Online Teaching Experience Research Articles

Towards a Digital Resource Mobilisation Approach for Digital Inclusion During COVID-19 and Beyond: A Case of a Township School in South Africa

COVID-19 is affecting the functioning of most countries globally, creating a situation now described as the "new normal"-a time of unexpected educational change. The national lockdown, accompanied by the closure of educational institutions, brought economic hardship and deepened the digital divide between the rich and the poor. Educational institutions capable of transitioning to an online mode of delivery made that shift, while the majority of South Africa's schools remained excluded due to poverty and lack of technological infrastructure. The educational sector is at wits' end to find strategies to curtail the growing digital divide. This paper offers a digital resource mobilisation approach as framework to keep schools on the path to achieving the National Development Plan's aim of ICT capacitation. To consider developmental possibilities and respond to the digital exclusion of township schools, we asked the question: "What are the online teaching and learning experiences of school stakeholders?" Responses to this question assisted development of a digital resource mobilisation theory that is offered as a viable approach to digital inclusion and social change. Data were collected by telephonic interviews with three teachers, three learners, three school governing body parents, and one school principal. Based on the findings, recommendations for digital inclusion are suggested.

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Training Faculty as an Institutional Response to COVID-19 Emergency Remote Teaching Supported by Data

In March 2020, colleges in the United States rapidly switched in-person courses online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To chronicle how biology faculty responded to this emergency remote teaching, we surveyed faculty across the United States in August of 2020. Our survey included open-ended questions to identify a memorable moment, difficulties encountered, and unexpected benefits during the first COVID-19 semester. Faculty responses were coded by two researchers, and 21 themes emerged. Seventeen coding themes corresponded to one of four facets of adult personal resilience theory, and we used nonparametric statistical tests to compare resilience between inexperienced and experienced online instructors, as well as trained and untrained instructors. Experienced online instructors were more likely to describe an act of kindness in their memory but were also more likely to include negative student behavior as a difficulty. Untrained faculty were the only instructors who included student engagement as a difficulty and were more likely to describe a negative, discouraging memory. We used conditional forest analysis to identify polarizing themes between faculty with and without previous experience teaching online and between faculty who did and did not receive formal training. Our results underline the importance of training faculty, including experienced instructors, to improve emergency preparedness.

An Investigation of Instructors' Online Teaching Readiness.

It was the purpose of the study to investigate the readiness of faculty members at two private universities in the United States to teach online when a pandemic caused a shift to emergency remote or online teaching. Results show that instructors were somewhat ready to accomplish tasks related to online teaching. Participating instructors reported they felt most competent with course communication and least competent with time management. Significant differences in responses were found based on online teaching experience prior to the pandemic and years of online teaching experience. Results show that instructors who had confidence in online teaching were more prepared for the task than those who were not confident. This study has implications for online instructors, support staff who provide professional development opportunities and training for instructors, and administrators who provide resources for faculty and staff to support quality online course and program offerings at their institutions.

Exploring students\u2019 learning experience in online education: analysis and improvement proposals based on the case of a Spanish open learning university

Not surprisingly, the number of online universities continues to expand—especially in Covid-19 times. These institutions all offer “online education” with diverse institutional, technological, and pedagogical processes. However, a fundamental element has to do with the experience of the students, and how they adapt to the educational model of the online university in which they are studying. In this article, we present the main results of the case-study developed in one of the most historical and relevant virtual universities in an international context. We have explored and analysed the process of adaptation to the educational model by the student body, and their perceptions of their interactions with the pedagogical, institutional, and technological elements designed to support their learning. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used to gather and analyse the data. From 1715 students who participated in the survey and the perceptions of 30 students individually interviewed, the results show positive evaluations regarding the integration and adoption of technological competencies, and also, that the online education generally serves as a responsive model to the emergent needs of the learner. However, the results also show that students have important concerns regarding the pedagogical and institutional support provided.

