scholarly journals THE USEFULNESS OF ONLINE LEARNING DURING THE COVID19 PANDEMIC AS PERCEIVED BY ENGINEERING EDUCATION STUDENTS: A MULTIDIMENSIONAL MODEL

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 716-728
Author(s):  
Gabriel Gorghiu ◽  
Costin Pribeanu ◽  
Valentina Iuliana Manea ◽  
Vincentas Lamanauskas ◽  
Rita Makarskaitė-Petkevičienė

With the unprecedented crisis created by the Coronavirus pandemic, online teaching and learning became a global solution - embraced by the whole world - that tried to cover, at least in part, in part the problems encountered by the educational systems. An exclusively online format of teaching and learning proved to be a challenge for both the didactic and the learning process. Although the extant research during the pandemic is very abundant, there are few approaches addressing the different perceptions reported by university students enrolled in various programs. This research aims to explore the usefulness of online learning as perceived by civil engineering students, from a multidimensional perspective. A multidimensional model has been developed that manifests on four dimensions: social usefulness of online lectures, the usefulness of online learning platform, learning effectiveness, and, usefulness for school performance. The results show a relatively low perception of the online learning usefulness in an exclusively online educational context, which disables active learning through hands-on experience in laboratory and real-life building sites (considering the regular study process). The model has been cross-validated on a sample of students enrolled in various educational programs then the differences between samples have been analyzed and discussed. Keywords: Covid-19 pandemic, engineering students, learning platform, online education, perceived usefulness

2020 ◽  
pp. 196-213
Author(s):  
Bharat Kumar Lakra

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Diego Gormaz-Lobos ◽  
Claudia Galarce-Miranda ◽  
Hanno Hortsch

The context of the COVID-19 pandemic produced new immediate needs in the field of university teaching related to distance learning and forces the universities to transform their “traditional” face-to-face teaching methods, particularly with the implementation of online education. This situation represented a challenge not only for the universities but also for the teachers because they need to transform their teaching work in the classroom to online strategies for online learning environments. To meet these needs for effective online education an online pilot training course in Engineering Education based on the IGIP Curriculum of the TU Dresden was designed and implemented. The course “Introduction to online teaching and learning in engineering” (in Spanish: “Introducción a la Enseñanza-Aprendizaje Online en Ingeniería”) consisted of 4 modules implemented on a mix of online communication strategy of synchronous activities carried out on the Zoom platform, together with asynchronous work on a Moodle-based LMS platform. The course was offered between May and June 2020 for a group of academics of the Faculty of Engineering of a public Chilean University. This paper describes the designed online pilot training course in Engineering Pedagogy and presents the results of the evaluation of its implementation. For this a survey was applied and filled by the participants to evaluate the course and to know their per-ceptions about their competencies development to improve online learning in engineering.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Nketsia ◽  
Maxwell P. Opoku ◽  
Ahmed H. Mohammed ◽  
Emmanuel O. Kumi ◽  
Rosemary Twum ◽  
...  

The coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak has brought the world to a standstill, especially the education sector. Globally, it has claimed over two million lives, with over 100 million people infected, forcing schools to close down. This has reignited the importance of online teaching and learning for preservice teachers who comprise the next frontiers in providing online education to their future students. However, studies on online learning [OL] success among preservice teachers in developing countries, such as Ghana, remain scarce. Accordingly, this study mainly aimed to assess the predictors of OL success among preservice teachers in Ghana. Bandura’s social cognitive theory guided the study; in total, 526 preservice teachers were recruited from four colleges of education. Although the teachers were ambivalent regarding the success of OL, significant differences were found between the following demographics: gender, specialization, marital status, the preferred mode of learning, and the place of residence. Moreover, the study discussed the need for intensive information and communications technology education among preservice teachers, particularly women, developing their confidence in computer skills, and other recommendations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Shafi AlDousari

