Distance Education Experience Research Articles

Distance Education in Tourism and Hospitality amid Covid-19: Perspectives of Students and Academics

The current pandemic has reshaped all aspects of life, and higher education is no exception. Despite the growing interest in how universities are coping with distance education during crises, there is limited knowledge on how such a delivery model is perceived by both students and academics. Drawing on the experiences of tourism and hospitality students and academics, the present study delves into the distance education experience amid Covid-19 identifying its advantages and challenges. In-depth interviews with tourism and hospitality students and academics in Turkey (12 students and 12 academics) were conducted, and the data were analysed using content analysis. The findings suggest that distance education amid Covid-19 has brought some opportunities, but also posited significant challenges. On the benefit side, distance education seems to have provided students with easier access to information/learning materials and more flexibility while enabling tourism academics to dedicate more time to research activities. On the negative side, however, students seem to be unhappy for being deprived of their social life at class and on campus whereas tourism academics raised concerns related to their lecture content being monitored and accessible, thus limiting their freedom of “lecturing their way”. The current study contributes to the growing body on knowledge on distance education in the time of crisis and provides recommendations to different stakeholders in higher education.

Distance Education in Tourism and Hospitality amid Covid-19: Perspectives of Students and Academics

The current pandemic has reshaped all aspects of life, and higher education is no exception. Despite the growing interest in how universities are coping with distance education during crises, there is limited knowledge on how such a delivery model is perceived by both students and academics. Drawing on the experiences of tourism and hospitality students and academics, the present study delves into the distance education experience amid Covid-19 identifying its advantages and challenges. In-depth interviews with tourism and hospitality students and academics in Turkey (12 students and 12 academics) were conducted, and the data were analysed using content analysis. The findings suggest that distance education amid Covid-19 has brought some opportunities, but also posited significant challenges. On the benefit side, distance education seems to have provided students with easier access to information/learning materials and more flexibility while enabling tourism academics to dedicate more time to research activities. On the negative side, however, students seem to be unhappy for being deprived of their social life at class and on campus whereas tourism academics raised concerns related to their lecture content being monitored and accessible, thus limiting their freedom of “lecturing their way”. The current study contributes to the growing body on knowledge on distance education in the time of crisis and provides recommendations to different stakeholders in higher education.

Distance learning experience during the COVID-19 lockdown

The objective of this research was to carry out a diagnosis of the development of the distance education experience through the emergence of COVID-19, at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), San Francisco de Macorís, Santiago and Puerto Plata campuses and at the La Vega Center. The methodology implemented corresponds to the quantitative, descriptive, bibliographic and field approach. Among the most important results, it can be mentioned that 62% of the students responded that they were only receiving distance teaching in some of the subjects selected in the 2020-1 semester, while 16% indicated that they were receiving teaching in all subjects. In conclusion, the university platform is not used due to the lack of knowledge that teachers and students have about its implementation. Among the recommendations is the creation and strengthening of technological units to support teaching and students at all campuses and centers.

Foreign experience of distance education

The article is devoted to the problems related to new aspects of the modern educational process, namely distance learning, which arose in response to changing needs and requirements of society. With the growing opportunities for the use of information technology, distance educa-tion enters a completely new period of development. There is also a new form of education for Ukraine called e-learning. This imposes new requirements on all participants in the educational process, implemented in a new form. The aim of the article is not only to acquaint with the history and current state of distance education, but also to draw attention to the advantages and disadvantages of this form of education, taking into account the development of modern information and communication technologies. The article summariz-es practical information about the forms of distance education, its history, opportunities and risks of application in the education sys-tem of the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic and Ukraine.