Role of Technology during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of EFL Online Teaching Placements

The Coronavirus 2019 pandemic has undeniably changed the educational scenario around the world. With schools and universities closing until further notice, initial teacher education had to be moved from a traditional setting to an entire online environment, making technology the fundamental support for its development. Considering that the current health emergency uncovered the scarcity of practice and empirical research about online teaching placement, this study aims to examine the use of technology as the pivotal tool that allowed EFL student teachers to continue learning to teach during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fourteen Chilean EFL student teachers undertaking their teaching experience remotely participated in this interpretative case-study. Data was collected through a semi-structured interview at two different points of their online teaching experience, and it was analysed using thematic analysis as a framework. The results show that adaptations to technological teaching strategies affected prospective teachers’ development of teaching skills. Nevertheless, this online placement prompted the interest and motivation to search and discover new technological tools to enhance school learners’ learning process, especially in a context where access to technology cannot be afforded by everyone. Student teachers also acknowledged that this once-in-a-lifetime experience would potentially contribute to their technology literacy and their future teacher development. As this health emergency has affected the education sector worldwide, implications for teacher education providers that have faced this transition in multiple contexts are discussed.

Transformation of Higher Education into New Normal

The purpose of this qualitative study was to get a better understanding of faculty members' views on the future of higher education by their first-time online teaching experiences during the Fall 2021 academic semester, which was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the outbreak's rapid and widespread dissemination, it created a unique phenomenon that had a significant impact on faculty members who had no prior experience teaching courses entirely online. In order to conduct this qualitative research, purposive sampling was used to choose ten faculty members from a variety of disciplines who had at least ten years of experience teaching in a traditional classroom setting at a public university in Izmir, Turkey. Faculty members were asked about the future of higher education in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from that, each faculty member was asked to discuss how the mandatory shift to online education altered their teaching style and how institutional help impacted their experiences throughout the pandemic. As a consequence of their observations and statements of their perspectives on events they witnessed and personally experienced, the key issue of "transformation of higher education with hybrid perspective" developed as a central theme. The data analysis revealed the following subthemes: "educators on the internet," "sustain and evolve," and "university support". These findings may be applied in a variety of contexts, including educational leadership and the design of hybrid and online courses, among other applications in higher education.

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTİONS OF ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING

The instructor in an online course needs online teaching experience and should adapt the course contents to the digital environment. The purpose of the present study is to gain a deeper understanding of students’ perceptions of the pedagogical aspects of online teaching, pointing up characteristics of online courses that extant literature in this field has found reflected in different online and blended courses. Online courses necessitate meticulous planning by the instructor and adaptation through the student's learning. The research reported here related to the attitudes of 216 students, who participated in 52 courses delivered by 36 different instructors. Some of the courses included both face-to-face meetings and online lessons, while other courses were solely presented online. The research findings may be informative for instructors planning online courses and for students contemplating participation in online courses, in order to prepare in an optimal manner for the teaching, learning and evaluation processes.

Perception of online teacher self-efficacy: A multi-state study of nursing faculty pivoting courses during COVID 19

BackgroundCOVID-19 forced many colleges and schools of nursing to abruptly pivot face-to-face learning to online formats. Online teaching is not new, but some faculty have not taught in a virtual environment and rapidly transitioning courses online was challenging. It is not known if teacher self-efficacy was impacted by these circumstances. ObjectivesWe aimed to assess online teacher self-efficacy of nursing faculty who transitioned at least one-face-to face course to an online format. We hypothesized that faculty with previous online teaching experience and greater self-rated instructional support would demonstrate higher online teacher self-efficacy scores compared to faculty who had little or no online teaching experience or reported less satisfaction with instructional support. DesignA cross-sectional, descriptive design was used. SettingFaculty from ten universities across the United States were recruited. ParticipantsNursing faculty (N = 84) who transitioned at least one face-to-face course to an online format during COVID-19 were included in the study. MethodsParticipants completed the 32-item Michigan Nurse Educators Sense of Efficacy for Online Teaching (MNESEOT) instrument and a demographic questionnaire which included items about prior online teaching experience and instructional support. ResultsParticipants scored overall teacher self-efficacy high (75th percentile). “Computer skills” were scored highest while “student engagement” scored lowest. Prior online teaching was a predictor of higher online teacher self-efficacy; however, instructional support was not a predictor of higher online teacher self-efficacy. ConclusionNursing faculty reported a high level of online teacher self-efficacy during an abrupt pivot from face-to-face teaching to a virtual format. Pre-emptive opportunities to teach online can build self-efficacy for novice faculty. Faculty and students will benefit from improving student engagement skills, especially during isolating and overwhelming events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The moderating effect of technology overload on the ability of online learning to meet students' basic psychological needs

