As an organisation, we moved to doing online courses a year and a half ago. This has to some extent made it easier for learners who have time restrictions with work/other commitments, as they can now be more flexible as to when they do assignments etc. Some of our courses are now face-to-face, some online and some a mixture. We still have an element of 'live learning' on all courses,... more

As an organisation, we moved to doing online courses a year and a half ago. This has to some extent made it easier for learners who have time restrictions with work/other commitments, as they can now be more flexible as to when they do assignments etc. Some of our courses are now face-to-face, some online and some a mixture. We still have an element of 'live learning' on all courses, whether it be by video call or in the physical classroom. But we also provide resources on Google Classroom for learners. This can make it easier for learners when they miss a session/part session. They can look on the Google Classroom, see what explanation materials are provided (I provide a mixture of videos, links, games, online worksheets etc) and catch up in their own time. They can also have immediate access to assignments, rather than waiting until the next face-to-face session to be handed paper resources. This can also be done for face-to-face classes as we provide an online learning platform for them too (Google Classroom), provided they have access to devices/wifi.

I have made some personalised videos on certain topics, because while there are excellent resources available online for many topics, for some there are not so many, or they may be presented in a slightly different way to how we do them in our lessons. I think this will benefit some of my learners, especially those who have anxiety around maths, and learners with learning disabilities such as dyslexia who can get confused between different methods. They can watch the videos as many or as few times as they need to, or choose online resources to support them instead.

I made several videos when we first went into lockdown but were struggling to get people together for live lessons online, and I did get a lot of positive feedback from dyslexic learners who said that they really liked the videos because they could play them over and over again as many times as they liked (dyslexic learners often tell me that they need more repetition than other learners).

I have recently made a short video which I have sent via WhatsApp to a group of learners, explaining the way to solve a certain problem that one learners had asked about (from an assessment I had set). I have also uploaded it to Google Classroom. I have asked learners for feedback, and so far feedback has been good.

In theory we could teach all our lessons remotely using tutor videos and appropriate resources. However, while this would surely work for some learners who are able to work independently and confidently, I am sure that it would not work for the majority of our learners. This is because very many of our learners struggle with confidence having in most cases struggled at school (which is why they need to study with us now to achieve the qualifications they need/want). Therefore they would not find it easy to keep going and may get demotivated very easily, without support from the tutor and their classmates. They may also struggle with learning independently in general- I find that a lot of adults do struggle with this as it is very different from the way they were taught at school. One of the things that learners say they really like about our classes is the tutor input (and LSA/volunteer input where provided).

We do also provide access to BKSB which is a very good platform for learners to use to do independent learning. Once the Diagnostic Assessment is completed, BKSB can ascertain people's strengths and weaknesses, and it provides suggestions as to which topics people should focus on. The resources themselves are user friendly and generally of a high quality. Tutors can see learners' progression through the program.

Some learners make very good use of this opportunity (usually the more confident learners), while others don't use it at all, I think mainly due to confidence issues and lack of time.

In summary, while asynchronous/independent learning can work for some very confident learners, the majority of our learners are not confident (which may be linked to them not having a maths qualification already, and therefore the very reason they are on the course), so a completely asynchronous course wouldn't work for the majority. However, some elements of it work well. less