Background: During this coronavirus outbreak, online teaching and learning have become highly common in medical education. The majority of students and professors have transitioned to this comparatively modern online learning model. While faculty members found the transition to online education to be overwhelming, they persevered. Aim: study aims to investigate the Kuwait Medical educational sector's capacities and obstacles in transitioning the education system to the online form. Method: This study used a close-ended survey questionnaire constructed on Google Forms and distributed to the participants via e-mail. The study used an online Google form for formulating the questionnaire survey, which was later sent to the participants via e-mail. Results: The results showed that most of the faculty members (53%) were satisfied with online learning. The most prominent difficulty emphasized by the faculty members (35%) was network vulnerability n online teaching. The majority of the faculty members (45%) agreed that transitioning to remote teaching is a big challenge and that there is inequality for different technology uses (56%). Conclusion: Online learning has been increasingly relevant in medical education in recent months. It has its own set of benefits for improving students' knowledge and skills, and it may be used as an instructional tool in medical school.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Miri Ben-Amram ◽  
Nitza Davidovitch

This study, which explores student attitudes to online learning, is based on a psychoanalytic theory (Existence-relatedness-growth, ERG) on relatedness and growth, developed by American psychologist Clayton Alderfer. The purpose of the study was to examine whether online learning is merely a short-term temporary solution necessitated by the COVID-19 crisis, or will it enable a transformation of teaching and learning patterns in educational systems in the post-COVID era? What is students’ personal preference regarding online learning after having inadvertently experienced it? What dimension of online teaching was meaningful for them: social presence, instructional-cognitive presence, emotional-personal presence? The research population consisted of 306 students, with a mean age of 15.5. Only 85% of the students who participated in the study had technological resources for online learning at home. About 41% of the students preferred lessons that combine online teaching with frontal teaching in the classroom. In addition, the dimensions of online teaching reported by students as meaningful were, in descending order, social presence (M = 3.54), emotional-personal presence (M = 2.96), and instructional-cognitive presence (M = 2.73). The research findings might have an effect on policy makers in education with regard to maintaining an “innovative pedagogy” aimed at shaping students’ image in order to prepare them for the new post-COVID era. In this period of global crisis, online learning afforded students innovative learning, where students enhanced their awareness of the significance of social presence, which was more meaningful than the dimension of instructional-cognitive presence. The significance of interpersonal interaction in teaching and learning received support, more so than ever before.


Author(s):  
Tamara Nikolic Turnic ◽  
Ljiljana Tasic ◽  
Vladimir Jakovljevic ◽  
Marko Folic ◽  
Milan Zaric ◽  
...  

Abstract The aim of this pilot study is a preliminary evaluation of previous models / modalities of online teaching at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Serbia and to examine the attitudes of students and academic staff about education during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their previous experiences. The research was designed as an observational qualitative epidemiological study which was conducted on a population of students and academics staff at the Faculty of biomedical sciences, University of Kragujevac during the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Serbia. The first phase is a pilot study which included 332 participants performed between December 2020 and January 2021. The pilot study questionnaire is formed for the purposes of the research and consists of 17 closed-ended questions with graduated answers. Students and academic staff completed the questionnaire through an online learning platform in all environments and from all electronic devices. The importance of this study is reflected in the fact that it provides detailed and valid data that can serve the purpose of improving the efficiency of online teaching at the faculties of medical sciences in Serbia In general, the results of our study indicate that in addition to great inexperience, both students and academic staff cope well during online education and the changed environment and learning conditions despite all the difficulties.


Biomedicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-145
Author(s):  
Kalpana Ramachandran ◽  
Robert Dinesh Kumar

Introduction and Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a disruption in the academic schedule. As UNESCO observes an 87% interruption in student learning across the globe, it is undeniable that e-learning would have a major role to play in the future and both teachers and learners are getting accustomed to this ‘New Normalcy’. This survey analyses the perception of medical first-year students about online learning in the COVID-19 era.   Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive questionnaire based study was done and first year medical students were asked to respond. The respondents were asked to answer the questions in Likert-scale, from 1-5. Statistical analysis was done and Test for one proportion was calculated using ‘z’ test. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant.   Results: A total of 122 first year medical students responded to the survey. More than two-thirds of the respondents were females (67%). About 78% of respondents find online learning interesting and enjoyable. More than 80% of students found online education very satisfactory in all aspects. Problems with internet connectivity was the principal challenge faced by the students during online learning. An overwhelming 70% of students felt online teaching to be very beneficial.   Conclusion: The pandemic has posed an unprecedented challenge to the academic schedule. Although many challenges were faced by the teachers and learners, internet connectivity continued to be a major problem in online education. It is the duty of every educationist to ensure an uninterrupted, continuous and an effective process of teaching and learning.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basim Sulaiman Alatni ◽  
Ismaila Rimi Abubakar ◽  
Saad Arslan Iqbal

