Type Justified

Author(s):  
Anna Szabados ◽  
Nishikant Sonwalkar

There is growing global need for quality online education with increased classroom engagement and student-focused teaching approaches. The present text-heavy approach dominating online education is wholly unsatisfactory as a learning experience.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sam Baddeley

This article, written at the start of April 2021, is a personal reflection on what has and hasn't worked in remote/online education. I have drawn on my own experience of teaching over the course of the past year, observations of classroom practice I have undertaken as a mentor and middle leader with responsibility for teaching and learning in my school, and conversations I have had with colleagues in my school and elsewhere; it is, therefore, highly anecdotal, and the reader is asked to bear in mind the fact that, like many others, my journey into online teaching was enforced by the closure of schools during the first nationwide lockdown in March 2020. My core aim during both lockdowns was to provide for my students the best experience possible until such a time as we could all return to the physical classroom. As it became clear towards the end of 2020 and the start of 2021 that we were going to need to return to remote education, I began to think more deeply about the strategies I was employing in my online teaching, how effective they were for my students, and what I might do to maximise their learning experience and outcomes.


Author(s):  
Susan Silverstone

<p class="Default" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The challenges for education in the 21<sup><span style="position: relative; top: -4pt; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt;">st </span></sup>century are fundamentally the same as they were in each of the past centuries &ndash; holding on to what is of value while discovering and developing what adds value to both teaching and learning. While the future is difficult to predict, the seeds of the future can be seen in the behaviors of the present. Obviously technology will play an even greater role in future education no matter how much and how quickly technology changes. Of greater importance than technology is the thinking needed for knowing how to use technology for advancing education for both students and instructors. Identifying the shifts in behavior that people are experiencing today provides clues on the practices that will be common tomorrow. Basic changes in education include the following: (1) moving from an instructor-centered paradigm focused on teaching to a learner-centered model focused on learning; (2) shifting from an emphasis on textbooks as a preferred source of knowledge to the use of technology as the primary tool for acquiring information and ideas; (3) advancing from knowledge to know-how exemplified in the differences expected from the cognitive, behaviorist and constructivist approaches to learning; and (4) sharing responsibility for learning through increased interaction and continuous communication between and among all individuals engaged in becoming educated persons. Technology, though it may be the key tool for facilitating these changes, has its limitations as well as its advantages, as any instructor knows when comparing face-to-face classroom lecturing with virtual asynchronous online discussions. Today&rsquo;s students are techno-savvy and may be considered the &ldquo;Wi-Fi Generation.&rdquo; In the School of Business at National University, the second largest not-for-profit university in California, a blended approach to learning has been adopted in the accelerated one-month format used for its online education program. This paper explores the effects of some new technological options which were recently provided to marketing students in order to make their online learning experience more exciting and meaningful. National University&rsquo;s online classes are offered on the eCollege platform. Students interact with each other asynchronously through discussion boards and synchronously in weekly chat sessions. Chat sessions had been offered in a text-based format, but the School of Business has invested in iLinc software which provides Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) capability. In iLinc, students can see and hear each other as well as the instructor in real time. The system allows application sharing, group web-browsing, the display of PowerPoint</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">&reg; </span><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">slideshows, voting, and independent group work. Using this technology, the instructor acts as both a discussion moderator and a live lecturer. The traditional text-based chats are no longer used due to the high student acceptance and delight with the iLinc system. Outside of the virtual classroom, the marketing students were tasked to analyze and comment on the content of selected television shows. National University&rsquo;s students are adult learners who grew up passively watching television from an early age. These assignments were designed to get them to think beyond the surface entertainment to the underlying marketing and business messages given in these shows. For example, a graduate advertising class was assigned to comment on the reality show, The Apprentice, while an undergraduate class critiqued the Super Bowl advertisements. In both classes the students were told to look at these programs critically and share their comments with the class. The use of these current mass media presentations, (which afforded live action cases that demonstrated the immediate consequences of managerial actions), was shown to be very powerful. </span><span style="font-size: 9.5pt;">Overall, the students appear to thoroughly enjoy this addition of topical and &ldquo;live&rdquo; learning tools to their online learning experience. While not tested empirically as yet, these new classroom tools seem to increase student comprehension and retention of the course material. </span></span></p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatih Saltan

The aim of this study was to investigate the learning experience of students studying pedagogic formation in blended design with regard to attendance, self confidence, and attitudes toward both Pedagogic Formation Program (PFP) and the teaching profession. In order to achieve this aim, a qualitative case study approach was carried out. The participants of this study consisted of 154 graduated Faculty of Arts and Sciences students who were enrolled in the first blended PFP in Turkey. A qualitative case study was conducted. Data were obtained through an open-ended questionnaire (n=154) and focus group interviews (n=8). The qualitative data were analyzed by using content analysis techniques. Overall, the results indicated that blended PFP was highly promising regarding professional development, self-confidence, accessibility and eliminating some disadvantages of distance education. Specifically, inherent problems of online education continued to take place in blended design but a balanced blended approach could minimize these weaknesses. Participants indicated that face-to-face sections were more applied, authentic and effective than the online part. On the other hand, most of the participants preferred to attend the online lessons regularly.  It was mainly because of availability concerns, travelling, and comfort of their home.


2022 ◽  
pp. 207-223
Author(s):  
Kimy Liu ◽  
Debra Bukko

Preservice teachers are developing their professional identity while honing their teaching skills. Without transformative learning experience, preservice teachers will teach students the ways they were taught. They can have exclusive and deficit mindsets about students with disabilities (SWDs), many of whom are also English learners. Exclusive and deficit mindsets can lead to two teaching approaches: One is to treat SWDs as inferior to their typical peers. The other is to insist on standardized instruction for the sake of equality. In this chapter, the authors, as the teacher preparation faculty, confronted this challenge by engineering a transformative learning experience to liberate preservice teachers from the deficit mindsets about teaching students with disabilities.


