Change Life to Online: Pedagogical Relationship in Pandemic Time

Suddenly, the distance education system, which had been created to reach audiences traditionally without access to on-site teaching offers, became the norm. Teachers and Schools had to face this important question from day to night: how to continue to educate, share knowledge, help students and motivate them in the construction of knowledge? The purpose of this communication is to reflect on the effects of the schools closure, due to pandemic, on the pedagogical practices of teachers, namely on the pedagogical relationship. 59 Portuguese teachers of basic and secondary education were questioned, in a casual sample, but diversified in terms of the subjects they teach.The data obtained allow to conclude that despite all the constraints, the pedagogical relationship was maintained and even came out reinforced from the confinement experience.

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.

How Doba Business School Adopted its Business Model due to Coronavirus Pandemic?

The coronavirus pandemic (pandemic) is posing difficult and unpredictable challenges for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). They have to adapt their business models (BMs), traditional working mechanisms and the way they transfer their knowledge to their students. The aim of this paper is to show how HEI of applied sciences overcame these challenges, and how they adapted its BM. The case study methodology was used. Based on the case of DOBA Business School Maribor, Slovenia, authors present how it reacted to the changed business and education circumstances. Discussion and concluding remarks stress out the lessons Doba Business School has learned from the pandemic so far and how these insights can help other HEIs to change their BMs in order to cope better in these challenging times.

Hybridism – Theoretical Learning Response to the Growing Diversity in Higher Education

The transition from a knowledge society to a network society leads to growing globalisation, networking and a sudden increase in networked knowledge. Higher education and further education, like vocational training, must react with hybrid forms of generalisation and specialisation, in which way complexity and diversity are rapidly increasing in the education systems. In addition, digitalisation and the consequences of the pandemic are pushing this development. Hybridisation can make a theoretical and practical contribution to finding an answer to the complexity of mastering these processes. The consistent further development of learning theory approaches in the context of modelling and applying hybrid systems and automata leads to hybridism and thus to the expansion of the spectrum of learning theories.

Digital Storytelling in Museum Education Context: How to Promote Critical Thinking Skills through Digital Tools within Secondary School Pupils

The present paper aims to analyse the use of Digital Storytelling (DST) methodology in museum education context for the development of Critical Thinking (CT) skills within secondary school pupils. Starting from a brief literature review about CT promotion and cultural heritage education, an overview of active learning methodologies used in museum education for CT development is introduced. Moreover, the paper presents the first data obtained from a quasi-experiment carried out at the Galleria Lapidaria in the Capitolini Museums in Rome, which is focused on the use of DST for the promotion of CT skills for secondary school pupils within an integrated formal and informal education path.

“I Feel Like a Guinea Pig”: Emotional Responses to the Online Pivot

This paper reports on the emotional experiences of first year students as they prepared to start their higher education online because of Covid-19 public health precautions. Emotion research holds important insights for the development of pedagogical and institutional strategies to support students adapt to the increased focus on online learning both now and into the future. Students’ responses to a survey embedded at the beginning of an online learning preparatory MOOC were analysed to identify (a) the anticipatory emotions they were experiencing towards online learning, and (b) what they perceived to be the sources of those emotions. Findings revealed that anxiety was the prevailing emotion, although positive emotions, such as excitement and hope, were also reported. A thematic analysis identified seven over-arching sources of those emotions as described by the students. This paper concludes by briefly discussing the implications for educators.

Online Communication and Assessment Practices during the Covid Pandemic: A Study of the Portuguese Higher Education Students’ Perceptions

This proposal is part of an ongoing research and presents the results on the perceptions and pedagogical practices experienced by students from various higher education degrees in Portuguese higher education institutions, during the period of social confinement determined by the Portuguese Government, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The main objective of the general research was to understand how Higher Education faculty and students experienced the digital transition to emergency education and the pedagogical practices adopted during the period. The research was based on a mixed methods approach and, in order to address the research objectives and describe the pedagogical practices implemented, specific instruments were developed for data collection. A questionnaire was developed, aimed at students, and interviews aimed at both students and faculty, focusing on technological and pedagogical dimensions, as well as the assessment of the experience. Data collection was carried out after the first lockdown, at the end of the first semester of 2020, and took place in eight higher education institutions. In this paper we will present a preliminary analysis of Questionnaire results related to two dimensions: online communication and assessment.

