scholarly journals CHALLENGES OF LEARNING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
 Sofia Iqbal ◽  
Saphra Sohail

According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)1, 850 million children and young adults are out of education or training because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In many countries, this has resulted in a shift from traditional in-person learning to online learning. However, online learning is not new in developed countries. Many universities had ventured since long into online education with some courses offered as a supplement to in-person teaching. Pakistan is one of the countries lacking both accessibility and infrastructure for this major transition2. Hence there is a need to examine the current challenges and the impact on our students. There will be certainly an increase in educational inequalities and the setback will last for a long-time affecting employment and income especially for those coming from underdeveloped areas. As regards medical students, this pandemic presents the greatest practical and logistical challenge3. It has disrupted medical education, requiring intense and prompt attention from medical educators. These challenges have affected patient care due to focusing attention on COVID-19 patients, which has severely limited the availability of bedside teaching opportunities for medical students4. Resultantly they are unable to complete clerkships and lack direct patient care experience. To make online education more inclusive, institutions need to ensure that learners benefit from technologies and have access to the Internet. Smartphone use has increased manifold in our country, and it can be easily used for online learning, which is a good replacement for laptops. Surveys focusing on accessibility to the Internet, laptops/tablets/smartphones can provide a platform, involving stakeholders who can help students who have limited or no access5. The college IT department should be involved which should help students with issues that come up during e-learning. Although e-learning is not an alternative to hospital rotations, yet it can help continue medical education through access to clinical videos and other online resources focusing on clinical scenarios and examination techniques. We need to ensure teachers’ training for the unique demands that online teaching poses. Many strategies have been developed for improving the quality of online teaching and engaging students. These include interacting with students, encouraging student’s participation by giving more open-ended questions, sharing videos focusing on examination techniques and different clinical scenarios, providing clear directions at the start of the session, and providing students with emotional support in this time of crisis. We should not forget that students’ attitudes are influenced by the support they receive from families and teachers. As teachers, we play an important role in the development of positive attitudes and providing students with emotional support6. There is a need for specific guidelines for online medical education framed by Pakistan Medical Council for implementing e-learning. With this sudden shift, away from the classroom in many parts of the world, some are wondering whether the adoption of online learning will continue to persist post-pandemic. For teachers, it is an opportunity to implement this teaching and learning methodology in our medical schools and training institutions whereas for students it is an opportunity to make use of e-learning for deriving maximum benefit thus preparing us for an unforeseeable situation in the future.

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.


2016 ◽  
pp. 551-585
Author(s):  
Erdem Demiroz

The dramatic transition from the post-Flexnerian model to the models of 21st century requires pedagogical practices such as teaching techniques, methods, and strategies to be modernized in order to address the diverse needs of 21st century medical students. E-learning and online education applications provide enriched opportunities for redesigning health education, and they are widely discussed in life-long learning, self-directed learning, and competency-based instructional practices. Advancements in educational technology, and the best practices of integrating educational technology with pedagogy, are not clearly outlined in medical education although e-learning and online education have the potential to address the requirements of modernized medical education. The overall goals of the chapter are to discuss technology-supported instructional design practices in medical education by emphasizing learner characteristics, addressing principles of instructional design for online teaching practices, and providing evaluation tools that guide designers to develop better online learning practices for advancing medical education through technology.


2021 ◽  
pp. 73-74
Author(s):  
Suneel Kumar ◽  
Kamaldeep Singh ◽  
Dheeraj Kumar Jakhar

The Covid-19 epidemic made the educational institutions to adopt online education systems in an attempt to continue teaching safely as well as to comply to the instructions from the government. Online education systems have been there for many years but they have gained popularity recently, more in the form of a necessity rather than a luxury. This presented a new challenge for the institutions, teachers and the students as they needed to adapt to the online teaching systems. E-learning is the outcome of development of science and technology and is different from traditional teaching in many ways. In traditional teaching the physical presence of the student and teacher at same site is a very crucial factor, while in E-learning the presence is virtual. There are two types of e-learning, synchronous and asynchronous. E-learning has many advantages as well as disadvantages, but how gracefully it gets incorporated in the traditional medical teaching, that only time will tell.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-111
Author(s):  
Paola Xhelili ◽  
Eliana Ibrahimi ◽  
Erinda Rruci ◽  
Kristina Sheme

