Instruction-Expanded Virtual Education Model

Author(s):  
Jessica A. Manzone ◽  
Julia Nyberg

The COVID-19 pandemic has propelled school districts into virtual instruction with little advanced planning or preparation. This chapter deconstructs the gaps in the virtual learning environment and provides pedagogical strategies for teachers to increase cognitive enrichment, engagement, and access. The shifts in pedagogy from in-person to virtual learning will be examined with concrete strategies to develop student-centered learning experiences in a virtual context. Emphasis will be placed on differentiation as a means to enrich and the art of questioning to engage students. Woven through enrichment and engagement, the student's cultural, familial, linguistic, and social capital are incorporated as assets, or cultural wealth, and used to facilitate equitable access. When combined, these three instructional strategies interrelate and reinforce rigorous cognitive instruction that is accessible for all students in the virtual classroom.

Author(s):  
Sharon Johnston

With the launch of six courses in January 1997, Florida Virtual School (FLVS) became a new resource for all students in Florida. FLVS teachers, developers of the online curriculum, experimented with innovative ways of encouraging students to be responsible learners. In the virtual classroom, teachers soon discovered that frequent communication with students and parents reaped tremendous rewards. In this chapter, the reader will see inside the teaching process at Florida Virtual School as the following essential characteristics of online teaching are highlighted: communication, teamwork, flexibility, student-centered learning, and love of students. Using technology as a tool to design and deliver curriculum and instruction, the virtual learning environment mirrors the technological world that students live in today and will work in tomorrow. Virtual education changes the way teachers teach and interact with each other, with students and with parents. Virtual educators are reshaping the routine learning modes of the traditional school day to a dynamic, interactive real-world learning environment that presents choices to parents and students and requires students to take ownership of the learning process.


This chapter expands the knowledge about virtual learning in smart higher education, and how these processes can be a tool for motivated and student-centered learning in a resource-enriched virtual learning environment with technology-embedded tools. Methodologically, selected articles are reviewed to expand the knowledge about virtual learning in smart higher education and with an example analysis of an open question (N=57) among teacher educators (N=105) about what kind of education they need for using a virtual learning environment with different tools. Theoretically, the analysis of the answers is based on the TPACK model and Gees five learning principles. The findings highlight that higher education and academic researchers have much to learn about teaching and learning in a virtual learning environment and in virtual reality that can enhance student-centered learning and reveal the pedagogical surplus value in their own teaching and learning context through the use of technology for an educational purpose.


Author(s):  
Jacqueline Mayumi Akazaki ◽  
Leticia Rocha Machado ◽  
Ketia Kellen Araújo da Silva ◽  
Patricia Alejandra Behar

Virtual courses are increasingly being offered in Brazil, making it imperative to develop technological resources and research to help in the teaching and learning processes in this modality. One approach is to analyze student's socio-affective profile in Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). The co-operative learning network (ROODA) VLE has two features called the Social Map (SM) and Affective Map (AM), which can both contribute to the visualization of data regarding social interaction indicators and students' moods in the environment. The SM presents the social relations formed through indicators, which are the absence; collaboration; the distance from the class; evasion; informal groups and popularity, enabling the identification of the participating subjects in the form of sociograms. The AM identifies students' moods graphically through indicators, which are excitement, discouragement, satisfaction, and dissatisfaction. Thus, this article aims to map the possible recurrent socio-affective scenarios in a VLE using Learning Analytics (LA). LA is defined as measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of data about students and their contexts to understand as well as optimize learning and the environments in which it occurs. It can also contribute to the understanding of student's learning profile, based on social and affective aspects, thus allowing the teacher to develop pedagogical strategies consistent with the needs of each subject. The importance of integrating the possible social and affective scenarios was verified using LA, making it possible to deepen the comprehension of the subjective and qualitative questions regarding the students' interactions in the VLE. In this study, the scenarios are understood as the intersection between the Affective Map and Social Map indicators identified in a VLE. It has both a qualitative and quantitative approach. The choice is qualitatively justified because the research object involves social and affective phenomena that were subjectively expressed in texts and social interactions manifested in the ROODA VLE. It is quantitatively justified by the need to measure the mapping of socio-affective indicators through social parameters and moods applying LA. The subjects were undergraduate students who participated in distance learning courses at a Brazilian public university that used the ROODA VLE in the second semester of 2019. Data were collected from social and affective maps to identify if there was a relationship between them. As a result, based on the existing indicators of social interactions and moods, the socio-affective indicators were created using LA in order to analyze the students’ behavior in relation to the forms of interaction and communication that occur in the ROODA VLE.


Education in today’s epidemic time is possible only through virtual learning platforms. COVID-19 has changed the mode of learning and shown the power of learning in virtual mode. In this paper a self-designed questionnaire on virtual learning was developed to analyse the impact of virtual learning on undergraduate and postgraduate university students. The self-developed questionnaire containing 25 items is tested for validity and reliability. 25 items are further segregated into 5 factors using exploratory factor analysis. These five factors are: Virtual Learning Environment; Virtual Learning and Health Related Issues; Virtual Learning and Interpersonal Issues; Virtual Learning and Technological Issues; Virtual Learning Deliverables. To have the comparative study of undergraduate and postgraduate students for the use of virtual learning platforms, one-way ANOVA is implemented. One-way ANOVA is implemented for each factor and it was found that virtual learning effectiveness increases when students move from Under graduation (UG) to Post Graduation (PG) in India.


