scholarly journals Characteristics of Online Learning in Higher Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-155
Author(s):  
Diana-Crina Marin ◽  
Mușata Bocoș

"In the context in which the teaching, learning, and assessment processes take place in the online environment, the question arises whether the currently organized learning situations are as effective as the learning situations carried out in the classroom, before the beginning of the pandemic. One of the disadvantages of online learning is related to the teacher’s low control over students’ activity. Factors such as initiative, creativity, efficient time management, intrinsic motivation, responsibility, and intellectual curiosity play an important role in students’ success in learning activities. Attendance at courses should not be formal and superficial and should be a process that involves the active and interactive participation of the students in the learning process. Providing high-quality educational opportunities to all students is a goal that is increasingly difficult to achieve in the context of the absence of face-to-face interactions. Also, applying a curriculum focused on the needs of the learner is becoming hard to achieve. Through this research, we aim to investigate issues related to how online learning takes place and to establish ways in which we can increase the efficiency of current teaching and learning processes. The study revealed that in the opinion of most of the students, the current epidemiological context has influenced in a negative way the quality of teaching and the student-teacher educational relationship. Keywords: Interactive learning, eLearning, independence in learning, higher education, efficient strategies "

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4-1) ◽  
pp. 113-128
Author(s):  
Andrey Ivanov ◽  
◽  
Irina Fotieva ◽  

The article considers two interrelated problems of modern Russian higher education: the strengthening of administrative coercion and control as well as the introduction of distance education. As a theoretical and methodological basis of the study, the authors rely on the socio-philosophical analysis of the problems of education in the famous S.I. Hessen’s work, where three basic principles of the effective functioning of the university are highlighted: the completeness of scientific knowledge, the freedom of teaching and learning, and self-government. The authors substantiate the view that at present all these principles are violated. Violation of the first of them is manifested in a decrease in hours devoted to the teaching of fundamental disciplines and in a general orientation toward the graduation of a “narrow” specialist; the second principle is incompatible with the extremely increased reporting of universities and overly formalized indicators of the quality of their work. Violation of the third principle is manifested in the gradual elimination of university autonomy, in particular, free election of rectors. The most negative manifestation of administrative pressure, according to the authors, today is the forced introduction of distance learning. The authors critically analyze the main arguments put forward in favor of this project: saving university budgets, ensuring a higher quality of teaching, the need to follow the general logic of modernization of education as a whole. The solution to financial problems, according to the authors, should not be based on forced economy, but on the competent organization of the country’s economic life. An appeal to a higher quality of teaching, which, it is argued, must be provided by teachers from the country’s central universities, is based on biased and unproven ideas. In addition, for mastering critical and systematic thinking skills, conducting scientific discussions, direct communication between teachers and students is necessary, which is not feasible in the conditions of online teaching with a very large number of students. In addition, the authors highlight the idea that nobody takes into account the need for close knowledge of a particular audience by a teacher to choose an adequate style of lecturing or conducting practical classes. The article concludes that the current administrative-bureaucratic style of managing higher education, in which not only the basic principles of the successful functioning of the latter are violated, but also destructive reforms are carried out, is destructive not only for education as such, but also for the state itself.


Author(s):  
Maysaa Barakat ◽  
Debra N. Weiss-Randall

Online enrollments have been growing substantially faster than overall higher education enrollments. It is argued that online learning can help address issues of educational inequity, poverty, and social exclusion. The momentum is moving towards online learning, and universities are pressured to develop more online options for their students in order to stay relevant and provide needed flexibility. On average, courses that are delivered online have higher attrition rates than regular face-to-face courses. There are numerous challenges and difficulties in developing online learning environments without sacrificing the quality of learning. This case study examines the development, delivery, and evaluation of online learning through the eyes of students and faculty of an educational leadership department in a Southeast research university.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulina Mihailova

The article investigates how university lecturers taking part in the compulsory teacher training at Stockholm University (SU) conceive of the effects of standardised and formalised training on their teaching. The study explores the emotions and responses evoked among academics when everyone is required to embrace the same pedagogic philosophy of constructive alignment (Biggs 2003), adopt the language of learning outcomes and assign the same standards to diverse academic practices. The article attempts to shed light on different conceptions of the quality of teaching and learning in higher education and the interplay between the lecturers' values of academic freedom, collegiality and disciplinary expertise and the university leadership's values of efficiency, accountability and measurability of performance. The article considers how these conceptions coexist and are negotiated within the university as an organisation.


Author(s):  
Hui-Chun Hung ◽  
Shelley Shwu-Ching Young

The emergence of open online courses and flipped classrooms has brought new opportunities to unbundle the traditional university. This study aimed to investigate a thermal physics classroom integrated with an open online learning mode to afford various learning strategies for students in Taiwan. Moreover, we examined students' preferred learning modes by adopting a quasi-experimental design with questionnaires, pre-test and post-test scores, self-reported journals and interviews. A total of 89 students participated in the study. The instructor allowed all students enrolled in the class to choose their own preferred learning modes. All students had full access to all course materials in both open online course and traditional face-to-face learning contexts throughout the whole semester. We examined the learners' academic performance in each learning mode and surveyed their perceptions of the course. The findings of this study indicate that information technology can transform teaching and learning in a thermal physics classroom and challenge the instructor to tailor the course to meet students' diverse needs. Significantly, students adopted five learning modes, consisting of face-to-face, web facilitated, alternative blended, online learning and flipped learning. This study provides a valuable reference on how traditional on-campus higher education institutions could be unbundled to create student-centred learning approaches.   Implications for practice or policy: Educators could design a flexible delivery model, allowing students to choose five learning modes, consisting of face-to-face, web facilitated, alternative blended, online learning and flipped learning in terms of their learning style and time management. For students with sufficient background knowledge, the flipped learning mode provides the best learning performance. This study could provide administrators, educators and instructors with insights and new approaches in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and improvements in their course policies.


