scholarly journals The rise of contract cheating during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study through the eyes of academics in Kuwait

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Inan Deniz Erguvan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Private Higher Education ◽  
Contract Cheating ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
English Departments ◽  
Individual Strategies ◽  
Marketing Methods

AbstractContract cheating has gone rampant in higher education recently. When institutions switched to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of contract cheating students climbed to unprecedented levels. Essay mills saw the lack of face-to-face interaction and proctoring on campus as an opportunity and used aggressive marketing methods to attract students. This study asked the opinions of 20 faculty members working in the English departments of private higher education institutions in Kuwait regarding contract cheating through interviews. The data was analyzed with MAXQDA 2020. The findings show that all faculty members can recognize contract cheating easily. Most of them see contract cheating as a serious problem in the higher education system, a threat to the reliability of language assessment, triggered by laziness, the social pressure to graduate with a high GPA, and exacerbated by the cheating opportunities in online education. Academics have developed certain individual strategies in their courses to curb the number of contract cheating students; however, institutional measures differ, and in some, there are no measures or sanctions on contract cheating students.

scholarly journals Challenge Accepted: Experiences of Turkish Faculty Members at the Time of Emergency Remote Teaching

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (Sp.Issue) ◽  
Author(s):  
Faik Özgür Karataş ◽  
Sevil Akaygun ◽  
Suat Çelik ◽  
Mehmet Kokoç ◽  
Sevgi Nur Yılmaz
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Private Higher Education ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Face To Face

The Covid-19 pandemic caught everyone unprepared. Higher education institutions were expected to be the least affected due to their long history of distance education, which has enabled the development of expertise and technical infrastructure, but were they? The present study focuses on faculty members’ experiences at the time of emergency remote teaching and afterwards. The survey method was devised to conduct the study. An online questionnaire called the Emergency Remote Teaching Views Questionnaire was developed by the researchers and administered at higher education institutions throughout Turkey. With a combination of convenience and snowball sampling, 351 faculty members from 72 different public and private higher education institutions were reached. The descriptive analysis of the data revealed that almost 62% of the faculty members had never taken any form of training regarding online distance education before the Covid-19 pandemic. Although one fifth of the faculty members indicated that they had had distance education experience three times or more before the pandemic, around 62% of them encountered remote teaching for the first time. Many faculty members indicated that they spent more time on remote teaching than face-to-face teaching; they had trouble following students’ development; the students were disinterested in the classes; they had technical problems, but they also received support from their institutions. Although only one fourth of the faculty members reported being unsure about the quality of their remote teaching, three fourths of them believed that it was not as fruitful as face-to-face teaching. This was especially evident in the area of assessment and evaluation. Based on these results, it can be concluded that higher education institutions were caught unprepared, but their adaptation was very quick.

Effects and Risks of Distance Learning in Higher Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
Yu. M. Tsygalov
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
First Results ◽  
Spread Of Infection ◽  
The Cost

The forced work of Russian universities remotely in the context of the pandemic (COVID-19) has generated a lot of discussion about the benefits of the new form of education. The first results were summed up and reports were presented, the materials of which showed that the main goal of online education — the prevention of the spread of infection, - has been achieved. Against this background, proposals and publications have appeared substantiating the effectiveness of the massive introduction of distance learning in Russia, including in higher education. However, the assessment of such training by the population and students in publications and in social networks was predominantly negative and showed that the number of emerging problems exceeds the possible benefits of the new educational technology. Based on the analysis of the materials of publications and personal experience of teaching online, the potential benefits and problems of distance learning in higher education in Russia are considered. It is proposed to consider the effects separately for the suppliers of new technology (government, universities) and consumers (students, teachers, society). It is substantiated that the massive introduction of online education allows not only to reduce the negative consequences of epidemics, but also to reduce budgetary funding for universities, optimize the age composition of teachers, and reduce the cost of maintaining educational buildings. However, there will be a leveling / averaging of the quality of education, and responsibility for the quality of training will shift from the state/universities to students. The critical shortcomings of online education are the low degree of readiness of the digital infrastructure, the lack of a mechanism for identifying and monitoring the work of students, information security problems, and the lack of trust in such training of the population. The massive use of online education creates a number of risks for the country, the most critical of which is the destruction of the higher education system and a drop in the effectiveness of personnel training. The consequences of this risk realization are not compensated by any possible budget savings.

