The COVID-19 Pandemic, Massive Online Education, and Teacher Learning

Author(s):  
Shuhua Chen

I am one of 16.7 million Chinese teachers (Ministry of Education, 2019b) who were asked to grasp online education tools and techniques within a short period of time (in my case, two weeks). All of a sudden, preparing teachers for online education became a central concern for all school administrations in China. The following is a very personal reflection of mine on teacher learning in the background of the COVID-19 pandemic and massive online education in China.

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Li ◽  
Robyn Gillies ◽  
Mingyu He ◽  
Changhao Wu ◽  
Shenjun Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic posed a huge challenge to the education systems worldwide, forcing many countries to provisionally close educational institutions and deliver courses fully online. The aim of this study was to explore the quality of the online education in China for international medical and nursing students from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as well as the factors that influenced their satisfaction with online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Questionnaires were developed and administered to 316 international medical and nursing students and 120 teachers at a university in China. The Chi-square test was used to detect the influence of participants’ personal characteristics on their satisfaction with online education. The Kruskal–Wallis rank-sum test was employed to identify the negative and positive factors influencing the online education satisfaction. A binary logistic regression model was performed for multiple-factor analysis to determine the association of the different categories of influential factors—crisis-, learner-, instructor-, and course-related categories, with the online education satisfaction. Results Overall, 230 students (response rate 72.8%) and 95 teachers (response rate 79.2%) completed the survey. It was found that 36.5% of students and 61.1% of teachers were satisfied with the online education. Teachers’ professional title, students’ year of study, continent of origin and location of current residence significantly influenced the online education satisfaction. The most influential barrier for students was the severity of the COVID-19 situation and for teachers it was the sense of distance. The most influential facilitating factor for students was a well-accomplished course assignment and for teachers it was the successful administration of the online courses. Conclusions Several key factors have been identified that affected the attitudes of international health science students from LMICs and their teachers towards online education in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. To improve the online education outcome, medical schools are advised to promote the facilitating factors and cope with the barriers, by providing support for students and teaching faculties to deal with the anxiety caused by the pandemic, caring for the state of mind of in-China students away from home, maintaining the engagement of out-China students studying from afar and enhancing collaborations with overseas institutions to create practice opportunities at students’ local places.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sam Baddeley

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Szabolcs Berezvai ◽  
Tibor Oláh ◽  
Zsófia Pálya ◽  
Bence Sipos ◽  
Brigitta Szilágyi

A műszaki- és gazdasági felsőoktatásban folyó kalkulusoktatás komoly kihívás elé állítja a tanárokat: viszonylag rövid idő alatt, nagy mennyiségű anyagot kell megtanítaniuk úgy, hogy a hallgató a matematika kurzusokon elsajátított ismereteket a szaktárgyakban, akár több félév csúszással is hasznosítani tudja. Olyan módszert kell kidolgozni, ami egy tudásában és képességeiben eltérő, nagy létszámú hallgatói közösségben is jól alkalmazható. A teszthatás, bár megfelel ezen követelményeknek, mégsem tartozik a gyakran alkalmazott metódusok közé. A módszer, amely a tanulás középpontjába az előhívást helyezi, sem a pedagógusok, sem a diákok között nem örvend nagy népszerűségnek. A teszthatás a többi tanulási-, tanítási metódushoz képest sokkal inkább gátat tud szabni a felejtésnek, de a hallgatónak ki kell mozdulnia a passzív befogadó szerepből, ami többeknek lehet kevésbé komfortos. Ezt a módszert találtuk alkalmasnak arra is, hogy a számonkérés előtti rövid időszakra koncentrálódó, úgynevezett kampányszerű tanulás helyett hallgatóinkat a folytonos tanulásra bírjuk. Ez azért volt fontos számunkra, mert bár rövid távon a megmérettetés előtti intenzív tanulás is eredményes, ennél a felejtés rendkívül gyors.A BME Gépészmérnöki Karának elsőéves mechatronikus és energetikus hallgatói számára az EduBase Online Oktatási Platform segítségével olyan könnyen kivitelezhető kalkulusoktatást valósítottunk meg, ami a teszthatás szempontjait szem előtt tartotta, kihasználta annak előnyös tulajdonságait. Jelen cikkben bemutatjuk a 2018/2019. tanév tavaszi szemeszterében, a Matematika G2 kurzuson végzett kutatásunk eredményeit. Hétről hétre, napi bontásban követjük a hallgatók tanulási aktivitását, vizsgáljuk a kampányszerű és a folytonos tanulással elért eredményeiket. Calculus education in engineering and economic higher education programmes poses a severe challenge for teachers: in a relatively short period of time, they have to teach a large amount of material so that the students can build on the acquired knowledge in further subjects even after several semesters. A method needs to be developed that can be applied well among large, heterogeneous students with different knowledge and skills. Test effect meets these requirements, although is not one of the most commonly used methods, since this approach that puts development at the centre of learning is not very popular among educators or students. The test effect can be a much more effective tool to reduce forgetting than other learning and teaching methods, but the student must move out of their passive, receptive role, which may be less comfortable for many. We also found this method to be suitable for continuous learning instead of so-called campaign-like learning, which focuses only on a short period before the examination. This was important to us since intensive learning before the exams is often effective in short term, but forgetting is also extremely rapid afterwards.For the first-year mechatronics and energy engineering students at BME Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, with the help of the EduBase Online Education Platform, we completed an easy-to-implement calculus course that took into account the aspects of the test effect and took advantage of its benefits. In this article, we present the results of our research in the spring semester of the academic year 2018/2019 in the Mathematics G2 course. From week to week, we followed the learning activity of the students on a daily basis, examining their results achieved through campaign-like and continuous learning.


