Students’ perception on online learning during COVID pandemic in a tertiary care teaching hospital

Medical and Dental students are exposed to online classes for the first time during the COVID pandemic. The current study was planned to understand their perceptions about these online classes in contrast to classroom teaching and suggest strategies to improve them.A cross-sectional study was carried out among all the students of Malla Reddy Medical College for Women and Malla Reddy Dental College for Women during September 2020. The study questionnaire containing 20 questions was prepared, prevalidated and distributed to all the study participants as google form. Data from completed questionnaires was entered into an excel sheet and analyzed using descriptive statistics.Analysis of data from 279 students revealed that the 69% of the students used smartphones to attend online classes, 96% of them reported having internet problems and 42% of the students enjoyed the online classes. Understanding of the topic and knowledge gained during online classes were rated average and above average by 59% and 53% of the students respectively. Many students felt that long screen hours have made the classes less interesting and caused health issues like headaches, eyestrain, and backache. They also felt that online classes were less interactive and did not provide much clinical and practical knowledge.Students showed a negative response to online classes. There is a need to make online classes more interactive and interesting by using certain strategies like problem-solving activities, quizzes, discussions, surveys, and polls. Faculty should be trained in good online teaching practices to ensure its success.

Psychological Well-being of First-year Psychology Students Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

University life is always colorful, filled with a plethora of memorable moments, both academic and non-academic. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, however, first-year university students’ academic experiences might be slightly different from their expectations due to being fully conducted in online learning. The COVID-19 pandemic denied first year students the opportunity to join the face-to-face classes and become involved in university’s activities in the real setting. All activities were replaced with virtual setting and they could only contact their course mates and lecturers via social media platforms. This derailment of their expectation to experience real-life university settings may dampen their enthusiasm and impact their motivational and happiness levels. To explore the phenomenon, a study was conducted with 143 first-year psychology students to examine their self-reported motivational and happiness levels before and after seven-week of online classes. This study included 113 females (79%) and 30 males (21%) with a mean age of 20.68 (SD=1.88). Data collected revealed that students’ motivation and happiness levels declined significantly after their online classes. According to their extent of agreement with the single statement ‘Overall, I am happy with my university life’, 48 (33.60%) students agreed, 76 (53.10%) were neutral, and 19 (13.30%) indicated dissatisfaction. This study may assist the university and relevant authorities in understanding students’ perceptions of dealing with academic and life challenges through online classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, psychological strategies should be considered to enhance first-year students’ motivation and happiness levels when faced with online classes in their new first semester.

Online only: Future outlooks of post-pandemic education based on student experiences of the virtual university

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a widespread shift to online education around the world and in Hungary, too. Educational institutions from kindergartens to universities were forced to adapt rapidly to this new situation, when the space of education moved from classrooms to online video meetings; the regular methods and tools needed to be changed or modified. Nonetheless, we should keep in mind that online education itself was an already existing concept before the pandemic as part of digitalization as a current societal megatrend, however it was not widely used in educational institutions across different programs. By 2021, there are university students who have mostly or exclusively participated in higher education online. Online classes could be a new normal situation to these students instead of the pre-pandemic personal activities in physical classrooms, leading to altering the norms of participation. In our research, we collected answers to open-ended sentences from such students. As we wish to understand how students perceive the differences between online and offline education, we investigated the perceived advantages and disadvantages of online-only education, how this influenced their social networks, study efficiency and their whole experience in university education.

Webcams and Social Interaction During Online Classes: Identity Work, Presentation of Self, and Well-Being

The well-being of children and young people has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift to online education disrupted daily rhythms, transformed learning opportunities, and redefined social connections with peers and teachers. We here present a qualitative content analysis of responses to open-ended questions in a large-scale survey of teachers and students in Romania. We explore how their well-being has been impacted by online education through (1) overflow effects of the sudden move to online classes; (2) identity work at the individual and group levels; and (3) Students’ and teachers’ presentations of self in the online environment, with a focus on problematic aspects of webcam use. The results indicate that both students and teachers experienced ambivalence and diverse changes in well-being, generated by the flexibility, burdens, and disruptions of school-from-home. The identities associated with the roles of teacher and student have been challenged and opened for re-negotiation. Novel patterns have emerged in teachers’ and Students’ identity work. Failure or success at the presentation of self in online situations is relevant for the emotional valence of learning encounters, impacting well-being. Online classes have brought about new ways to control one’s presentation of self while also eliminating previous tactics and resources. The controversy regarding webcams has captured this duality: for some, the home remained a backstage that could not be safely exposed; for others, the home became a convenient front stage for school. Well-being was affected by the success of individual and collective performances, and by student-teacher asymmetries. Overall, our study of online learning indicates powerful yet variable influences on subjective well-being, which are related to overflow effects, identity work, and presentation of self.

