The classroom door has been a universal symbol of access to education since the one-room schoolhouse. When a child walks through the classroom door, they have access to the multitude of learning opportunities, social interactions, and services available to them in a classroom setting.
When that physical door is locked due to a pandemic, underwater after a flood, or unreachable during a snow event, students too often are cut off from learning opportunities and school services. Until the last decade or so, the reality of school closures and delayed or discontinued education was widely accepted as there was no real parallel for the classroom door. However, developments in learning technology have opened a new door.
This D2L policy brief recommends establishing a digital classroom door in parallel to physical classrooms to enable equitable access to learning opportunities and services anywhere, anytime.
