scholarly journals An Honest Account of the Humbling Experience of Learning to Teach Online

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Ferrario ◽  
Corinne Hyde ◽  
Brandon Martinez ◽  
Melora Sundt

The focus of this article is on lessons learned about teaching through the online environment from the experience of 120+ instructors who transitioned from teaching in a traditional face-to-face environment to a blended synchronous and asynchronous online world. We admit that we entered the synchronous virtual world with faulty assumptions and misplaced confidence, believing that what worked in the brick-andmortar world should also work, with little adaptation, in the virtual world. There continues to be so little literature about teaching in the synchronous virtual environment that we had to rely on our ability to learn quickly by trial and error.

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Taylor ◽  
Chiya Shikaislami ◽  
Chris McNicholas ◽  
David Taylor ◽  
Julie Reed ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Healthcare teams often consist of geographically dispersed members. Virtual worlds can support immersive, high-quality, multimedia interaction between remote individuals; this study investigated use of virtual worlds to support remote healthcare quality improvement team meetings. Methods Twenty individuals (12 female, aged 25–67 [M = 42.3, SD = 11.8]) from 6 healthcare quality improvement teams conducted collaborative tasks in virtual world or face-to-face settings. Quality of collaborative task performances were measured and questionnaires and interviews were used to record participants’ experiences of conducting the tasks and using the virtual world software. Results Quality of collaborative task outcomes was high in both face-to-face and virtual world settings. Participant interviews elicited advantages for using virtual worlds in healthcare settings, including the ability of the virtual environment to support tools that cannot be represented in equivalent face-to-face meetings, and the potential for virtual world settings to cause improvements in group-dynamics. Reported disadvantages for future virtual world use in healthcare included the difficulty that people with weaker computer skills may experience with using the software. Participants tended to feel absorbed in the collaborative task they conducted within the virtual world, but did not experience the virtual environment as being ‘real’. Conclusions Virtual worlds can provide an effective platform for collaborative meetings in healthcare quality improvement, but provision of support to those with weaker computer skills should be ensured, as should the technical reliability of the virtual world being used. Future research could investigate use of virtual worlds in other healthcare settings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
Laura G. Maldonado ◽  
J. Jordan Dolfi ◽  
James E. Bartlett, II ◽  
Michelle E. Bartlett

This essay describes an online writing group introduced to a CPED EdD program at a research-intensive, land-grant university during the summer of 2020 when the existing face-to-face program shifted to fully online delivery. The purpose of the writing sessions was to support EdD student practitioners with dissertation writing productivity by offering multiple weekly opportunities for synchronous writing sessions via Zoom online video conferencing. Although this new program is still in development, initial student feedback suggests that the writing sessions not only supported students’ dissertation progression, but it also established a sense of community and social support in an online environment. Lessons learned are shared, and we argue that this could be an ideal time to offer online writing sessions, especially since the pandemic will continue into the coming months. 


RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822098527
Author(s):  
Benjamin Luke Moorhouse ◽  
Yanna Li ◽  
Steve Walsh

Interaction is seen by many English language teachers and scholars as an essential part of face-to-face English language classrooms. Teachers require specific competencies to effectively use interaction as a tool for mediating and assisting learning. These can be referred to as classroom interactional competence (CIC). However, the situation created by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic which began in early 2020, and the recent advancement in technologies have led to teachers conducting synchronous online lessons through video-conferencing software. The online environment is distinctly different from the face-to-face classroom and teachers require new and additional skills to effectively utilise interaction online in real time. This exploratory study used an online mixed-method survey of 75 university level English language teachers who had engaged in synchronous online teaching due to COVID-19, to explore the competencies that teachers need to use interaction as a tool to mediate and assist language learning in synchronous online lessons. Teachers were found to require three competencies, in addition to their CIC – technological competencies, online environment management competencies, and online teacher interactional competencies – which together constitute e-CIC. The findings provide greater insights into the needs of teachers required to teach synchronously online and will be of interest to teachers and teacher educators.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1942602X2199643
Author(s):  
Bill Marrapese ◽  
Jenny M. Gormley ◽  
Kristen Deschene

The COVID-19 pandemic has required thousands of public schools to quickly adapt to hybrid or fully remote models. These new models have presented unprecedented challenges for school nurses as they learn how to optimize their interactions with parents and students to provide ongoing support and monitoring of health. The growing reliance on virtual and hybrid public education is also placing new demands on school nurses to be versed in telehealth and school physicians to support their work. Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School (GCVS) and other public virtual schools have been meeting these challenges for many years prior to the pandemic and have “lessons learned” to share with traditional “brick-and-mortar” nursing staff. GCVS students benefit from a climate that rewards collaboration between the health team, parents, teachers, and administrators, and this article will describe the role, job description, and other practices related to school nursing in a primarily virtual world.