scholarly journals Teaching Future Educators During a Global Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-36
Author(s):  
Jacquelynne Anne Boivin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Private Higher Education ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Us ◽  
Private Higher Education Institutions ◽  
K 12

While schools are the center of attention in many regards throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, programs that prepare educators have not received nearly as much attention. How has the reliance on technology, shifts in daily norms with health precautions, and other pandemic-related changes affected how colleges and universities are preparing teachers for their careers? This article walks the reader through the pandemic, from spring 2020, when the virus first shut down the US in most ways, to the winter of 2021. The authors, two educator preparation faculty members from both public and private higher education institutions in Massachusetts, reflect on their experiences navigating the challenges and enriching insights the pandemic brought to their work. Considerations for future implications for the field of teacher-preparation are delineated to think about the long-term effects this pandemic could have on higher education and K-12 education.

Historical Review of Distance and Online Education from 1700s to 2021 in the United States: Instructional Design and Pivotal Pedagogy in Higher Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Betts ◽  
Brian Delaney ◽  
Tamara Galoyan ◽  
William Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Instructional Design ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
The United States ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Education Leaders ◽  
Higher Education Leaders

In March 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted education worldwide. In the United States, the pandemic forced colleges and universities across the nation to adopt quickly emergency remote teaching and learning. The ability to pivot instruction seamlessly and effectively across learning formats (e.g., face-to-face, hybrid, online) while supporting student engagement, learning, and completion in an authentic and high-quality manner challenged higher education leaders. This historical review of the literature examines distance and online education from the 1700s to 2021 to identify how external and internal pressures and opportunities have impacted and influenced the evolution of educational formats pre-COVID-19, and how they will continue to evolve post pandemic. This historical review also explores how instructional design and pedagogy have been and continue to be influenced by technological advancements, emerging research from the Learning Sciences and Mind (psychology), Brain (neuroscience), and Education (pedagogy) science.

MOOCs Business Models

2020 ◽  
pp. 1189-1214
Author(s):  
Amir Manzoor
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Return On Investment ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Viral Nature

MOOCs have grabbed the headlines and rightfully become the focal point of the disruption under way in higher education. The environment in which MOOCs and other forms of online education operate is changing virtually every day. The viral nature of MOOCs has been apparent through the rapid growth of providers, participating (significant) institutions, faculty members involved in providing courses, students enrolled, and other measures. And MOOCs are starting to exhibit the second trend desired by their startup investors: MOOCs don't seem to be going away. More courses are being added, more faculty members and students are becoming involved. While MOOCs have captured the interest of many, the business models and return on investment are still evolving. The aim of this chapter is to present an analysis of various business models being used by various MOOCs providers along with some future monetization strategies for MOOC providers.

Web-Based Instructions

2010 ◽  
pp. 302-326
Author(s):  
Mohammed Saleh Al Balawi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Faculty Attitudes ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Critical Factors ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Based Instruction ◽  
Insight Into

Factors affecting faculty decisions in the conventional university setup in Saudi Arabia for participating or not participating sin Web-based instruction (WBI) were investigated in this study. Incentives and barriers to WBI, faculty attitudes, and participants’ demographic information were also explored. The study was aimed to investigate the attitudes of the faculty members at three Saudi universities toward WBI in an effort to describe the current status of WBI in the Saudi higher education system. In addition, results of the study could also provide the Saudi universities and the faculty with insight into factors affecting adoption of WBI. Finally, since there have been few implementations of WBI across the country, it was important to explore how WBI is currently used in Saudi universities and to determine critical factors that could affect the implementation of WBI.

