Elearning days are more like emergency remote learning than like online learning

And it’s doubtful that they work well

BY JOHN WATSON

Way back in the pre-covid times (December 2019), the DLC published a report titled eLearning Days: A scan of policy and guidance. As the study noted:
 
“eLearning days are used to maintain instruction during unplanned school closures most commonly due to weather (snow, ice, and extreme temperatures), natural disasters, or for other reasons including widespread illness. Some districts are using eLearning days for parent conferences and educator professional development days as well. eLearning days provide districts and their stakeholders an opportunity to continue the learning process and eliminate the need for adding extra days during or at the end of the school year for instructional and/or funding purposes.”
 
Of course, a few months after that study was released, most of the country’s schools shifted to an extended version of elearning days, as physical school closures led to emergency remote learning. The DLC has covered extensively the ways in which emergency remote learning differed from online learning, including in this graphic from the 2022 Snapshot.

Post-pandemic, and despite widespread concerns about emergency remote learning, some people questioned why remote learning wouldn’t be used for short-term closures like snow days. There is continued interest in this idea, with outlets from Education Week to local media covering the topic. Those two articles linked to from the previous sentence do a good job of reviewing pros and cons, but as noted in the articles, quite a few districts have moved to using elearning days more broadly than they were used pre-pandemic.
 
Here's the catch: many of the issues associated with emergency remote learning apply to elearning days too. Let’s cover a few from the graphic above:
 
Implemented with little planning by necessity: this doesn’t have to be the case, but in practice we know that training teachers, students, and families to teach, learn, and support students learning online takes considerable time. It appears that most elearning days implementations don’t take as much time as needed to deliver high-quality learning.
 
Temporary: by definition, elearning days are temporary. What’s more, states and districts are limiting the number of elearning days that may be used. That policy is defensible, but the result is a disincentive to invest in training for elearning days when the district knows there is a low cap on how many elearning days may be used.
 
For all classes, all students, and all teachers: In almost all other uses of digital learning, students, families, and teachers are opting in, which means that all parties have shown an interest in trying something new. With elearning days, the reluctant and unwilling are included whether they wish to be or not.
 
There’s no question that elearning days could be successful, and could avoid interruptions in teaching and learning, with the necessary planning and practice. The DLC report included a long list of issues and questions to address, from teacher preparation to instructional strategies, to communicating with families. There’s also no question that post-pandemic, far more students have devices, and the digital divide is smaller (though not yet closed.)
 
But the digital learning community, having put considerable effort into identifying differences between emergency remote learning and online learning, must continue to watch for and call out instances that are more like remote learning than online learning, and therefore less likely to serve students well.