The COVID-19 pandemic forced many students into remote learning programs that were set up on the fly with both teachers and pupils unsure of what they were doing, leading to lagging performance in the classroom. While much of the research on the subject to date has centered around younger students and fundamental academic skills, older students have missed out on the high school social-emotional learning that adolescents need.
A survey of high school students revealed that students who attended school remotely during the pandemic fared considerably worse socially and emotionally than peers who continued in-person classes. This not only adversely affected academic performance but also the well-being of teenagers throughout the country. The authors theorize that the reason teens struggled so much was that they felt cut off from their peers and stuck with mom and dad just as social-emotional learning in high school was supposed to begin in earnest.
While many in-person schools have since reopened, the survey reveals that social-emotional learning for high school students has to be a top priority whenever teens are involved. That means choosing a learning engagement platform that helps foster independence while allowing teens to foster the social connections they need. Echo360 has created a portfolio of engagement solutions that facilitates that: the Echosystem.
The survey cited above produced extremely consistent results for students in grades 10-12, but ninth-graders did not report the same discrepancies in emotional well-being between in-person and remote learners. This may be because ninth-graders had not previously experienced high school and therefore wouldn’t miss the social-emotional learning in high school that older students had already grown accustomed to. This could lead to further problems down the line as these students will need to catch up on the social-emotional learning they missed in grade 9.
Fortunately, the survey’s authors expect the vast majority of adolescents to recover from their “pandemic year” with a return to normalcy but note that some may need additional support to perform up to grade level. Still, educators should do everything they can to ensure that nothing prevents social-emotional learning in high school again.
Social-emotional learning in high school centers primarily around teaching dependent kids to become independent young adults and encouraging their social development, so online learning tools must deliver on both fronts. For example, EchoEngage has a built-in virtual classroom equipped with video chat so students can see their peers. Teachers should require all students to leave their cameras on to create the sense of community that’s often lacking in online education.
Furthermore, EchoEngage has virtual breakout rooms to facilitate group work and help students get to know each other better. Giving students time to socialize with their peers using this feature could be a great way to fight off the feelings of isolation many teens experience with distance learning.
EchoEngage also supports blended learning paths that allow students to split their time between live class meetings and self-paced assignments. Allowing students to complete certain tasks whenever and wherever they like is a great way to foster independence. High school students shouldn’t feel abandoned either, so instructors should use EchoExam’s reporting tools to proactively intervene if a student falls behind.
Perhaps most importantly, teachers need to make online courses that are worth paying attention to. EchoAuthor allows course creators to use multimedia elements to help lectures pop, while EchoVideo tracks engagement data so instructors know if they are losing their audience.
Instructors, administrators, and learners everywhere can now experience the most comprehensive suite of learning engagement, assessment, and authoring solutions.
Let’s talk more to find the right solution for you.
Instructors, administrators, and learners everywhere can now experience the most comprehensive suite of learning engagement, assessment, and authoring solutions.
Let’s talk more to find the right solution for you.
Effortlessly create assignments, launch assessment questions and collect real-time responses to evaluate performance. Build on outcomes to create continuous improvement with learners at all levels.
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With over 14 different question types, you can match the assessment to the material at hand. Use traditional test question types such as true/false, multiple-choice, multiple response, numeric response, matching, completion, short answer and essay to review, re-teach and reinforce learning.
Ensuring that learners understand the information presented and how it can impact their success is key. Assess, track and analyze learner performance. Get results immediately and view valuable reports at the individual level, or for the class or group as a whole. Provide results in real-time, or at a later time as preferred.
With dynamic content, generate multiple iterations of exam questions to test the same concept. Use bimodal to toggle between multiple-choice and short answer question types, immediately changing the item difficulty level.
To learn more about how Echo360’s Echosystem can help you conduct more interactive lectures that truly engage each
student’s attention, contact us today. We’re excited to share all
the features of the Echosystem that can help.
Echo360 is driven to enable inspired learning experiences for everyone, anywhere through the high quality of solutions, tools, and standards we set for our work and ourselves.
Ensuring our solutions and tools are effective in all kinds of learning environments.
Unleashing the end-to-end learning potential of video, from creation to administration.
Designing and delivering effective engagement tools that produce results.
Providing empirical evidence of engagement, progress, and opportunity areas through easy-to-use dashboards.
Integrating seamlessly with the most widely used Learning Management Systems in education and business.
Echo360 delivers an innovative model for engaged learning in the post-Covid age. We offer coherent and compelling learner-centered experiences regardless of place and time, so all learners have the opportunities to learn.
