Online Education in the Post COVID-19 Era: Students’ Perception and Learning Experience

Students’ learning experiences and perceptions are markedly influenced by the use of digital technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. Exploring students’ perception of blended online learning, amid the adaptations of the higher education sector in the wake of uncertainty, has become more critical than ever. This paper reflects on the experience of learning and teaching the Research Methods and Techniques subject in the postgraduate programme of MA Urban Design at Cardiff University during COVID-19 in the UK. To do so, we designed and carried out an online survey to explore students’ perception of online teaching and learning activities, feedback and assessment, and digital platforms based on their experience during the subject delivery period in the 2020–2021 academic year. One of the significant findings of this paper was that students agreed with the impact of eye contact on their virtual learning experience but as long as this was aligned with their rights to see others, including their peers and instructors, rather than reciprocal rights to be seen. In addition, students felt that facilitating synchronous communication through effective interaction among diverse peers has been quite challenging in small-group online reading seminars. The majority of respondents also reported that attending live online lectures was more helpful than watching pre-recorded lectures. Online formative feedback and synchronous interim reviews also allowed students to reflect on their progress and develop their projects further before their summative assessment. The outcomes of this paper can effectively assist educators who consider delivering programmes, adopting a blended online learning environment design model, in the post COVID-19 era. The findings of this study can also provide guidance for further developments and improvements in using digital technology and blended online learning in urban design education and pedagogy.

BLENDED ONLINE LEARNING: COMBINING THE STRENGTHS OF SYNCHRONOUS AND ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE LEARNING IN EFL CONTEXT

The ubiquitous use of digital technology brings the inevitability of online learning and its varying degree of teacher-student interactions, both in synchronous and asynchronous online learning modes. This present study reviews the strength and weaknesses of the two online learning modes to propose the use of blended online learning as the combination that harvests the strengths of asynchronous and synchronous modes of online learning with the opportunity to cover each other's weaknesses. The recent study employed Aveyard's literature review model as a method for gaining a comprehensive understanding of a specific topic using data and arguments from previous studies. Thirty-six articles published in reputable international journals or accredited national journals published in 2015-2020 were used. This review revealed that blended online learning combines the strengths of synchronous and synchronous learning in terms of authentic learning activities, flexibility, access, interaction, development of critical thinking, comprehension, and mastery, and student-centered nature of the learning. However, it still retains challenges in terms of network and connection issues from both online learning modes. This finding implies that blended learning can be the middle-ground to facilitate online learning with benefits from both synchronous and asynchronous online modes by minimizing the students’ exposure to the weaknesses from the two modes.

A blended learning model supported by MOOC/SPOC, Zoom, and Canvas in a project-based academic writing course

Blended learning has played an important role in teaching English as a second or foreign language around the world. However, little research has been conducted on blended learning that is entirely online owing to the coronavirus pandemic. We aim at exploring the model of blending Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) and Small Private Online Courses (SPOC), Zoom conferencing, and the Canvas course management platform. The new approach of blended online learning incorporates the pre-class autonomous learning of knowledge in MOOC/SPOC, in-class internalization of knowledge through case studies and discussions on Zoom, and after-class application of knowledge to the completion of a research project. A questionnaire and interviews were conducted to explore learners’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the model. Learners have a positive attitude about the new approach of blended online learning, but still hope that the in-class activities can be implemented face-to-face offline. The model will contribute to teaching and learning with the blended approach against the current coronavirus pandemic.

Unbundling teaching and learning in a flipped thermal physics classroom in higher education powered by emerging innovative technology

The emergence of open online courses and flipped classrooms has brought new opportunities to unbundle the traditional university. This study aimed to investigate a thermal physics classroom integrated with an open online learning mode to afford various learning strategies for students in Taiwan. Moreover, we examined students' preferred learning modes by adopting a quasi-experimental design with questionnaires, pre-test and post-test scores, self-reported journals and interviews. A total of 89 students participated in the study. The instructor allowed all students enrolled in the class to choose their own preferred learning modes. All students had full access to all course materials in both open online course and traditional face-to-face learning contexts throughout the whole semester. We examined the learners' academic performance in each learning mode and surveyed their perceptions of the course. The findings of this study indicate that information technology can transform teaching and learning in a thermal physics classroom and challenge the instructor to tailor the course to meet students' diverse needs. Significantly, students adopted five learning modes, consisting of face-to-face, web facilitated, alternative blended, online learning and flipped learning. This study provides a valuable reference on how traditional on-campus higher education institutions could be unbundled to create student-centred learning approaches. Implications for practice or policy: Educators could design a flexible delivery model, allowing students to choose five learning modes, consisting of face-to-face, web facilitated, alternative blended, online learning and flipped learning in terms of their learning style and time management. For students with sufficient background knowledge, the flipped learning mode provides the best learning performance. This study could provide administrators, educators and instructors with insights and new approaches in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and improvements in their course policies.

Pharmacy Students’ Perceptions towards Online Learning

Aim: This study aimed to describe the perceptions of pharmacy students towards online learning in Saudi Arabia. Methodology: This study included an online survey that was self-administered to be filled by pharmacy students. Results were downloaded and stored in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and the results were analyzed descriptively and represented by numbers and percentages. Results: Most of the students said that they prefer viewing lectures by traditional in-class learning (66%). Only 40% said that they would be able to keep pace with the course by viewing lectures weekly for fully online courses that include lectures available only on blackboard. Additionally, 50% of the students prefer to attend pharmacy curriculum courses by both traditional delivered lecture style and blended online learning. Conclusion: Pharmacy students showed some interest in online learning methods within the pharmacy curriculum but the majority of them preferred traditional dedicated-instructor delivered lecture style. It is important to use both the traditional learning with online learning during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Shifting to blended online learning and its impact on student performance: A case study for students enrolled in economic courses prior to COVID-19 emergency remote instruction

This study explores whether student academic performance differs between the face-to-face and online hybrid sections in an undergraduate introductory macroeconomic course offered at a US community college. The data was collected from 414 students enrolled in various sections of the course during five semesters from spring 2016 to fall 2018. The findings show no statistical difference in student performance between face-to-face and online hybrid courses and contribute to the literature specific to the discipline of economics, which unlike other disciplines, has shown discord in findings. The usefulness of such results may extend to US higher education institutions to help them make data-informed decisions about their future investments in online teaching modalities and course design in the discipline of economics.