PurposeMost students are considered digital natives and are presumably equipped to handle extensive technology use. However, online learning turns students into involuntary telecommuters when it is the primary modality. The prevailing trends of online learning, digital socialization, telehealth and other online services, combined with remote work has increased students' reliance on information and communications technologies (ICTs) for all purposes, which may be overwhelming. We examine how technology overload strains the ability of online learning to meet students' basic psychological needs (BPNs), which can decrease positive outcomes such as academic enjoyment and personal performance.Design/methodology/approachData was collected via an online survey of 542 university students and the proposed model was tested using partial least squares (PLS) regression.FindingsWe find that technology overload can diminish the positive relationship between online learning intensity and BPNs satisfaction, which is alarming because BPNs satisfaction is critical to students' positive experiences. Moreover, we find that technology overload and lack of technology experience can directly drive BPNs frustration, which decreases positive outcomes and increases academic anxiety.Originality/valueWe extend a theoretical framework for telecommuting to examine online learning. Additionally, we consider the role of technology overload and experience both as drivers and as moderators of students' BPNs satisfaction and frustration in online learning. Our results provide valuable insights that can inform efforts to rebalance the deployment of ICTs to facilitate online educational experiences.

Navigating Online Language Teaching in Uncertain Times: Challenges and Strategies of EFL Educators in Creating a Sustainable Technology-Mediated Language Learning Environment

With the spread of COVID-19 worldwide, teaching and learning have occurred remotely and on digital platforms. An abrupt transition to online education, however, has posited unprecedented challenges for educators, who have been forced to adjust to remote learning with little to no time to prepare. Focusing on the case of an English language program in South Korea, this case study examines the challenges and strategies that were emerging in the crisis-prompted online language learning and teaching context. In particular, this case study focuses on investigating what types of strategies English as-a foreign language (EFL) instructors with little prior experience teaching online used to create a sustainable and authentic technology-mediated language learning environment, and how they motivated language learners to actively participate in sustainable language development and use. Findings provide educators and administrators who have little to no experience teaching online with practical suggestions and ideas to consider. They can use these concepts to adapt their lesson plans to online platforms and design and deliver high-quality lessons that ensure students feel connected to their learning process and have sustainable language learning experiences.

Feelings on remote education in the era of coronavirus pandemic, a pilot study

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic required schools of nursing to change content delivery to a remote platform. For those who had little or no previous online educational experiences, this change created an array of feelings and emotions in both students and faculty. MethodsA mixed method exploratory study was used to explore the feelings and emotions of students and faculty associated with the rapid adjustment to changes in delivery of content and its impact on their emotional well-being. ResultsFeelings of frustration, stress, and anxiety at the pandemic in general, and toward remote learning in particular were found. The inability to see others in person was also a source of stress. DiscussionMajor themes such as increased workload and the displeasure with having didactic content delivery online were major themes. Students prefer mandatory synchronous didactic delivery and were concerned that online clinical experiences may not be as effective as in-person clinical experiences.

