The Virtual Classroom - 10 Best Practices

With the advent and resulting spread of COVID-19 and the resulting closures of schools throughout the world, much about the future of education is unknown, but here are some things we do know. First, we know education is long overdue for a major makeover. Most of our practices, unfortunately, are still based on principles of education stemming from the Industrial Revolution (c. 1760-1820). Think about that for a second. What other industries are in that category? Not many! None of us in our right mind would consider admitting a loved one into a hospital with practices that more closely resembled the 1800's than the state-of-the-art practices found in many hospitals today. Why do we do that with education? Why do we still treat students more like they are on a conveyor belt in a factory than as individuals with unique talents, gifts, skills, and personalities?

"The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn't need to be reformed- it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions." Sir Ken Robinson.

Second, we know we have highly competent teachers and educational leaders who are called to the field of education -- who love each of our students and who thoroughly enjoy the privilege of teaching them on a daily basis. Because of our social distancing measures, we desperately miss our daily face-to-face interactions with our students and our colleagues. These relationships breathe life into us! Relationships are the key to successful education and provide the very foundations of learning. As Teddy Roosevelt once famously noted, "Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care."

Third, we know the field of education as a whole has been extremely reluctant to change. Yet, change is now inevitable. As the "shelter-in-place" order from our governor became more and more imminent, the school where I serve (Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, CA; a 5th-12th grade independent, Christian school of about 1,350 students) was faced with a challenge none of us fully saw coming. How do we continue educating our students during a time when they cannot be on campus? In less than a week, we made the shift from traditional, brick-and-mortar classrooms to teaching students in virtual classrooms. During that week just before the order was given by our governor, we trained our students on the simple steps they would need to take to enter their new virtual classrooms, we provided 2 days of intense professional development for our faculty , we created a new daily schedule more conducive to online learning, and we provided a new online platform to our teachers for their virtual classrooms. In addition, our dedicated faculty transitioned weeks of curriculum from their planning guides to cyberspace. Summed up, we reinvented much of the way we do education in the period of a week!

And we are not alone! Every school in the world has been forced to adapt. Experts, leaders, and researchers in the field of education are all asking the same question: how will COVID-19 change education on the other side of this pandemic? Some are optimistic. Others aren't. But most are coming to the conclusion that this will undoubtedly cause enormous change throughout the academic world. In a recent article featured in Forbes, The Coronavirus Pandemic Has Unleashed a Revolution in Education, Enrique Dans proposes blended learning to be the new norm in education.

In other words, online teaching will no longer simply be an option. Next year, institutions that are unable to offer a blended methodology that seamlessly integrates face-to-face and online teaching will increasingly find themselves left behind, until they are simply out of the race (Forbes, Enrique Dans, April 13, 2020)

During this time of change, our leadership, staff, and faculty collaborated. Sure, the term "collaboration" is thrown out quite a bit these days, but this is something we've always done really well as a faculty since the founding of the school in 2000. We learn from one another, share with one another, and sharpen one another on a daily basis. Frankly, this, at least in my opinion, is the "secret sauce" to our school's success. We also collaborated with our online school (OC Online) which was founded in 2011. We learn much from them as well. This collaboration, coated with a spirit of humility and a desire to learn from one another, allowed us to begin pulling out "best practices" as to how we should approach these unprecedented times. During the past week, we've had a chance to share some of these best practices to other independent schools throughout the country as well as to our local television viewing audience via our local FOX News affiliate. Here are some of the things we've learned from each other. These are not exhaustive and we are still learning much, but in the continued spirit of collaboration, we are excited to share these practices.

1) Grace

First, the starting point. Be filled with grace, not only for your students and families, but also for yourself! Understand that your virtual classroom will NOT be the same experience as it was in a physical classroom. It can't be...and that’s OK. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. There is much to learn. And it won't all be learned by tomorrow. For your students, remember that they are not widgets on a conveyor belt in the middle of a factory. As always, all students can learn, perhaps just not at the same time or in the same way. Provide flexibility for your students.

How might you need to be extending grace to yourself? To your students? To you family?

2) Support 

As we do in our brick-and-mortar classrooms, continue to build a “Culture of Care” in the virtual classroom during these difficult times. Perhaps, more than ever, we need to know our students, their areas uniqueness, their personalities, their motivators, their passions, their strengths, and their weaknesses. They need to see and hear you! Believe it or not, they want to hear your corny stories, or the the inside jokes your specific classes have developed over the course of this school year. Allow them to experience your personality. This will undoubtedly bring them great comfort during this time of unprecedented change.

