Press Release:

Survey finds major—and potentially lasting—changes in K-12 schools' curricular choices during the pandemic

Many educators "mixed and matched" commercial, self-developed, and open-source materials and state they are likely to continue using digital instructional materials post-pandemic

OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- An annual survey conducted by Bay View Analytics of K-12 teachers and administrators in the U.S. found that the sudden shift to remote instruction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic spurred significant and potentially lasting changes to the landscape of instructional materials.

K-12 Teachers were new to online instruction

The shift to online instruction was a significant change that will have lasting effects in classrooms

The study, A Year Apart: Adapting Curricula for a Pandemic, was conducted by Bay View Analytics in partnership with Online Learning Consortium and funded by a grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. It is based on a representative sample of 2,168 K-12 teachers and administrators in U.S. school districts in March 2021. The report shows that the majority of teachers were forced to make moderate or considerable curricula changes as they made the switch to remote instruction. Additionally, the results suggest that these changes, and increased adoption of digital tools in the classroom, are here to stay.

Key findings from the report include:

74% of teachers reported that they were teaching remotely or using some combination of remote and in-person instruction; 58% of respondents reported having no prior online teaching experience.
The new curriculum materials were acquired from commercial sources (33%) or were primarily developed by teachers (25%). Open-source curricula were used by 37% of districts for supplementary materials, and 97% of teachers used some form of video instruction.
Teachers with prior online experience had greater awareness of Open Educational Resources (OER) and licensing types; they were 14% more aware of Creative Commons and public domain, and 9% more aware or likely to have heard of OER.

"The shift to online instruction was a significant change that will have lasting effects in classrooms," notes Dr. Julia Seaman, Research Director at Bay View Analytics. "Post-pandemic, we expect teachers to continue to use the digital tools they found most helpful. In addition, this increased exposure to online teaching will likely lead to greater awareness of open digital curricula options like OER and Creative Commons."

The complete report, A Year Apart: Adapting Curricula for a Pandemic, is released under a Creative Commons license and is available for download at https://www.bayviewanalytics.com/oer.html. An associated infographic is available at https://www.bayviewanalytics.com/reports/infographic/k-12_oer_ayearapart_infographic.pdf.

About Bay View Analytics
Bay View Analytics is a statistical research firm focusing on survey design, implementation, and analysis. Formerly known as the Babson Survey Research Group, the scope of Bay View Analytics' consulting engagements includes scientific statistical analyses, clinical trial statistics, and survey designs for a range of topics, with a particular focus on online education. Bay View Analytics has been conducting research and publishing annual reports on the state of online education in U.S. higher education for thirteen years. Visit www.bayviewanalytics.com for more information or contact us at info@bayviewanalytics.com.

About Online Learning Consortium:
The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) is a collaborative community of education leaders and innovators, dedicated to advancing quality digital teaching and learning experiences designed to reach and engage the modern learner – anyone, anywhere, anytime. The growing OLC community includes faculty members, administrators, trainers, instructional designers, and other learning professionals, as well as educational institutions, professional societies and corporate enterprises. Visit onlinelearningconsortium.org for more information.