Attitudes and interaction practices towards distance education during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected educational institutions deeply and globally. In the course of the pandemic, countries around the world have tried to fill the gap that has arisen in traditional face-to-face education with emergency web-based distance education systems. This study aims to evaluate the possibilities and limitations of emergency distance education conducted during the pandemic period, based on university students’ approach-avoidance attitudes towards distance education and their distance education experiences. This study, using a mixed method, was designed with explanatory sequential design. The research was conducted at a state university in Turkey. Quantitative data were collected through an online questionnaire (n = 684), and qualitative data were collected from 14 student participants through semi-structured online interviews. In the quantitative dimension, it was determined that students’ avoidance attitudes towards distance education were stronger than their approach attitudes, and there were significant differences between student attitudes and various variables. In the qualitative dimension, it has been revealed that the interactions between both student-student and student-lecturer weakened with distance education during the pandemic period, but these interactions gained some new qualities. It was concluded that the interest towards the lessons conducted only through lecture notes weakened, the contents became functional at the point of clarifying the boundaries of the lessons, and increased the education load at the point of concentration. It was revealed that distance education in home conditions includes both opportunities and limitations in terms of interactions.

Dynamics of Online Engagement: Counseling Students’ Experiences and Perceptions in Distance Learning

In this article, the authors present counseling students’ personal accounts of their experiences in distance education with a focus on online engagement based on an extensive review of the counseling literature. In addition, an evaluation tool was introduced for gathering qualitative and quantitative information regarding patterns of instructor engagement efforts and styles. Facilitating factors for experiential online learning were also identified from the students’ perceptions of online learning experience. Finally, the results were used to make specific recommendations for counselor educators to enhance their teaching efficacy and engagement.

Is the safety safe: the experience of distance education (or self-isolation)

Education and safety? The authors of this study set out to answer this difficult question, relying on the experience of working in remote access during the coronavirus pandemic, The aim is to understand whether the humanitarian project might be endangered be the desire to make life absolutely safe, and to identify the extent of the appropriate safety measures that prevent the spread of the coronavirus and preserve a safe space for the formation of an educated personality. In the course of the study, the authors found that by focusing on one urgent danger, there is a possibility of neglecting others, no less important. The success of solving the problem of ensuring security in the face of an unexpected pandemic by transitioning to remote technologies does not signify that this solution is actually the best. The need to preserve education as a resource that supports the security of human existence constrains the ways in which the established forms of the educational system can be transformed. Changing the format of education leads to other changes in society, which may include many negative consequences. While short-term consequences are already noticeable, coupled with the concern how long-term consequences will affect the further development of society. If the safety and security of societies requires a high level of education, the preservation of the educational system is an important safety factor alongside protection from the pandemic. The paper therefore investigates also the attitudes of students in this ambivalent situation.

Evaluating distance education experience in public schools in Amman Second Directorate from students' perspectives

Ensuring online learning quality in educational institutions was an increasing concern over the past few years. While several studies focused on the perspectives of faculty and officials, there was a dearth of search conducted on students' impression towards the quality of online education. The current study aimed to evaluate the experience of distance education in the public schools in Amman second directorate in light of the COVID-19 pandemic from students' perspectives. To that aim, the descriptive survey approach was used in addition to a questionnaire spread over five domains: communication, content, teaching, interaction, assessment in which validity and reliability were verified.  The study sample included 354 male and female students, chosen by the stratified random method from four public schools. The results of the study showed that the students' evacuation of the distance education experience on the instrument as a whole was moderate. The findings also indicated that there were statistically significant differences attributed to gender variable in the interaction domain and the instrument as a whole in favor of females, while the differences were not statistically significant for other domains. Based on the results, the researchers recommended the necessity of changing the evaluation approach and modifying the content and teaching methods to suit distance education, overcoming technical and technological difficulties, and conducting other research to evaluate distance education in secondary and lower elementary schools.

