Building a sense of community in online courses

e-mentor ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 72-78
Author(s):  
Patrick Dougherty ◽  
◽  
Aya Shinozaki Dougherty ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Course Evaluations ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Public Meetings ◽  
Teaching And Learning Environment ◽  
Online Classrooms

From the first months of 2020, COVID-19 transformed the landscape of education world-wide. Numerous educational institutions were forced due to the circumstances of the pandemic to move their courses online. This was the case at Akita International University in Akita, Japan. As the semester came to a close in July 2020, students were given an opportunity to reflect on their experiences with online education via end-of-term course evaluations, focus groups, and public meetings with university administration. From the results of these opportunities to share experiences in remote and virtual education, the authors were reminded that online learning can be a lonesome endeavor. However, it does not need to be this way. A sense of community, camaraderie, and shared purpose can be developed within the online teaching and learning environment. This article will offer suggestions generated from the authors’ experience. All suggestions have the authenticity of having been successfully utilized in the authors’ online classrooms.

scholarly journals STUDENTS PERCEPTION’S TOWARDS ONLINE TEACHING: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN BERHAMPUR UNIVERSITY

2020 ◽  
pp. 196-213
Author(s):  
Bharat Kumar Lakra
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Student Perception ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Online Class ◽  
Teaching Characteristics

In the Coronavirus disease -19 (COVID-19) response, all the educational institutions have been compulsory to move all teaching and learning activities online at very short time notice by the University Grand Commission (UGC). Consequently, all classes, simulations, practicums, viva-voces, and valuation, etc., were adapted for the online setting. Online education has been at the forefront of discussions as a new and viable option for learning opportunities in higher education. Academic institutions continue to see remarkable growth of online education during COVID-19. Due to the pandemic situation, UGC has instruction with 40 per cent of online learning. Hence educational institutions have been implementing online classes. The article investigates to identify the factors which students perceive significant influence towards online class. From a student perception, there has been adaptation and the prospect to advance new skills, possibly providing online teaching via elearning or virtual learning. Further, this study sought to provide an investigation of online teaching in University with an intention on how the teaching and learning interaction will affect students ‘perceptions relating to their online class preparedness and experiences. The results revealed from descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analysis that students reported a moderate relationship between the extracted factor scores and overall satisfaction of online teaching. The findings of four factors that affect the students' views about online teaching characteristics instruction seen that student perceptions about online teaching are positively affected by "Perceived Usefulness” of online teaching. The second most important factor is student supportiveness, followed by faculty responsiveness and perceived flexibility. Further, Multiple Regression Analysis has been analysed to inspect the relationship between the various online teaching characteristics and the overall satisfaction from online teaching. Thus, this study may be helpful to teachers in constructing proper pedagogical techniques which can be suitable and beneficial for learning, understanding and application of the online teaching-learning process.

scholarly journals Online Instruction Based on Task-based Language Teaching

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. p30
Author(s):  
Liu Zhixuan
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Innovative Teaching ◽  
English Class ◽  
Teachers And Students

The outbreak of the COVID-19 caused many Chinese universities to initiate online teaching. This paper aimed to develop Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) practices in online courses to enable teachers and students in China to employ TBLT appropriately and effectively. This research made a case study which was conducted as an online English class with a total of 28 undergraduate students at a university in Guangdong, China. The findings show that the transition from the traditional classroom to online education was successful. This innovative teaching mode promotes students to become the initiator of learning. Besides, the switched roles between students and teachers, advantages as well as problems of this approach have been pointed out. This case study could provide pedagogical implicatures for online English teaching and learning practically and theoretically, which helps to develop new forms that could assist teachers and students to adopt TBLT in class.

scholarly journals Factors for Sustainable Online Learning in Higher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5038
Author(s):  
Amanda Chu ◽  
Connie Liu ◽  
Mike So ◽  
Benson Lam
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Peer Interactions ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Online Teaching And Learning ◽  
Short Period

