Case Study: K-12 School Districts
K-12 Schools Prepare to Facilitate with Cisco Webex
The need for preparation to teach in distance learning environments grows as more school districts move their in-person curricula to online platforms. Skyline ATS delivers high impact presentations to guide educators on how to facilitate with Webex in their new environments.
Vertical: Education
Client: K-12 School Districts (in partnership with Cisco)
Staff: Over 3 million teachers
Students: Over 56 million
Overview
As a multiple award-winning Cisco Learning Partner, Skyline ATS remains positioned to ensure K-12 school districts optimize the full value of their investments with Cisco Webex technical expertise, hands-on training, and expert knowledge transfer.
Challenges
Solutions
Results
- Schools nationwide were mandated to close due to COVID-19
- Educators needed to switch to online classes
- Educators needed to be prepared to deliver traditional courseware online
- Cisco Webex Meetings and Webex Teams
- Individualized curriculum based on each school district’s needs
- Highly interactive presentations and knowledge transfer
Provide continuous support and resources after each session
- Webex provides a secure, highly reliable, and easy to use solution for educators and students regardless of age
- Educators embraced the opportunity to learn and deliver education within a distance learning environment
- More than 2,000 teachers, administrators, and staff were able to shift to interactive online learning
“I received a lot of positive feedback about our sessions from teachers and principals. I thank you all for being such amiable and flexible partners. I am excited about what this new partnership means for our district moving forward. Thank you all again for your flexibility and patience as we embark on this new journey together!”
Angela Underwood, Chief Academic Officer, Harper Woods School District
Background & Vision
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many K-12 school districts faced tough decisions on how to safely reopen their schools for the 2020-2021 academic year.
For the school districts that decided to offer their classes online, K-12 administrators, teachers, staff, students, parents, and guardians remained mindful of constraints on access to technology and the Internet — along with social and emotional well-being.
To solve these challenges, some K-12 school districts sought solutions for how to prepare educators to facilitate virtual classrooms and meetings.
Skyline ATS, in partnership with Cisco, worked together to:
- Complete high-level curriculum design
- Perform discovery services to assess current environment
- Deliver “Facilitating Classrooms” with Webex sessions
- Provide post production recordings of each session
- Track and analyze data relevant to the program’s success
- Develop User Guides and additional resources
School districts worked with Skyline ATS to deliver “Facilitating with Cisco Webex” sessions to more than 1,000 teachers, administrators, and staff located in 5 states and 6 school districts across the United States.
By using Cisco Webex, Skyline ATS was able to provide education and training to prepare educators to teach their students remotely, administrators to lead their school districts and schools, and staff to support distance learning.
Approach
To directly support educators, our approach is to deliver a solution that is as unique as each school district’s needs.
In cohorts of 25 educators per session, Skyline ATS instructors and moderators deliver highly interactive presentations that encourage active participation from the educators who attend.
1. Discovery
Meet with each school district to review and asses their environment and requirements
2. Customize
Tailor a curriculum that focuses on the unique needs found during our discovery session
3. Deliver
Deliver high impact presentations that promote attendance interaction and aid in the adoption of Webex technologies
4. Retain
Provide educators access to continuous learning resources for ongoing support
Winning with Webex
- During training sessions delivered by Skyline ATS, educators experienced firsthand that Webex meets all of these requirements and more
- Ultimately, educators embraced the opportunity to learn more about how to successfully deliver education within a distance learning environment
- Upon this foundation, many educators actively seek additional knowledge and practical skills transfer opportunities to take advantage of more advanced features embedded within Cisco Webex
Best Practices
When delivering distance learning education to educators, group attendees in cohorts by role and grades. For example, teachers who teach elementary school students have similar and different concerns than teachers who teach middle school and high school students. By using the Cohort Model, Skyline ATS instructors are able to focus on use cases and examples pertinent to the cohort.
By infusing active learning into individualized sessions, Skyline ATS instructors are better positioned to stimulate engagement. Each session includes activities to allow educators multiple opportunities to experiment with the features of Cisco Webex. Educators answer poll questions, annotate flowers, raise their virtual hands, and participate in lively Q&A throughout the session.
The curriculum design allows educators to follow a natural path through the features and benefits of Cisco Webex as the tool of choice for managing their classrooms and ensuring learning objectives are achieved. Educators experience how to schedule their classes, maintain control of their classrooms, and be mentally and physically (albeit virtually) present for their students
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