The Predicted Implosion of Japan’s Private Higher Education System

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-34
Author(s):  
Jeremy Breaden ◽  
Roger Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Private University ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
Private Higher Education ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Japanese Economy ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Japanese Higher Education ◽  
System P ◽  
University Degree

This chapter tells the story of Japanese higher education from 1992 to 2010, from a period of great stability to one of anticipated implosion. It outlines the widely agreed features of Japanese higher education in the early 1990s, including a clearly defined university hierarchy, high demand for university places, high fees, low drop-out rates, direct links to the labour market, low rates of progression to graduate education, high rate of academic inbreeding, and slow progress on internationalization. Overall, the system was seen as highly developed and relatively stable, but just 10 years later virtually all of these features were under challenge. 1992 saw a peak both in the number of 18-year-olds in the Japanese population and in the global power of the Japanese economy. As the economy went into slowdown and then stagnation and the number of 18-year-olds shrank precipitously, so the voices of those predicting an implosion in the private university sector became louder. The chapter explains why this implosion was considered inevitable because of three intersecting facts: students were recruited almost entirely from school leavers; participation rates were already high; and there would be a 40 per cent drop in the number of school leavers in the population between 1992 and 2010. It then introduces some of the assumptions which followed from this anticipated implosion: dramatic drops in enrolment and revenue; bankruptcies and closures; the search for new markets and modes of operation; a questioning of the whole value of a university degree.

Hybrid Learning

2016 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Nahed Abdelrahman ◽  
Beverly J. Irby
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Hybrid Learning ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Face ◽  
Face To Face Learning ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Higher Education Advancement

Hybrid learning has been utilized as a transitional learning method to make advantage of both face-to-face and online learning platforms. In this article, the authors explored how faculty members perceive using simultaneously multiple platforms in higher education such as face-to-face, online, and hybrid platforms in teaching. In this study, the authors examined how faculty members defined hybrid learning. They also explored how the participants perceive both hybrid and online learning as vehicles for higher education advancement as well as strategies to attract more students to higher education. The purpose of this research was to develop an analytical overview of one of the learning approaches such as hybrid and its impact on higher education. The authors have interviewed ten faculty members in order to achieve this objective. The results illustrated that faculty members do not have one single definition of hybrid learning but rather they have multiple definitions. Faculty members also demonstrated that they support online learning because it achieves more accessibility to higher education, yet, they believe the face-to-face learning achieve more quality of education.

Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Higher Education and Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 340-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shazia Rashid ◽  
Sunishtha Singh Yadav
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Education System ◽  
Student Learning Outcomes ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The World ◽  
Downward Spiral ◽  
Huge Impact ◽  
Community Transmission

COVID-19 outbreak has caused a downward spiral in the world economy and caused a huge impact on the higher education system. The sudden closure of campuses as a social distancing measure to prevent community transmission has shifted face-to-face classes to online learning systems. This has thrown the focus on utilising eLearning tools and platforms for effective student engagement which may have limitations of accessibility and affordability for many students. The pandemic has exposed the shortcomings of the current higher education system and the need for more training of educators in digital technology to adapt to the rapidly changing education climate of the world. In the post-pandemic situation, the use of eLearning and virtual education may become an integral part of the higher education system. The higher education institutions and universities need to plan the post-pandemic education and research strategies to ensure student learning outcomes and standards of educational quality.

scholarly journals How Much is a Full Professor Worth? The Challenge of Attracting the Best Talent

2015 ◽  
pp. 15-16
Author(s):  
Marcelo Knobel
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Career Development ◽  
Academic Freedom ◽  
Education System ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
The State ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Full Professor ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Higher Education System

There are many factors that motivate the pursuit of an academic career, including academic freedom, prestige, stability, curiosity, among others. However, salary is also key to the future career choices of young talent. In the State of São Paulo, in Brazil, the salary of all public servants is currently tied to the salary of the governor, that, for political reasons, is kept at a rather low value. This fact is already having an effect on thousands of faculty members in the higher education system of the State. In this paper, I discuss how this salary limitation can influence the decision of young talent to follow an academic career and, put at risk a rather well developed higher education system. Furthermore, I discuss this issue in a broader context of strong regulation, a lack of competitiveness to support career development, and how this all undermines the commitment and morale of qualified professors.

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