When students test positive for COVID-19, they are required to stay at home until they test negative. While their world may be halted, the rest of the world continues to go on, and at school, teachers continue introducing new material in class. The only tool that students use to keep up in their courses is Canvas, which allows them access to slideshow presentations, worksheets, pictures of notes and resources of this nature. However, they are robbed of perhaps the most instrumental aspect to learning: being in the classroom environment and listening to an instructor give a lecture in live time. This experience can be brought into students’ homes while they recover through recorded lectures, which a student can utilize at their convenience and in the future for review and reference.
“An hour-and-a-half of instruction during blocks can’t be compressed into effectively a third of that“
In high school, being out sick for even a day can mean falling behind on five or six classes’ worth of material, and for students who are taking honors or advanced placement courses, which move at a faster pace, the process of trying to catch up can quickly become overwhelming. They need to comprehend and process content at the same rate as the rest of the class, even amid an extended period of absence, in order to be successful with the demands of tests, projects, assignments and more, which cannot be done when they do not have the ability to follow along. Teachers and students alike have busy schedules, and with lunch and Flex being relatively short, each around half-an-hour long, the structure of the school day provides few opportunities to meet with instructors. An hour-and-a-half of instruction during block day periods cannot be compressed into effectively a third of that duration. Recorded lectures would be highly beneficial as they would eliminate the pressing stress of catching up with class content upon return to school and make the lives of both teachers and students significantly easier.
All students would be able to find immense positives from the usage of recorded lectures, as they would provide an effective and simplified way to review content as needed. Students can receive clarification and review concepts that they forgot or need brushing up on leading up to an exam, and have their questions quickly answered in last minute scenarios, without needing to wait until they have a class to ask their teacher.
“Students can receive clarification and review … without needing to wait until they have a class“
Recorded lectures can be used for long-term review as students have the opportunity to gradually re-learn material and familiarize themselves before they move on to using other methods of review based on understanding, such as Quizlet, Kahoot or Quizizz, which can enrich and fill in gaps in the studying process.
In math based courses, seeing a teacher run through a complicated problem or formula step-by-step with thorough explanation does wonders for understanding and applying such concepts when called upon. In heavy content based courses such as history, an instructor’s analysis and clarification can make a world of difference. Students in every single academic class would only benefit from recorded lectures used to aid their individual learning processes.
The pandemic and transition to at-home learning led many colleges and universities around the country to begin recording lectures for students, so it makes sense that high schools should follow such procedures as well in order to maximize the efficiency of learning. COVID-19 has dramatically changed the way in which education is taught, and a positive to come out is the various ways in which technology can be used to extend learning beyond just the classroom setting.