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected educational institutions and instructors in an unprecedented way. The majority of educational establishments were forced to take their courses online within a very short period of time, and both instructors and students had to learn to navigate the digital array of courses without much training. Our study examined factors that affect students’ attitude toward online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is different from other online learning studies where online courses are mostly a method of choice, with suitable support from institutions and expectation from instructors and students, rather than a contingency. Under this specific environment, we utilized an online survey to collect students’ feedback from eleven universities across Hong Kong. Using partial least squares for analysis on the 400 valid samples we received, we found that peer interactions and course design have the most salient impact on students’ attitude, whereas interactions with instructors has no effect at all on students’ attitude. Furthermore, we also provide suggestions on using the existing technologies purchased during COVID-19 for a more sustainable learning environment going forward.

scholarly journals A brief analysis of eLearning educational services in pandemic crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 343 ◽  
pp. 11011
Author(s):  
Ioana Petre
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Resource Planning ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Educational Services ◽  
Online Environment ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Educational Domain ◽  
Innovative Solutions

The paper presents an analysis of the online education, in the pandemic crisis. Technology provides innovative solutions in the human interactions and the education should benefit by these. The pandemic crisis we all are passing forced education actors to reconsider teaching and learning using online learning. ELearning has an increased importance in these moments, so, in this paper is made an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of this type of education, as well as the opportunities and threats that may occur. Some challenges were identified that the crisis came with, in educational domain. The results highlighted that the strategy that should be adopted by the educational institutions must be based on an intensive use of the educational platforms in online environment. Some proposals has been made such as the need for quality improvement activities in online teaching or a resource planning for saving time and optimizing the organizational learning process.

scholarly journals A comparison of online video conference platforms: Their contributions to education during COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1180-1191
Author(s):  
Nadire Cavus ◽  
Daniel Sekyere-Asiedu
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Video Conference ◽  
Online Video ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
Online Classrooms ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Screen Sharing

COVID-19 has brought dramatic changes into the ways our day-to-day activities are carried out in recent times. Education was also affected. Online education was adopted as means to administer teaching and learning. There are numerous online video conference platforms currently available to assist in education. Nevertheless, with these platforms are various features with their inherent advantages and disadvantages. Choosing the suitable ones to meet the need of users could be a daunting task. This study utilized a comparative research method to compare features; maximum participants meeting recording duration, security, chat/screen sharing, meeting duration, archive meeting, trial versions, account creation to use and mobility, of seven online video conference platforms; Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting, Cisco WebEx Meetings, Zoom Meetings, ClickMeetings and BigBlueButton. This study would aid learners, instructors and educational institutions to choose from the numerus platforms, to suit the specific needs and usage during this pandemic period and beyond.   Keywords: Online video conference platform, online classrooms, online video conference platform, e-learning, Covid-19

Designing and Developing Online and Distance Courses

2011 ◽  
pp. 555-561
Author(s):  
Dazhi Yang ◽  
Jennifer C. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Traditional Classroom Teaching ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Distance Courses

The fifth annual report on online education in the United States revealed that nearly 3.5 million college students enrolled in at least one online course in Fall 2006 (Allen & Seaman, 2007). The Peak Group estimates 1 million K-12 online course enrollments in 2007 (NACOL, 2007). In addition, online courses are continuing to expand in terms of both numeric enrollment records and institutions’ long-term strategies for meeting the needs of online courses. Because of the common use of computers and information technologies in education, especially the Web, distance courses and online courses have become two interchangeable terms. With the rapid growth of online courses and online programs, how to design and develop effective online or distance courses has attracted increasing attention from all sectors of education, corporate, and industry. Online teaching and learning is different from traditional teaching and learning (Harmon & Jones, 2001). In addition, many online course designers and developers, such as the majority of faculty members in higher education, have little or no formal training in instructional design and learning theories (Perrin, 2004) and many of them will attempt to transfer traditional classroom teaching to online teaching (Johnson & Aragon, 2003a). Therefore, guidelines on how to design and develop online and distance courses are needed.

scholarly journals Formative Education Online: Teaching the Whole Person During the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

AERA Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 233285842110152
Author(s):  
Deoksoon Kim ◽  
Stanton Wortham ◽  
Katrina Borowiec ◽  
Drina Kei Yatsu ◽  
Samantha Ha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Well Being ◽  
College Faculty ◽  
Course Evaluations ◽  
Teaching Approaches ◽  
Subject Analysis ◽  
Whole Person ◽  
Approach To Teaching

The COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented public health emergency, challenged higher education and threatened students’ well-being in several ways. With the abrupt shift to online learning, were instructors able to maintain a focus on educating whole students, in addition to teaching subject matter? We answer this question by investigating “formative education,” an approach to teaching and learning that emphasizes holistic development, exploring formative education online during the pandemic. This qualitative study investigates the strategies of 37 college faculty who provided successful formative education online. A cross-subject analysis of data from faculty interviews and supplemental materials (course artifacts, course evaluations, student interviews) uncovered three teaching approaches that faculty used to achieve formative education online: empathic (centering students’ emotions), reflective (facilitating deep inquiry), and adaptive (having flexibility in meeting students’ needs). These approaches could help instructors design online education that engages the whole person.

scholarly journals Early Dropout Prediction in MOOCs through Supervised Learning and Hyperparameter Optimization

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (14) ◽  
pp. 1701
Author(s):  
Theodor Panagiotakopoulos ◽  
Sotiris Kotsiantis ◽  
Georgios Kostopoulos ◽  
Omiros Iatrellis ◽  
Achilles Kameas
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Supervised Machine Learning ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Student Dropout ◽  
Wide Range

Over recent years, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have gained increasing popularity in the field of online education. Students with different needs and learning specificities are able to attend a wide range of specialized online courses offered by universities and educational institutions. As a result, large amounts of data regarding students’ demographic characteristics, activity patterns, and learning performances are generated and stored in institutional repositories on a daily basis. Unfortunately, a key issue in MOOCs is low completion rates, which directly affect student success. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for educational institutions and faculty members to find more effective practices and reduce non-completer ratios. In this context, the main purpose of the present study is to employ a plethora of state-of-the-art supervised machine learning algorithms for predicting student dropout in a MOOC for smart city professionals at an early stage. The experimental results show that accuracy exceeds 96% based on data collected during the first week of the course, thus enabling effective intervention strategies and support actions.

scholarly journals Online teaching: a reflection

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sam Baddeley
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Personal Reflection ◽  
Remote Education ◽  
The Past

This article, written at the start of April 2021, is a personal reflection on what has and hasn't worked in remote/online education. I have drawn on my own experience of teaching over the course of the past year, observations of classroom practice I have undertaken as a mentor and middle leader with responsibility for teaching and learning in my school, and conversations I have had with colleagues in my school and elsewhere; it is, therefore, highly anecdotal, and the reader is asked to bear in mind the fact that, like many others, my journey into online teaching was enforced by the closure of schools during the first nationwide lockdown in March 2020. My core aim during both lockdowns was to provide for my students the best experience possible until such a time as we could all return to the physical classroom. As it became clear towards the end of 2020 and the start of 2021 that we were going to need to return to remote education, I began to think more deeply about the strategies I was employing in my online teaching, how effective they were for my students, and what I might do to maximise their learning experience and outcomes.

A Thematic Analysis Of Incivility In Online Classroom: A Study In Indian Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (09) ◽  
pp. 65-84
Author(s):  
Aditi Gupta ◽  
◽  
Anshika Sharma ◽  
Prof. Patiraj Kumari ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Online Classroom ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Academic Activities ◽  
Almost All

The current situation of COVID 19 not only involves global health crisis but also economic and social crises. It has brought about a change in the system of education by conducting all academic activities online. Acc. to ILO, a world of universal distance education (as nearly 94% of learners have faced school closures) is created. Online education is a new concept for most Indians, creates room for incivility. Incivility is defined as a lack of manners, courteousness, and respect which deteriorates the decorum leading to disturbance in teaching and learning of the class. This study is focused on incivility in online teaching and learning. A total of 130 college students from around the country were asked to fill an open-ended online questionnaire to know their views on incivility in the online classroom. The overall thematic analysis resulted in the identification of three themes i.e. reported incidents, possible causes, and measures to reduce incivility in the online classrooms. In the time of pandemic where almost all the dissemination of education is done online to minimize the effect of the pandemic on the education system, incivility is a stumbling block. Therefore, it is important to bring incivility in online education in limelight as tackling incivility is the need of the hour.

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