Gamification during Covid-19: Promoting active learning and motivation in higher education

Virtual teaching modalities urgently implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic require strategies to motivate students to participate actively in higher education. Our study found that gamification using a reward-based system is a strategy that can improve the educational experience under exceptional circumstances. This article reports the results of two gamified undergraduate courses (Calculus and Development of Transversal Competencies) designed with a reward system. The results derived from analyses of online surveys, the final grades, and their correlations revealed that gamification helped motivate students to participate actively and improved their academic performance, in a setting where the mode of instruction was remote, synchronous, and online. From the results we conclude that gamification favours the relationship between attention, participation, and performance, while promoting the humanisation of virtual environments created during academic confinement. Implications for practice or policy: Gamification using a reward-based system promoted active class participation and improved student performance after the transition from face-to-face to virtual instruction required as a result of the global pandemic. Systemic recognition in a reward-based system improved the participants' emotional states, reducing their anxiety and the feeling of isolation caused by the pandemic, and leading to student engagement with . Gamification works as an accompaniment for students to help the increasement of teacher-student and student-student interactions.

Differences in Academic Resiliency When the Pandemic Forced Courses Online: Was Prior Online Coursetaking Protective?

We report results from a dataset consisting of all courses taken by students at the City University of New York [CUNY] in fall 2019 and spring 2020. This time frame covers the semester prior to the wide-spread onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City (i.e., pre-pandemic), and the semester when the coronavirus precipitated a rapid and unprecedented forced shift of all courses within the university system to a fully-online mode of instruction early in the term (i.e., pandemic term). Findings indicate that students at two-year colleges, men, and certain racial/ethnic groups had less resilient course outcomes when comparing their rates of pre-pandemic vs. pandemic course outcomes. However, these differences were observed primarily among those students who had not originally chosen to enrol in any fully online courses that year. In contrast, students who had originally chosen to enrol in fully online courses that year were much more resilient, with differences by institution type, gender, and race/ethnicity by and large not exacerbated by the pandemic.

Action Research as Pre-Service Teacher Inquiry Physical Education

The newest Canadian Elementary Health and Physical Education (2019) provincial curricula promotes inquiry as a pedagogical mode. AR complements this inquiry mode of instruction with its grounding in experience and practice which infuses educational roles. AR as practice-based inquiry helps new educators identify and reveal resolutions; however, first a need to want to improve needs to be identified, before next steps are taken. AR has the potential to open doors of perception, trigger new insights, and cultivate teacher development within teacher training and beyond while in-service. Admittedly, teachers change, no matter how incrementally, which permeates professional development, as witnessed in over 100 years of action research drawn upon herein. Extant AR literature is grounded in the educational development of participants as they teach. Development in AR is not actually a problem needing investigation; instead it remains a possibility that needs recursive attention to ensure it exists within the training of educators globally. Herein AR is illustrated via narrative accounts that reflect experiences while teacher training in an Ontario Faculty of Education programme.

Students' readiness for e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in a South-East Asian university: a Rasch analysis

PurposeUniversities have shifted from face-to-face learning environments to e-learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the sudden change to online teaching has raised concerns among lecturers about students' readiness for e-learning. This study investigates students' readiness for e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and specifically assesses any significant differences between students' gender, age, ethnicity, level of education, field of study and their readiness for an e-learning environment.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a non-experimental quantitative research design. Data were gathered from a sample of 298 undergraduate and 101 postgraduate students. WINSTEPS Rasch model measurement software was used to determine the reliability and validity of the research instrument. Descriptive, inferential statistics and differential item functioning (DIF) test were used to assess students' readiness for an e-learning mode of instruction with the latter specifically analysing students' demographic factors and their readiness for an e-learning environment.FindingsFindings identified that most students are ready for an e-learning mode of instruction. Further analysis indicated that there were differences in students' readiness for e-learning based on their demographic profiles.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides insights on students' readiness towards e-learning, discusses implications for e-learning practices in higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic and offers recommendations for future research.Originality/valueThis study provides evidences of students' readiness for e-learning in respect to their gender, age, ethnicity, level of education and field of study. This information could help lecturers to reflect on their own teaching practices, adjust their teaching approaches and subsequently, develop appropriate e-learning methods that best suit the student diversity in their classrooms.