The aim of this study is to evaluate the perceptions and challenges of Albanian students during online learning carried out due to COVID-19 pandemic. The students were invited via email to give their perception of ongoing online learning. Responses were obtained from 627 college students from various study fields, such as natural, medical, and life sciences. The results showed that students had a more positive attitude towards the classroom learning environment. The main challenges that students faced were the unavailability of internet connection and the lack of technology devices. Students enrolled in technology-based programs and also those with high academic performance were more comfortable and satisfied with online classes (p0.001). The % of students who preferred the learning process be continued in the classroom was higher than those who preferred online education or a combination of both on-campus and online learning environments (p0.001). Students firmly state that online learning cannot replace the classroom. The findings suggested that Albanian students are not familiar enough with technology-based education. Online teaching must be integrated gradually into Albanian education depending also on students’ characteristics. The learning process must be effectively organized by professors, taking into account students’ dissatisfactions and difficulties with e-learning and considering the overall limitations of this method.


Author(s):  
Keshav Dahiya ◽  
Naman Malhotra ◽  
Vaibhav Bachhwal ◽  
Neha Gupta

Prior to the pandemic, Indian educational institutions relied primarily on traditional means of instruction, like as face-to-face lectures in a classroom. Many academic units have already begun to mix learning throughout the pandemic, but many still maintain archaic traditions. The rapid outbreak of a lethal disease known as Covid-19 due to the SARS-CoV-2 Corona Virus startled the whole world. It was labeled a pandemic by the World Health Organization. This has challenged the worldwide education system and prompted educators to move to an online teaching modality overnight. Many schools, which were previously reluctant to adapt their traditional approach to pedagogy, were unable to move totally to online instruction. The paper discusses the importance of online learning and of e-learning modalities analysis in times of crisis, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges (SWOC). This article also highlights the emergence of EdTech startups during pandemics and provides ideas for academic institutions to tackle online learning issues.


Author(s):  
Erdem Demiroz

The dramatic transition from the post-Flexnerian model to the models of 21st century requires pedagogical practices such as teaching techniques, methods, and strategies to be modernized in order to address the diverse needs of 21st century medical students. E-learning and online education applications provide enriched opportunities for redesigning health education, and they are widely discussed in life-long learning, self-directed learning, and competency-based instructional practices. Advancements in educational technology, and the best practices of integrating educational technology with pedagogy, are not clearly outlined in medical education although e-learning and online education have the potential to address the requirements of modernized medical education. The overall goals of the chapter are to discuss technology-supported instructional design practices in medical education by emphasizing learner characteristics, addressing principles of instructional design for online teaching practices, and providing evaluation tools that guide designers to develop better online learning practices for advancing medical education through technology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. p67
Author(s):  
Luo Youhao ◽  
Yang Jianxiang

The COVID-19 epidemic broke out in the world in 2020. With the continuous efforts of people all over the world for a year, the development trend of the epidemic was gradually restrained, and countries began to enter the post-epidemic period one after another. With the students from all over the country returning to school gradually, how to strengthen the normal study of young college students and how to restore the normal teaching order in schools is a huge challenge to both schools and students during this special period of epidemic prevention and control. This paper starts with the phenomenon that the learning effect of online education for college students in Suqian University is not ideal, and carries out on-the-spot questionnaire survey to explore the problem. According to the research, some students have cultivated their good learning habits in the home-school environment, but there are still some problems, such as the majority of students lack of inertial thinking of online learning, lack of attention to online learning and unable to find a suitable mixed online teaching model. Schools should select appropriate teaching models to guide students to participate in online learning. Students should also actively cooperate with teachers to carry out educational work, restrain themselves and devote themselves to study within the stipulated time. Finally, I hope that this paper can effectively promote the development of online e-learning by putting forward some countermeasures and suggestions for the construction of high-quality e-learning model in schools.