Stress and Its Association With Involvement in Online Classes: A Cross-sectional Study Among Undergraduate Students of a Medical College, South India

BackgroundWith the implementation of lockdown and all students restricted to their houses, medical education has shifted towards the online mode. The objective of this study was to assess stress during the pandemic and the association between stress and involvement in online classes among students of a medical college in Mangalore, Karnataka, South India.MethodologyA cross-sectional study was conducted among 324 undergraduate students at a medical college in Mangalore, Karnataka, South India. The extent of stress was assessed using a perceived stress scale (PSS), and a questionnaire was used to identify different stressors and to understand the participant’s involvement in online classes. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.ResultsIn this study, the mean perceived stress score was 21.66 ± 4. Moderate stress was observed in 262 (85%) students. The main stressors noted were inability to focus (173 (56.4%)) and fear of exams (153 (49.8%)). A significant association was noted between stress and involvement in online classes.ConclusionThis study thereby highlights the need for more attention to the various stressors among students and for making online classes student friendly.

The Effects of Online Learning on Students’ Ethics and Moral Values

Covid-19 has changed many sectors of life, including education. Various countries have adapted to the online learning system as a response. However, online learning also came with price. Limitations for online meeting applications gave more freedom feeling to students. As a result, students did impolite and improper acts towards teachers and during online classes. In normal face to face class situations, students have more pressure on ethics therefore they think twice about doing improper acts, but the freedom of online learning altered that. The problem is, “What are the effects of online learning on students’ behavior?” So, authors aim to find the relationship between online learning and students’ behavior including ethics and morality. Thus, finding a possible solution as an effort to minimize the effect and possibly prevent unexpected things in the future. Authors used literature review and questionnaire to gather data and descriptive-qualitative research to analyze the data. Various data gathered and connected with each other, and proven that online learning gave more freedom for students and students themselves used it to do impolite and improper acts. The limitation of this research is that the number of respondents was 30, therefore it needs to be expanded on to a wider audience.

IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON HIGHER EDUCATION: THE CASE OF REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA

Pandemic was a serious test for higher education institutions, as key institutions of higher education, that showed the extent to which professors and students have adopted and used all the advantages of new technology in teaching. This is exactly what this research aims for; assessment and comparison of the performance of students who attended traditional classes before the pandemic, and online and combined during the pandemic. In addition to success, this research will show whether the way of teaching affects the presence and activity of students. Data were collected from traditional classes (March - July 2019), online classes (March - July 2020) and combined classes (March - July 2021). The main research question in this study is whether there was a difference in the success of students who attended classes in the traditional way, online or by combining these two models. To obtain the results, a t-test of independent samples was performed with the calculation of the mean and standard deviation. This relevant research shows which approaches and methods of teaching English for students gives the best results, given the specifics of its implementation and the need for interactivity during teaching.

Exploring Learning Avenues Amidst Pandemic and Future Prospects in Higher Education

Globally, teaching-learning has been in a severe transition due to COVID-19. Amid pandemic, education in universities had to shift from physical boundaries to online mode. The purpose of the study was to examine online learning mode particularly with respect to learner’s readiness, their involvement, fair assessment and satisfaction at university level. The objectives of the study were; to explore the perceived level of readiness of students for online learning, find out their involvement and participation in online mode while performing various educational tasks; to explore to what extent online assessment is fair, and finally to determine satisfaction of students of online learning experiences during COVID-19 era. The sample of the study was drawn from all social sciences departments. The questionnaire’s link was disseminated to 550 students and 293 respondents filled out the google form. Learners’ readiness was divided into three subfactors, namely, physical & environmental factors, learners’ personal skills and learners’ familiarity with necessary apps and websites. The inferences drawn from the study showed that although majority of students were equipped with devices yet they were not possessing good skills required for virtual learning. The online conditions and environment were not contributing positively in favour of learners’ readiness and also learners were not well aware of apps & websites required for online learning. Moreover, students remained passive during online classes and were found less interested in completion of the assigned tasks. The online assessment had been embedded with manifold flaws that further multiplied unfairness in education. Although, the study informs overall satisfaction of learners which found to be low for addressing the issues, it is recommended that educational institutions may continue to offer hybrid mode of learning even in post-pandemic era for continuously equipping both students and teachers with requisite skills, relevant apps and software necessary for making learning teaching process smooth in future. In addition, it is recommended that higher educational institutions and relevant authorities should design software to improve involvement of the students while keeping the assessments as fair as possible during online learning.

Reflections of Technology Narratives

This narrative explores the changing role of technology during the pandemic while simultaneously offering strategies for managing stress caused by the overuse of technology. Technology brings people together who cannot see each other in person, such as families who live in different locations and students who attend online classes. Technology serves the dual role of keeping people connected, especially during events such as a pandemic, and making people feel disconnected due to distraction caused by devices.

Impact of COVID-19 on Adolescent Online Learning in Bangladesh

In this pandemic circumstance, the Bangladesh government started distance learning using broadcasting and online classes. This is a comparative study exploring the impact of online classes on adolescent learning during COVID-19 lockdown in Bangladesh. The study conducts a telephonic interview with 10 headteachers of urban and rural government schools through a semi-structured questionnaire. The study uses descriptive and documentary methods for analysis. The study finds the limitations and challenges facing by the teachers and the students to attend online classes. However, online examinations and assignments are more impactful than online classes to engage students and practice lessons but not enough to compensate for the learning gaps. Even parents are not satisfied with these. Many parents admitted their children to madrasah, and many parents want to continue their children's education after reopening the schools.