Going Online! Use and Effectiveness of Online Mode of Instruction in the Teaching of English Language

Contemporary time necessitated the use of advanced, scientific and digital technologies to take forward the teaching-learning process uninterrupted, making teaching online effective, cheap, convenient, and an alternative to traditional classes. It has been a drastic change that revolutionised English Language classes. Unprecedented levels of digitalisation in the field of education cropped up many logistical and pedagogical problems. This research paper attempts to look into these problems through a survey, analysing the different perspectives and approaches of individual teachers in developing and evaluating language skills, developing primers and ICT tools, and using them for effective, pleasurable online language teaching-learning, making classes student-centred. It also analysed the scope of making online and traditional classrooms supplementary and complementary to each other. Certainly, there is a need for better infrastructure, training, connectivity, integration of Augmented and Virtual Reality to provide experiential learning and to cope up with emerging challenges

The path to decoloniality: A proposal for educational system transformation

It was observed that in all circles of discussion, Africans talk about decolonisation and turning away from systems that favour the West in disfavour of Africans. Thinkers like Molefi K. Asante, Chukwunyere, and others have approached this matter of decolonisation at an angle of Afrocentrism. They intend to present African views from an undiluted African perspective. However, within that struggle, it is quite noticeable that the African basic education system has not done sufficient work to decolonise the presentation of African thoughts. There is a noticeable overrating of foreign languages like English and Afrikaans in terms of subjects or modules taught in South African schools and tertiary institutions. As it is, Sciences national papers are delivered to schools written in two languages, which are not aboriginal in Africa, i.e. English and Afrikaans, regardless of the province where they are delivered to. Within that backdrop, it becomes questionable whether African language practitioners are incapable of producing tools to Africanize the language of learning or the colonial languages refuse to forsake the African educational system. This conceptual study is set forth to explore decoloniality in the education sector and argue for the use of African languages as a mode of instruction in learning and promoting them to be at the same level of honour as those overvalued western languages. In this study, analytic critical theory is used to apply criticality and rationality, which guided the researchers to be more inclined towards reason than emotionality over this dire issue.

Simulation of Human Brain

AI is a branch of computer science that gives the ability to a computer to think and make decisions like humans. It stimulates the human brain in the computer and makes appropriate decisions when required. AI-enabled education impacts the designing of curriculum, mode of instruction, and many more. The use of these tools revolutionizing the education sector with the progression of ICT tools have now become AI-enabled. The main feature of an AI-enabled tool is personalization. These AI-enabled tools work like intelligent assistants for the students. The intelligent system having features like answer the queries of the students, give assistance, support learning, provide or take assignments, and provide reinforcement material according to their opted courses. A teacher has a minimum intervention with this process and has the role of a facilitator only. This chapter concludes that the AI-enabled teaching-learning process can't replace the classroom teaching; instead, it is handy. In the future, AI could replace the need of a teacher in class to some extent.

COVID-19 and medical education: an opportunity to build back better

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in the Hubei province of China has rapidly transformed into a global pandemic. In response to the first few reported cases of COVID-19, the government of Ghana implemented comprehensive social and public health interventions aimed at containing the disease, albeit its effect on medical education is less clear. Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 has brought changes that may impact the plan of career progression for both students and faculty. Hitherto, medical education had students getting into contact with patients and faculty in a facility setting. Their physical presence in both in-and outpatients’ settings has been a tradition of early clinical immersion experiences and the clerkship curriculum. Rotating between departments makes the students potential vectors and victims for COVID-19. COVID-19 has the potential to affect students throughout the educational process. The pandemic has led to a complete paradigm shift in the mode of instruction in a clinical care setting. Inperson training has either been reduced or cancelled in favour of virtual forms of pedagogy. The clinics have also seen a reduction in a variety of surgical and medical cases. This situation may result in potential gaps in their training.Outpatient clinics have transitioned mainly to telemedicine, thus minimizing students’ exposure to clinic encounters. Faced with this pandemic, medical educators are finding ways to best ensure rigorous training that will produce competent physicians. This article discusses the status of medical education and the effect of COVID-19 and explores potential future effects in a resource-limited country.

Online biology degree program broadens access for women, first-generation to college, and low-income students, but grade disparities remain

Online education has grown rapidly in recent years with many universities now offering fully online degree programs even in STEM disciplines. These programs have the potential to broaden access to STEM degrees for people with social identities currently underrepresented in STEM. Here, we ask to what extent is that potential realized in terms of student enrollment and grades for a fully online degree program. Our analysis of data from more than 10,000 course-enrollments compares student demographics and course grades in a fully online biology degree program to demographics and grades in an equivalent in-person biology degree program at the same university. We find that women, first-generation to college students and students eligible for federal Pell grants constitute a larger proportion of students in the online program compared to the in-person mode. However, the online mode of instruction is associated with lower course grades relative to the in-person mode. Moreover, African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American, and Pacific Islander students as well as federal Pell grant eligible students earned lower grades than white students and non-Pell grant eligible students, respectively, but the grade disparities were similar among both in-person and online student groups. Finally, we find that grade disparities between men and women are larger online compared to in-person, but that for first-generation to college women, the online mode of instruction is associated with little to no grade gap compared to continuing generation women. Our findings indicate that although this online degree program broadens access for some student populations, inequities in the experience remain and need to be addressed in order for online education to achieve its inclusive mission.