Author(s):  
Jialu Chen ◽  
Yingxiao Han ◽  
An Li

In recent years, with the development of society and the progress of science and technology, online learning has penetrated into people's daily life, and people's demand for high-quality curriculum products is more and more strong. From a macro perspective, the continuous growth of national financial investment in education, the continuous upgrading of China's consumption structure, the development of 5G technology and the popularization of AI intelligence make online teaching less limited. The online education industry is showing an explosive growth trend. More and more online education institutions are listed for financing, and the market value is soaring. However, in 2019, except for GSX, the latest online learning platforms such as New Oriental, Speak English Fluently and Sunlands, have been in a state of loss. Most of these agencies seize the market by increasing advertising investment, but at the same time, they also bring huge marketing costs, which affect the financial performance of the company. With the enhancement of Matthew effect, large-scale educational institutions occupy a large market through free classes and low-price classes, while small and medium-sized institutions with weak capital strength are often unable to afford high sales costs, facing the risk of capital chain rupture. Taking new Oriental online as an example, this paper analyzes the problems existing in the marketing strategies of online education institutions. It also puts forward suggestions on four aspects, which are target market, differentiated value, marketing mix and marketing mode, so as to make sure that online education institutions can control marketing expenses and achieve profits by improving course quality, expanding marketing channels and implementing precise positioning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5471
Author(s):  
Chuan-Yu Mo ◽  
Te-Hsin Hsieh ◽  
Chien-Liang Lin ◽  
Yuan Qin Jin ◽  
Yu-Sheng Su

In order to enable online learning to continue developing when the COVID-19 pandemic passes, this study aimed to identify the critical factors that affected the use of e-learning by university students during the pandemic. These critical factors will help to increase the efficiency of future development and deployment of online learning systems. Through a literature review, this study employed the technology acceptance model, social support, and task–technology fit as the theoretical basis to establish the framework of the online learning environment with regards to the technology acceptance model in the context of emergency management. A questionnaire survey was administered to students in universities that had implemented online teaching during the pandemic, and 552 valid responses were collected. The survey explored the factors affecting the willingness of higher education institution students to continue using online learning, and the following conclusions were drawn. (1) The easier an online learning platform was to navigate, the better it was perceived by the students, and thus the students were more willing to use it. (2) Ease of use and usefulness were associated with the teachers’ choice of platform and their ability to achieve a satisfactory fit between the course design and platform navigation, which thereby affected the students’ learning outcomes and attitude towards use. (3) The positive attitude of teachers towards teaching increased the students’ perceived ease of use of online learning. (4) During the pandemic, family support—a major support for teachers in online teaching—enhanced teachers’ attitudes towards, and willingness to provide, online teaching. A high level of support showed that the parents urged the students to learn and complete online learning tasks as instructed by the teachers, implying that family support could affect the students’ habits towards, adaptation to, and identification of online learning. The study results provide insights into the factors affecting the willingness of teachers and students to continue using e-learning platforms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 203-208
Author(s):  
Gracia M. N. Otta

The phenomenon of Coronavirus Disease 2019 forced the education system in Indonesia to be run online. The descriptive qualitative method was usedin this research to investigate some cases faced by the Fourth Semester Students of the English Department, Nusa Cendana University toward online learning in Cross-Cultural Communication Lecture. It was conducted to answer students’ perceptions, solutions, and expectations in joining online lectures for the last three months in the Even Semester of Academic Year 2019-2020. To collect the data, and a non-facial interview technique was applied through some online Learning Management System; e-learning by Nusa Cendana University and Google Classroom. The data were analyzed by categorizing the students’ answers. The result of this study showed that11.43% were ready for online lectures, while those who prefer regular classes were 82.86%.Only 27.14% could meet the needs of online lectures since they had available mobile data, while 47.14% frankly stated having mobile data problem. It can be concluded that there were some changes in learning culture that forced students to deal with online teaching-learning activities. Undeniable, it was not easy to organize except well prepared from the very first beginning of class by having Course Contract which only needed to be changed into an online form. Yet, their expectations for universities and government to increase Learning Management System and subsidies for the needs of mobile data bundle (for teachers, lecturers, and students).


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