scholarly journals The transformative power of digital humanities in teaching family history online

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 99-115
Author(s):  
Kristyn E. Harman ◽  

This paper explores the transformative power of digital humanities in teaching family history online to large cohorts of Australian domestic students. It takes as a case study a unit developed specifically for students to learn about how to research their convict ancestors’ lives and how to situate their ancestors’ lived experiences within relevant wider contexts. Its focus is twofold. The convergence of rapidly expanding digital repositories and databases of family history-related information and increasingly sophisticated online teaching platforms and how this has facilitated a shift from face-to-face to fully online learning and teaching is examined. The ways in which this transformative change was engineered through the unit design, delivery, and evaluative processes are then canvassed. The case study demonstrates how, with thoughtful, well-structured, and innovative approaches to design and by adopting a bespoke delivery model for online delivery, students can readily learn to access and engage critically with extensive online resources and can be equipped with the digital tools to use these optimally and to their satisfaction.

Author(s):  
Brendan Paul Bentley ◽  
Benjamin A Kehrwald

For many educators, the adoption of learning technologies as part of a ‘technology-enhanced’ approach to learning and teaching implies change. Technology takes on a disruptive role. Therefore, it is important to understand the pedagogical commitments associated with current practices in order to better understand any change implied by the use of particular technology ‘enhancements’. This article reports on a case study of the change experienced by one tertiary educator in the shift from successful on campus to flexible online teaching in an undergraduate Numeracy course. The study addresses the question: How do teaching academics translate a robust, proven on-campus course into a successful, flexibly delivered technology-enhanced course? The case employs an autoethnographic approach to recording and analysing the educator’s experiences to highlight comparisons between on-campus (face-to-face) and online teaching practices. The findings support the conclusion that ‘good teaching is good teaching’, based on sound pedagogical principles, regardless of the mode of delivery, but that the enactment of those principles in face-to-face and online learning environments differs in significant ways.


Author(s):  
Ömer NAYCİ

This qualitative case study was carried out to identify the strengths and weaknesses of face to face and online teaching. The study group of the research study consisted of a total of 47 students attending a public university, 36 of whom are female and 11 of whom are male students. In the study, semi-structured interview form was used as the data collection tool. The data obtained within the scope of the research were analyzed by means of content analysis. When the findings were evaluated in general, it was seen that students mostly prefer face to face teaching. Besides it was also seen that both online and face to face teaching have strengths and weaknesses relative to each other. However, it has emerged that face to face teaching has more strengths than online learning. Although this view comes into prominence, online applications which are one of the important tools of accessing information in today's conditions, should also be used in the learning and teaching process. Especially in situations where face to face teaching is not available, online applications can be used as an important tool in order to establish the communication link between the learner and teacher and also to maintain learning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-243
Author(s):  
Ana-Maria CHISEGA-NEGRILĂ

Abstract: As the time in which online teaching and learning was still an element of novelty has long been gone, virtual learning environments have to be studied thoroughly so that they will provide students not only with the necessary knowledge, but also with the proper tools to meet their learning objectives. The advancement in information technology and the access to an almost inordinate number of learning and teaching tools should have already been fructified and, as a result, not only teachers, but also learners should have already picked up the fruit of knowledge grown in the vast virtual environment of the Internet. However, as education has recently moved almost entirely online, some questions have arisen. Are the Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) enough to offer ESL students both motivation and knowledge? Will foreign languages benefit from this growing trend or will traditional, face-to-face interaction, prove to have been more efficient? The present article will look into some of these questions and into the benefits of VLEs in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.


Author(s):  
A. Juan ◽  
J. Faulin ◽  
P. Fonseca ◽  
C. Steegmann ◽  
L. Pla ◽  
...  

This chapter presents a case study of online teaching in Statistics and Operations Research (OR) at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). UOC is a purely online university with headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, with students from many countries. As common to most math-related knowledge areas, teaching and learning Statistics and OR present difficult challenges in traditional higher education. These issues are exacerbated in online environments where face-to-face interactions between students and instructors as well as among students themselves are limited or non-existent. Despite these difficulties, as evidenced in the global growth of online course offerings, Web-based instruction offers comparative benefits to traditional face-to-face instruction. While there exists a plethora of literature covering experiences and best practices in traditional face-to-face instruction in mathematics, there is a lack of research describing long-term successful experiences in Statistics and OR online courses. Based on the authors’ experiences during the last decade, this chapter aims to share some insights on how to design and develop successful online courses in these knowledge areas.


Author(s):  
Håkan Eftring ◽  
Elinor Jeanette Olaussen ◽  
Helen Petrie ◽  
Merja Saarela ◽  
Tarja Ladonlahti ◽  
...  