AS-SABIQUN ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-141
Author(s):  
Ayatullah Ayatullah ◽  
Husnul Laili

According to the Ministry of Education and Culture, the scientific approach is a model for student-based learning to be motivated to be more active. The scientific approach is actually not much different from contextual-based learning activities. The knowledge and skills acquired by students are not expected to be the result of remembering a set of facts but are the result of discovering themselves. The scientific approach provides opportunities for students broadly to explore and elaborate on the material they are learning and provides opportunities for students to actualize their abilities through learning activities designed by the teacher. Learning outcomes are conditions that are achieved through learning. In general, everyone can define learning as an effort to improve the behavior of students from knowing to knowing, from not being able to being capable and not being able to be able and so on. From the results of learning can change the behavior and way of thinking of students better and will be stored, attached and not lost in the long term in the lives of students.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Wroblewski

Austrian gender equality policy in higher education is characterized by the successful implementation of a comprehensive set of gender equality policies and persistent gender imbalances. After the introduction of a legal quota for university bodies, for instance, female representation in decision-making bodies increased significantly within a short period of time. However, this did not lead to a cultural change or the abolishment of barriers to women’s careers. Research has attributed this paradoxical situation to a lack of reflexivity because the current gender equality policies do not force institutions or individuals to challenge traditional practices, which are perceived to be merit-based and therefore gender neutral. To overcome this paradox, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science, and Research launched a policy process aimed at strengthening gender competence in all higher education processes—management, administration, teaching, and research. This paper provides a critical discussion of the Austrian quota regulation and its implementation. It also introduces the concept of gender competence and outlines the underlying assumptions as to why the new policy is expected to contribute to change. Following a critical reflection on these assumptions, the paper also discusses how existing steering instruments have to be adapted to support individual and institutional reflexivity.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inga Jekabsone ◽  
◽  
Ina Gudele ◽  

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the way people work and learn in unprecedented ways. Also, the pandemic has moved more business activity online, increasing the need for training and prompting them to build more online trainings. In this time of crisis, a suitable response requires novel ways to enable interaction between adult learners, adult learners and teachers, adult learners and content using online tools so that no one is left behind. In the context of regional development, online adult learning provides economic active inhabitants with wide opportunities since employees are able to attend high-quality trainings regardless the place of residence. In context of COVID-19, during the emergency situation Latvia has fully moved to remote learning, including adult learning. Educational institutions as well as enterprises that organise trainings for adults have to implement remote learning using several online tools. The aim of the paper is to analyse the main challenges of the adult learning sector in Latvia in context of COVID-19 taking into consideration the regional development issues. In order to achieve the aim, following research methods have been used: scientific literature studies, statistical data analysis, interviews. Main results of the survey: in case of Latvia, the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Latvia has launched several initiatives towards enabling the shift to online learning, providing recommendations, digital tools as well as good practice sharing. At the same time, there is no methodology and detailed step-by-step recommendations, how to develop the online education learning for educational institutions in Latvia. However, there are incentives to develop online adult learning via project funding.


