Schools went virtual overnight. Sure, online classes have been growing from the full blown online universities like the University of Phoenix to LinkedIn Learning to new startups like Lessonly for business. But a lot of secondary school teachers and even university educators got thrown in the deep end when students were sent home abruptly. On top of that, it's not clear if schools will be able to start terrestrial classes in the Fall.
Virtual School Hackathon Challenge
If you are a high school, boarding school, community college or traditional university, set up a 6-week hackathon-meets-startup-bootcamp experience. Students enroll to work in teams to explore and improve the online learning experience for your school. They accept challenges from different disciplines - science, English, political science, art studio. These all represent very different use-cases some of which have resisted becoming virtual or digital. The goal is to elevate the virtual learning experience and bring as many teachers and students up to speed with these practices. At the same time, you would engage students to help invent these new best practices.
Students would explore:
- Evaluate and test different technology platforms from Zoom to Webex to the legacy platforms some schools already own
- Define a toolbox of best practices for facilitating different teaching/learning modes from creative work like brainstorming (e.g. Marketing) to deep study and discourse (e.g. Philosophy)
- Develop new utilities or apps to further enhance the learning experience. This includes the "new student" training program that
- Market the best ideas, tools, resources across the school ecosystem to raise the bar for the virtual learning experience across the institution.
Useful resources:
20+ eLearning Platforms for COVID-19 Affected School Students
Physical or online? How to make your hackathons a success
Design sprints: what they are and how to successfully run one
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