The COVID-19 Pandemic has severely impacted educational systems around the globe, necessitating rapid modifications to the educational milieu while safeguarding human health and wellbeing. Following the closure of universities in Saudi Arabia, the instructors of all theory courses were mandated to switch from face-to-face course delivery to remote teaching and learning. This research examines the challenges and impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the mode of teaching and learning and the numerous adaptations in the pedagogical framework of the Landscape Architecture program at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. It also explores the opportunities the transition to online education presents to faculty and students moving forward. The data were collected using an online questionnaire survey and focus group discussions. Data analyses consisted of descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis. The research finds that the sudden transition to online teaching and learning disrupted academic activities and had negatively affected the existing teaching and learning framework. Therefore, the research recommends an adaptable and dynamic teaching framework agile enough to cope with sudden disruptions. It concludes with lessons for future teaching and learning frameworks and amendments for upcoming sessions to deal with similar situations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dian Yurista Ningsih

Implementing an effective teaching and learning process with the integration of online learning platform is important for the teachers, in order to maximize the online teaching and learning situation. In this case, this study aimed at investigating the constraints found in SMA Negeri 1 Kediri in preparing lesson plan through Google Classroom. The researcher chosen SMA Negeri 1 Kediri in Tabanan Regency, Bali. In SMA Negeri 1 Kediri, Google Classroom is one of the most frequently used platforms based on the result of the pre-observation stage. Based on the pre-observation, it was found that a lot of the student have used smartphone, especially 11th grade students, which is related to the current situation (online learning). This study uses qualitative design as the design of the study, with the qualitative data as the results. The data of teachers’ constraints in preparing lesson plan are collected by using questionnaire consisted of 20 items, in which the questionnaire related to the 5 aspects of lesson plan, such as: 1) constraints in the aspect of learning objectives, 2) constraints in the aspect of learning materials, 3) constraints in the aspect of learning activities, 4) constraints in the aspect of learning media and sources, and 5) constraints in the aspect of learning assessment. As the result, it was found that there are some constraints found, such as: 1) the online learning media is only an intermediary for students in collecting their work, 2) the online learning media that only used to submit assignments, 3) the difficulties in judging the actual work of students from these activities, 4) the online learning platform which is only used to convey material, and 5) the assessment types and techniques cannot be clearly assessed from these activities. Thus, the observable problems found has to be solved by the teacher through mastering the five aspects of lesson plan, in order to be adapted with the dynamic teaching and learning situation.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Serdyukov

PurposeWith the rapid transition of education from the traditional, classroom- or campus-based to the online format, there grows a need for not only taking advantage of online technology but also assessing actual and potential effects it can make on the learners, learning, education, and society. One of the risks inherent in online learning is its growing formalization both in the organization of the learning and in its process, which may gravely affect students’ learning, health, cognition, behavior and quality of the learning outcomes. It can also produce serious implications for the society. This article investigates the origins of formalization, its forms and stages, and discusses asynchronous, precision, and automated learning formats from this perspective. Among many issues, the impact of formalization on the learner's development and socialization is considered. The author offers a pragmatic solution for deformalization of online learning.Design/methodology/approachQualitative analysis of contemporary research literature, educational trends and practices.FindingsIt was found that formalism permeates online education in many ways. It is present in asynchronous, precise and automated learning and may produce significant impact on students, their learning, and society.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a qualitative research based on the analysis of current research literature and teaching practices.Practical implicationsWhile formalism in education is an unavoidable evil, its impact must be diminished. Critical analysis and practical recommendations offered may help improve online teaching and learning.Social implicationsFormalism affects both students' socialization in the online learning environment, and patterns of socialization in the society. It also impacts students’ cognition and behaviors. So, counteracting formalism may benefit the society's well-being.Originality/valueThe authors could not find any publications on this topic. So this is an original material which may contribute to improving online teaching and learning.


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