An Online Initiative Goes Viral

Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Fisher

The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB) growth initiative to increase access and enrollment in part through online education prompted its School of Business (BUS) to examine its current approach to this mode of instruction. The faculty-led Undergraduate Curriculum Committee in the school encouraged a more strategic approach than was previously employed. Desire to remain competitive in the higher education arena made administration eager to woo new students and better serve current ones. The BUS is keenly aware that students increasingly demand flexibility in attending classes and are willing to shop around for it. This case describes the implementation of online instruction at UAB School of Business yielding a five-fold increase in online courses in just three years with much larger gains in credit hour production than their traditional programs realized. Moreover, the case describes major accomplishments, challenges encountered, lessons learned, and solutions from instructional design and project management perspectives.

Author(s):  
Jim Wallace ◽  
Harpreet Dhariwal

MIE 515, Alternative Energy Systems, an engineering technical elective course open to senior undergraduates and graduate students, was delivered as an on line course for Fall 2011. This is the first time an undergraduate engineering course at the University of Toronto has been offered online. The course is also one of five pilot online courses across the University. The move online is being accomplished in two steps. For Fall 2011, a small lecture section of 25 students was used as a setting for video capture and the remaining 110 students accessed the course lectures online asynchronously. A live tutorial was offered once a week. All students were physically present for the midterm examination and the final examination. For Fall 2012, the course will be delivered entirely online, with the exception of student physical presence for the two examinations. Pedagogical and technical lessons learned during this transition year will be presented. The benefits and drawbacks of online delivery will be discussed from the perspective gained this year and compared with our expectations. Student feedback will also be presented and discussed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Fülöp ◽  
Gyula Nagy

Fortunately, the forced change to online education required by the pandemic situation did not caught the University of Szeged completely unprepared. Our institution has a long tradition of using electronic teaching materials in various projects and situations. One of the most important tool is the SZTE Repository of Educational Resources, operated by the Klebelsberg Library, which stores almost 4,500 electronic learning material and it has more than 1 million downloads. In the first part of our study, we show our experiences gained during the development and running of the database. In the second part, we would like to talk about the development of an online education platform (https://edu.ek.szte.hu). It has launched last year and we presented here our first e-learning course, ‘Introduction to library and information science’. This course was previously held-in-person by the library staff to hundreds of students per semester at the university as a general education course. Redesigning the course took several months. During this time, we had to face several technical and education-related issues and questions which gave us the experience and the necessary knowledge about the methods of switching from classroom teaching to online courses.


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. 


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Kiseleva ◽  
Natalia Kiseleva ◽  
Evgeny Kiselev

Digital technologies are rapidly changing the process of education. Online courses have become a common tool of gaining knowledge outside the university. Multimedia education, penetrating traditional educational institutions (schools, colleges, and universities), changes the structure of education and brings new elements to the communications during the educational process. This article considers one level of change in the model of education. On the one hand, there are advantages associated with the democratization of education. At the time of their foundation, universities were the creators of new elites – scientific and educational meanwhile, in the twenty-first century, the process of democratization and the accessibility of university education has been linked to the digitalization. On the other hand, territorial and other restrictions have been lifted. And this is a very controversial process that poses many challenges for students, one of the most noticeable of which is the lack of real contact with the teacher and the transformation of the educational process into an ”educational conveyor belt.” At the same time, personal contact with the teacher is becoming more expensive. The authors have collected studies that examine the dynamics of this emerging stratification of education. Based on the work of the pioneers in the study of digital education, the authors develop their ideas, focusing on the formation of the modern models of education, defined as affordable electronic and elite traditional. Keywords: online courses, online education, MOOC


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (8-9) ◽  
pp. 103-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. E. Chupandina ◽  
A. V. Semenikhina

The article describes the state of online learning at Voronezh State University and presents general information about its main components, such as e- library resources, electronic system for education process management, and  the university’s online courses. Since 2001 the University is a participant of  the scientific and technological program “Creation of the open education  system in the Russian Federation”. Within the framework of this program an  informational and educational portal Voronezh. OpeNet.ru − “Voronezh  virtual university” has been established, which is a part of the mega-portal of the Russian informational and educational environment of open education  (www.OpeNet.ru). In 2007 the University has started the work for  implementation of network education based on LMS Moodle. Online education is being realized on three levels: e-library resources,  organization of educational process (“Electronic University”), and online  courses (distant courses, university online courses, and open online courses).  Distant courses include 59 courses on ecology and learning  foreign languages worked out in the framework of Tempus project. At  present Voronezh State University is developing its own open online courses  (MOOC) using the experience of Tomsk State University and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. The implementation of online learning makes it  possible to realize two main principles of modern education − “education for  everybody” and “lifelong education”. 


