check where they were unsuccessful. 

Then, turn to the aligned teacher resources to assign an instructional video, designate an additional piece of content, or simply make a note to pull the students aside when school is back in session.


Want to learn more about how you can use Exact Path successfully in your classroom? Visit the Getting Started page for quick access to helpful videos, feature spotlights, and links to live office hours.