Author(s):  
Pablo Alberto Baisotti

This chapter aims to analyze the “Chinese way” of citizenship education as a meeting place between the historical lessons of Confucianism, Marxist-Leninist socialist ideology, and newer concepts of global citizenship. Furthermore, this project seeks to understand how the model of education for “global” citizenship fits within the established system of ideological and moral education. To this end, research was carried out at three different levels. Firstly, a review of the most recent and “global” literature on education for citizenship was conducted. Secondly, public government documents were studied and compared, in particular, those from the Ministry of Education and the Association for Higher Education, which is supervised by the Chinese communist party and its General Secretary, President Xi Jinping. Thirdly, surveys were conducted to gauge the degree of involvement of students in their own citizenship education at high school and university level. Finally, a field study was conducted at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangdong province (Zhuhai campus).


1971 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 1007-1011
Author(s):  
Q. Bone

Prof. Jerzy Stanislaw Alexandrowicz, who died at Plymouth on 28 October 1970, was one of the most distinguished histologists of the nervous system, whose series of memoirs upon invertebrate peripheral nervous systems stimulated much physiological and histo-logical research. He was born at Stoczki, in Poland, on 2 August 1886, and after matriculating in Warsaw studied medicine and natural science at the universities of Warsaw, Zurich, Munich, Heidelberg, Paris and Jena. He took his Ph.D. at Zurich under Lang, and his M.D. at Jena, under Biedermann, serving for a short period as a surgeon in the Military hospital at Belgrade, before being appointed to the department of descriptive anatomy at Wilno. He remained here during the war, and in 1918 served with the field hospitals coping with epidemic diseases brought to Poland from the East. He himself survived an attack of typhus. In 1919 he was appointed to organize and direct the department of descriptive anatomy at Wilno, and the next year rejoined the army to serve as the chief medical officer of a cavalry regiment in the fighting against Russia.In 1920 he returned to Wilno, as head of the department of histology, and remained there until 1929, when he moved to Lwow, again as director of the department of histology, in the Academy of Veterinary medicine. In 1933 he became Pro-Rector of the Academy, and in 1936 Reaor, finally leaving the university in 1937 to head the scientific and university department of the Ministry of Education. He quickly became Under-secretary of State for Education, and in 1938 relinquished this post to spend six months at the Stazione Zoologica, Naples, where he had previously worked on three occasions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Zineb Birrou ◽  
Aziz Kich ◽  
Mohammed Larouz

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted mental and emotional health in significant ways, and has worsened the already existing crisis of rising anxiety, chronic stress and depression among the youth. This was particularly marked by the drastic lockdown measures, the incessant stream of bad news, and the sudden shift to online education. Faced with stressors, resilience is a skill-set that aids with adapting, coping, and bouncing back from adversity while maintaining or quickly returning to a relatively healthy psychological functioning. This article therefore aims to explore the past, present and future situation regarding emotional and mental resilience skills in Moroccan higher education curricula. To this end, structured and semi-structured interviews have been conducted with four senior officials at the Ministry of Education in Rabat, Morocco. Furthermore, surveys have been collected from faculty members in eight public universities. The findings reveal that resilience education has not been officially implemented yet in Moroccan universities. However, the national vision shows the rising awareness in the need to shift to a more holistic educational paradigm, especially in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, to better prepare students for the uncertain and fast-changing future.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 133-141
Author(s):  
S A M Manzur Hossain Khan ◽  
Nurakmal Ahmad Mustaffa ◽  
Md. Mamun Habib

The whole world, including Bangladesh is brought to a standstill by the pandemic of COVID-19.  All the hustling-bustling of a densely populated country has come to a quiescent halt; the only sound remaining is the whisper of anxiety. The HEIs in Bangladesh is also struggled to react to this sudden catastrophe; magnified by uncertainties.  Compared to public universities, the private universities of the country managed to react the fastest and are making sweeping changes in a very short period of time, shifting traditional face-to-face course content/teaching to online content/teaching. The shift to fully functional online teaching learning platform was sudden and with minimum preparation. To investigate the perception of the private universities community in Bangladesh with this new teaching learning method, this paper adopted the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model, focuses on stakeholders’ behavioral intention, availability of the online platform, prior experience, attitude towards usage (ease of use and usefulness) and most importantly the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the paper also discusses the issues of social and cultural impact. It was found that all the UTAUT attributes are positively correlated with the Behavioral Intention and eventually to Use Behavior of students in adopting online education. Moreover, unexpected, and unprecedented impact of COVID-19 pandemic also effected their behavioral intention towards accepting online education.


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