scholarly journals EDUCATION DURING A PANDEMIC: A feasibility study of online classes in Bangladesh to counteract potential study gaps caused by COVID-19 related lockdowns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shafia Shama

The universities of Bangladesh used to suffer greatly from the so-called 'session jams' but most public and private universities overcome those difficulties and have mostly eliminated the session jams. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting lockdown, students are at risk of losing months or in certain cases missing sessions in the next step in their education. The situation is so dire that UNESCO has called it a worldwide unprecedented education emergency. Universities in Bangladesh and the university students in Bangladesh are also facing the same emergency. Online learning can be a potential solution to this problem. Such online learning requires facilities and infrastructure at the universities, a robust data infrastructure at the national level, and adequate computing devices and sufficient and affordable data services for the students.However, very little concrete data exists to understand whether the universities and the students have the technical and financial means to make such online classes effective and successful. This study is one of the first in Bangladesh that attempts to gauge the need and readiness of various stakeholders to implement successful fully online education. This paper suggests a process for measuring the readiness. The results can give the policymakers ideas on areas of improvement and may assist universities to launch fully online classes that will be accessible and affordable by students during and beyond the COVID-19 lockdown phase.

Author(s):  
Silvia L. Braidic

This paper introduces the reader on how to foster successful learning communities to meet the diverse needs of university students by creating a brain based online learning environment. Students come in all shapes and sizes. At the university level, students enrolled in online programs, have made a choice to do so. Today, online education is a unique and important venue for many students wishing to continue (or start) their education. It is part of a new culture with many distinct characteristics (Farrell, 2001). For instructors, online instruction creates its own set of challenges in terms of the course design and implementation. The author hopes that developing an understanding of how to create a brain based online learning environment will inform the reader of ways to foster successful learning communities to most effectively meet the diverse needs of the students it serves.


Author(s):  
Farwa Batool ◽  
Bareera Saeed ◽  
Atia Ur Rehman ◽  
Humaira Waseem

The COVID-19 detected in school, colleges and universities close the entire world. More than 1.2 billion kids were not in class-room worldwide. Consequently; education has altered considerably, among the characteristic increase of relearning, where by education is under-taken distantly as well as upon digital platform. Research recommended that online education has been revealed to raise maintenance of knowledge, moreover acquire not as much of time, denotation alter corona virus comprise cause might be now to reside. Objective: To find out the impact of online classes in COVID-19 pandemic situation among undergraduate university students of Allied Health Sciences, The University of Lahore. Methods: A cross sectional study design was conducted for this research.Study was conducted from The University of Lahore, Lahore campus, department of Health Professional technologies. Sample size was 67. Data was analyzed and evaluated with the help of the statistical package for social sciences SPSS-V20 Results: Total 67 students participated in research. Participants' age range was 19 to 25 years.70% females and 29.9% males participated in this research.41.8% participants reported that they are facing difficulties in online classes while 3% participant were slightly disagree on it. 53.7% participants were disagreeing on learning satisfaction in online classes while 29.9% were strongly disagreeing. Conclusions: This study concluded that despite gaining immense popularity today, digital technology has still not been embraced by students for use in teaching. Students are still more inclined towards face to face teaching rather than e-teaching.


2021 ◽  
Vol VI (II) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ayesha Butt ◽  
Fareeha Javed ◽  
Sameera Ayub Bhatti

The worth of online education has been increased to a great extent during Covid 19. The present study investigates the perceptions of Pakistani university students regarding online classes. The data was collected from 300 students of 4 universities in Lahore. The findings specified a sufficient level of satisfaction among the participants, but with an encounter of the hindrances caused by the technology. In contrast, the learners contended with the space they got from the online learning by taking classes from anywhere with all the precision of the materials and syllabus.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elham Abdullah Ghobain ◽  
Abdullah Ahmed Zughaibi

Nowadays, especially after the COVID-19 crisis lockdown, the heavy reliance on technology and online platforms led to a greater expectation of more learning autonomy among English learners in EFL contexts such as Saudi Arabia. The sudden shift to online learning requires an investigation into students’ readiness and willingness for such a mode of learning. This can provide educators with many prospects about learning outcomes achievement and assessment, test performance, and interaction during classes. Therefore, the current study seeks to contribute to the well-known area of learner autonomy research, which is still lacking in the context of the study, by exploring the readiness of Saudi first-year undergraduate English learners towards online education. Participants’ level of readiness is identified according to their autonomous behaviors and activities. The study will also assess the investigated concept considering the influence of gender and field of study of the participants on their autonomy levels. A total of 802 students participated in this study. It was found that Saudi first-year university students are moderately autonomous, that both males and females have similar levels of aptitude and readiness for taking responsibility for their learning, and that English-major and non-English-major groups showed comparatively similar levels across different learning autonomy dimensions. Yet interestingly, English-major participants displayed a relatively lower autonomy level than students of other majors.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1468-1483
Author(s):  
Margarida Romero ◽  
Christophe Gentil

