The Indianola School Board had a discussion about the differences in student engagement from an in-person learning environment compared to a virtual one. Superintendent Art Sathoff tells KNIA News there might have been a misconception that students who are virtual learning would be zooming into classrooms for hours comparable to a normal school day, but the situation currently has limited screen time for students.

“The actual zoom time a student has with a teacher might be only fifteen minutes, but then there will be some work to do and the student has the ability to contact the teacher remotely and receive assistance. Some of its been a learning process here at the administration building, and there is definitely a learning curve on the home side as to what it looks like and trying to encourage students to really engage. As we mentioned at the board meeting, it is more difficult to know how someone is engaging remotely compared to sitting in a classroom.”

Sathoff also said the teachers are also trying to accomplish this with as few hurdles as possible, but everyone is doing this for the first time.