Making the Transition to Distance Learning

By Alex Northrup, Director of The Innovation Lab; Department Chair, History

When Foxcroft moved classes online in March we already had two important elements in place. First, the School uses a Learning Management System (LMS), so students were accustomed to logging into a website to see their assignments and class materials. Second, we had spent most of the year in the classroom, so the relationships between students and teachers were well-established.

Still, faculty faced signifi cant challenges in order to continue delivering high-quality instruction. Specifi cally, classes would need to be asynchronous to accommodate students living across the globe. In addition, much of Foxcroft’s pedagogy is based around students working together to solve problems — a learning strategy that can be di! cult when students are not physically together.

To overcome these challenges, Foxcroft held 15 different workshops to train teachers and sta" on a variety of technology and tools. Our teachers use Zoom but mostly as participants, so we needed to educate them on scheduling and running Zoom meetings. We also held a training in Loom, a tool that can record your computer camera and screen with voiceover. Faculty are using these tools very effectively to record short lectures that students can watch independently and then bring questions to their teachers during online tutorial periods.

Additional training was also provided on our LMS to emphasize those aspects that would facilitate distance learning. Finally, we offered instruction on tools such as Flipgrid, an app that records short videos using your phone or computer, that make asynchronous interaction between students and teachers easier. We miss seeing the girls on campus, so using these technologies to see their faces has brought joy to the faculty.

Whether the fall semester begins online or in person, we are building on the lessons learned from our weeks of distance learning and feel confident that we have the tools and the experience to continue to deliver the hallmark Foxcroft education and experience. •