The importance of the time factor in online learning is starting to be recognized as one of the main factors in the learners' achievements and drop outs (Barbera, Gros, & Kirshner, 2012; Park & Choi, 2009; Romero, 2010). Despite the recognition of the time factor importance, there is still the need for theorizing temporality in the context of online education. In this chapter, the authors contribute to the advancement of the evaluation of time factors in online learning by adapting the theoretical framework of the Academic Learning Times (Caldwell, Huitt, & Graeber, 1982; Berliner, 1984) for evaluating the online learners' time regulation. For this purpose, they compare two case studies based on the Academic Learning Times framework. The case studies characterize online learner regulation based on an analysis of online learners at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Spain, and the initiatives taken by the instructional team of the Virtual Campus at the University of Limoges (CVTIC) to support online learner time regulation on this virtual campus in France. After comparing the two case studies, the chapter provides guidelines for improving online learners' individual and collaborative time regulation and reflects about the need to advance in the theorization of the time factor frameworks in online education.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-107
Author(s):  
Dilani Perera-Diltz ◽  
R.J. Davis ◽  
Sedef Uzuner Smith ◽  
Carl Sheperis

As self-regulation for successful online learning is a relatively new focus in online education, more attention is directed toward initiatives to help students become more cognizant of their learning efforts in online learning environments. Grounded in the idea that self-regulation is feedback dependent, we argue for the necessity of instructor feedback on student performance in online classes.  The specific focus is instructor feedback on students’ online discussion contributions.  To assist instructors in managing their feedback practices in large online classes with numerous discussion entries, we present a feedback pool that includes a range of predetermined comments instructors can choose from while assessing their students’ discussion participation. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Laura E Mullins ◽  
Jennifer Mitchell

Following the World Health Organization’s announcement of the global pandemic because of the Coronavirus Disease 2019, most Canadian universities transitioned to offering their courses exclusively online. One group affected by this transition was students with disabilities. Previous research has shown that the university experience for students with disabilities differs from those of their non-disabled peers. However, their unique needs are often not taken into consideration. As a result, students can become marginalized and alienated from the online classroom. In partnership with Student Accessibility Services, this research revealed the impact of the transition to online learning because of the pandemic for university students with disabilities. Students registered with Student Accessibility Services completed a survey about the effects of online learning during a pandemic on the students’ lives, education, and instructional and accommodation. It was clear from the results that online education during COVID-19 affected all aspects of the students’ lives, particularly to their mental health. This research provided a much-needed opportunity for students with disabilities to share the factors influencing their educational experience and identified recommendations instructors should consider when developing online courses to increase accessibility and improve engagement. 


Author(s):  
Safi Mahmoud Mahfouz ◽  
Wael Juma Salam

This study aimed to investigate Jordanian university students’ attitudes toward online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, shed light on the obstacles students encounter in online learning, and suggest possible solutions. A questionnaire designed by the researchers was used to elicit responses from a study sample consisting of 195 students from the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Jordan – Aqaba. As this is an attitudinal study, the survey questionnaire was designed to elicit student responses on the following domains: gender, seniority level, socioeconomic status, training and orientation for using eLearning platforms, and their attitudes, whether positive or negative, toward online learning. Results of this quantitative research showed that student attitudes toward online learning are generally negative. The majority of the respondents reported that they prefer face-to-face classroom instruction over online learning because it gives them direct contact with the instructors. Furthermore, results revealed statistically significant differences amongst students attributed to their gender, whereas no differences were found with regards to their seniority of study, socioeconomic status, and the eLearning platform they prefer to use. The study concludes by proposing some pedagogical recommendations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. p8
Author(s):  
Dalal Bamufleh ◽  
Lama Talat Alradady

This paper seeks to explore factors that determine the university student’s acceptance and adoption behavior towards online education platforms in Saudi Arabia (SA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research relied mainly on two theories: Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Five different constructs were utilized from those theories to investigate the university student’s intention toward using online education platforms. The proposed model and its five hypotheses were tested by conducting a quantitative survey across social media to university students from different regions around SA. For the model validity, the measurement model was analyzed using a structural equation modeling technique applied using SmartPLS software. The survey sample consisted of 708 university students in different regions of SA. The analysis results show that Performance Expectancy (PE) and Facilitating Conditions (FC) affect students’ Attitude toward Using (ATU) and that ATU positively affects Behavioral Intention (BI). Nevertheless, Effort Expectancy (EE) is not significantly related to ATU. Thus, the level of difficulty in using the online education platform is not an effective determinant factor that would change the student’s attitude.


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