2021 ◽  
Vol LXIX (1) ◽  
pp. 73-91
Author(s):  
Iulia Gonţa ◽  
Cristina Tripon

The challenges of online learning, created by the COVID-19 pandemic, have prompted a significant demand in researching this particular field of education. The adaptation to online learning, unfortunately, was applied in a context of unprepared teachers and students. This situation was caused by the new format of education, which differs significantly from massive open online courses, traditional learning or distance learning. The new hybrid model of education, prompted by the pandemic, has certainly become a trend that could incite future transformations in terms of teaching and learning. To better understand the specifics of this type of online learning, we asked the students (N = 705) from the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest to express their opinion on their learning experience during the pandemic. The survey included the problems and expectations of the interviewees, and the research results were analyzed in the article. Our goal was to improve educational practices in the virtual educational environment. In this regard, we analyzed the important components of online learning, focusing on the following ones: the quality of the educational resources used to support the content, the improvement of the quality of the teacher- student relationships, time management, online assessment. The article also provides solutions for effective online learning, from the students’ perspective.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Eska Perdana Prasetya ◽  
Faradila Putri

The world faces an exceptional worldwide wellbeing and financial emergency set off by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Indonesia, the lives of a great many youngsters and their families have just been overturned. Lockdowns and school terminations are influencing their instruction, emotional well-being and admittance to fundamental wellbeing administrations. The world of education is one that has received a change in policy due to the pandemic. To solve this problem, a solution is needed to solve it. Online learning is a solution to solving problems at the same time so that education in children continues. The purpose of this study was to determine the use of Google Classroom in English online learning in schools. The subjects of this research will be taken from eight-grade students at SMPN 16 Bogor. This data collection process will take place during online learning and is a descriptive study in which the researcher uses qualitative methods. This study concludes about the use of Google Classroom to simplify and improve the quality of teaching and learning activities in the midst of a pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benteng Martua Mahuraja Purba ◽  
Ester Lina Situmorang

Technology has significantly brought changes in all aspects of human life, the changes that occur require everyone to change from old habits to new habits that are not used to be done. Changes in general in face-to-face classes began to shift to virtual classes. Even the elements of education have undergone many changes both parents, students and teachers. They experience new teaching patterns and ways of teaching. Learning places are transformed and can be done at home, public places, and so on. Time and place are no longer a barrier to teaching and learning activities because they can be done online. Online learning is carried out by utilizing existing technology through media that uses the internet to carry out teaching and learning processes such as cellphones and laptops. This media will support the teaching and learning process through available applications such as whatsApp, google classroom and so on. Learning brings many challenges and obstacles faced by parents in particular. Of course this is a challenge in itself for parents in monitoring children's learning activities, especially in the application of technology as a learning medium for children.


2022 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-34
Author(s):  
Afriana Afriana

The Covid-19 virus disease affects the entire world, including the education system and its impact on students' psychology. The goal of this study is to learn how the education system transitioned from offline or face-to-face teaching learning to online teaching-learning mode at Putera Batam University for the teaching-learning process and semester exams via online during COVID-19. In this study, the descriptive qualitative approach was used to discover students' psychology in online learning. In order to overcome these issues, the purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive picture of online teaching and learning activities taking place during the lockdown period, including the link between the change management process and online teaching and learning processes in the education system in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. Ongoing disruption and resumption of educational activities and discourse as normal procedures in the education system. The data were analyzed using Wile (Syahputri et al., 2020) and Miles Huberman and Saldana (2014). They were 110 students as respondents (B.Miles et al., 2014).  The result found that students fatigued 100%, they felt headache, tired, shoulder sore 85%, demotivation 21%, withdrawal, and procrastination 70%, bad time management about 76%, and Feeling Isolated 85% and Uncertainty to what the lecturer/friends explain during the class 75%.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 514
Author(s):  
Raheel Nawaz ◽  
Quanbin Sun ◽  
Matthew Shardlow ◽  
Georgios Kontonatsios ◽  
Naif R. Aljohani ◽  
...  

Students’ evaluation of teaching, for instance, through feedback surveys, constitutes an integral mechanism for quality assurance and enhancement of teaching and learning in higher education. These surveys usually comprise both the Likert scale and free-text responses. Since the discrete Likert scale responses are easy to analyze, they feature more prominently in survey analyses. However, the free-text responses often contain richer, detailed, and nuanced information with actionable insights. Mining these insights is more challenging, as it requires a higher degree of processing by human experts, making the process time-consuming and resource intensive. Consequently, the free-text analyses are often restricted in scale, scope, and impact. To address these issues, we propose a novel automated analysis framework for extracting actionable information from free-text responses to open-ended questions in student feedback questionnaires. By leveraging state-of-the-art supervised machine learning techniques and unsupervised clustering methods, we implemented our framework as a case study to analyze a large-scale dataset of 4400 open-ended responses to the National Student Survey (NSS) at a UK university. These analyses then led to the identification, design, implementation, and evaluation of a series of teaching and learning interventions over a two-year period. The highly encouraging results demonstrate our approach’s validity and broad (national and international) application potential—covering tertiary education, commercial training, and apprenticeship programs, etc., where textual feedback is collected to enhance the quality of teaching and learning.


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