Online Teaching Practices Research Articles

Pedagogical discourse and communication ethic in policultural virtual educational environment

The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a catalyst for the transition of education to an online format. Clearly, most educational institutions and teachers were forced to adapt methods and forms of online educational process on the short notice. The issue of online education has long been considered from the scientific and practical sides, however, such a quick and forced transition to online revealed the problems, features and potential of online communication. The ethics of online communication in education is one of the most significant issues. The development of the information environment initiated the emergence of an educational multicultural environment, which entailed a certain kind of systemic changes, which, one way or another, will be reflected in the transformation of the elements of the information and educational environment (IEE) organization. This applies to both the traditional format of education and online educational practices. There is a number of specific features of multicultural educational environment that do not occur in monocultural environments: non-identical professional thesauri, various habitual communication patterns with a teacher, representation of educational information and educational content specifics, decision-making specifics, the attitude to creative tasks performing in the process of learning, ambiguous understanding of learning objectives, terminology, preferred type of control and measuring materials, etc.

Advancing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Large Enrolment Courses: Lessons Learned from an Online Community of Practice

In these conference proceedings, we describe how the COVID-19 pandemic presented the higher education community with an opportunity to explore and expand best practices in blended and online teaching through a Large Enrolment Community of Practice. We expand on Wenger-Traynor and Wenger-Traynor's (2015) description of a community of practice (CoP) as a “living curriculum” (p.4) to include an online perspective based on Hoadley (2012) and Xue and colleagues’ (2021) considerations of content, process, and context. The benefits of the online CoP to faculty development and the scholarship of teaching and learning, specifically through collaboration, interdisciplinarity, innovation, and validation are then explained. The conclusion contains a current birds’ eye view of the OCoP and summary of learning from the first year of implementation.

Online higher education during the pandemic: The case of Hungary

The coronavirus pandemic has profoundly affected Hungarian higher education (HEI). As campuses around the globe were forced to shut down, online distance learning became an everyday reality for all students. At the same time, faculty were rushed to adjust their teaching content and methods, as well as forms of assessment, to online teaching. As a result, this transition exposed flaws in technological abilities, digital preparedness and flexibilities within universities. In this work, my goal is to analyze how the Hungarian HEIs adopted online educational practices during the pandemic and how they were able to address some of the difficulties while adjusting their teaching and creating new forms of support for both students and faculty. To that end, the article first discusses the prevalence of distance and digital learning before the pandemic, then evaluates the steps and challenges of transition to remote online education during the pandemic, and finally highlights some lessons learnt and best practices of some Hungarian universities.

Psychometric Analysis of an Instrument Evaluating Online Efl Teaching Presence

This research intended to examine the psychometric characteristics of the Indonesian version of the instrument used in evaluating the performance of pre-service teachers when practicing online teaching which was adapted from Howard. This quantitative study used convenience sampling technique by conducting a survey to collect respondent data. A total of 13 questionnaire items were developed using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5). Data were collected from 88 students who were carrying out online teaching practices or who had finished carrying out these activities. Several statistical analyzes were performed using Rasch analysis to assess unidimensionality, reliability, item statistic, person and item measure, and wright maps. The findings of this study revealed that the items in Howard's Indonesian version of the questionnaire are less valid and less reliable with the Indonesian sample, and the items do not retain the psychometric characteristics of the original scale because it failed to meet the minimum criteria of 0.80 logits. Implications and recommendations were discussed and offered with reference to the findings.

Psychometric Analysis of an Instrument Evaluating Online Efl Teaching Presence

This research intended to examine the psychometric characteristics of the Indonesian version of the instrument used in evaluating the performance of pre-service teachers when practicing online teaching which was adapted from Howard. This quantitative study used convenience sampling technique by conducting a survey to collect respondent data. A total of 13 questionnaire items were developed using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5). Data were collected from 88 students who were carrying out online teaching practices or who had finished carrying out these activities. Several statistical analyzes were performed using Rasch analysis to assess unidimensionality, reliability, item statistic, person and item measure, and wright maps. The findings of this study revealed that the items in Howard's Indonesian version of the questionnaire are less valid and less reliable with the Indonesian sample, and the items do not retain the psychometric characteristics of the original scale because it failed to meet the minimum criteria of 0.80 logits. Implications and recommendations were discussed and offered with reference to the findings.

