Executive Summary
St. Francis Elementary School is an established educational center in California City. However, the lack of online learning mechanisms has inhibited teaching during this COVID-19 worldwide. The school has experienced disruptions of face-to-face learning activities. As mentioned earlier, the school has to design alternative learning opportunities to create distinctive teaching environments. This has led to the need to design an online learning platform suitable for interactive and critical learning experiences by the tutors and their learners. This platform will create a platform for online interaction between tutors and the learners as they engage in learning activities. I anticipate this platform will be essential in enabling you to cover the syllabus within the stipulated period before the end term exams. Similarly, the proposal has availed related literature, methodology to be utilized and the estimated cost to realize this goal. A schedule for conducting operation has been outlined together with the estimated financial requirement to ensure the project is completed.
Introduction
Online learning entails using the internet to deliver your lessons to the students. Education is transformative if learners and tutors can synthesize relevant information within numerous fields by critically establishing varying perspectives and inquiries (Sun & Chen, 2016). Similarly, online learning possesses different definitions which rely on the purpose and the need considered for the subject under study. The motivation for the application of online platforms is because it is driven by mode of delivery, technology, suitability to educative purposes and communication designs (Valverde-Berrocoso et al., 2020). It allows the learners to conduct a variety of activities, including imagination, analysis, critical synthesis, intentionality, creativity, and self-awareness (Sun & Chen, 2016). Therefore, online learning will require tutors to possess relevant skills to avoid experiencing hardship when using this platform (Rapanta et al., 2020). This research proposal outlines a proposed conceptual framework that manages arising constraints.
Statement of the Problem
St. Francis Elementary School is an international institution hosting students worldwide. The occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the disruption of physical learning activities in the institution and other facilities across the globe (Valverde-Berrocoso et al., 2020). This is a matter of concern to the management since they feel there exist alternative means of teaching the students using the online platform. Online learning has remained the alternative option essential for creating pedagogical knowledge and foundations of aspects required to facilitate meaningful experiences through the use of this teaching design (Rapanta et al., 2020). Similarly, the ability of students to think critically will be enhanced through online learning. Online learning avails platforms that provide the students with avenues to focus on critical thinking (Sun & Chen, 2016). If adopted, learning activities will continue through this online platform.
Therefore, the disruptions in learning prompt the need to understand any constraints likely to deter the adoption of this system. Modelling and identification of a suitable design for learning require a structural approach. The objectives which need to be addressed include:
- Determine the features considered by learners for a practical online learning experience during this COVID-19 period
- explain the components to be included within this system to facilitate and improve teaching standards.
- Determine the essential factors for predicting the learning outcomes, satisfaction, construction of knowledge and motivation within this environment.
The outcome of this research will be essential to school managers and software providers in improving their system designs for the mitigation of online learning constraints. Similarly, it provides a well-articulated overview of the activities when looking ahead of schedule.
Related Literature Review
According to Valverde-Berrocoso et al. (2020) research, he is concerned with identifying trends emanating from related studies on online learning. Similarly, they seek to determine the effectiveness of these learning environments involving features linking the student and the system (Sun & Chen, 2016). Other studies explore and refocus on the role of tutors’ presence during and after a crisis. Studies have investigated the quality and cost of initiating higher learning platforms to improve learners’ retention and enrollment (Rapanta et al., 2020). The studies fail to provide a suitable remedy to the identified constraints likely to affects their research regarding online learning environments.
Methodology
The primary study design would target students in their upper grades. The identification of the dependent and the independent variables would be essential. The study would incorporate a survey where online questionnaires are the designed tools for data collection. Analysis of the collected data would then be done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The performance of ANOVA will be essential in understanding what the participants desire and the challenges experienced while utilizing the online learning environment. This will provide insights to future researches exploring similar field.
A Management Plan
This research will form a report resulting in its completion by June 15, 2021. This requires the design of the study’s schedule to be strictly followed. It will therefore be presented as shown in the table below.
Table 1: The schedule for the task to be undertaken
This project requires all tutors in St. Francis Elementary School to ensure more accessible and faster transfer of interventions measures bestowed on me to other committee members. Joint deliberations will be performed within those 30 days. Within this period, providing an explanation explaining how St. Francis Elementary School meets certain conditions is conducted. This will be done qualitatively as presentations and requirements of any conflicting information about the institution’s satisfaction by the institution is taken into consideration. The installation costs of these online learning systems are estimated to be $50,000. This amount would be billed after the entire task has been fully accomplished.
Conclusion
Online learning can be accomplished if the participants have access to the internet. There are discrepancies in the distribution of access to the internet worldwide. This raises the necessitate for governments to provide low-cost and universal access to the internet to facilitate online learning potential among the students (Valverde-Berrocoso et al., 2020). Failure to access the internet will inhibit online learning by the institution. Similarly, the success of online learning environments requires the promotion of collaboration, social presence, and the rise of the platform (Sun & Chen, 2016). The features of the learners, system design, and quality of the technology are vital for a practical blended learning experience (Kintu et al., 2017). Furthermore, the response to a crisis pushes for the need to learn and teach using new practices (Rapanta et al., 2020). A formal presentation is expected on June 3, 2021. Similarly, a formal report will be required by June 15, 2021, by the leader of St. Francis Elementary School.
References
Kintu, M. J., Zhu, C., & Kagambe, E. (2017). Blended learning effectiveness: The relationship between student characteristics, design features and outcomes. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14(1).
Rapanta, C., Botturi, L., Goodyear, P., Guà rdia, L., & Koole, M. (2020). Online University teaching during and after the COVID-19 crisis: Refocusing teacher presence and learning activity. Postdigital Science and Education, 2(3), 923-945.
Sun, A., & Chen, X. (2016). Online education and its effective practice: A research review. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 15, 157-190.
Valverde-Berrocoso, J., Garrido-Arroyo, M. D., Burgos-Videla, C., & Morales-Cevallos, M. B. (2020). Trends in educational research about E-LEarning: A systematic literature review (2009–2018). Sustainability, 12(12), 5153.