Author(s):  
Elizabeth Lerner Papautsky ◽  
Richard J. Holden ◽  
Rupa S. Valdez ◽  
Jordan Hill ◽  
Janetta Brown

In the 4th panel on the topic of The Patient in Patient Safety, we highlighted topics of current relevance and facilitated a reflection session. The objective was to highlight the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted patient ergonomics research and work, with particular focus on safety. After a topic overview, panelists presented their work on overcoming challenges to human subjects research created by the suspension of face-to-face activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. A facilitated reflection and brainstorming session using Miro followed. We used questions to elicit examples of patient and caregiver roles in safety during the pandemic and research strategies and challenges. These questions were also distributed on social media prior to the event. The panel served as an opportunity to share lessons learned.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Colmore S. Christian

The island-nation of Dominica, 790 km2 in area, is located approximately 1126.5 km Southeast of Florida, USA. In the mid-1990s, Dominica embarked on developing the 183.5 km Waitukubuli National Trail (WNT), the first and only national trail model in the Eastern Caribbean. The 14-segment WNT, officially opened in May 2013, passes through some of the island’s most diverse landscapes. WNT was designed to link as many rural communities as possible and promote ecotourism and community socioeconomic development. Rehabilitation work continues on the WNT and the rest of Dominica, following the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria of 2017. This article, based primarily on a limited questionnaire survey, selected interviews, and literature review, explored the research question ‘What were the challenges faced by a small-island nation in the development of a National Trail? Five specific research objectives focused on the conceptualization, implementation challenges, partnerships fostered, national and sub-regional significance, and future outlook of the Trail were considered. Questionnaire respondents identified the island’s topography and negotiations with private landowners as significant trail construction challenges. A 100% of survey respondents anticipate that reliable funding to support timely maintenance would likely be a critical future issue. Some respondents identified marketing, public engagement, and visitor safety as potential issues. Face-to-face interviews found strong support for the WNT. The interviewees were confident that Dominica would realize sustainable socioeconomic benefits from the Trail. The article concludes with lessons learned and proposes strategies and research themes to ensure the Trail’s sustainability.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 397
Author(s):  
Qimeng Zhang ◽  
Ji-Su Ban ◽  
Mingyu Kim ◽  
Hae Won Byun ◽  
Chang-Hun Kim

We propose a low-asymmetry interface to improve the presence of non-head-mounted-display (non-HMD) users in shared virtual reality (VR) experiences with HMD users. The low-asymmetry interface ensures that the HMD and non-HMD users’ perception of the VR environment is almost similar. That is, the point-of-view asymmetry and behavior asymmetry between HMD and non-HMD users are reduced. Our system comprises a portable mobile device as a visual display to provide a changing PoV for the non-HMD user and a walking simulator as an in-place walking detection sensor to enable the same level of realistic and unrestricted physical-walking-based locomotion for all users. Because this allows non-HMD users to experience the same level of visualization and free movement as HMD users, both of them can engage as the main actors in movement scenarios. Our user study revealed that the low-asymmetry interface enables non-HMD users to feel a presence similar to that of the HMD users when performing equivalent locomotion tasks in a virtual environment. Furthermore, our system can enable one HMD user and multiple non-HMD users to participate together in a virtual world; moreover, our experiments show that the non-HMD user satisfaction increases with the number of non-HMD participants owing to increased presence and enjoyment.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (04) ◽  
pp. 1460020 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Anastassakis ◽  
Themis Panayiotopoulos

Intelligent virtual agent behaviour is a crucial element of any virtual environment application as it essentially brings the environment to life, introduces believability and realism and enables complex interactions and evolution over time. However, the development of mechanisms for virtual agent perception and action is neither a trivial nor a straight-forward task. In this paper we present a model of perception and action for intelligent virtual agents that meets specific requirements and can as such be systematically implemented, can seamlessly and transparently integrate with knowledge representation and intelligent reasoning mechanisms, is highly independent of virtual world implementation specifics, and enables virtual agent portability and reuse.


BMJ Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. e016948 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Brett ◽  
Sophie Staniszewska ◽  
Iveta Simera ◽  
Kate Seers ◽  
Carole Mockford ◽  
...  

IntroductionPatient and public involvement (PPI) is inconsistently reported in health and social care research. Improving the quality of how PPI is reported is critical in developing a higher quality evidence base to gain a better insight into the methods and impact of PPI. This paper describes the methods used to develop and gain consensus on guidelines for reporting PPI in research studies (updated version of the Guidance for Reporting Patient and Public Involvement (GRIPP2)).MethodsThere were three key stages in the development of GRIPP2: identification of key items for the guideline from systematic review evidence of the impact of PPI on health research and health services, a three-phase online Delphi survey with a diverse sample of experts in PPI to gain consensus on included items and a face-to-face consensus meeting to finalise and reach definitive agreement on GRIPP2. Challenges and lessons learnt during the development of the reporting guidelines are reported.DiscussionThe process of reaching consensus is vital within the development of guidelines and policy directions, although debate around how best to reach consensus is still needed. This paper discusses the critical stages of consensus development as applied to the development of consensus for GRIPP2 and discusses the benefits and challenges of consensus development.


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