Tech. Ed. Department Updates Online Curriculum

After seeing the tech. ed. test scores of virtual students were much lower than those of in-person students, the tech. ed. department has changed the curriculum for virtual students requiring them to be more involved in the classes.

After the first test for each of the tech. ed. classes, the teachers looked at the recorded scores of virtual students. Tech. ed. teacher Corey McCauley and the other tech. ed. teachers compared the virtual students’ scores with the scores of in-person students.

“We noticed that the virtual kids were all underperforming on their exams,” McCauley said. “We dedicated our time to figure out what we could do to get the kids more engaged.”

Senior Allie Davies did not like that the virtual students did not have assignment requirements earlier in the year.

“I did not think that it was fair that the virtual students were getting their grade based on how much they talked in class,” Davies said. “While I was doing the work they were sitting in their room.”

McCauley and the rest of the tech. ed. department used an in-service day to solve this problem. As a result, it became required that virtual students did a project assessment for each lab.

Virtual students have five different options for their projects. Students can write a 25 sentence essay, create a slideshow, record them discussing the lab for two to three minutes, take a video of the student doing the lab at home, or an option created by the student and approved by the teacher.

So far, the vast majority of students have done the 25 sentence essay for each of their labs. An occasional student, however, completes the slideshow option instead.

“I actually had one kid that did the powerpoint slides and that was cool,” McCauley said. “I think we will be seeing more students do the slides presentation rather than the writing exercise.”

Junior Darin Laux was McCauley’s first student to do the slides presentation.

“I did the slide show for auto maintenance because it was the easiest option to do,” Laux said.

Laux also understands the difficulty of online and why the department changed the online curriculum.

“When I was online the participation went way down because the teacher never really called anyone online,” Laux said. “if you did not pay attention then the tests were harder.”

Since the virtual curriculum update, McCauley has noticed that the virtual students’ test scores have gotten better. He believes that students are finally getting used to virtual learning as they are understanding that it requires themselves to try harder.

Davies was happy to hear that the tech. ed. department installed the requirements for the virtual students.

“The tech. ed. department made the right decision to make the virtual students do more work,” Davies said. “It is also better for those who are virtual because they are learning more than when they were just watching.”