Is Digital Age “A Tsunami” for Distance Education?

Author(s):  
Ugur Demiray

A popular question between academics is quite discussing about “is digital age really a “TSUNAMI” for distance education field and distance educators? Up to now distance education by usage of high and digital technology has been taken in every level of education and learning environments, it creates almost limitless platform of opportunities better than face to face learning at any level of learning environment specially a digital one. Mostly, the result of the discussion on digital age is regarded a kind of “Tsunami” that changed the phase of education, especially distance education and effected learning environment in the 21st century. This paper looks into the impact and the types of evidence that are generated across initiatives, organizations and individuals in order to make a summative analysis and it has recommendations from point of functional roles of scaffolding and meta-communication perspective within digital learning environment aspect.

Author(s):  
Nidhish Francis ◽  
Abishek B. Santhakumar

Digital learning has gained a lot of attention over the recent years and is increasingly being utilised as a substitute for both distance education and face-to face learning activities. This chapter initially defines and briefly discusses the advantages and disadvantages of digital learning. With the advancement in technology, there are various digital tools that are now available to enhance the effectiveness of digital learning experience, and some of the major innovative digital tools are detailed in the chapter.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Powell ◽  
Nicholas McGuigan

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present critical educator reflections on the pivot from the traditional physical accounting classroom to the virtual learning environment amidst COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Design/methodology/approach This paper outlines the reflexive experiences of two accounting educators on their scholarly journey into virtual learning and their inhabiting of the virtual accounting classroom. We adopt a critical stance in exploring what has been lost and insights gained. Findings We heed caution in the ongoing reliance on digital technologies and virtual learning that strip accounting education of its richness and complexity. Although the virtual learning environment brings with it benefits of accessibility and flexibility, it fails to replace the complexity of human connection, authenticity and informal spontaneity found in face-to-face learning. We further contend that COVID-19 presents an opportunity to rethink accounting education. We encourage educators to embrace this opportunity as a force for educational transformation; to reimagine an accounting education that embraces change, ambiguity and humanistic qualities such as empathy, compassion and humility. Originality/value Our critical educator reflections explore the impact of COVID-19 on the humanistic qualities at the heart of education and on the future of accounting education. This paper contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning during global pandemics and other crises.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 338
Author(s):  
Umar Bin Qushem ◽  
Athanasios Christopoulos ◽  
Solomon Sunday Oyelere ◽  
Hiroaki Ogata ◽  
Mikko-Jussi Laakso

Personalized or precision education (PE) considers the integration of multimodal technologies to tailor individuals’ learning experiences based on their preferences and needs. To identify the impact that emerging multimodal technologies have on personalized education, we reviewed recent implementations and applications of systems (e.g., MOOCs, serious games, artificial intelligence, learning management systems, mobile applications, augmented/virtual reality, classroom technologies) that integrate such features. Our findings revealed that PE techniques could leverage the instructional potential of educational platforms and tools by facilitating students’ knowledge acquisition and skill development. The added value of PE is also extended beyond the online digital learning context, as positive outcomes were also identified in blended/face-to-face learning scenarios, with multiple connections being discussed between the impact of PE on student efficacy, achievement, and well-being. In line with the recommendations and suggestions that supporters of PE make, we provide implications for research and practice as well as ground for policy formulation and reformation on how multimodal technologies can be integrated into the educational context.


Author(s):  
Teresa Freire ◽  
Carolina Rodríguez

Pandemic-forced remote teaching has highlighted the relevance of redesigning planification in order to transform face-to-face into online courses in higher education. Indeed, the type of e-learning activities, e-assessment and development of student-centred active learning tasks remains a challenge. In this work we investigated the academic performance of an online learning environment in a course with high number of enrolled students carried out in the pandemic context in 2020 and compared it to the 2019 face-to-face version of the course. The e-learning version of the course included some changes regarding the face-to-face to allow active student learning, digital learning environment, knowledge enforcement, and further exploitation of the available activities in the Moodle platform as for the face-to-face course, although the syllabus remained unchanged. This study finds both synchronous and asynchronous problem-solving based e-learning together with self-assessment and team-based continuous and individual questionnaire assessments to be valuable instructional methods that allowed higher student academic performance in comparison to the face-to-face academic student results. Furthermore, the academic performance was directly related to the student participation in both team-based and individual activities during the course, demonstrating that the adaptation of the face-to-face course to the e-learning environment was, at least, as efficient as the traditional course, despite student resistance to e-learning and e-assessment.


Author(s):  
Otto Peters

<P class=abstract>This paper deals with the general problem whether and, if so, how far the impact of the digitised learning environment on our traditional distance education will change the way in which teachers teach and learners learn. Are the dramatic innovations a menace to established ways of learning and teaching or are they the panacea to overcome some of the difficulties of our system of higher learning and to solve some of our educational problems caused by the big and far-reaching educational paradigm shift? This paper will not deal with technical or technological achievements in the field of information and communication which are, of course, revolutionary and to be acknowledged and admired. Rather, the digital learning environment will be analysed from a pedagogical point of view in order to find out what exactly are the didactic possibilities and opportunities and what are its foreseeable disadvantages. </P>


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