Online teaching and learning practices in teacher education after COVID-19: lessons learnt from the literature

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic forced higher education institutions and teacher education programmes to transition from face-to-face to remote teaching. In this new educational environment, universities and schools had to make changes to address emerging teaching and learning needs. This literature review study provides an overview of research on teaching and learning practices published after the outbreak of COVID-19 in the context of teacher education. It aims to examine their characteristics after the pandemic and analyse issues that have affected their development. Based on the inclusion criteria, 28 papers were considered in the analysis. Findings point to the social and collaborative dimension of teaching, the caring component and the adoption of a more democratic and inclusive approach to teaching and learning. Personal and contextual factors and the challenges encountered related to poor interaction and difficulties in assessing students’ performance are also identified. Implications for rethinking current online teaching and learning practices in the context of teacher education are discussed.

Coping with the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on primary education: teachers' struggle (case study in the Province of Yogyakarta, Indonesia)

PurposeThe research aimed to explore the issues in the implementation of online education practice in elementary school, to study teachers' coping strategy to the online education issues and to evaluate teachers' problem-solving skill in online learning practice during the Covid-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory research focused on identifying the obstacles in teaching practice faced by elementary school teachers as well as their coping strategy with eight convenience sampled schools.FindingsOnline education practice faced unpreparedness and competency issues. Unpreparedness was found in terms of social, technical and cultural factors, while competency issue was related to online education competency and digital competency. Teachers’ struggle to cope with the issue in online education practice was focused on the performing conventional education in the online manner, suggesting teachers' lack of competency in encouraging learning success. Teachers neglected the development of students' readiness and competencies to engage in online learning. Moreover, teachers’ struggle had the least impact on the development of their online teaching competency and digital competency that are required for carrying out online teaching. In general, teachers' problem-solving skill was below the expected level. These findings suggested that improvement of teachers' competencies is important in order to cope with the issues such as in online education practice during Covid-19 pandemic and to face future challenges in education.Originality/valueThis study evaluated the gap between actual action and expected action of elementary school teachers in coping with the issues regarding online education practice.

Impact of social presence during COVID-19 and the implications for learning design

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused numerous economic, health and wellbeing issues and significantly disrupted the education sector. In response to the pandemic, universities scrambled to transition from face-to-face teaching to fully online teaching practices. With many institutions being unprepared for such a transition (Jung et al., 2021; Metcalfe, 2021), educators and students faced a variety of challenges, barriers, and opportunities (Garnett, 2021). Critically, one of the opportunities provided by the pandemic was for educators to re-evaluate and re-envision learning and teaching practices (Singh et al., 2022). One area ripe for re-evaluation is the nature of teacher-student relationships. While the teaching profession has long been associated with emotions and connection (Tackie, 2022), the shared experience of the pandemic saw students and their teachers finding themselves in the same virtual lifeboat with the pandemic becoming a universal factor for students and educators, making the processes of learning and teaching even more challenging (Mitchell et al, 2021). Additionally, educators - often called on to act as counsellors and therapists (Tackie, 2022) - found themselves during the pandemic having to manage both their own and their students’ well-being. This Pecha Kucha provides preliminary results and associated reflections of a study undertaken at the University of New England (UNE) while learning, teaching and assessment were being transitioned to fully online delivery. Despite, having a large proportion of classes being delivered online prior to the pandemic, challenges were still faced by UNE staff as they managed both their own and their students’ well-being. Here, technology played a critical role in brokering the shared experiences between students and staff with evidence suggesting that social presence was a critical factor in fostering a greater sense of connection amongst members of the university learning community. In learning design, the importance of connections, interactions, and the socio-emotional aspects of learning (i.e., elements that characterize social presence) are often overlooked and underrated (Ensmann et al., 2021). Consequently, the focus tends to fall on subject matter content coverage (i.e., teaching presence and cognitive presence) at the expense of interpersonal relations (i.e., social presence) (Patel, 2021). Our results suggest a re-evaluation of the importance of interpersonal relationships fostered through social presence is necessary to help ensure positive and well-balanced online learning experiences. At UNE, the interpersonal relationships that emerged during the pandemic - although largely unplanned and unintended - were nevertheless effective in supporting and maintaining student and staff well-being. Due to the critical role interpersonal relationships were shown to play, they should not be left to chance. Accordingly, the building of interpersonal relationships and the fostering of social presence should be intentional outcomes of every learning design.

