Absentee levels have hit all-new low as schools turned to online learning this week, according to new data released today.
National attendance data showed that government recommendations were being followed with just over 2.5% of students physically attending school, with others attending through online channels.
The online absentee rate has dropped to 4.8%, half of the previous averages for the start of term and well below the average physical absentee rate which is usually around 10% for the nation on a regular school day.
On day one of term, after the Easter Break, 243,000 users signed into the Compass platform at 9am as we saw Victoria and the Northern Territory shift to flexible and remote learning - 450% higher than previous State records.
The platform also set a new all-time user record, servicing 761,000 users on Wednesday.
“Compass maintained a steady flow of data from a peak of 6gbps to an average of 3gbps throughout the remainder of the school day,” Compass CEO and co-founder John de la Motte said.
“This was well above the platform’s usual peak rate which is around 1gbps”.
De la Motte said that while it’s still early days, this is “a pleasing outcome for online learning in Australian schools”.
“Students are showing up, logging on, and learning at higher levels than we’ve ever seen,” he said.
Login data showed schools were operational and in fact, classes started 12 minutes earlier than normal, with the majority of logins occurring by 8.55am instead of the average student/staff engagement of 9.07am.
“Students aren’t just logging on, they’re logging on early, engaging, sending work back and forth with their teachers – while we’re all still navigating this new world of online learning, it’s fair to say schools have done a fantastic job adapting in such a fast manner so students don’t miss out on their education,” de la Motte said.
Services over Thursday demonstrated a consistent trend with students continuing with online and flexible learning in line with yesterday's demand and user access.