By Gavin Mackintosh-
Ofsted is working with the Department for Education (DfE), the Association of Colleges (AoC), the Association of Employer and Learning Providers (AELP), and HOLEX, to review further education learners’ experience of online learning during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) lockdown.
The review aims to provide insights into the sector’s experiences of online education, and to identify areas of strength and potential for improvement. It will also support post-16 providers re-visiting their online education strategies, particularly from September 2020 onwards.
It will look at the online education that providers are delivering in light of the necessary social distancing measures.
The review is scheduled to occur during June, and will speak remotely to managers, teachers and trainers in volunteer further education colleges and skills providers, to discuss their delivery of online teaching and learning.
Inspectors also plans to speak to students and apprentices about their experience of learning online and the support they have received for this. The students will be accessed through learning providers and the interviews will be conducted. A report on the findings will be published in due course.
Ofsted say they have no immediate plans of reviewing the online experiences of primary or secondary pupils at this stage.
Ofsted added that there will be no inspection judgements and no inspection consequences for the provider. Involvement in the review is entirely voluntary.
Data gathered during the review will be confidential and staff, students and apprentices will not be identified