Enriching Traditional Higher STEM Education with Online Teaching and Learning Practices: Students’ Perspective

In this paper, we aim to identify online teaching and learning practices that would be beneficial for blended and traditional on-campus education within STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) courses. Our university, as well as the majority of higher education institutions worldwide, has had few to no experience in delivering full online courses before 2020. The teaching process was, however, severely affected and modified by the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing an abrupt and unprepared shift towards online education. In this work, we look at the pandemic as causing a very favorable side effect that forced the university to study, test, apply, and evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of online education and assessment methods. The study is a result of joint efforts from different departments at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, connected to STEM undergraduate and graduate programs and is based on a questionnaire targeted towards students. In total, 167 valid STEM students’ answers have been collected and analyzed, both quantitatively and qualitatively. As the result, the best teaching and learning practices are identified and the main difficulties and obstacles experienced by students are detected. Some of the problems are common to many higher education institutions, such as the lack of teacher preparation in delivering quality online synchronous and asynchronous classes, technical limitations (network bandwidth/weak equipment), ineffective communication during synchronous classes, gaps in student skills, and low activity of some students and even teachers. We believe that the presented results would allow for improving future on-campus, distance, and blended learning courses, particularly through avoiding less effective teaching and assessment methods and favoring those techniques that students consider more efficient. This ultimately would lead to a more rewarding teaching/learning experience.

When the school door closes, do teachers open a window? Using diary method to investigate teachers’ online teaching practices and momentary experiences in crisis

School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have had a major impact on teaching activities. Adopting a mixed-methods design, this study aims to categorize daily instructional practices in the early stages of school closure using two-cycle content analysis, present the transition of the categories over days, and test the differences between categories using ANOVA. A total of 48 high school teachers with varying levels of teaching readiness (measured by online professional development experience and distance teaching TPCK) kept teaching logs where they recorded daily teaching practices and assessed teaching satisfaction and perceived student engagement. They also submitted diary entries to report episodic optimal experience. Four salient emergency online teaching patterns emerged, which were further interpreted based on the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison et al., 1999) as four presence orientations: 1) low social low cognitive, 2) low social high cognitive, 3) high social low cognitive, and 4) high social high cognitive. Daily transition of these orientations revealed slight to medium changes. Teachers adopting different orientations were found to differ in terms of teaching readiness, teaching satisfaction, and perceived student engagement. No difference was shown in optimal experience. The results inform future professional development programs how to prepare high school teachers for the next emergency crisis.

Achieving lasting education in the new digital learning world

In this special issue of the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, we take a step back from the events of the last 2 years and the changes that we have seen in the education arena, to remember that which has remained constant – how students learn best. Developing teaching and learning pedagogy based on lasting education theory and practice makes the past of education relevant to the present and future and creates a context where innovation can be scaled and taken further, from a single instance of impact to many. In this editorial, we present an argument for going back to our roots and present examples of the effective use of established theories of learning that continue to advance online education practice. We discuss the scaling of educational best practice to more students and more institutions, and we provide recommendations for creating sustainable and lasting future practice.

The Interim Characteristics of Large-Scale Online Education at Chinese Institutions of Higher Education—An Empirical Study Based on a Questionnaire Survey of Students, Instructors, and Administrative Personnel

In order to fully comprehend the state of online education at institutions of higher education in China during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the Online Education Task Group of the Center for Teaching and Learning Development at Xiamen University conducted a questionnaire survey of the state of online education, and a total of 334 institutions of higher education, 13,997 instructors, and 256,504 students participated in this survey. The results of the survey showed that large-scale online education in China met or even exceeded the expected goals for the first time, in a successful round of online educational practices, with important value as a reference for informatization construction at institutions of higher education in the post-pandemic era and the achievement of hybrid online-offline education. However, due to being “compelled” by the pandemic, this round of large-scale online education left behind many interim characteristics of this specific period of time in a number of areas, including the preparation of instructors and students for online education, support by education platforms, the technical services of education platforms, online services provided by schools, online education models and characteristics, outcomes in online education, the primary factors influencing outcomes in online education, existing problems in online education, the challenges faced by instructors and students in online education, and recommendations by instructors and students for improvements to online education. From a long-term perspective, these interim characteristics leave room for a series of reflections on subsequently continuing to deepen educational reforms. In the face of these interim characteristics having overtones of an “emergency response,” from the perspective of informatization construction in education in the post-pandemic era, this article proposes five relationships that must be properly handled: the relationship between the resources allocated to online education by programs and by the market; the relationship between hard development and educational concepts; the relationship between equity and efficiency; the relationships between different agents’ understandings and practices; and the relationship between domestic practices and international experiences.

