Our First Online Offering of Introduction to Thermal-Fluid Engineering

Author(s):  
Simin Hall ◽  
Clint Dancey ◽  
Catherine T. Amelink ◽  
Samuel Conn

In this paper the researchers reflect on the use of various communication technologies from the first online offering of our introductory thermodynamics course. The asynchronous (i.e., forums) and synchronous communication technologies such as Centra™ were employed for instruction and explication of useful feedback and self-explanation to promote students’ collaboration. The instructors outline the types of questions used in these guided activities that challenged students to search for multiple ways to demonstrate their conceptual understanding of very fundamental physical notions. The discussion in this paper outlines ways to improve forum questions, instructor’ feedback, and the frequency of the feedback to improve students’ metacognitive strategies in learning and the application of the course material. The observational data are also examined to note if there were any differences in forum contributions online versus students’ contributions in a face-to-face class. This paper provides a platform for research about learning and evaluation of instruction in abstract engineering courses in an online environment. The study is significant and of interest to faculty and administrators who have taught courses in traditional classrooms and who are now considering online teaching to increase access to engineering education.

10.12737/2448 ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-35
Author(s):  
Раицкая ◽  
Lilia Raitskaya

The presented article is devoted to synchronous and nearly synchronous communication technologies, popular in education and embracing chats, Internet-paging, guest-books, forums, mailing lists and others. Didactic features of such technologies used in teaching foreign languages can be outlined as possibility of real time communication in the absence of communication barriers which arise in face-to-face communication. Communication of such kind can motivate students to more actively participate in learning, create comfortable conditions for communication independent of communicants’ age, experience and social status, develop interactive competence as an integral part of communicative competence, differentiate and make learning process individually oriented. The article also gives the key practical recommendations on how to use synchronous communication technologies in teaching foreign languages, outlines the major stages of technologies implementation, studies the expected results and barriers relating to each stage. The author considers technical and technological aspects of individual technologies which are of interest to professors and participating students and may become a stimulus or a barrier to communication. The article also refers to the most popular and potent sites and programs for learning process. The Internet-mediated communication transforms the process of teaching and learning foreign languages, influences communicants’ personality with its autonomy and differentiation development as well as personal and professional characteristics of the students involved.


Author(s):  
Andrej Maras

COVID-19 virus, still relatively unknown to the general public, has taken over the world. The period of the coronavirus epidemic has affected all segments of life, including the education system. The traditional way of teaching (face to face) has been replaced by online teaching and a virtual environment through the mediation of information and communication technologies. The aim of this research is to gain insight into parents ’perceptions of teacher-student communication during online teaching in the time of corona crisis. Fifteen parents of lower primary school students participated in the research. A semi-structured interview was used for data collection purposes. Participants’ statements indicate that during online teaching students most often communicated with their teachers via e-mail, WhatsApp, Zoom, Google Classroom, and Teams. As one of the biggest advantages of communication during online teaching, participants stated the improvement of their children's digital competencies and introduction to various communication tools, while they said that the biggest disadvantage were technical difficulties. In order to improve communication between teachers and students during online classes, participants suggested that teachers use videoconferencing more often in their teaching and organize various discussions in virtual classrooms and online forums.


2021 ◽  
pp. 004723952110478
Author(s):  
Jitendra Singh ◽  
Keely Steele ◽  
Lovely Singh

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the landscape of higher education. As academic institutions across the world continue to deal with the global health crisis, there is a need to examine different instructional approaches including online, hybrid, and blended learning methods. This descriptive study provide an in-depth review of the history of blended learning, evolution of hybrid model of instruction, preparedness of faculty with minimal or no experience in online teaching, and lessons learned as faculty worked on navigating COVID-19 situation since early 2020. A fish-bone analysis, a visual and structured approach to identify possible causes of problem, has been used to present the problems faced by faculty during the pandemic. A detailed Strength–Weakness–Opportunities–Threat analysis of blended/hybrid learning has been presented. An evidence-based approach on how instructors can combine the best of both traditional and online instruction to offer engaging learning experiences for students has been described. This research provides valuable insights to faculty and administrators who are preparing to teach during a pandemic and making efforts to academically survive it.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-55
Author(s):  
Mary Kalantzis ◽  
Bill Cope

Universities and colleges have dragged their feet making the move to online teaching and learning. Suddenly, with this COVID-19 crisis, everyone had to move online. Few universities or colleges are prepared for such a rapid shift. Meanwhile, the conventional wisdom remains - the gold-standard for learning is traditional face-to-face, while online is second-best. But perhaps, even without COVID-19, in-person learning is ripe for radical transformation. At the University of Illinois, we’ve been researching this transformation, and developing and testing online learning solutions. Simply put, online can be completely different, and with the right tools, potentially much superior to in-person teaching. To reap the benefits of online learning, we need to abandon the current generation educational technologies—systems and processes that mostly do little more than reverse-engineer traditional classrooms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-52
Author(s):  
Charles Xiaoxue Wang ◽  
Michael Houdyshell

When COVID-19 struck, higher education experienced major disruptions. Important functions like academic advising were no exception, and the traditional face-to-face model shifted online with remote academic advising (RAA), which uses synchronous communication technologies (e.g., Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meets). In this quantitative research study, 569 students completed an online survey that produced 539 sets of valid data for analysis. Findings showed no significant differences in students' knowledge or experiences with RAA according to their demographic independent variables such as gender, age, ethnicity, major, and RAA experiences. However, significant differences in student opinions on RAA were found among different age and gender groups. The paper identifies barriers to implementing RAA with suggestions to overcome these barriers when utilizing RAA.