Author(s):  
Hongwei Yang ◽  
Jian Su ◽  
Kelly D. Bradley

With the rapid growth of online learning and the increased attention paid to student attrition in online programs, much research has been aimed at studying the effectiveness of online education to improve students’ online learning experience and student retention. Utilizing the online learning literature as a multi-faceted theoretical framework, the study developed and employed a new survey instrument. The Self-Directed Online Learning Scale (SDOLS) was used to examine graduate student perceptions of effectiveness of online learning environments as demonstrated by their ability to take charge of their own learning, and to identify key factors in instructional design for effective improvements. The study applied the Rasch rating scale model to evaluate and validate SDOLS through a psychometric lens to establish the reliability and validity of SDOLS. Results from Rasch analysis addressed two research questions. First, evidence was found to generally support the new instrument as being psychometrically sound but three problematic items were also identified as grounds for future improvement of SDOLS. Second, the study assessed the importance of various factors as measured by the SDOLS items in contributing to students’ ability to self-manage their own online learning. Finally, the new instrument is expected to contribute to the work of various stakeholders in online education and can serve to improve students’ online learning experience and effectiveness, increase online retention rates, and reduce online dropouts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 633
Author(s):  
Nastaran Peimani ◽  
Hesam Kamalipour

Students’ learning experiences and perceptions are markedly influenced by the use of digital technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. Exploring students’ perception of blended online learning, amid the adaptations of the higher education sector in the wake of uncertainty, has become more critical than ever. This paper reflects on the experience of learning and teaching the Research Methods and Techniques subject in the postgraduate programme of MA Urban Design at Cardiff University during COVID-19 in the UK. To do so, we designed and carried out an online survey to explore students’ perception of online teaching and learning activities, feedback and assessment, and digital platforms based on their experience during the subject delivery period in the 2020–2021 academic year. One of the significant findings of this paper was that students agreed with the impact of eye contact on their virtual learning experience but as long as this was aligned with their rights to see others, including their peers and instructors, rather than reciprocal rights to be seen. In addition, students felt that facilitating synchronous communication through effective interaction among diverse peers has been quite challenging in small-group online reading seminars. The majority of respondents also reported that attending live online lectures was more helpful than watching pre-recorded lectures. Online formative feedback and synchronous interim reviews also allowed students to reflect on their progress and develop their projects further before their summative assessment. The outcomes of this paper can effectively assist educators who consider delivering programmes, adopting a blended online learning environment design model, in the post COVID-19 era. The findings of this study can also provide guidance for further developments and improvements in using digital technology and blended online learning in urban design education and pedagogy.


Author(s):  
Marijana Prodanović ◽  
Valentina Gavranović

This paper focuses on students' perspectives on the quality of online teaching and learning environment, created, and organized as a response to the COVID-19 outbreak, which unexpectedly interrupted the traditional face-to-face education context and changed the delivery and mode of classes overnight. The aim of this research is to gather information pertaining to students' learning experience in an online education environment, and to gain a deeper insight into the nature of online delivery of classes as perceived by students who had not had any similar learning experience prior to this newly created educational context. The theoretical framework of the paper states the latest EU education policies passed as an immediate and urgent response to the pandemic and its aftermath. This pilot study relies on a qualitative research which includes the analysis of a corpus of questionnaires taken by a group of 52 undergraduate students majoring in English. The main part of the questionnaire is composed of open-ended questions, and the respondents were asked to write their own answers, thus providing a valuable resource for the analysis; the other part relies on one Likert-scale question measuring the overall attitude of the respondents to the online learning. The students' answers are analyzed and classified into several categories according to their common denominator. Not only do the results show the students' opinions related to the benefits and drawbacks of online delivery of classes, the comparison of online and traditional form of teaching and learning, types of courses which are more suitable to be delivered in one of these modes, and the students' suggestions how to improve the quality of online classes, but they also shed light on different aspects of online teaching and its complexities enhanced by social and psychological factors involved.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. p64
Author(s):  
Earnest N. Bracey, Ph.D., DPA

Unfortunately, there has been vehement debates throughout the United States about how we should educate our students—that is, whether we should use a hybrid mix of educational tools, to impart knowledge to all Americans. For example, will virtual learning be embraced by all educational institutions? Not surprisingly, online education is a frequent topic of conversation with teachers, professors, administrators, and other educators. Still, there is uncertainty about what some of our venerable education institutions should do. Suffice it to say, colleges and universities must underscore the importance of providing a first-class education for all its people. For example, African American students shouldn’t be denied educational opportunities. At stake: Minority students might be left behind. Indeed, education diversity will become a self-perpetuating problem if blacks and other students are left behind, particularly because of a lack of technology access. Furthermore, a long-overdue, educational reckoning with systemic racism in all systems and levels of education is in order. It is important to be on-point about these controversial matters.Meanwhile, education groups in the United States are struggling with ideas of incorporating distance education programs, Independent Study, and virtual learning in respective curriculums; but are such notions really about educating all our children? Needless to say, the increasing importance of online education has become the so-called new thing. But the jury is still out on whether such education technology can be effectively put in place for all students. In this regard, some colleges and universities haven’t entirely lived up to certain educational principles. No doubt, the internal struggles for providing a good learning experience for students is on-going at colleges and universities, especially when it comes to admission standards. In the final analysis, students must shrewdly learn how to navigate the various education systems, and find strength in their abilities to learn traditionally or online, without resignation.


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