We’ve made packs of work for students to take home… students aren’t going to use them.”

How can we ensure students keep learning when schools are closed?

We’ve printed work, prepared online tasks and planned video calls. But the opening quotation – from a teacher I spoke to this weekend – exemplifies an obvious concern:

  • We plan online lessons – and students don’t attend
  • We set tasks – and students don’t complete them
  • We try to keep students learning – but they don’t see the value

This seems likely to widen the attainment gap: the students who need the most support and who get the least at home will struggle most when schools are closed. So how can we encourage students – especially those in most need – to keep learning?

This post suggests simple nudges to increase the chances students engage and persevere with the distant learning tasks we’ve prepared. I’ve summarised a psychological principle at the start of each paragraph – with links if you want to learn more – and described how we can apply it. Not every principle will apply in every school – it depends on the age of students and the tasks you’ve prepared – but I hope some prove useful.

1) Prioritise fundamental goals; turn them into habits

Principle: Any change demands a huge amount of energy and attention: we should prioritise the most fundamental challenges and develop habits which address them.

Implications: Initially only two things matter: I) Are students turning up? and II) Are they completing assigned tasks? So the two habits to develop are that every student:

I) Attends every online lesson (health permitting)
II) Completes (specified) independent tasks daily/weekly

These habits lay the foundations for success: if students do both, then as we get better at distance teaching and learning, they will benefit increasingly. Without these habits, our efforts will be wasted. Prioritising also liberates us to worry less about other things: getting the majority of students attending and responding is more important initially than the quality of lessons, tasks and feedback.

2) Show students the value of participation

Principle: People respond to the way a situation is framed, not just the situation itself: people are more worried about losing what they already have than gaining something new.

Implication: The crucial frame is “Don’t miss out. Don’t miss your friends. Don’t miss school.” Almost all students enjoy something about school, whether it’s learning, activities, or seeing friends. They may be excited about closure initially, but they’re going to feel really, really bored. And lonely. And lost. Online lessons/forums are a chance to talk to their friends and make sense of events. Alongside learning, we can leave space for students to discuss, share experiences, and complain about being stuck at home; we may consider online tutor time or assemblies. Most importantly, we can convey to students that the school community still exists, and by attending they don’t miss out on being part of it.

Principle: people are strongly influenced by (perceived) social norms: the behaviour that is expected, and the behaviour that they see around them; for example, they’re more likely to litter if they see others littering.

Implication: First we can emphasise expected behaviour: “School is still open, we still expect full attendance.” Second, we can highlight prevalent behaviour – as long as it’s positive: “Last week, 90% of you submitted your assignments.” Third, we can create positive peer pressure: as an online session starts, we can highlight how many students are present (not who’s missing). Or we could reinforce that pressure by inviting students to text absent peers. We can emphasise social norms with parents too (especially if we’re working with younger pupils): we could invite them to share photos of their children working on particular tasks (for example, on school/class Facebook groups) to show all parents that this is the norm.

3) Plan when and how

Principle: People are more likely to act if they plan when to do things and pick the best moment to act: for example, people are more likely to search for diet advice at the start of the year, month and week.

Implications: The days are going to stretch out empty and unstructured for students: we know they’ll struggle with this. We can set really clear schedules for what is going to happen and when. This applies both for online teaching and for students’ independent work: we can give students timetables or guide them to create them. Sara Hjelm shared the example of Schillerska School in Gothenburg: if you have a maths lesson at 9am, you should do maths then; activities will be ready by 5pm the preceding day (link, in Swedish). We can reinforce this with clear deadlines – “tasks are due in by 5pm on Friday” – and by involving parents: we could ask students to email homework to us, copying in their parents, for example.

4) Make it easy

Principle: Make the first step the easiest one to take, by making it small, concrete, or something students have already done.

Implications: First, we can choose the simplest technological platforms (discussed here): email, Facebook, text messages if we’re worried about parents’ internet access. We make it easier for ourselves, parents and students when we use familiar technology. This also ensures access for any student (parent) with a smartphone, not just those with laptops and internet. Second, we can build in redundancy. On the programme I lead, I send the weekly message through both email and Slack, and participants respond through either. This takes me about sixty seconds more, and means people can use the form of communication they prefer.

Principle: People tend to follow the default unless they have a very good reason not to: pension savings jumped from 16% to 63% among workers in their twenties when the default changed.

A few possible defaults to ensure students get the most out of their time at home:

  • Sit down to study as you would sit down to a lesson – phone off, desk clear, no distractions
  • Online lessons start promptly – students have pen and paper ready, microphones off, cameras on/off (depending on whether you’d rather see that they’re attending/avoid distractions)
  • All students respond to formative tasks promptly
  • Tasks are completed on time – students (and maybe parents) receive an email if tasks aren’t completed

If we set these early and reinforce them, we clarify expectations and make following them easier for ourselves and for students.

5) Make it a habit

Principle: Achieving small wins creates a feeling of progress and success.

Implication: People feel like things are working when they see them working: when they achieve small wins. In our first few lessons and tasks we can focus on ensuring students achieve small successes. We can set simple tasks, well within students’ comfort zones (and our own) to show students that they can be successful at distance, and that new approaches will work for them. We can continue to highlight their successes every time we make an online lesson work, and every time they succeed in something new.

Principle: It’s hard to form habits: they may need to be relaunched.

Equally, it’s going to be hard. We will face problems: tech problems, attendance problems, effort problems. We can keep relaunching until it works: each week, each lesson is a chance to start again, to highlight progress from previous attempts and refine what hasn’t work, until we form the routines which will work.

Conclusions

1) This is a huge challenge… but it’s also a very familiar challenge. Every lesson we persuade, encourage and cajole students to work, learn and contribute. Strategies and techniques which have worked for you in the past will work again.

2) Why bother? Does it really matter, with exams cancelled, schools closed, life on hold? Distance learning can allow students to keep learning and can be a source of stability, normality and meaning. Students may be stuck at home for ages, worried, lonely and lost. Distance learning may help them to make sense of what’s happening, and may widen their horizons beyond the four walls in which they’re stuck.

3) Many of these principles will apply for our colleagues too. A semblance of normality and the online staffroom are crucial.

Checklist

Engage students in distance learning by:

  • Clarifying the habits they should pursue
  • Encouraging them not to ‘miss out’ on seeing friends
  • Emphasising what we expect and what’s being achieved
  • Helping them plan what to do, when
  • Simplifying everything
  • Creating and highlighting small wins, to show students it works
  • Relaunching habits when students struggle

If you liked this, you may appreciate…

The guide I’m writing to influencing students’ behaviour – learn moreĀ here.

Three follow up blog posts developing these ideas for The Education Hub, on:

A seven-minute video summarising the key ideas, here.

My experience designing distance learning and its implications for teaching remotely.