Schools mull alternative platforms for online classes

With the School Education Department saying on Monday that every one online classes should be mandatorily recorded and periodically checked by a member of the Student Safeguarding Advisory Committee, faculties are planning to develop extra infrastructure to retailer classes and online sources being despatched to their college students.

Many faculties have been utilizing a mixture of stay classes and recorded movies to take classes for their college students. “We have decided to increase the number of live classes over recorded videos for the students for the 2021-22 academic year. We will have to take a decision on picking a platform for online classes which will ensure ease of recording, and can be accessed through mobile phones, laptops and tablets,”mentioned B. Purushothaman, correspondent, Everwin Group of Schools. This is the case in a number of faculties the place not all college students and lecturers use laptops and that the platform they select has to work properly on all units. “We will have to think about how to store all the recordings and have to make arrangements with the school’s admin and IT team,” he added.

Apart from stay classes, lecturers have been sending pre-recorded movies, speaking via WhatsApp for extra class workouts or worksheets. They additionally ship hyperlinks to extra useful resource materials. Schools now plan to streamline and hold a report of all this.

With a single class having a minimal of no less than 10 stay classes each week, college heads mentioned that they had been awaiting clarification on how lengthy they are going to be anticipated to retailer the recordings of stay classes. “Our first priority, even as we look for alternative platforms to implement the guidance given by the School Education Department, will be to start recording classes of senior and middle school students. A bulk of the sessions for primary school students are through pre-recorded videos,” mentioned the principal of a college from the town.

Additionally, dad and mom too must be made conscious of the schedules for online classes and the content material that college students are receiving, mentioned R. Visalakshi, president, Tamil Nadu Private Schools’ Association. “Even if schools chose not to have parents sit through classes with the students, they should regularly talk to them about how the classes are going on and be aware of any concerns the student might have,” she mentioned.

Many faculties had, from the earlier educational yr, engaged their counsellors, principals and vice-principals to observe online classes. “While this was initiated primarily for reviewing and getting feedback on how teachers and students are adapting to a new medium, it is extremely important for safety as well,” mentioned K.R. Maalathi, founder, Auuro Educational Services. She mentioned that with extra readability on what number of days they should hold a backup of recorded classes for, smaller faculties can determine on what platform they will host classes on.

“Schools should be proactive and implement these measures at the earliest. Safety should take precedence — be it online or on campus and institutions needn’t wait for directions from the government to have some foresight and prioritise student safety,” Ms Maalathi added.