Survey: Majority of Hempfield students reported feeling comfortable with remote learning
Apr. 6—While students largely agree spending more time in school is extremely important, the majority of older Hempfield Area students reported feeling comfortable with remote learning this school year, district leaders said.
According to a survey sent to sixth through 12th graders, 13% of the 800 students who responded reported feeling extremely comfortable with remote learning. Another 32% reported feeling very comfortable and 33% said they were somewhat comfortable. Nearly 10% of students said they were not comfortable.
The survey was created by the district's instructional technology committee with the goal of getting student feedback on what was working and what was not. Results were presented to school board members this week.
Secondary students in the district spent most of the school year following a hybrid model of learning, or a mix of in-person and online classes, due to the covid-19 pandemic. Over the past few months, middle school students made a full return to the classroom. High school students are returning in phases.
"It was a learning experience for all of us and we wanted to take this and, obviously, improve our programs across the board," said Matthew Conner, assistant superintendent for secondary education.
While gauging the quality of the district's online learning program that utilizes tools such as Google Classroom and Google Meets, the survey also confronted issues including difficulties in completing school work from home, as well as student's mental and social needs during remote learning.
According to the survey, several students reported difficulty staying focused while doing at-home classwork. Results show that 23% of students found concentrating at home not easy, 16.5% found it to be slightly easy, 27.7% found is somewhat easy and 25.5% found it very easy.
"It does seem the students have difficulty staying focused while they are learning from home, which I think is what we would really expect to see from this question," Conner said. "It's hard to stay focused on learning when you have the distractions from home. In the same sense, I think that's not unusual."
The survey also showed that several students found it extremely important to have access to social, emotional and mental health supports.
"I think we learned some things through this," Conner said. "I think we realize the next steps that we have to take, but it also gives us pause on some of the supports that we need to put into place to make sure our students are successful in the future."
Megan Tomasic is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Megan at 724-850-1203, mtomasic@triblive.com or via Twitter .