ПІДХОДИ ДО ОРГАНІЗАЦІЇ ЛАБОРАТОРНОГО ПРАКТИКУМ У ПІДГОТОВЦІ ВЧИТЕЛЯ ФІЗИКИ ПІД ЧАС ДИСТАНЦІЙНОГО НАВЧАННЯ

Formation of experimental abilities and skills of future physics teachers is an important component of their professional competence. The transition to distance learning for all educational programs in various disciplines, especially experimental and practical, brought many complications. In many cases, measures have been initiated to accelerate the training of university students and teachers who had no experience of distance learning. However, the experience of distance education shows that the replacement of traditional education exclusively or largely by distance education is not promising. Under the conditions of the introduction of remote forms of education, conducting a laboratory physical workshop faces a number of problems, which are analyzed in the article. Two types of problems faced by the teacher in distance education are identified: firstly, content and methods of distance education and secondly, problems related to the use of technical means during distance education. The solution of these problems in the training of physics teachers is not only related to the formation of experimental skills in students, but also in arming them with the skills to select tools and technologies for conducting a school experiment in physics lessons during distance learning in general secondary education institutions. The article presents five options for conducting laboratory work in distance learning conditions: experiments using home equipment, using smartphone sensors for conducting research, virtual simulators, digital laboratories, using videos of laboratory work. Their features, implementation conditions, as well as advantages and disadvantages are revealed. It is shown that the choice of the form of conducting the workshop largely depends on the material and technical equipment of laboratories and methodical training of teachers, as well as the readiness of students. The technology of introduction of video laboratory practice in the course of general physics is proposed. The experience of such work has shown their effectiveness, as well as their influence on the formation of students' independent activity skills. Key words: distance learning, laboratory practice, physics, physics teacher, digital technologies.

Demotivating factors experienced by teacher educators in synchronous distance education: A hermeneutic phenomenology research

Just like every system, distance education also has disadvantages as well as advantages. The aim of the study is to examine the experiences of the teacher trainers about the difficulties or problems that demotivate them in synchronous distance education applications from a hermeneutic phenomenological point of view and to explain in detail their justifications. In this study, attention was paid to the fact that the teacher trainers had synchronous distance education experience of at least two years. The research participants were chosen in accordance with the purposive maximum variation sampling strategy. Eleven teacher trainers consented to participate. As a result of the research, it was concluded that the teacher trainers were partly demotivated in the synchorous distance education process. Different sources of this demotivation were obtained from the findings of the trainers based on their experiences. Accordingly, it has been concluded that the factors that demotivate the trainers are, technological and physical infrastructure problems, hardware inadequacies, problems arising from the characteristics of the platforms used, the inadequacies and inexperience of the trainers themselves in synchronized distance education, the unwillingness of the students in this process, the technological inadequacies and problems students experience in synchronized distance education, the inability to effectively measure and evaluate pedagogically, the inability to implement different teaching methods in the classroom, the inadequacies of the instructional programmes and course materials, the inability to create a studentteacher and student-student interaction.

Experiences in distance education and practical use of ICT during the COVID-19 epidemic of Slovenian primary school music teachers with different professional experiences.

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of music teachers' professional experience on ICT use in Slovenian primary education before and after the proclamation of the COVID-19 epidemic. We collected data using an online questionnaire; eighty-three music teachers participated. We divided them into three groups with different professional experiences. The results show that music teachers with less professional experience used ICT more and had fewer problems than those with more professional experience. The creative ICT use of music teachers in primary schools today has a significant impact on the quality of learning objectives, motivation and efficiency.

Covid 19 Pandemisi ile Başlayan Acil Uzaktan Eğitim Sürecinin Öğretim Elemanları Perspektifinden Değerlendirilmesi

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused restrictions and shutdowns affecting all industries worldwide. The scope of the steps taken to prevent the spread of the pandemic, universities in Turkey also began to provide distance education in March 2020. This process has provided an important experience in which the education system is questioned on the basis of educational infrastructure, lecturers and students. The experience of a nationwide transformation in such a short period of time in the education system is considered to be unique. In this study, it is aimed to create a decision support document by compiling this valuable experience and suggestions for further improvement of the higher education system. In this context, the opinions and recommendations of teaching staff regarding the distance education process were taken with the help of surveys which were responded by 744 lecturers from 84 universities of Turkey. As a result of the study, it was seen that factors such as the type of university, distance education experience, and age make a difference in the views of the lecturers towards distance education. In addition, the determinations and suggestions of the instructors that they stated by openended expressions were compiled under main headings. This process experienced offers an important opportunity to question the current educational structure and to improve it further. As also stated in the survey results, it is predicted that the weight of distance education in higher education will also increase at post-pandemic term. Therefore, it is thought that the necessary steps should be taken in the light of the experiences in order to make the next process more efficient

