Teachers’ increasing workload is an unsolved issue. If you look at the current responsibilities the average teacher is expected to tackle, it’s easy to see why workload and work-life balance are cited as the main reasons for teachers wanting to leave the profession. A survey by The Guardian suggested that over three-quarters of teachers are working up to 65 hours a week – the majority of this just in preparational activities. In England, 43% of teachers are planning to leave the profession in the next five years.
Remote education brings new teaching challenges
As a result of the ongoing pandemic, many schools across the world have mandated remote education, some for entire semesters, while others have taken a hybrid approach. This doesn’t just make teachers’ workload issues more serious, it also brings new difficulties.
The mass use of remote education has kept classes in session, however it has various inherent problems. The main one is students can easily become disinterested and disengaged from the class because of a complete lack of the in-person social element.
In addition, many teachers have felt a frustration with both keeping students from becoming bored and with redesigning their entire syllabus and lesson plans. The latter has caused some teachers to feel lost, as if they’re once again first-year teachers. Everything that had worked for them for years has suddenly been upended by the move to remote education; completely redesigning their classes takes time, which can be frustrating.
Teachers are under additional stress as they are being forced to adopt new technologies to support remote working. So, how can teacher burnout be prevented?
Video-assisted learning can help
In recent years, video-assisted learning has become more popular. While video content in the classroom is nothing new, the advent of new technologies and solutions are making video-assisted learning even more effective, accessible and an integral part of any curriculum.
The use of video produces better cognitive and learning outcomes. It saves time for educators in terms of course preparation and raises students’ interest in the topics at hand. Furthermore, video-assisted learning increases the retention of knowledge and stimulates understating and aptitude, so teachers can use video-assisted learning tools to lessen their burden and reduce the impact of remote education.
Points of attention to use video content
In this field, there are different sources to assist teachers with not just live streaming, but also providing a resource for appropriate video content. However, some video resources have a steep learning curve, while many others feature libraries of video content, but in vast amounts that are not properly curated. This results in teachers spending large amounts of precious time sifting through videos to find what they need. Some video learning apps are expensive, which yet again is another issue that teachers facing mostly- or entirely-online classes might face.
Moreover, video content needs to be readily accessible, not violate copyright infringement, and also not constitute a cybersecurity threat. Limitations in these areas can result in teachers having limited access to publicly-available video platforms, not to mention that these videos can come embedded with advertisements and even inappropriate content.
To benefit from video-assisted learning without potential risks, it’s worth investing in a one-step solution to solve these issues by creating a safe and effective video-assisted learning environment. Teachers can easily access, edit, store, organise and suggest ad-free educational videos online. This kind of solution provides teachers easy access to their tools, assignments, courses, and documents in one place, with the added bonus of a secure digital whiteboard platform at their fingertips. This would bring tremendous value to educators, lessening the need to access multiple platforms for communicating and assessment.
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1 Comment
Joe S
There is a framework called Community of Inquiry which has been applied to education, and involves 3 key overlapping aspects – the ‘social presence’ (students developing themselves and their relationships), ‘cognitive presence’ (student discourse and reflection), and the ‘teacher’s presence’ (teacher stewardship driving the class towards learning outcomes).
Videos could help boost ‘cognitive presence’ (provide meaningful stimulation and material), and simultaneously reduce teacher’s fatigue by offering mini breaks in their lesson delivery.