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Undergraduate Medical Teaching

Objectives: To evaluate the tools used during online education and examination of undergraduate medical students from students and medical instructors' experience and means to improve students' and instructors' online education experience in future. Materials and Methods: Two surveys were deployed online through social media (WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and Twitter) to medical students and instructors from all medical colleges in Saudi Arabia. The surveys include demographic data, tools used in the education process during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, tools used in students' examination, and both groups' opinions about these tools. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to analyze the items included in the survey. Responses were presented as frequencies and percentages. Results: Responses from medical colleges in Saudi Arabia were collected and analyzed with a response rate of 72.2%. Data from 518 students and medical instructors showed that online education transformation had a positive feedback from both students and instructors for theoretical sessions teaching with limitations in the practical and clinical sessions. Conclusion: Online education in medical schools is new in Saudi Arabia. This mandatory shift to online teaching made us aware of the importance of restructuring and implementing the medical curriculum to support virtual education, especially in practical and clinical sessions learning.

Exploring Effective Practices in Managing Distance Learning for Teaching Art and Design in Bahrain

As universities move to virtual learning, the need to explore the most effective practices for remotely teaching art and design students became very critical. It is very important to examine the strategies universities are using to efficiently transfer skills and knowledge and meet the needs of students through an online learning environment. Art and design classes involve hands-on activities and requirements that cannot easily be met in digital environments. Therefore, the study aims to investigate the creative approaches that art and design educators adopted to transition to remote teaching. The study involved conducting an online focus group with eleven art and design educators at The University of Bahrain to investigate the experiences, perceptions, and the challenges they faced while teaching art and design remotely during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The focus group engaged the educators in a semi-structured discussion in order to gather qualitative data that would allow for a descriptive analysis of their online teaching experiences and the most effective approaches they implemented. Thus, the study is undertaken to determine the most effective practices that can be employed by educators to engage students and enhance the distance learning process in an art and design online environment. The findings suggested that the main challenges that are peculiar to art and design distance learning include difficulty in clearly seeing the value of the colors in a student’s artwork on screen and the unavailability of features that support art and design remote teaching in the currently available learning management systems.

Teaching and Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic

During the pandemic, distance education became a necessity with ICT tools becoming essential for teaching and learning at all levels of education. The present work is a bibliographic review that sought the advantages and disadvantages of distance education during covid-19 pandemic and occurred because the mandatory application of this methodology. The transition to educational technology and distance education first showed some advantages and disadvantages while teachers need more experience in online teaching.

Online Teaching Experience during the COVID-19 in Pakistan: Pedagogy–Technology Balance and Student Engagement

This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of university teachers who participated in online teaching for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative method of data collection and inductive thematic analysis were used. The data were collected through a semistructured interview from 11 faculty members who teach in various universities in Pakistan. The analysis presented five themes of the online teaching experience: culture and gender-related issues, teaching effectiveness, challenges in online teaching, coping strategies, and faculty’s’ post-COVID-19 perceptions. The findings reflect that the faculty prioritized to focus on immediate online instructional matters in the wake of the pandemic with a lack of emphasis on global practices for online learning. Experienced and young faculty reported disparities in striking a balance between pedagogy and technology. Moreover, despite the limitations, the experience itself prepared the faculty for a blended learning approach and increased their awareness of global and future challenges. The implications were reported based on the findings.

Academic and emotional effects of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic on engineering students.

The unprecedented situation of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the closure of universities worldwide and has forced the transition to online learning. This exceptional context compels us to understand students' experience with online learning. Previous literature identifies relevant factors that intervene in the online education experience and can affect students' academic development. One of the main concerns is the students' mental health, given the lockdown restrictions under which classes have been conducted. Furthermore, the impact of the prolonged lockdown and the pandemic fatigue on university students and their academic experience is still unclear. This study delves into engineering undergraduate students’ online education experience during the COVID-19 pandemic and its emotional impact across time. With this aim, a questionnaire was distributed to second, third, and fourth-year engineering undergraduate students at two time points, approximately six months apart. The results show significant differences in students' connection with other students and teachers, workspace conditions, and boredom between time points. Besides, the findings indicate significant correlations between academic development and quality of online classes, adaptation of the course, workspace conditions, and connection with other students and teachers, and also between students' emotions and connection with other students and teachers. Finally, the study identifies best practices carried out during online teaching that will be of value for future courses and engineering education beyond the pandemic situation, amongst which those related to effective communication with teachers stand out.