Undergraduate nursing students' experiences of distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant changes in the field of education, including not least of all the adoption of distance education, which nursing students have had limited experience with in Turkey.PurposeThis study aimed to determine the factors affecting nursing students' success in distance education and to evaluate their experiences during this process.MethodsThe study was designed as a descriptive, cross-sectional study and involved the participation of 454 nursing who were members of the Student Nurses Association in Turkey. An evaluation form for assessing students' sociodemographic and distance education-related characteristics and the Distance Education Assessment Questionnaire for Nursing Students (DEAQNS) were used for data collection.ResultsThe students further reported that the main factors affecting the success of distance education were provision of preliminary information, proficiency level of technological software use, economic status, proficiency level of use of technological devices, and asynchronous learning.ConclusionsIn order to increase the success of distance education, students need information on the protection of personal data and use of technological software and devices in the nursing curriculum.

The potential role of pedagocial documentation in Italian early education during the Coronavirus pandemic

The practice of pedagogical documentation in the field of early childhood education and care in Italy has a long and significant tradition, starting in 1991 up to the most recent documents. The pandemic emergency and recent lockdowns in Italy are an invitation to focus attention on this theme for two main reasons: the documentation practice is indicated as functional to inclusive processes; the documenting practices of teachers and educators are changing. This paper discusses the results emerging from an explorative study carried out on the experience of distance education during the lockdown in Italy in in the context of 0-6 years early childhood education and care services collecting the opinion of 412 teachers, educators and coordinators through a questionnaire. In particular, the focus of this study will be on documentation practices through a descriptive analysis of closed answers and a content analysis of open questions. This allows to make the resilient beauty

“From the Initial Steps to the Concept of Online Education” – Teacher Experiences and Development Directions Based on Feedback from Online Education Introduced During the Pandemic

The pandemic situation caused by COVID-19 has challenged the education system, not only in Hungary, but everywhere in the world. The use of information and communication technology in education, including higher education, has transformed students' expectations and, at the same time, redefined the role of the online educator. This is because online teaching and learning is significantly different from teaching-learning in a traditional environment, and educators need to rethink their role in the learning and teaching paradigm. Our higher education institution has developed a new learning-teaching concept based on the experience of distance education introduced as a result of the pandemic situation. The research described in the study and the corresponding developments are shared as good practice for other higher education institutions.

Examining the Social Anxiety of University Students in Synchronous Online Learning Environments

This study examines the social anxiety of university students in online live lessons in terms of their digital literacy levels, gender, previous distance education experiences, and the way they interact with the teacher in live lessons. The study was conducted with a causal-comparative and correlational research design. Data was obtained from 167 university students with an online questionnaire. The instruments used in the study were the general information form, the student-teacher interaction subscale of the social anxiety scale in e-learning environments, and the digital literacy scale. The data analysis was carried out with correlation analysis and an independent sample t-test. Results of the research showed that the social anxiety of students in synchronous learning environments has a negative relationship with their digital skills. The social anxiety of female students was found to be higher than male students. Also, students who did not actively listen to the lesson and interact with the teacher through live chat were more anxious. The social anxiety did not differ according to previous distance education experience and the use of microphones in lessons.

On Becoming an Online University in an Emergency Period: Voices From the Students at a State University

This study purposes to examine the emergency transition to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of university students. Based on this purpose, university students were asked open-ended questions about their distance education experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Transactional Distance Theory was used as the theoretical framework to form the questions and interpret the findings. 441 university students from a state university participated in the study, and 1443 comments were analysed by using text mining techniques. The findings of the study have revealed that students acknowledge the rapid transition positively, but they have also indicated that the effectiveness of distance education is low. The reason for the ineffectiveness was observed as the lack of interactive elements in the content and the low level of communication between faculty members and students. As a result of the findings of the study, several recommendations on how institutions can take precautions are presented.

