Promoting Interaction in an Asynchronous E-Learning Environment

Author(s):  
Maria Pavlis Korres

Interaction is at the heart of the online learning experience. Theorists consider interaction a defining characteristic of education and regard it as vitally important in the design of e-learning courses. Interaction is a significant component in promoting learners' positive attitudes towards online education and affects their educational performance. This chapter examines the various ways an e-learning environment can promote interaction among participants by using the appropriate communication tools. It presents the results of a pilot e-learning course, confirming that different types of interaction can be promoted at a high level in an online environment and will contribute effectively to the achievement of the learning objectives.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 2157-2160
Author(s):  
Chin-Yen Alice Liu

In the era of theInternet, most educators have been supported by powerful tools ranging from e-books and e-learning sites to cloud services, and students’ learning environment has been a mix between traditional study (in class) and e-learning through some kind of online learning platform. Due to the uncertainty of the rapidly changing COVID-19 situation, all colleges and universities have to shutter their physical campuses and move their courses to remote and online formats hastily. This prompted many to wonder if all of the faculty are ready and qualified to teach online courses and/or if all of the students are ready to learn in the comprehensive online environment. If not, what ultimate impact will be to our higher education during this national emergency virus pandemic since there is no choice but depend on where they sit currently, not to mention the negative reviews and concerns regarding the online education. To make this transfer seamlessly and conflict mitigation, this paper applied systems thinking for an e-Learning course and proposed a flexible grading method for an e-learning environment, which will enhance students’ grades by allowing students to control their own study paces and the amount of efforts spent in the course, which can bring a successful online learning experience.


2021 ◽  
pp. 52-66
Author(s):  
O.V. Lukyanov ◽  
◽  
I.A. Dubinina ◽  
E.V. Bredun ◽  
◽  
...  

The aim of online learning is to help forward the individualization of educational practices and self-determination of a student. From the technological point of view, it is supposed to reduce the costs on the teacher’s presence in educational process (it is not a teacher but a plat-form which holds the knowledge) and to increase investments in the student’s presence (a student completes the given knowledge with his own senses, motives, values and creativity). An important phase of educational process is rating. According to the trend of “high technolo-gies” (technologies that minimize the human presence in management) we may say that there is also a trend to increase the level of rating. In online learning environment we rate not only the results and actions of a student, but also the level of his abilities or competence and the means of rating authenticity. The article discusses the data received on using the “Self-attestation practice” online course. It is a means of final assessment for students who complete the BA in psychology. By the way of variance analysis, we verified the hypothesis that the high level of abstract thinking, high coefficient of categorization, high level of creativity, field independence and reflexivity on cognitive styles are favor for intellectual productivity in scientific, research and creative areas. A measured set of level characteristics for intellectual products is transformed into a com-plex of observed language qualities. The high level of abstract thinking is demonstrated in speech coherence, in discourse consistency. The high coefficient of categorization is demon-strated in the ability to interpret texts into different languages and scales. High creativity level can be seen in making preference for difficult, challenging creative tasks. Field independence and reflexivity is demonstrated in the ability to make an individual educational track. These characteristics are markers of successful study, including online education. They allow us esti-mating each student’s involvement into professional studies and defining the levels of intellectual success, predicting the model of individual learning environment (individual learning track).


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rola Alhabshneh ◽  
Anas Alibrahim ◽  
Tahani Abu-Alteen ◽  
Wiam Hamadah ◽  
Yousef Khader

BACKGROUND The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a major public health challenge for many countries around the world. The global lockdown of educational institutions is going to cause major disruption to students’ learning and cancellation of their yearly assessments. Dental students are particularly at risk, due to the possibility of aerosols produced in many dental procedures that were suggested as a way of transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Shifting to online learning is needed in this era. OBJECTIVE This article aims to review the online learning experience, the effectiveness of tele-dentistry and the importance of implementing dental virtual simulation in preclinical and clinical courses during pandemics. Some suggestions are also provided to widen communication and creativity in the education system. The limitations of online learning and suggested solutions are also discussed. METHODS Two independent investigators conducted an electronic comprehensive search of PubMed/MEDLINE for articles published between 2000 and 2020, using the following search terms: “online education”; “Tele-dentistry”; “Education during pandemics”; “Virtual dentistry”; “COVID-19 reshaping education”; and “Dental E-learning.” Studies were selected and classified as included or excluded based on the title and abstract of the articles by the 2 researchers, working independently. Articles included were published in English, related to dentistry and online education. Articles excluded were not published in English or related to conventional education. It was not possible to analyze included articles, therefore we decided to do narrative review only. Authors’ points of view and suggestions were also added to shed light on the online learning experience and understand its quality and effectiveness during pandemics. RESULTS : from 150 articles reviewed, only 30 articles were found to qualify for inclusion. All included articles discussed online education based on experience of authors and provided some suggestions so that online learning experience becomes more effective. All included articles found that online education is a useful tool to be invested at times of pandemics and that it needs to be empowered and improved by schools and universities. CONCLUSIONS Being successful in riding the wave will take dental learning and teaching into a new era. In the future, every dean and faculty member will understand that online education is not only a potential source for new revenue. Instead, online education will be recognized as an essential core to every educational plan for institutional resilience and academic continuity. CLINICALTRIAL None


