COVID-19 and Distance Learning

Dear Teachers and Friends,

Like you, we are concerned about the impact that COVID-19 is having on teaching and learning, and about the changes you’re seeing in your schools and communities in response to recent developments.

Of course, health and safety are of the utmost priority. We recognize that these unexpected challenges are touching you, your students and their families, both in and out of the classroom. Educators are searching for ways to deliver quality instruction to students while also taking care to protect their health and wellness.

With many schools around the country transitioning to online instruction and distance learning environments, including our home at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, we’ve been in close contact with our teacher users to understand what is happening in their schools and how we can do our part to support these new learning environments.

Here is some information about how ASSISTments is approaching this rapidly evolving situation for our community of users, as well as for our team.

Extra support to provide quality distance learning for your classes:

We are developing a complete guide to support your transition to distance learning. Follow this page for more to come this week for new and veteran users. Right now you can:

• Sign up for extra one-on-one virtual support to help you implement best practices in distance learning
• Access 4 training modules for teachers new to ASSISTments
• Sign up for virtual webinars and workshops
• We are hosting conversations in our Teacher User Community for teachers to discuss the unique challenges they’re facing and what is working in their schools

If you typically use the Assignment Report for in-class instruction, we recommend you:

• Send a results summary to your class (and parents) via email, highlighting how the class is doing and where support is needed - or screenshare via video-conference
• Assign skill builders for students who require extra support. You can assign to a selected group of students by editing the assignment in Google Classroom

‍The ASSISTments team is adopting a remote work environment

• Many of our team members are already veteran Work From Homers. The rest of our team is now moving fully virtual for the time being.
• Regrettably, we are suspending all travel and conference participation.
• We expect all other aspects of our work to continue to run without disruption so that we can be there to ensure teaching and learning continues for your students.

We wish for the wellness of all communities. Please reach out if we can be of any support to you or your classroom.

Warmly,

Megan Roberts
CEO, The ASSISTments Foundation