Analysis of the home-based online teaching and learning policy during the COVID-19 second wave in Brunei: a joint parent/teacher perception

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the traditional face-to-face forms of educational instruction and has led to increased involvement in online learning. Consequently, online learning has gained popularity and has become the norm worldwide today, because it offers a safe learning environment as well as convenience and flexibility. During the pandemic, school campuses in Brunei were closed, classes were conducted online, and parents/guardians were expected to cooperate and assist their children with home-based online learning. However, online teaching posed a different set of challenges for teachers and students, which warrant research and policy attention at the national level. This study provided a review of the literature on the policies and best practices for online teaching and learning and formulated three key objectives. The first was to identify the policy initiatives and guidelines introduced by the government of Brunei to facilitate and ensure the effectiveness of online teaching and e-learning. The second referred to obtaining the perceptions of teachers and parents on three specific dimensions, namely, the implementation of blended learning, the use of online pedagogy, and enhancement of the e-learning experiences of students. The last objective was to identify the challenges associated with these dimensions and to propose actions and policy recommendations for improvement. This study employed document analysis, interview, and data collected from public social media. The implementation of online teaching and e-learning in Brunei was met with many challenges due to the poor network infrastructure and weak knowledge and content development of ICT. Thus, this study serves as a basis for improving innovation and governance in education, which focuses not only on the enhancement of academic performance but also on the digital divide. The paper was first presented at the 21st International Conference on Education Research (ICER) at the Seoul National University, Republic of Korea on October 21, 2021, by the first author. This research is part of the research project entitled: Pandemic Policies and Governance in Small States in the Southeast Asian Region.

Offline and Online Practices for Assembly Language Programming with 8085 Microprocessor

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that distance teaching and learning at educational institutions since 2020 has become common place. The Ministry of Education in Bhutan has taken the initiative to educate students using learning television and Internet-based online education instead of traditional classes. Thus, the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) and its ten constituent colleges have been swift in transitioning to online teaching through Moodle and varieties of other applications such as ZOOM, Big Blue Button and Google classroom since March 2020. Since then, offline and online blended teaching began at the College of Science and Technology (CST) under RUB in January 2021. In this paper, we focus on offline and online teaching and learning practices for assembly language programming with the 8085 microprocessor. A Zoom meeting is used for the online practical. Firstly, a tutor gives an 8085 assembly program lesson, which is common to both offline and online teaching practices. In the case of the offline practice, students assemble the assembly program into Hexadecimal code, by looking up a table of the 8085 instruction set. Finally, the Hexadecimal code is input and executed on an 8085 microprocessor trainer, and students confirm the output from the trainer. Here, the trainer is a small computer composed of a microprocessor, peripheral/communication interfaces, timer, memory, input device and output device. In the case of the online practice, on the other hand, students input the assembly program directly on a Web-based 8085 microprocessor simulator. We developed an 8085 microprocessor simulator using JavaScript. Then, students confirm the output from the simulator on a Web browser. The students took 6 offline learning practices and 4 online out of a total of 10. According to a questionnaire survey about the comparison of the offline and online practices from the students, they say offline practices are much better than online ones, because direct communication is important to understand the learning contents. We conclude that there is room for improvement in the online teaching methods.

Investigating pre-service EFL teachers’ attitudes and challenges of online teaching

Since teachers are the most responsible ones for integrating technology into their online teaching practices, understanding their attitudes and beliefs is of great importance. This study thus investigated pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ attitudes and perceived challenges of teaching online language courses. To this end, a questionnaire with three categories on teachers’ values and attitudes, beliefs, and communication self-efficacy and one on perceived online teaching challenges with five categories of attitudinal, pedagogical, interactional, supportive, and technical were administered to 100 MA students of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST). Five open-ended questions were also administered to gain more insight into their attitudes and perceived challenges of online teaching. The results indicated that pre-service teachers were interested in online teaching and believed that online teaching could help learners develop their English language knowledge, and that the advances in online information technologies could provide great opportunities for language teaching and learning. The results also revealed that categories on the attitude scale were ranked as communication self-efficacy, teachers’ values and attitudes, and their beliefs. Considering perceived challenges of online teaching, Internet connection, lack of teacher professional development courses for effective online teaching, and lack of previous online learning experiences were found to be the most frequent challenges. The dimensions of challenges were hierarchically ranked as technical, pedagogical, interactional, supportive, and attitudinal. The findings could shed light into designing and developing professional development courses for student teachers who are willing to teach online language courses.