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aida Kamysbayeva ◽  
Alexey Koryakov ◽  
Natalya Garnova ◽  
Sergey Glushkov ◽  
Svetlana Klimenkova

PurposeThe COVID-19 crisis experience is shaping new guidelines for learning activities that need to be developed from an interdisciplinary and holistic perspective based on the analysis and assessment of potential impacts and social expectations.Design/methodology/approachThe research is devoted to the study of modern e-learning challenges in the context of social distance, the analysis of learning experience, problems and opportunities associated with online learning. The research was carried out at the “Blinded for peer review” and involved 300 graduate students. A qualitative method based on a two-step process was used in the study. The discussion allowed participants to discuss and compare personal learning experiences primarily related to the COVID-19 crisis.FindingsThe results of the study demonstrated that online learning is an efficient tool for the development of hard skills while being less effective for the improvement of soft skills; they also allowed us to identify important aspects of professional personnel training which should be taken into account while developing a strategy for harmonizing on-campus and online education with the diversification of curricula by various pedagogical technologies and digital tools, as well as bringing social interactions into classroom activities.Originality/valueDue to the fact that most study participants were technical and economic students, it was concluded that the e-learning format is an effective methodology for the development of technical and digital skills of students.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rola Alhabshneh Sr ◽  
Anas Alibrahim ◽  
Anas Alibrahim ◽  
Tahani Alteen ◽  
Wiam Hamadah ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Background: The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a major public health challenge for many countries around the world. The global lockdown of educational institutions is going to cause major disruption to students’ learning and cancellation of their yearly assessments. Dental students are particularly at risk, due to the possibility of aerosols produced in many dental procedures that were suggested as a way of transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Shifting to online learning is needed in this era. OBJECTIVE This article aims to review the online learning experience, the effectiveness of tele-dentistry and the importance of implementing dental virtual simulation in preclinical and clinical courses during pandemics. Some suggestions are also provided to widen communication and creativity in the education system. The limitations of online learning and suggested solutions are also discussed. METHODS Two independent investigators conducted an electronic comprehensive search of PubMed/MEDLINE for articles published between 2000 and 2020, using the following search terms: “online education”; “Tele-dentistry”; “Education during pandemics”; “Virtual dentistry”; “COVID-19 reshaping education”; and “Dental E-learning.” Studies were selected and classified as included or excluded based on the title and abstract of the articles by the 2 researchers, working independently. Articles included were published in English, related to dentistry and online education. Articles excluded were not published in English or related to conventional education. It was not possible to analyze included articles, therefore we decided to do narrative review only. Authors’ points of view and suggestions were also added to shed light on the online learning experience and understand its quality and effectiveness during pandemics. RESULTS from 150 articles reviewed, only 30 articles were found to qualify for inclusion. All included articles discussed online education based on experience of authors and provided some suggestions so that online learning experience becomes more effective. All included articles found that online education is a useful tool to be invested at times of pandemics and that it needs to be empowered and improved by schools and universities. CONCLUSIONS Being successful in riding the wave will take dental learning and teaching into a new era. In the future, every dean and faculty member will understand that online education is not only a potential source for new revenue. Instead, online education will be recognized as an essential core to every educational plan for institutional resilience and academic continuity.


Author(s):  
Hatem M. Wasfy ◽  
Tamer M. Wasfy ◽  
Jeanne M. Peters ◽  
Riham M. Mahfouz

In this paper we present the main features of a virtual-reality enhanced online learning environment that can be used to deliver fully automated online courses with an ultimate goal of substituting traditional classroom instruction for many science, technology, engineering and math courses. The learning environment incorporates a high level of interactivity that will make the student an active participant in the learning experience, rather than a passive spectator. Virtual-reality is seamlessly integrated in order to simulate lab experiments, scientific instruments and/or industrial equipment. This will help bridge the gap between real world experience and online learning. The learning environment is illustrated using recently developed online courses for freshman university Physics, welding, CNC machining, and centrifugal pump maintenance.