Esculapio ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4 (oct 2020 - dec 2020)) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Majeed Chaudhary

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has enor- mously affected every aspect of global arrange- ments with its fast and lethal reach. Originating from Wuhan, a Chinese city, this highly infectious virus has forced to impose nationwide closures in many countries impacting onsite educational systems to shut down. Considering the safety of students and following the steps taken by many infected countries, the Pakistan government initially closed all the edu- cational institutions and later allowed partial opening of schools where 30-50 % of students were allowed to attend classes in a cyclic manner. The direct and most immediate impact of this decision was an untimely break and loss of learning opportunities for all students. In order to continue with teaching and learning, Higher education commission, developed online tea- ching guidelines with the instructions to resume tea- ching, by following these guidelines. The guidelines included development and implementation of both online and hybrid curricula. Online teaching-learning is based on application of information technology tools to ensure access to learning resources for all students in the absence of face to face classes. It is conducted in the form of asynchronous or synchronous communication where-in asynchronous system tools like e-mail, discussion boards, learning newsgroups are used. For synchronous system webcasting, live chat and audio/video technologies are used for realtime class. Hybrid learning can be defined as a learning approach that combines both remote learning and inperson learning to improve student experience and ensure learning continuity.


RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822098527
Author(s):  
Benjamin Luke Moorhouse ◽  
Yanna Li ◽  
Steve Walsh

Interaction is seen by many English language teachers and scholars as an essential part of face-to-face English language classrooms. Teachers require specific competencies to effectively use interaction as a tool for mediating and assisting learning. These can be referred to as classroom interactional competence (CIC). However, the situation created by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic which began in early 2020, and the recent advancement in technologies have led to teachers conducting synchronous online lessons through video-conferencing software. The online environment is distinctly different from the face-to-face classroom and teachers require new and additional skills to effectively utilise interaction online in real time. This exploratory study used an online mixed-method survey of 75 university level English language teachers who had engaged in synchronous online teaching due to COVID-19, to explore the competencies that teachers need to use interaction as a tool to mediate and assist language learning in synchronous online lessons. Teachers were found to require three competencies, in addition to their CIC – technological competencies, online environment management competencies, and online teacher interactional competencies – which together constitute e-CIC. The findings provide greater insights into the needs of teachers required to teach synchronously online and will be of interest to teachers and teacher educators.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6363
Author(s):  
Johanna Andrea Espinosa-Navarro ◽  
Manuel Vaquero-Abellán ◽  
Alberto-Jesús Perea-Moreno ◽  
Gerardo Pedrós-Pérez ◽  
Pilar Aparicio-Martínez ◽  
...  

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are key to create sustainable higher education institutions (HEIs). Most researchers focused on the students’ perspective, especially during the online teaching caused by COVID-19; however, university teachers are often forgotten, having their opinion missing. This study’s objective was to determine the factors that contribute to the inclusion of ICTs. The research based on a comparative study through an online qualitative survey focused on the inclusion and use of ICTs in two HEIs and two different moments (pre-and post-lockdowns). There were differences regarding country and working experience (p < 0.001), being linked to the ICTs use, evaluation of obstacles, and the role given to ICTs (p < 0.05). The COVID-19 caused modifications of the teachers’ perspectives, including an improvement of the opinion of older teachers regarding the essentialness of ICTs in the teaching process (p < 0.001) and worsening their perception about their ICTs skill (p < 0.05). Additionally, an initial model focused only on the university teachers and their use of ICTs has been proposed. In conclusion, the less experienced university teachers used more ICTs, identified more greatly the problematic factors, and considered more important the ICTs, with the perception of all teachers modified by COVID-19.


Author(s):  
Lucy Osler ◽  
Joel Krueger

AbstractIn this paper, we introduce the Japanese philosopher Tetsurō Watsuji’s phenomenology of aidagara (“betweenness”) and use his analysis in the contemporary context of online space. We argue that Watsuji develops a prescient analysis anticipating modern technologically-mediated forms of expression and engagement. More precisely, we show that instead of adopting a traditional phenomenological focus on face-to-face interaction, Watsuji argues that communication technologies—which now include Internet-enabled technologies and spaces—are expressive vehicles enabling new forms of emotional expression, shared experiences, and modes of betweenness that would be otherwise inaccessible. Using Watsuji’s phenomenological analysis, we argue that the Internet is not simply a sophisticated form of communication technology that expresses our subjective spatiality (although it is), but that it actually gives rise to new forms of subjective spatiality itself. We conclude with an exploration of how certain aspects of our online interconnections are hidden from lay users in ways that have significant political and ethical implications.


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