Development of a self-report instrument for measuring online teaching practices and discussion facilitation.

Online learning in higher education has been increasing for many years. This is happening across all of higher education and it is happening more specifically within STEM fields. The growth of online learning has significantly accelerated the past couple of years during the COVID-19 pandemic as colleges and universities have sought ways to continue educating students while also keeping students, faculty and staff safe. As result, many college faculty and instructors across all fields of study including STEM fields have made and continue to make the transition to teaching online for the first time. Teaching in an online environment is different from traditional classroom teaching in many ways and presents a unique set of challenges to college instructors. This study documents the development of an instrument used for instructors to self-report their instructional techniques and practices. Data from 251 instructors is also used to examine how this instrument can be used to better understand particular practices, with a focus in this study on discussion facilitation. The results align with the Community of Inquiry framework, including indicating that teaching through discussion forums involves direct contribution and/or facilitation.

Serving students with disabilities in K-12 online learning: daily practices of special educators during the COVID-19 pandemic

Online and distance education strategies offer a path for closing opportunity gaps for students with disabilities because of digital technologies’ flexibility and capacity for differentiation, but fully online schooling does always guarantee an inclusive education. The COVID-19-induced shift to remote learning highlighted the need for more insight into inclusive practices for students with disabilities in online contexts, especially at the K-12 levels. The present study describes special education teachers’ online teaching practices with students with disabilities and the necessary conditions for special educator use of technology in K-12 remote learning. Using in-depth interview (N = 2 0) and survey data with special educators teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, findings highlight specific strategies special educators use to differentiate instruction as well as innovations in hybrid content experiences and home-school partnerships across K-12 schooling. The practices of special educators teaching in online environments provide insights into how all educators can support learners with or without disabilities in K-12 distance education settings.

Getting Ready for Teaching in the Pandemic Era: Action Research on Integrating ICT Course with Training and Online Teaching Practice

The purpose of this action study was to identify problems of pre-service English teachers within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, initiate appropriate actions, and measure impacts. As the lack of teacher training and practice was noted as a problem, actions of providing long-term training and online teaching practice were initiated. Eighteen pre-service English teachers took an ICT course to receive training and taught students online. Their responses in regular group conferences, a final conference, and a survey questionnaire were analyzed through observing and reflecting. They perceived all topics and contents covered for the training as very useful. They also reported online teaching practice enabled them to improve various abilities such as managing Zoom classes, creating video content, managing an app, etc. Finally, they experienced difficulty, particularly in keeping students motivated, and holding online mentoring. However, working collaboratively enabled them to become more responsible. Actions initiated in this study were confirmed to be successful. Implications for the future are presented.

FROM CLASSROOMS TO SCREENS: INVESTIGATING THE PERCEPTIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS ABOUT MICROTEACHING

Teaching practice is one of the most important components of teacher education programs as it allows prospective teachers to apply their conceptual and theoretical knowledge and skills in the real classroom environment. Whereas Covid-19 adversely affected the whole education system across the world, courses like teaching practice were the worst affected due to their nature and requirements. Universities tried many alternative strategies to continue teaching practice online. One of the most commonly used online teaching practice strategies was microteaching. As microteaching is a relatively new phenomenon in Pakistan, this study was carried out to investigate the perceptions and experiences of prospective teachers about it. Using a self-developed questionnaire titled QSPEM, data was gathered from 525 students belonging to an online university in Pakistan. The findings revealed that the students found the orientation session for microteaching and the role of their supervisors very effective and helpful. Although almost half of them had not even heard anything about microteaching, they found it very useful in improving their pedagogical and presentation skills. However, they thought that due to its nature, it was less effective than conventional teaching practice methods in teaching creativity and multitasking. Still, an overwhelming majority believed that microteaching should continue even after Covid-19. Keywords: Microteaching, Teaching Practice, Covid-19, Online Education, Higher Education, Teacher Education

Action Research-based Online Teaching in Oman: Teachers’ Voices and Perspectives

The COVID-19-forced switch to online teaching has proven the traditional teaching models and practices unsuitable. Classroom-related issues require teachers to reflect and embrace innovative and practical approaches to cope with the challenges of online teaching. The current study examines the affordances and challenges of action research in online teaching. The study analyzed the responses of (N=31) university teachers in Oman regarding their experience and practice of action research-based online teaching. The study identified several factors that support or hinder action research-driven teaching and teachers’ views on the efficacy of the teaching-research nexus. The study also drew on several implications for research-based effective teaching and teacher professional development.