Students turn en masse to online learning resources

There have been massive increases in the number of teachers, students and parents using online educational resources during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As schools across the country begin their third week of remote learning, up to 35,000 students and parents are now accessing curriculum-based content from Irish educational publishers on a daily basis.

This follows the decision by the Irish Educational Publishers’ Association (IEPA) to provide open access to all their online educational resources during the current crisis.

This was done to provide as many educational resources as possible to those who need them, according to Alan Cantwell, the general secretary of the IEPA.

“These valuable resources are used daily by teachers in the classroom are now available to students and parents at no cost.”

Titles can be accessed online by registering through the Education publishers website, he added.

General feedback from parents on remote learning has been mostly positive, although there have been some concerns raised. That is according to Paul Rolston, the PRO of the National Parents’’ Council Post-Primary (NPC-pp).

"There have been some concerns raised about broadband, or the availability of broadband in some areas," he said.

"There have been a few concerns, not very many, raised by some parents about some teachers who maybe aren't engaging with remote learning as they should be." The focus at the moment is exam year students, in particular Leaving Cert students, Mr Rolston added.

"Things are changing so fast at the moment, even day to day, and in broad terms, things aren't always ideal. But generally, parents feel that based on where we are at, schools are doing their best.

"We are aware that Leaving Cert students and exam year students are central, they are the key priority. We are confident teachers are doing their best to support them in the current circumstances." 

Students’ main concerns, according to their teachers, focus mainly on the state exams, poor broadband, or not having enough time to complete project work. That is according to the Learnovate Centre, based at Trinity College Dublin, which surveyed second-level teachers last week to see how they were finding remote learning.

Other issues students raised with their teachers include personal issues such as parents losing their jobs or having to mind younger siblings while parents are at work. Students are also stressed over whether the written state exams will be marked harder as a result of the across-the-board 100% given to each student for their orals.

More than 20,000 educators from around the world have now signed up for a course hosted by Dublin City University (DCU), specifically designed to help teachers during the coronavirus outbreak. FutureLearn’s ‘How to Teach Online’ has more than 1,300 Irish educators participating for the next two weeks.