The research is devoted to the study of modern e-learning challenges in the context of social distance, the analysis of learning experience, problems and opportunities associated with online learning. The research was carried out at the ‘Blinded for peer review’ and involved 300 graduate students. A qualitative method based on a two-step process was used in the study. The online learning challenges and opportunities were analyzed with due regard to pedagogical, social, and technological aspects. The results of the study demonstrated that online learning is an efficient tool for the development of Hard Skills while being less effective for the improvement of Soft Skills; they also allowed us to identify important aspects of professional personnel training which should be taken into account while developing a strategy for harmonizing on-campus and online education with the diversification of curricula by various pedagogical technologies and digital tools, as well as bringing social interactions into classroom activities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. pp252-261
Author(s):  
Reema Karasneh ◽  
Sayer Al-Azzam ◽  
Suhaib Muflih ◽  
Sahar Hawamdeh ◽  
Mohammad Muflih ◽  
...  

Background The novel coronavirus outbreak is now shifting the way educational institutions operate around the world. This study aims to assess the online learning experience during the pandemic and recognize its perceived barriers according to university professors in Jordan. Methods This is a questionnaire-based, cross-sectional, and descriptive study. A web-based survey was distributed to all university professors and lecturers in public universities across Jordan. Results A total of 508 educators responded to this study. Males (67.5%, n=343) dominated the study population compared to females (32.5%, n=165). Educators spent an average of 20.2 ± 15.9 hours/week using the internet for educational purposes during the pandemic. Positive attitudes towards online teaching were seen, as 65.7% reported being prepared for online teaching, while 40.8% were comfortable communicating with students via online platforms. Institutional support for online learning also appears to have increased following the coronavirus outbreak. An overwhelming majority (81.9%, n=416) stated that their universities supported online education during the pandemic, compared to 56.5% (n=287) before. The main recognized barriers for online teaching were poor internet connection (78.3%, n=398), disadvantages in old learning tools (e.g., uploading capacity) (70.9%, n=360), and family atmosphere (69.3%, n=352). Participants also recognized technical (74.0%, n=376) and computer skills (49.2%, n=250) as areas requiring development. Conclusion Despite the positive attitudes of educators towards online teaching, many barriers need to be overcome before the shift from traditional learning is implemented. Faculty training and inter-departmental communication are warranted for the success of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Author(s):  
Azwar Rahmat ◽  
Abdul Wahab Syakhrani ◽  
Erwinsyah Satria

This paper discusses online learning in the digital era by reviewing various international publications. This study is interesting given the growth of schools offering online education. This trend continues to develop, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, which caused all social activities to stop. For that reason, we are interested in discussing online learning strategies, enriching the learning experience. Our analytical process involves coding, evaluation, and in-depth interpretation to obtain valid and reliable findings. We conducted data searches with the help of electronic searches on the Google Scholar app, ERIC publications, and Academic Microsoft between 2015 and publication in 2021. As a result, online educational activities have won a place in the hearts of students and teachers, which occur automatically through website technology. More specifically, this is called "e-learning." This is a promising distance learning that has become a trend for students and scientists and has become a way for people to get information about their needs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 8053
Author(s):  
Maram Meccawy ◽  
Zilal Meccawy ◽  
Aisha Alsobhi

(1) This study demonstrates how a Saudi university has responded to the COVID-19 lockdown in order to examine the success factors and highlight any challenges. The main purpose was to determine the perceptions of students and faculty towards emergency online distance learning from a teaching and learning perspective; (2) A cross-faculty study was conducted: two different self-administered questionnaires were developed for students and faculty, respectively. In addition, data was collected from official reports; (3) The results show that students had a more positive perception of e-Learning despite the difficulties that they may have faced, while faculty results leaned slightly towards a negative perception. However, there was not a definite positive or negative perception, depending on the aspect of teaching that was being evaluated. The study also indicated that faculty and students’ gender had no significant effect on their perceptions. Overall results showed that the university performed well in accordance with three of the five pillars of online learning quality framework in terms of student satisfaction, access and scalability. On the other, improvements are needed to achieve better results for faculty satisfaction and learning effectiveness; (4) The findings present a number of suggestions for increasing satisfaction to improve the online learning experience post COVID-19.


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