The Challenges of Open Data Movement for Education: What is the Say of Young Employees and Students in Croatia?

This paper aims to shed light on how students and young employees in Croatia assess their education for open data and what is their opinion on the compliance of the central Open Data Portal with the needs of young people as well as how they evaluate open data policy related to the young people in Croatia. This research highlights the lack of technical knowledge as a serious obstacle to the productive use of open data. As many as 56% of respondents from companies that have undergone digital transformation believe that they do not have enough knowledge to participate in open data projects, and the same scepticism is expressed by 59.6% of non-technical respondents and 45.7% of students. The data presented in this paper is part of a broader empirical research on the impact of digitalization on the transformation of the Croatian economy, carried out by the author in late 2018 on a sample of 51 young employees from 10 companies in the city of Zagreb and 70 students from 16 technical and non-technical Faculties of Zagreb University.

Safe from Harm: Development of Online Child Protection Training for Scouts New Zealand

Introduction: SCOUTS New Zealand place paramount importance on keeping young people safe from harm. New Zealand (NZ) has one of the highest rates of child abuse and child death by maltreatment in the developed world. SCOUTS NZ engage with 14,500 children and young people, supported by 4,500 adult volunteers in 340 locations across New Zealand. SCOUTS wanted to inform and educate all their members about the importance of child protection (CP), while managing the challenges of a geographically disparate population through online learning.Method: “Introduction to Child and Youth Protection” module was created collaboratively with SCOUTS NZ and online educators at Whitireia NZ. The aim was to provide an accessible, evidence based, self-paced online module illustrating the realities of child abuse and neglect in NZ, while enabling the participants to understand the role of SCOUTS NZ in child and youth protection. The module was developed using “Articulate Storyline”, peer reviewed by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) working in Youth Development and Social Work, and evaluated using the Kirkpatrick framework.Results: 1102 SCOUTS leaders and volunteers have completed the CP module and evaluation to date. Significant improvements in the learning outcomes “Understanding the realities of child abuse and neglect in NZ” (5.32 ± 1.35 vs. 6.26 ± 0.79, p 0.001), “Understanding the importance of child and youth protection in NZ” (5.99 ± 1.13 vs. 6.51 ± 0.71, p 0.001) and “Understanding the role of SCOUTS in child protection” (5.74 ± 1.22 vs. 6.46 ± 0.79, p 0.001) were found on completion of the module. Participants found the module engaging (95%), useful (97%), applicable (99%) and relevant to their role (99%).Conclusion: By using tailored, appropriate content, emotive topics can be addressed through online learning, as this successful collaboration has demonstrated.

University Teachers’ Digital Empowerment for Blended Teaching: An Online Training Design

Because of the impact of the pandemic in the different sectors of society, blended training solutions have acquired, in the field of education, an important relevance, speeding up a change that would normally require years to be developed.Teachers from all levels of education had to adapt and develop their practices using digital technologies without enough knowledge to do it properly. Considering this context, this paper will present the design of an online training that seeks to empower university teachers to take advantage of the potential of digital technologies to design and implement educational practices in blended settings while they acquire Digital Competences. This training will be applied with a challenge-based learning methodology and from a collaborative perspective. In addition, participants will develop the role of students and teachers at the same time in order to design blended educational practices that respond to the needs of their own students.The proposed training, that will be designed by teachers from the Open University of Catalonia with wide experience on training in Digital Competences and online teaching, will be implemented in 6 countries around Europe (Italy, Spain, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus and Finland), will be developed in the framework of the European project Empower Competences for Onlife Learning in HE (ECOLHE).