OREO is a mnemonic coined by international educator Alison Yang. She suggests the following guidelines adapted for home use with permission:
Help your children to understand the learning objectives and outcomes of their tasks. If they complain they're just doing "busy work" help them to clarify with their teacher where it fits into the broader curriculum or Approaches to Learning (ATLs - see image below). Not every task will necessarily be directly linked to content but could be enhancing their communication, social, research, self-management or thinking skills.
While teachers are updating materials and regularly checking in and guiding students, learning is a shared responsibility. In the case of learning online students may be thrown by the lack of structure that is found at school and need help in setting a daily learning schedule. This should include time online and offline, time to socialise and time to exercise or enjoy the outdoors. Allow your child to take the initiative and responsibility in this, and offer guidance if you see things are going off track or they're not sticking to agreements.
By its nature, online learning is asynchronous. This means that students can enter the learning tasks and discussions at a time suitable to them based on where they are. Try to keep to a regular sleeping and waking cycle based on your time zone. However students will still be expected to complete tasks and assignments and stay in sync with the class. It is important they take learning seriously and don't fall behind their peers. We are keeping to the normal school day structure as much as possible, even if students are given "until the next session" in time to respond and submit their work. Teachers will let students know when they are available in "real time" to answer questions. Note that for MS and HS the Moodle platform's Closure forums are the first point of contact. This is to enable the communal sharing of information.
Students can rely on the following tools to keep themselves organised:
- O365 Outlook Calendar where the daily schedule has been uploaded
- The Advisory Course in MS Moodle for daily mentor check-in and advisory session
- MS / HS Moodle Closure Tab and Discussion Forum in each of their subjects
We have set this up to avoid students having to go to multiple external links. Students should also try to organize a dedicated learning space to encourage productivity. If laptops or tablets need to be shared, work out an equitable arrangement between family members.