Specifically, we've found it best to, if possible, start and end class through a video conferencing platform (Zoom) to allow for the personal connection. Also through Zoom, our teachers provide weekly office hours posted on our Learning Management System (LMS) that are made available to students and families. In addition, we've also been reaching out to individuals so they feel "seen and known".

How might you continue to develop this culture of care in your virtual classrooms?

3) Simplify 

Keep your directions simple, clear, and consistent. Know you most likely won't be able to cover everything you did in your brick-and-mortar classroom, so pay attention to and plan around your "power standards" (standards of highest priority, those most important for students to know). And hey, don't go crazy with all of the amazing Ed Tech tools out there. Choose and utilize 2 or 3 Ed Tech tools at most – think quality, not quantity. And then add things in slowly. Don’t overwhelm yourself, families, or students. 

How might you be creating more complexity than is needed? How might you simplify things for your students? For your families?

4) Trust 

There are many opportunities for student growth during this season. Conversely, there are also many opportunities to stunt student growth during this season. Use this moment to foster independence, resiliency, and character growth. Provide students the opportunity to find autonomy, mastery, and purpose in their work. 

How might you be micro-managing your classroom in a manner that is not helpful to your students? How might you encourage your students to grow in autonomy, mastery, and purpose of work? How might I encourage character growth in my students during this time?

5) Collaborate 

Find and create opportunities for collaboration, both formal opportunities (PLC's, grade level meetings, faculty meetings, focus groups, etc.) and informal opportunities (author and leadership guru, Patrick Lencioni, submits in a recent LinkedIn post that it is in these informal "hang out" times that true innovation can take place). Administrative leaders must be collaborating with teachers. Teachers must be given the time and space to collaborate as teachers. Students must collaborate with students. We all must be collaborating with families. Let's learn from one another with humility, grace, and a healthy dose of curiosity.

How might I more effectively collaborate with my colleagues, my students, my students' families, and other educators?

6) Communicate 

Establish strong, clear, and frequent communication to students and families. In line with the above listed best practice of "simplify", pick one consistent way and time to post communication. Keep in mind that you'd rather over-communicate during a time like this than under-communicate. Reinforce communication verbally and in writing with students and with families. We have also found it best to accumulate all communications in one place online for easy access by students and families.

How might I be under-communicating to students and/or to families? How might I provide more consistency to my communications?

7) Be Consistent 

If you have not yet done so, be sure to establish new classroom norms for the “virtual” classroom just like you did on the first day of school. The classroom norms you created in the "brick and mortar" setting don't apply to the new virtual classroom. Take the time to ensure your students know the new norms and expectations. Perhaps you can even allow them to speak into the new norms. And, as always, provide consistent follow through as you support these classroom norms.

How might your students describe the current norms in your virtual classroom? Would you find similarities between these student descriptions? How might you more clearly communicate these new norms to your students?

8) Focus on Student Learning

Ask yourself - “How will I know they learned?” During live sessions, keep the classes active and engaging (discussions, interviews, use of “hands up” feature, chat room, etc.). When appropriate, create asynchronous (learning at the student's pace) by providing creative lessons using the PBL (Project Based Learning) framework.

How might I improve my ability to know if my students are learning? What are creative ways I can assess student learning and provide effective, timely, and clear feedback?

9) Variety

Create a strong blend of synchronous (“live”) instruction and asynchronous (“at the student’s pace”) learning opportunities. During our initial push into virtual learning, we found that some of our teachers relied too heavily on the "cool new toy" of video conferencing. Others stayed away as long as possible from using synchronous instruction at all. But as we have collaborated, we have found using a blend of synchronous and asynchronous instruction seems to engage our students best. Design inquiry-based lessons. Use Ed Tech tools: content, assessment, creation. But remember, keep it simple.

How might I be too heavily synchronous or asynchronous? In what ways can I adapt my lessons to further engage my students in learning?

10) Balance 

Be sure to allow for margin in your life, especially during this time of enormous change (if you've never read the book, Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, I'd highly recommend it). It's easy to overlook your own personal needs, emotionally, physically, intellectually, and spiritually. Here's a wonderful article through Education Week from Kiesha Easley with specific ways to prevent burnout when teaching online.

How might you better achieve healthy margin in your life, emotionally, physically, financially, or spiritually?

Hopefully, these 10 best practices will be helpful to you, to your schools, and to your students in the days, weeks, and months ahead. As we enter into this new normal, let's continue to sharpen one another as educators and as leaders. I'd love to hear what you have found to be your best-practices and to dialogue about the ones mentioned here.

Dr. Matt Northrop serves as the Associate Head of School for Academics at Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, CA.