The TINEL Project is running a series of camps for staff at higher education institution to support them in developing inclusive eLearning. The first camp was conducted face-to-face, but the coronavirus pandemic meant that the second camp was conducted online. This created a case study in inclusive eLearning in itself and allowed us to experience and reflect on the challenges and opportunities of inclusive online teaching and learning. This paper presents the structure and content of the two camps, our reflections on moving from a face-to-face to an online situation and our elaboration how the UDL principles apply to eLearning to create Universal Design for eLearning (UDeL). We found that because we already had a syllabus for the camp prepared, transferring it to an online camp did not present a great number of challenges. Some aspects of the online situation were actually advantageous (e.g. presenting all materials digitally and making them fully accessible) while others were difficult to overcome (e.g. engaging all participants in online activities and discussions). We provide a set of recommendations of how to implement the three principles of UDL in eLearning situations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1110
Author(s):  
Isabel Voigt ◽  
Christine Stadelmann ◽  
Sven G. Meuth ◽  
Richard H. W. Funk ◽  
Franziska Ramisch ◽  
...  

Since 2020, the master’s program “Multiple Sclerosis Management” has been running at Dresden International University, offering structured training to become a multiple sclerosis specialist. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many planned teaching formats had to be changed to online teaching. The subject of this paper was the investigation of a cloud-based digital hub and student evaluation of the program. Authors analyzed use cases of computer-supported collaborative learning and student evaluation of courses and modules using the Gioia method and descriptive statistics. The use of a cloud-based digital hub as a central data platform proved to be highly successful for learning and teaching, as well as for close interaction between lecturers and students. Students rated the courses very positively in terms of content, knowledge transfer and interaction. The implementation of the master’s program was successful despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The resulting extensive use of digital tools demonstrates the “new normal” of future learning, with even more emphasis on successful online formats that also increase interaction between lecturers and students in particular. At the same time, there will continue to be tailored face-to-face events to specifically increase learning success.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-27
Author(s):  
Abdulrahman Alzamil

In March 2020, schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were suspended. Online learning became a substitute for traditional face-to-face learning. This study addresses the implications of this shift for the attitudes of university-level English majored Saudi students taking a listening and speaking course. The study investigated the students’ attitudes towards: a) the importance of speaking in English; b) teachers use of emails to communicate their feedback on students’ English-speaking tasks; c) online teaching of English speaking; and d) online learning and teaching of the English language. The data collection tool was a 21-item questionnaire. The participants were 18 second-year male Saudi students who were studying English at a Saudi university. The findings showed that the participants: a) had positive attitudes towards the importance of speaking English; b) appreciated the benefits that online learning offers, but felt it could not replace face-to-face learning.


Author(s):  
Ka Long Roy Chan

COVID-19 has influenced teaching all across the globe. The massive use of online learning has created a problem with teachers because of the differences between face-to-face teaching and online teaching. In this chapter, a discussion on how traditional face-to-face teaching differs from online teaching will be shown. How education in Hong Kong is affected by COVID-19 is also summarized. Additionally, the result of a case study in a linguistics course in a university in Hong Kong will be shown to demonstrate the attitudes of students regarding online learning. The mixed-method case study, which consists of survey data of 100 students and semi-structured interviews of eight students, showed that students hold a general mixed feeling towards online learning because of its drawbacks, such as lack of interactions despite the convenience that online learning provides. This chapter ends with a list of suggestions for online teachers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6583
Author(s):  
Saida Affouneh ◽  
Zuheir N. Khlaif ◽  
Daniel Burgos ◽  
Soheil Salha

The purpose of the study is to explore students’ and faculty members’ responses to universities’ migration from face-to-face to online instruction as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. To this extent, a qualitative approach was used for data collection and involved a number of qualitative methods: an open-ended question survey, focus group discussion, social media data, and university reports. Additionally, a thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The findings of the study reveal that students and faculty members were overwhelmed and stressed at the beginning, but as they started to acclimate to it, faculty members were satisfied. However, students seemed to be dissatisfied with this new approach to learning. Furthermore, faculty members and students both mentioned different challenges they had faced. The study reports on the technological tools used to mitigate the emerging challenges of both students and faculty members. Evaluating and assessing students was a main challenge for faculty members as the study analyzes the assessment and evaluation tools that they use in their online teaching. Comparative studies from Palestine and other countries are suggested for future research.


Author(s):  
Hong-Thu Thi Nguyen

<p>In response to a public health emergency of COVID-19 pandemic, changing learning and teaching from face to face mode to online one is determined to be imperative. The fact that classrooms were temporarily prevented from continuing did not mean that learning and teaching were suspended. It was going on in a new approach supported by technology, which challenges students and teachers with various barriers. The paper explored the correlation between online learning barriers and motivations, whether the motivation-boosting strategies could help students overcome challenges in online learning duration and had any impact on students’ academic achievement or not. A quasi-experimental research was applied for 288 third-year students of law joining the second criminal law course at a university in Viet Nam. The experiment was conducted with the assistance of LMS, Microsoft Team, Skype and Zoom, along with Socrative, Kahoot and Social networks. The findings revealed that the extrinsic barriers had more impact on motivation than intrinsic ones; extrinsic barriers had high impact on the motivation and the learning results of students compared to the traditional learning method. The data also expressed that the motivation-boosting activities in the online learning process led positive changes in students’ learning motivation and academic achievement.<strong></strong></p>


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document