Author(s):  
Sharon Stoerger

Much of the literature argues that educational initiatives that take place in three-dimensional virtual worlds such as Second Life (SL) enable students to construct their knowledge and take ownership for their learning. The notion of a more student-centered learning environment is not new; in fact, similar claims were made about text-based MUD environments and to some extent, educational chat spaces. This study is an attempt to more rigorously examine some of the claims made about the democratic nature of communication in virtual worlds such as SL and the potential for these electronic spaces beyond social exchanges. The findings support the notion that deep learning is possible in virtual worlds using synchronous text chat. However, evidence to suggest that the structure of the educational activities is student-centered is lacking. Contrary to the claims, instructional activities used in the SL courses under investigation relied heavily on a teacher-centered model.


2020 ◽  
pp. 32-43
Author(s):  
Despo Ktoridou ◽  
Elli Doukanari

With the ubiquity and rapidly expanding functionality of mobile technologies, educational institutions have the potential to improve and facilitate learning. More and more educators are employing communication, collaboration and sharing tools and resources to make learning more accessible, equitable, personalized and flexible for students everywhere. This study investigates the implementation of Cloud-Based Student-Centered Learning (CBSCL) environment with the use of mobile devices in an MIS course. For the purpose of the study, the data were elicited through students' focus groups and the lecturer's notes on CBSCL as a virtual learning environment. The data were examined based on content analysis. The results indicate that CBSCL can be a challenging collaborative learning experience and a motivating approach to teaching and learning; consequently, the students become responsible for their own learning and problem solving process.


2015 ◽  
Vol 103 ◽  
pp. 38-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Canlas ◽  
Amy Argenal ◽  
Monisha Bajaj

In this article, we discuss our approaches, pedagogies, and practices for a weekly human rights club that serves immigrant and refugee youth.  The research team is involved in a research collaboration with a public high school in a large urban area on the West Coast.  In this article, we discuss some of our curricular and pedagogical strategies and students’ responses to lesson plans and activities that aimed to build solidarity, resistance to dominant and assimilative narratives, and action towards social justice.  Our approach focuses on intersecting a transforamtive human rights perspective with the praxes of critical pedagogies and social justice.  This article discusses a radical approach to teaching Human Rights along three key themes: student-centered human rights pedagogy, cultural wealth and HRE, and students’ articulation of human rights language into action.  


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Judith C. Bruce ◽  
Evelyn B. Chilemba

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine the learning styles that nursing graduates employed during the course of their BSN programme.Methods: Within a sequential, explanatory mixed methods design a survey was administered to determine graduates’ learning styles. From a population of 384 graduates, a sample of 200 agreed to participate. Data were collected using the Grasha-Riechmann Learning Styles Scales. MS Excel was used to enter the learning styles scores; descriptive statistics were computed using the statistical package SPSS Version 16.0.Results: The most dominant and preferred learning styles are Competitive learning style (x̄ = 3.98; SD = 0.52) and Avoidant learning style (x̄ = 3.88; SD = 0.68). Both are teacher-centered learning styles that do not promote learner independence, confidence, critical thinking and active learning. The least preferred is the Independent Learning Style (x̄ = 2.84; SD = 0.80). Implications for student-centered learning are inferred from the results.Conclusions: Graduates’ preference for the Competitive and Avoidant learning styles reflects an alignment with a teacher-centered paradigm and lack of diversity in use of learning styles during their study. The preferred learning styles detract from student-centered learning and point to an approach to teaching that integrates Socratic and facilitative methods to promote diversity of learning styles. As the educational paradigm shifts towards student-centered learning there is mounting pressure on educators to have better understanding on students’ preferred learning styles and adopt variety of pedagogical strategies to optimize ways students learn.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-75
Author(s):  
Anton A. Romero ◽  
Edarlyn D. Angeles

Effective implementation of virtual learning has been a challenge encountered by many teachers. This paper investigates the experiences of twenty (20) grade seven students from a university exposed to virtual learning using the flipped classroom model in Mathematics. The informants were chosen from eight learning groups (LG) enrolled in online learning from 2020-2021. The study employed a case study design and used the Clarke and Braun thematic analysis (TA) approach to interpret the qualitative data. It used individual interviews, focused group discussions (FGD), and interviews with parents and teachers to collect relevant information. Google Meet was used to gather the data needed. This study aims to address the challenges encountered by the implementation of virtual classes during the pandemic. It also seeks to explore the pros and cons of putting the flipped classroom approach into practice in a virtual learning environment. The findings revealed that the flipped classroom approach could be an effective strategy in enhancing students’ positive attributes toward learning and socialization in an online learning environment. Also, the teacher could transform the teaching and learning process into a more student-centered classroom in which assessment could be carried out effectively. For future purposes, researchers could address the cons of this study by integrating anecdotal records and performance trackers into the new flipped classroom model developed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Faieza Chowdhury

The use of web-based tools for educational purposes is a rapidly growing trend in Bangladesh. Most of the academic institutions in Bangladesh have decided to develop academic portals where teachers can create online versions of their courses. This paper addresses students’ opinions on the use of virtual classroom from their own personal experiences and identifies features of virtual classroom that are vital to create an interactive student-centered learning environment. We try to understand whether the use of virtual classroom can bring improvement in students’ learning and performance in the class. The results from binary logistic regression indicate that most of the participants have positive opinions regarding the usage of virtual classroom for learning purposes. As the present Government of Bangladesh (GOB) has urged all higher education institutions (HEIs) to take effective measures in order to implement ‘Integrated University Information Management Platform’, the findings from this study will help educators and administrators to understand how to construct an interactive student-friendly academic portal that will fulfill all the needs of the customers and to assess whether the features of the existing portals that they are currently using need any further improvements.


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