Pedagogical Mediator as the Strategic Competence at University Professors Building in Constructionist Online Environment

Author(s):  
Flávia Amaral Rezende

The rapid dissemination and integration of the World Wide Web (also known as Internet), and its related technologies, has resulted in major growth of the educational field through the Internet in such areas as e-learning and e-training. In August 2002, the Ministry of Education established the rules for distance education courses at the university level (Portaria nº 2.253) allowing up 20% of the total course hours to be administered through distance education. At the same time, the Comitê de Educação a Distância from the Distance Education Secretary – SEED/MEC published the Distance Education Quality Indicators, which presents pedagogical guidelines that are clearly constructionist, consistent with those adopted by the Brazilian informatics in education program developed during the 1980’s and 90’s. However an important question remains: how to prepare university professors to be able to function in highly interactive constructionist learning environments? How to develop competencies as planning, designing and implementing such constructionist courses? This research has simultaneously investigated two aspects: developing, implementing and evaluating the characteristics of a constructionist environment and, at the same time,the use of this environment as part of an introductory on-line course to prepare a group of professors from Universidade Cidade de São Paulo (Brazil) to be able to function as mediators in the constructionist online learning environment. The findings indicate that it is possible to create a constructionist learning environment and to prepare university professors through online courses based upon Inverted Symmetry concepts and upon the in-service course based on the estar-junto-virtual (“virtual being together”) approach, to build what we called In-vIsIble reflectIve network, thus allowing the professors to assume news roles not only in the online environment but in the face-to-face education situation as well. This course is the first step for continuous long life learning to be a “ciber teacher”.

Author(s):  
Zeynep Onay

In a global knowledge-based economy, with an ever-growing demand for learning, the Internet is seen as a vehicle for promoting effectiveness in teaching and reaching wider audiences. The number of online courses and programs offered by traditional higher education institutions, as well as new players in the education industry, has been increasing at an exponential rate. Yet the implementation of distance education through the Internet involves much more than a change of medium from face-to-face classroom interaction to an environment free of time and place constraints. Institutions are faced with the challenge of redefining their strategies to incorporate the e-learning paradigm. This chapter provides an overview of the different models that have emerged, and addresses the key issues that need to be resolved for integrating Internet-based learning in traditional universities. The breadth of strategic, administrative, academic and technological concerns encountered through the evolution of an Internet-based education system, from its inception to implementation, are discussed and illustrated by the e-learning initiative of Middle East Technical University in Turkey.


Author(s):  
Rana Tamim

The advent of technology has changed the landscape in post-secondary academic institutions and technology-enhanced university courses are becoming the norm. While Distance Education was previously restricted to traditional correspondence having limited options for student interaction with the instructor and no interaction with other learners, technology’s progression changed the context drastically. One of the emerging delivery modes is blended learning which combines the advantages of technology enhanced face-to-face instruction and electronic supported learning. The chapter offers a general overview of the influence of technological development on the post-secondary Distance Education sector and presents the advantages of the blended learning approach. Insights are offered from a UAE e-learning University case study while discussing implications for university professors and faculty members pertinent to instructional design and course delivery.


Author(s):  
Murray Turoff ◽  
Richard Discenza ◽  
Caroline Howard

Designed properly, distance education classes can be at least as effective and, in some ways, even more effective than face-to-face courses. The tools and technologies used for distance education courses facilitate learning opportunities not possible in the face-to-face classroom. Distance programs are accelerating changes that are challenging students, faculty, and the university, itself. Currently, most faculty are rewarded for the quality of instruction, as well as their external funding and their research. Often, university administrators focus more attention on the efficiency of teaching than on its effectiveness. In the future, as the quality of distance learning increases, the primary factor for success will be the faculty’s commitment to excellence in teaching. Many institutions will be forced to reevaluate the quality of teaching as the institution becomes more visible to the public, to legislators who support higher education, and to prospective students.


