Limestone District School Board staff will continue to review feedback from students, families and educators regarding remote learning to help inform future virtual learning opportunities.
In the spring of 2020, the board collected feedback from students, families and staff regarding emergency remote learning during the latter half of the 2019-2020 school year. The board offered a follow-up survey in late May as another opportunity to provide input, and to help inform Ministry of Education reporting requirements.
The survey did ask participants to make distinctions between those who chose remote learning via the LDSB Virtual School and those who were required to participate in remote learning due to provincially-mandated in-person school closures.
Staff have just begun to unpack and review survey results that included student voice from students in Grades 4 to 12. One question, for example, asked students for suggestions on how the board might better support virtual learning. These responses will help the board consider programming adjustments and decisions related to instructional practices in virtual learning spaces going forward.
Educators and support staff who work directly with students were also asked to provide their feedback with an emphasis on professional learning for the 2021-2022 school year to support virtual teaching.
All three stakeholder groups cited challenges related to building and maintaining meaningful connection in an online environment. All participants also reported that technology worked well thanks in part to the support provided by the Information Technology Services team which continues to work hard to support our students, employees and families.
While more elementary families responded to the survey, more secondary students responded. Almost 1,000 students, over 700 educator staff and about 1,250 families completed the survey, a response rate between 7 and 12 per cent. A breakdown of the responses is provided in the graphs below.
Staff will continue to analyze the date to provide additional considerations for planning and learning purposes moving into 2021-2022 school year.