The problem of distance learning in higher educational institutions during quarantine

The article is devoted to the problem of distance education, namely training and educating under conditions of the pandemic. The issue of the coronavirus epidemic, which forced the urgent restructuring of all spheres of social life of people around the world, is addressed in the article. As a result, the problem of the global transition to distance learning under severe quarantine is becoming urgent. The author analyzes domestic and foreign pedagogical experience of distance education. Among domestic authors this problem was studied by Gorbatyuk R. M, Turanov Y. O., Rak V. I., Vdovenko I. S., Bodnar S. V., Dekusar G. G., Kuznetsova O. V., Opanasenko Ya. Foreign researchers (Amanda Morin, Berman Grace, and Dubinsky Alison) are more likely to point out that distance learning is associated with many difficulties. The aim of our study was to highlight the problem of distance learning in the quarantine period, its advantages and disadvantages over traditional learning, as well as a comparative analysis of the traditional and distance forms of educational activities. In the process of solving problems, theoretical research methods were used: analysis, systematization, classification of educational and methodological literature to substantiate the theoretical and methodological foundations of research, surveys, analysis of the products of the students’ pedagogical activities. The article presents data from the study of the groups consisting of first- and fifth-year students who studied in different periods: in the first half of 2019, when the study was in classrooms, and in the first half of 2020 during the quarantine, when the study was carried out using distance education. The data according to three criteria: academic success, students’ attendance and students’ satisfaction with the learning process were analyzed by the author. A comparative analysis of the traditional and distance learning is shown in the article. Some conclusions about the ambiguity of the impact of distance learning on different contingents of students have been made.

Challenge Accepted: Experiences of Turkish Faculty Members at the Time of Emergency Remote Teaching

The Covid-19 pandemic caught everyone unprepared. Higher education institutions were expected to be the least affected due to their long history of distance education, which has enabled the development of expertise and technical infrastructure, but were they? The present study focuses on faculty members’ experiences at the time of emergency remote teaching and afterwards. The survey method was devised to conduct the study. An online questionnaire called the Emergency Remote Teaching Views Questionnaire was developed by the researchers and administered at higher education institutions throughout Turkey. With a combination of convenience and snowball sampling, 351 faculty members from 72 different public and private higher education institutions were reached. The descriptive analysis of the data revealed that almost 62% of the faculty members had never taken any form of training regarding online distance education before the Covid-19 pandemic. Although one fifth of the faculty members indicated that they had had distance education experience three times or more before the pandemic, around 62% of them encountered remote teaching for the first time. Many faculty members indicated that they spent more time on remote teaching than face-to-face teaching; they had trouble following students’ development; the students were disinterested in the classes; they had technical problems, but they also received support from their institutions. Although only one fourth of the faculty members reported being unsure about the quality of their remote teaching, three fourths of them believed that it was not as fruitful as face-to-face teaching. This was especially evident in the area of assessment and evaluation. Based on these results, it can be concluded that higher education institutions were caught unprepared, but their adaptation was very quick.

Attitudes of School Teachers in the State of Kuwait Towards the Experience of Distance Education During the Coronavirus Pandemic

This study aimed to identify the attitudes of public school teachers in the State of Kuwait at various educational stages towards the experience of distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The descriptive approach was applied; a questionnaire consisting of four dimensions was developed to measure teachers’ attitudes towards distance education. The study sample consisted of 1028 teachers of various disciplines at all levels of education in public schools in the State of Kuwait. The results indicated that teachers had a higher degree of positive attitudes towards the distance education experience. The results also showed that there were statistically significant differences between the study sample members due to each of the following variables: the educational district and the educational stage.The results did not show statistically significant differences due to the gender variable. Additionally, the results did not show the existence of statistically significant differences due to the variable years of experience on the total degree and dimensions of scale, except for the dimension “student assessment through distance learning using the TEAMS Program” attributed to the experience category (1–5 years).