Students, Teachers Learning How to Make Online Education Effective

Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced today that schools will remain closed until the end of the school year in June. 

Students, educators and parents have all been trying to adjust to online instruction and at-home learning as best they can.

“It’s a big loss, but it’s not a loss that can’t be made up.” — Dr. Elizabeth Moje, University of Michigan

While high school seniors will graduate and all other grades will advance, this change is having a big impact on what learning from home means for students, parents, and educators.

Click on the player above to hear how young people are affected by changes in learning during the Coronavirus.

Jake Neher/WDET

Guest

Dr. Elizabeth Moje is the Dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan. 

“It’s a big loss, but it’s not a loss that can’t be made up,” says Moje, although she does acknowledge that the move to online learning has made issues of student inequity more obvious, especially in places like Detroit.

At the University of Michigan, Moje says instructors there are engaged in remote instruction, “and it’s hard, we are very well equipped but there are challenges in making face-to-face instruction, online instruction.” The loss of the social element of learning is something Moje says she and others at the university are taking into consideration. 

“We have been doing things like video chats, Zoom chats, just check-ins, because we are worried about loss of social connection, we are trying to not use the language of social distancing,” says Moje suggesting the phrase ‘physical distancing’ instead.