2020 News Stories
How parents can support their K-12 student in online learning

Published April 3, 2020
For many parents, the sudden leap into online learning brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic may be an additional challenge presented during an already stressful time. Students who were previously receiving their education in-person with a full-time teacher may not be comfortable navigating the applications and software now being used to receive their lessons and complete assignments.
While 黑料网吃瓜爆料moved into fully online instruction on March 23, there are school districts across the state of Florida who are still completing the transition. James Hatten, PhD, an instructor in USF鈥檚 Instructional Technology program, says the development of an online course usually takes a much longer amount of time than school districts were afforded with the pandemic.
鈥淩emember, we鈥檙e just trying to keep education together,鈥 Dr. Hatten says. 鈥淭his is not ideal, but it鈥檚 also phenomenal. What people have been able to put together in two and a half weeks, that should鈥檝e taken a year and a half to be ready and is beyond phenomenal.鈥
The goal for online learning during current times, he says, is to help students remain engaged academically, so they can retain some of the knowledge they鈥檝e gained throughout the school year.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to (keep students on track) so that they don鈥檛 lag in their education,鈥 Dr. Hatten says. 鈥淲hat we learn in education is when you hit summer or any break, there鈥檚 backpedaling that happens.鈥
While older students can be reasonably expected to navigate online learning independently, Dr. Hatten says students at younger grade levels will need their parent鈥檚 help in navigating what may be a confusing and unfamiliar platform.
鈥淭he college students鈥攚e鈥檙e expecting them to do it on their own, but a seventh-grade student needs to have their parent guide that and set that up,鈥 Dr. Hatten says. 鈥淚t would be good if they did that tog