How Learning Continued during the COVID-19 Pandemic

39. Spain: Learn at home

Marta Encinas-Martin
OECD

Abstract

Type of intervention: governmental

Website: https://aprendoencasa.educacion.es

General description

Aprendo en Casa (Learn at home) is an initiative launched by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Vocational Training as a result of the temporary suspension of face-to-face teaching activity. It is a web portal that was developed in ten days which brings together quality educational resources, online training, and tools and apps for teachers, families and students. One of its innovative features is a partnership with the national television broadcaster. Aprendo en Casa is a flexible website that is constantly updated with new initiatives and which provides for needs that existed but that were not initially detected.

Main problems addressed

The main problem was to provide all teachers, families and students in Spain with quality resources for school-age students’ learning during the COVID-related lockdown. This federal initiative supplements other initiatives by the regional education authorities.

Mobilising and developing resources

The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, through the National Institute for Educational Technologies and Teacher Training, has been working on the production of open educational resources, training teachers on the use of ICT for educational purposes by means of online and on-site courses. The National Institute for Educational Technologies and Teacher Training has also helped teachers create their own teaching resources and co-ordinated ICT projects in which teachers can participate.

The existing resources that made this initiative possible were:

• A wide collection of open educational resources, created by teachers and readily available for them to share under the umbrella of Project Procomún. Likewise, Project EDIA offers a variety of proposals connected to active methodologies and the development of digital competence, in addition to being a repository of images and sounds. The CIDEAD, the department of the Ministry of Education devoted to distance learning, also developed and provided materials.

• A free and open authoring tool for teachers to design their own resources: ExeLearning.

• A collection of open online training courses (MOOC, NOOC and Edupills) with different lengths and topics to respond to the needs of any member of the educational community interested in teaching and learning with ICT support.

• An expert team at the National Institute for Educational Technologies and Teacher Training, which designs online training for teachers to support their digital teaching.

• A collection of good practices from different sources such as Inspiring Educational Experiences or the Observatory of Educational Technologies.

• The new features that the new web portal had to develop were:

  • A new way of organising resources, taking into account: the fact that students are learning from home; teachers’ demands to cope with the current challenges; the wide range of resources offered by the Spanish regional educational authorities; the possibilities that television can offer to all learners from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and its capacity to reach students across the country for educational purposes.

  • A curation of high-quality content so that it is manageable for teachers.

  • Content that caters to the needs of all compulsory educational stages, all subjects, types of students and that also takes into account the lack of online service at home.

  • Regular updating of resources for as long as the current situation lasts.

  • A schedule that summarises the educational content of weekly TV broadcasts, along with the link to access them on demand after they have been aired.

Fostering effective use and learning

The web platform is organised in clear sections addressed to the whole educational community. The fact that users can find a considerable number of resources and services in the same way in a clear manner is an effective way to support teachers, students and families. In fact, the portal includes:

• A section labelled “Docentes” (teachers), which shares resources, training, support and initiatives from various private and public entities, as well as teachers. The materials in this section link to the site “Resources for online learning” from the National Institute for Educational Technologies and Teacher Training.

• A section labelled “Familias” (families), which collects information on tools, websites and applications for children’s learning and leisure activities. The activities are organised by educational stage and subject. This section also includes information about educational apps (with a sub‑section focused on catering for educational needs), resources shared by teachers, mostly YouTube channels, that can be used at home as a support, and a list of museums that offer virtual visits.

• A section labelled “Comunidades autónomas” (regions) shares the websites that regional educational authorities provide as a reference for publishing information of an educational nature during the temporary school closures (regulations, resources, applications, etc.).

Implementation challenges

The main implementation challenge has been the short notice with which the website had to be up and running. Since the school closures began, the educational authorities realised teachers’ need for sufficient resources to continue the teaching process. Providing a solid and co-ordinated offer of resources in only ten days, with an attractive and accessible format for all students, including those in vulnerable situations, required a great effort from everyone.

To overcome these difficulties, collaboration between different actors (public and private institutions, teachers, staff from the National Institute for Educational Technologies and Teacher Training, and other departments of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training) was necessary due to the time pressure.

The main reason for success is the organisation and accessibility of the resources for teachers and families. The most innovative feature is the organisation of the web portal into four large main sections: teachers, families, regions and, what is probably the newest feature, “We learn at home”, aimed at 6‑16 year-old students.

“We learn at home” was created thanks to the collaboration of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training with the national television broadcaster, and aims to facilitate learning during the suspension of face-to-face teaching. This is quite a new innovative feature for several reasons:

• The time span of its special programming: Five hours a day of educational content, which is broadcast in the morning from Monday to Friday.

• It is aimed at the entire age range of students in compulsory education: Three one-hour programmes for primary education students (6-12 years old) and two one-hour programmes for secondary education students (12-16 years old).

• The educational videos have been provided by publishers, institutions, organisations and teachers who have offered them for free and non-profit.

• The content distribution has been organised according to school subjects, so that each day of the week is devoted to a different area (maths, languages, social science, natural science, arts and crafts, and physical education).

To keep up the pace of innovation, the possibility to hold a videoconference is being explored so that all those schools and teachers who do not have an alternative to communicate with students and families are able to find an easy and accessible solution. Moreover, devices and an Internet connection are offered to students that lack these services and who are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Monitoring success

The measure of success used are data from Google Analytics for the web portal and the audience share in the case of the TV programmes. Regarding the website, the audience in the last 20 days has been 99 830 users and 267 940 pages visited, keeping in mind that the Easter break was during this time period.

Adaptability to new contexts

This portal could be used and shared for educational initiatives aimed at improving education in places where accessibility to schools and teachers is not easy. It can also be an example for other areas, such as health, as a unique site where professionals and users can find information, resources, etc. curated by the corresponding administrative department and the collaboration of different actors.

Box 39.1. Key points to keep in mind for a successful adaptation

1. It can be implemented nationwide.

2. Cater to all compulsory levels of education (6-16 years old) and post-compulsory secondary education, both academic and vocational.

3. Curate resources and high-quality online training.

4. Target special needs and students in difficult situations.

5. Organise content and make it easy to search.

6. Have a unique site for all agents in the educational community.

7. Collaborate with national TV, public and private institutions, and organisations.

8. Foster teacher collaboration.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the Spanish Ministry of Education and Vocational Training.