Last spring, we witnessed the sudden nationwide shift to remote education in response to the coronavirus health crisis. The move to at-home learning put technology products and services to the test as students and teachers worked to adjust.

Amid this shift, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® conducted research to better understand parent and educator perspectives on technology use for remote education. This research focused on children in preschool through 12th grade and educators who teach preschool through 12th grade classes.

CTA’s COVID-19 Impact: Technology and Remote Education report highlights how technology has eased both teachers and students into a new digital learning space.

Overall, CTA’s research shows that teachers that fall into three categories are acclimating more easily and are more satisfied with the shift to online classrooms.

Previous Remote Teaching Experience

Educators with previous experience teaching remotely are significantly more likely to indicate satisfaction with their online teaching experience compared to teachers who had never taught a class remotely before school closures due to the coronavirus outbreak (83% and 53%, respectively).

Specifically, veteran remote teachers more strongly agree that they have adjusted well to teaching remotely and that their students have adjusted well to remote education. Compared to first-time remote educators, more veteran remote teachers also consider remote education to be an effective mode of education.

Incorporating More Tech in the Online Classroom

Teachers with previous experience leading remote classrooms are significantly more likely to agree that “technology products and services have helped their students maintain a regular school schedule and educational experience.”

As such, these veteran remote educators have been more willing to incorporate technology products in their remote education curriculum. Overall, veteran remote educators indicate that they use more technology products on a weekly basis than their first-time counterparts (except for laptops, smartphones and tablets, which are the top three most used technology products for veteran and first-time remote teachers).

Turning to Innovative Tech Solutions

Teachers who experienced higher satisfaction also indicated the high importance of incorporating innovative technology in their online curriculums, including augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets, robotic toys, STEM products, and games and gamification.

Use of technology products, especially innovative and emerging technologies, will likely grow as more teachers have now experienced remote education and will see value in incorporating them into their online curriculum. Furthermore, by incorporating more technology in their curriculums, educators will be more satisfied with their remote teaching experience.

Whether teachers are welcoming their students back to remote or in-person classrooms, technology products used for remote schooling during the spring 2020 semester and incorporated into the fall 2020 curriculum will elevate the quality of education students are receiving and will ultimately lead to higher satisfaction for teachers and students alike.