Author(s):  
Наталья Александровна Глушко ◽  
Екатерина Алексеевна Карцева

Введение. Анализируется опыт внедрения дистанционных технологий на занятиях по английскому языку в вузе в условиях вынужденного перехода на удаленный формат работы. Цель – обобщение результатов анкетирования, направленного на выявление отношения студенческого и преподавательского сообществ к переводу образовательного процесса в электронный формат. Материал и методы. Материалом исследования послужили результаты анкетирования, проведенного в первые недели дистанционного обучения английскому языку и по окончании весеннего семестра 2019/20 учебного года. Для решения поставленных задач применялись следующие методы: анализ учебно-методической литературы по вопросам внедрения технологий в образовательный процесс по иностранному языку, анкетирование профессорско-преподавательского состава и студенческого контингента. Результаты и обсуждение. Впервые собраны и обобщены данные опроса об опыте использования электронной среды взамен аудиторной работы при проведении занятий по английскому языку в вузе. Рассматриваются достоинства и недостатки дистанционного обучения иностранным языкам в вузе; выявляется степень удовлетворенности участников образовательного процесса качеством преподавания иностранного языка в новом формате; описываются аспекты и особенности обучения английскому языку в онлайн-среде. Установлено, что основные сложности, с которыми столкнулись преподаватели и студенты на онлайн-занятиях, сопряжены с отсутствием живого общения, при котором задействованы как вербальные, так и невербальные каналы получения информации. В качестве несомненного преимущества удаленного способа работы перед аудиторным выступает организационно-бытовой аспект проведения занятий, что проявляется, прежде всего, в экономии временных затрат. Заключение. Проведение занятий по английскому языку в удаленном формате видится как высококачественная альтернатива традиционным занятиям в тех случаях, когда невозможна организация очной формы обучения в силу различных обстоятельств (пандемия, погодные условия и т. д.). Это обусловлено практической направленностью дисциплины «иностранный язык», при которой особую значимость приобретает живое общение, коммуникация «лицом к лицу». Introduction. The article provides the survey of distance technologies implementation experience in response to forced transition to e-learning environment at the university classes of the English language. The objective of the work is to consolidate and summarize the findings of the questionnaire aimed at identifying students and teachers’ attitude towards the educational process transition to electronic format. Material and methods. Research statistics was taken from the questionnaire conducted in the first couple of weeks of online English classes and at the end of 2019–2020 academic year spring term. In order to solve the task the authors applied the following methods: the analysis of methodological literature on technologies introduction into educational process at English language classes, questionnaire given to university students and teachers. Results and discussion. The paper combines and generalizes the replies to the questionnaire about the very first experience of using e-learning environment fully instead of in-class activities for the English language classes at the university. Advantages and drawbacks of a distance education are mentioned as well as the level of educational process participants’ satisfaction with the language teaching quality within a new format. There are also some special aspects of teaching English online shown. It was defined that during these classes students and teachers had faced the major challenge – the lack of a real-life communication with verbal and nonverbal channels of information exchange. One of the undeniable benefits of a distance education when compared to classroom sessions is organizational aspect, especially time saving. Conclusion. Remote format of the English language classes is considered as a high quality alternative to in-class learning in situations when classroom settings are impossible to be organized due to different circumstances (pandemics, weather conditions, etc.). Practical focus of a “Foreign language” as a subject determines the significance of a real-life face-to-face communication during the classes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-97
Author(s):  
Eleanor M. Lemmer

Effective postgraduate supervision is a critical indicator of individual scholarship and institutional reputation. This paper uses autoethnography to scrutinize critical moments in the author’s enactment of the supervisory role over a lengthy career at a distance education university, where supervision takes place through face-to-face consultation, distance education, or a combination of both modes. Autoethnography, an innovative addition to the compendium of qualitative research methods, is gaining prominence as a means of examining the academic life through the personal and professional histories of individual academics. The author’s aim is to focus both inward on the vulnerable self as expressed in the role of academic supervisor and outward on the social and cultural aspects of this role as it is shaped within the context of the university. This has been done by constructing a text with a high degree of self-reflexivity, which combines evocative and literary elements with some explicit theorizing around generativity theory. Generativity is defined as an adult’s concern for and commitment to promoting the well-being of the next generation, in this case, the intellectual well-being of future cohorts of scholars. Against the framework of generativity, a series of autobiographical vignettes illustrate self-defining moments in the author’s development as supervisor. The role of memory and memory supports in producing an accurate story and measures taken to interact with the characters in the stories to enhance textual credibility are addressed. The vignettes illustrate the desire to conduct supervision as a generative act; cultural demand for generativity; the transmission of a personal aesthetic in supervision; the separation-individuation of the student; the redemption of generative commitment in the face of threats to generativity; and the perpetuation of the generative cycle. I conclude that autoethnography as method presents a useful route to both self-understanding and social understanding of the academic life, with particular reference to the role of postgraduate supervisor.