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND THE ONLINIFICATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

Online education is of various types and can be defined in numerous ways. Over the last few decades, online education has gained popularity, but has also been regarded with reluctance and scepticism as to the benefits it may have. The COVID- 19 pandemic was declared on the 11th of March 2020 and forced many countries to impose lockdowns and restrictions. As such, several activities were shut down, schools and universities were closed, thus, the need for rapid solutions arose. Since the online environment was there for the taking, physical classrooms were virtualised overnight, homes became learning and teaching spaces for students and educators, whereas the latter were faced with adapting content and transferring it in order to suit its delivery via online platforms. With little to no experience in online education, educators sought to find ways to continue their work bringing emergency modifications. Although digital transformation is not a new phenomenon, the transit from physical classrooms to online ones has been and still is a rough learning curve for many educators. Apart from optimising digital technology to apply to education, another difficult task of any online teacher is to keep students motivated and involved, which can be achieved in different ways. This article discusses methods of content and course delivery, the technology-induced problems that online teaching implies, assessment, ethical behaviour in a virtual setting, and the risk of cheating in online examinations, as well as ways of preventing cheating. Nevertheless, the abrupt onlinification of education may lie at the basis of future exploration and research.

“DISTANCED” TIMES: INVESTIGATING PRE-SERVICE MUSIC TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES ON ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The technology use is flourishing in a growing set of educational contexts. Music education is no exception, seeing more and more learning practices be actively incorporated into educational frameworks. Our study seeks to investigate the online teaching and learning experiences of music university students who are participating in the pre-service teacher education during the Covid-19 pandemic. The participants of the present study are pre-service music students (n=22) enrolled in the teaching education programme in their 2nd or 3rd year at the university. By making use of a phenomenological qualitative inquiry, data was collected through participating at semi-structured interviews via ZOOM videotelephony software in January and February 2021. The key findings indicate a neither overtly positive or negative teaching and learning experience, even if the students had to navigate an avalanche of offline learning technology requirements both as students and teachers in a limited amount of time. The results of the study indicate that teacher training programmes should consider the move to virtual teaching and learning as an opportunity for change and to go beyond the emergency online practices and develop quality online educational activities.

Shifting Paradigm in the Higher Education Sector of Pakistan during COVID-19: An Empirical Analysis of the Online Teaching Experience

The world is undergoing a dramatic COVID-19 induced transformation in almost every sector of the economy including education. The virus has drastically changed the dynamics of teaching and learning across the globe. This paper is an attempt to examine how COVID-19 has affected the higher education sector of Pakistan. An empirical analysis of the online teaching experience of both the public and private sector university faculty was conducted for this purpose. The current study aims to highlight the need for developing tools for effective teaching that have wide ranging applications in Pakistan, an exercise that requires concerted research effort. Education sector is among the worst hit sectors due to the spread of the coronavirus in Pakistan. Indeed, educational indicators for Pakistan and the current state of the education sector indicate a gloomy scenario. Instructors and students across universities, colleges and schools were ill-prepared for a situation where they had to rely on online teaching and other web-based instructional tools. In this scenario, certain areas in the education sector require extensive research, training and application, such as digital education, assessment tools and applications, project-based learning (PBL), and mobile based strategies for developing self-regulated learners (SLRs) as well as the introduction of various other tools meant to enhance student engagement during the process of learning. The study found that the faculty in the public and private sector universities was not inclined towards online teaching. The results also revealed that the private sector institutions were more facilitating than the public sector institutes. However, the role of HEC during the pandemic was proactive. There is a need to take effective measures at the local and national level to facilitate the student body as well as the instructors lest there is a severe decline in educational indicators or rise in the dropout rate.