Author(s):  
Desiree' Caldwell ◽  
Mary Sortino ◽  
Jill Winnington ◽  
Tiffany J. Cresswell-Yeager

There is a significant need for faculty development and support as it relates to online teaching. Researchers assert that the success of online education may be a direct result of the training and support of the institution's faculty. Higher education institutions implement a variety of online faculty development practices; however, little is known about which practices are seen as the most effective and efficient. In this chapter, the authors propose a strategic approach to building a comprehensive faculty development program that supports and engages online faculty from initial hire and beyond. The purpose of this chapter is to provide new insights to support faculty. The authors identify evidence-based strategies to incorporate adjunct and full-time online faculty into the university community. In addition, the authors share their experiences developing a comprehensive faculty development plan.


Author(s):  
Jeffrey Harris ◽  
William Heikoop ◽  
Allison Van Beek ◽  
James S. Wallace

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) allow anyone in the public to learn from professors at universities across the world. An internet connection is the only requirement to participate in a MOOC. In engineering, the majority of MOOCs are targeted at self-learners, and consequently most courses are based on introductory undergraduate courses. The University of Toronto offered its first advanced engineering MOOC entitled, “Wind, Waves & Tides” based on a mixed fourth-year undergraduate and graduate level course. A total of 11,723 students registered in the course, and 617 students completed the course in its entirety. The following paper describes the experience of teaching a niche interest MOOC and the lessons learned throughout the endeavour.


Author(s):  
Mariann Solberg

<p>The Arctic is a vast, sparsely populated area. The demographic situation points to online distance education as a solution to support lifelong learning and to build competence in the region. An overall aim of all university education is what Hans Georg Gadamer calls Bildung, what we in Norwegian call dannelse and what Richard Rorty has called edification. A first problem to be addressed here is that in online distance learning some teachers find that is harder to support the development of the student’s voice. Being able to express oneself and to position oneself in a scientific community is vital for a well educated graduate. Another problem in online education has been the extensive use of writing as a means in the student’s learning process. Writing is vital to academic education, but in online courses there is in general a danger of overuse. At the University of Tromsø we have tested the web conference tool Elluminate Live. This is a real-time application, integrated in the University’s learning management system (LMS), Fronter. The application enables synchronous oral dialogue, simultaneous sharing of texts, and so forth. I present our main experience with the use of Elluminate Live and discuss the extent to which this application has turned out to be helpful in developing the quality of online courses.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arriane Pirhalla ◽  
Crystal Marull

With the rise of online education surrounding the current global situation, facilitating engaging, communicative and interesting online courses and research has become increasingly more important. This study surveyed various undergraduate students at the University of Florida (n=114), gathering perspectives on their awareness of, interest in and opinions on online undergraduate research and courses. This study found that a majority of students (74.58%, n=88) surveyed were not aware of online research programs like the University Scholars Program, despite majority (71.67%, n=81) indicating they were at least moderately interested in the program. Students also overwhelmingly rated research as being  very or extremely important, especially for post-graduate work or school. This paper discusses the implications of relationships between these responses, and touches on suggested future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 129 (4) ◽  
pp. 58-64
Author(s):  
R. Z. Safieva ◽  
◽  
I. V. Edneral ◽  
A. V. Beloysov ◽  
◽  
...  

The transition to online education, despite many organizational, technical, legal, and ethical issues debated in society, has occurred. In special periods of time, the availability of distance education technologies becomes critical, as it is now during the recognition of the spread of coronovirus as a pandemic. Given the severity of the issue, the university administration and the pedagogical community have to solve a number of issues for the development of online courses and the design of an individual educational trajectory for each student as soon as possible. There are done the practical results and presented the problems concerning the digital educational resources creation and implementation in the oil and gas university education regarding the authors’ experience. Combining the efforts of oil and gas universities is one of the effective ways to create a single educational space of high-quality digital content, in which all stakeholders are interested (students, employers, universities and government agencies).


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