2011 ◽  
pp. 3370-3384
Author(s):  
Murray Turoff ◽  
Richard Discenza ◽  
Carolin Howard

Designed properly, distance education classes can be at least as effective and, in some ways, even more effective than face-to-face courses. The tools and technologies used for distance education courses facilitate learning opportunities not possible in the face-to-face classroom. Distance programs are accelerating changes that are challenging students, faculty, and the university, itself. Currently, most faculty are rewarded for the quality of instruction, as well as their external funding and their research. Often, university administrators focus more attention on the efficiency of teaching than on its effectiveness. In the future, as the quality of distance learning increases, the primary factor for success will be the faculty’s commitment to excellence in teaching. Many institutions will be forced to reevaluate the quality of teaching as the institution becomes more visible to the public, to legislators who support higher education, and to prospective students.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-27
Author(s):  
Nikos Tzimopoulos ◽  
◽  
Provelengios Petros ◽  
Iosofidou Maria ◽  
◽  
...  

During the first period of the covid-19 pandemic, schools in Greece suspended the face-to-face operation for about three months, and teachers were called in an emergency to adjust the teaching methods remotely. The educational community was called to deal with this emergency with the primary goal to maintain students’ contact with the educational process. The urgent use of distance communication and teaching forms was a project with many difficulties for teachers, students, and parents. In all this transition process, the practice and learning communities that teachers themselves organized were crucial. The Greek eTwinning community immediately implemented three MOOC seminars (Mass Open Online Courses), which were designed to assist them in the use and pedagogical utilization of distance education tools. More than 30,000 teachers participated in these seminars. In this paper, we present the results of a survey conducted on a sample of 1080 Greek teachers, members of the eTwinning community, and we describe how they dealt with remotely teaching. The research refers to tools used, the distance communication content, and the difficulties encountered to implement the whole project.


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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. ii26-ii26
Author(s):  
Emma Toman ◽  
Claire Goddard ◽  
Frederick Berki ◽  
William Garratt ◽  
Teresa Scott ◽  
...  

Abstract INTRODUCTION Controversy exists as to whether telephone clinics are appropriate in neurosurgical-oncology. The COVID-19 pandemic forced neuro-oncology services worldwide to re-design and at the University Hospitals Birmingham UK, telephone clinics were quickly implemented in select patients to limit numbers of patients attending hospital. It was important to determine how these changes were perceived by patients. METHODS A 20-question patient satisfaction questionnaire was distributed to patients who attended neuro-oncology clinic in person (“face-to-face”), or via the telephone. Fisher’s exact test was used to determine significance, which was set at p< 0.05. RESULTS Eighty questionnaires were distributed between June 2020 and August 2020. Overall, 50% (n=40) of patients returned the questionnaire, 50% (n=23) of face-to-face and 50% (n=17) telephone patients. Of those who received telephone consultations, 88% (n=15) felt the consultation was convenient, 88% (n=15) were satisfied with their consultation and 18% (n=3) felt they would have preferred to have a face-to-face appointment. Of those who attended clinic in person, 96% (n=22) felt their consultation was convenient, 100% (n=23) were satisfied with their consultation and 13% (n=3) would have preferred a telephone consultation. Within the face-to-face clinic attendees, only 13% (n=3) were concerned regarding the COVID risk associated with attending hospital. There was no significant difference in patient convenience or satisfaction (p=0.565 and p=0.174 respectively) between face-to-face and telephone clinics. There was no significant difference in whether patients would’ve preferred the alternative method of consultation (p > 0.999). CONCLUSION Our study suggests that careful patient selection for neuro-oncology telephone clinic is not inferior to face-to-face clinic. Telephone clinic during COVID-19 pandemic proved to be convenient, safe and effective. This global health crisis has transformed telephone neuro-oncology consultations from an experimental innovation into established practice and should be continued beyond the pandemic in select cases.


2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 84-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allys Guerandel ◽  
Kevin Malone ◽  
Patrick Felle

AbstractObjectives: To introduce and evaluate a computer assisted learning programme in undergraduate psychiatry (CAL-PSYCH).Methods: An interactive e-learning environment was created within the University College Dublin portal to assist students in acquiring the necessary skills in undergraduate psychiatry. The pilot phase consisted of providing their lectures on-line on the interactive site. Data were gathered from the last group of students in 2001 (pre-CAL-PSYCH) and the first group of students using CAL-PSYCH in 2002. We included assessment of percentage of students accessing the site, attendance rates at face-to-face lectures and tutorials, and also a feedback questionnaire from students who accessed the site.Results: All responders had used CAL-PSYCH. Students gave higher ratings for quality and interactivity of lectures compared with the pre-CAL-PSYCH curriculum. Students also expressed enthusiasm about CAL-PSYCH and encouraged us to develop it further.Conclusions: Computer-assisted learning environments such as CAL-PSYCH provide the opportunity to bring modern e-learning techniques to medical education, and may provide a new model for life-long learning in medicine.


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