Page 12 - spaces4learning, Fall 2020

Figure 3
QUALITY OF REMOTE INSTRUCTION (K-12)
How well do you think your school is handling remote instruction?
Poorly Fairly well Well Extremely well N/A Other
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES
Poorly 5.98%
Fairly well 39.32%
Well 29.06%
Extremely well 18.80%
N/A 3.42%
Other 3.42%
Figure 4
QUALITY OF REMOTE INSTRUCTION (HIGHER ED)
How well do you think your school is handling remote instruction?
Poorly Fairly well Well Extremely well N/A Other
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES
Poorly 3.88%
Fairly well 29.13%
Well 35.92%
Extremely well 29.13%
N/A 0.00%
Other 1.94%
spaces4learning
READER SURVEY
Facilities & Infrastructure
When it comes to facilities, most in K–12 and higher education said that their existing facilities are adequate for delivering in-person instruction — 70 percent in K–12 and nearly 80 percent in higher ed.
The biggest complaints about their schools’ facilities among K–12 respon- dents were:
• The size of the classrooms;
• The number of classrooms;
• Difficulty with social distancing;
• Difficulty cleaning or finding cleaning
products;
• Lack of technology resources;
• Busing; and
• Ventilation.
“The classroom is not big enough for social distancing, and we do not have re- sources for everyone to have all they need without sharing,” according to one re- spondent in K–12.
Some offered the caveat that, while fa- cilities are adequate now, they would not be as more students begin attending in-person.
On the technology front, home internet access is somewhat an issue for K–12, al- though only 9.5 percent characterized it as a major problem affecting a large percent- age of students. A third characterized it as a moderate problem affecting a small but substantial percentage of students. Most (52 percent) said it was a minor problem affecting a small percentage of students. Six percent said it was no problem at all.
At the time of the survey (October/ November 2020), 18 percent of K–12 re- spondents reported that their institution was forced to close at least once during the fall semester owing to COVID-19 cas- es. (See Figures 5 and 6 on page 11.)
In higher education, where nearly 80 per- cent of respondents said their facilities were adequate, the most significant problems among respondents were space and technol- ogy infrastructure. Some, whose students had not all returned to class at the time of the survey, worried that facilities would be inadequate but couldn’t be sure at the time.
As far as technology is concerned, home internet access was even less of an is- sue in higher ed than in K–12. More than twice as many respondents (12.75 percent in higher ed versus 6 percent in K–12) in- dicated that home internet access was not an issue at all. The majority (51 percent) said it was a minor problem affecting few students. About 27 percent said it was a moderate problem affecting a small but substantial percentage of students. And nearly 9 percent said it was a major issue
10 FALL 2020