Teachers required to report total minutes for class engagement

Useful, or too much screen time?

Declan Farriday and Lauren Finkel|November 4, 2020

Photo Courtesy of Q Student Information System by Aequitas Solutions, Inc.

Under usual circumstances, student attendance and engagement would be assessed in-class by teachers. However, due to the shift to distance learning implemented during March, teachers and administrators have been forced to find other ways to monitor class engagement.

Under this new protocol, mandated by the state of California, teachers must fill out and submit a class engagement form detailing the minutes spent during virtual class time as well as what they and the students are doing, which Oak Park High School teachers are doing through Q Student Information System by Aequitas Solutions, Inc.

Attendance is recorded through video conferences in Google Meet for all students. Normal class periods last 95 minutes and zero-period classes are 60 minutes.

Oak Park High School band director Zachary Borquez believes that 95 minutes of distanced class time is beneficial, usable and certainly better than no class at all. However, Borquez believes that the amount of screen time may pose a potential problem.

“It’s great that students have adequate time to learn, but an hour and a half of screen time [per class] in a row is a lot,” Borquez said.

Due to the shift to distance learning implemented during March, teachers and administrators have been forced to find other ways to monitor class engagement. (Caitlin Fowler / Talon)

Despite concerns over the amount of screen time for students, both Borquez and OPHS math teacher Robin Midiri agree that allocating class time on Fridays for independent work is critical in avoiding distance learning burnout. 

“We are doing it right … having that Friday off is so critical for us,” Midiri said.

With distance learning, there is an additional need to put class time to good use. 

“It is important to consider utilizing the time educators spend directly interacting with students to be focused, planned, and designed to further student learning goals,” according to the California Department of Education’s distance learning instruction planning guidance.

Keeping this in mind, teachers are finding new ways to maximize the efficiency of the time they spend with their students.

“[This is] a reminder to us, as teachers, that minutes are valuable and teachers must find the best way to use them,” Midiri said.