Remote Learning Environment Research Articles

Assessment in Sustainable Remote Teaching and Learning Environments During Emergency Situations

This paper explores how quality assessment is maintained in the COVID-19 protocols mandatory remote teaching and learning higher education environments. The argument being pursued is that, despite the pandemic, the e-assessment ensures the sustainability of quality thereof even in remote teaching and learning environments. We compare e-assessments in these environments to how conventional assessments happen in in-person contexts. In this comparison, we unearth several challenges afflicting the conventional in-person assessments. These range from ill-prepared lecturers sometimes, who do not take time to formulate meaningful assessment tasks, to students who demand special treatment just because they are physically present and are able to 'bully' lecturers. In the COVID-19 mandatory remote e-assessments teaching and learning environments, despite the attended challenges of costs to install the Learning Management System and train academics, there seem to be many more positive outcomes. These include lecturers' ability to ensure that all students enrolled in the module read the materials provided, spend enough time doing so, and engage meaningfully with the learning subject content. That feedback is provided almost immediately to ensure quality in remote teaching and learning environments. Design research principles that serve as the overarching theoretical framework for this paper are used to identify the challenges to e-assessments, the responses to these challenges, the contextual factors that make the responses effective, those that pose threats thereto and how they are resolved and circumvented.

An Innovative Approach to Teaching Evidence-Based Practice: Use of PICO Pal.

An innovative remote learning intervention, PICO Pal, was implemented with groups of undergraduate nursing students in a nursing research course to promote interactive learning, collaboration, and information literacy. Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a challenging topic to teach nursing students, especially in a remote learning environment. PICO Pal used Apple Numbers to facilitate remote group work on a PICOT poster. The approach was evaluated using pre- and posttest surveys with 50 undergraduate nursing students at a small private university in New Jersey. The evaluation showed positive perceptions of the assignment and gains with knowledge of EBP. However, there were no gains in the perceptions of group work. The assignment was effective at teaching aspects of the EBP process but should be reevaluated to maximize group work dynamics and comfort with use of technology.

The Impact of Emergency Remote Learning on a Studio Curriculum Analyzed via Case Studies

This paper examines the impact of emergency remote learning on a studio-based curriculum via case studies of three woven design courses within a comprehensive textile design curriculum. The pedagogy of the textile design studio is characterized by a physical space with appropriate resources for the techniques to be taught, learning through extended practice in that space, collaboration with peers and experts, and critique. Moving a course out of the physical studio space and into the remote learning environment makes the implementation of traditional studio practice and proven teaching methods unattainable, creating extensive challenges. However, the necessity of transitioning studio courses to emergency remote learning also led to innovations in teaching practice and new approaches to achieving learning outcomes. Using case studies the authors analyze the advantages and limitations associated with the transition to remote learning within the framework provided by Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. Through the analysis, the authors bridge in-person and online experiences to identify key components of studio learning in a woven design curriculum. The role of the physical studio environment in helping students progress from understanding basic concepts to creating innovative design solutions is discussed. Due to the commonality of studio-based instruction across textile and apparel design curricula, results of this analysis have application to a range of fashion and textile design disciplines.

Through the Lens of Situated Learning and Levels of Scale

The aim of this paper is to contribute to theoretical development within a field otherwise mostly characterized by empirical contributions, with a primary focus on the practice and perspectives of on-site facilitators. To theoretically understand the development and use of remote teaching, we focus on the interaction between systems of human activity in education and the relationships enacted in practice through their interaction, with a focus on on-site facilitators’ work. In doing so, we use the concept levels of scale in situated learning. Through levels of scale, we conceptualize the historical development of remote teaching as the large scale and the remote learning environment as the small scale. Integrating the levels of scale and tracing the historical development of remote teaching in Sweden into the enactments taking place in a classroom of modern language teaching is the concrete theoretical development that our aim entails.

Motherhood in Academia during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International Online Photovoice Study Addressing Issues of Equity and Inclusion in Higher Education.

Combining motherhood and academic work in higher education has been discussed for decades with the pandemic further exposing the inequalities. This crisis has significantly impacted the daily life of mothers in academia as they devote more time to keep their careers on track, produce papers, and take on other parenting and schooling responsibilities. This paper employs photovoice as an online methodology to document the real-life experiences of 68 women from nine countries who work and parent children in the sudden transition to remote working and learning environments. By explaining the photographs from their perspective, the participants in this study were able to capture their lived experiences, discuss working from home while guiding children in online learning, and create suggestions for ways academic institutions can alleviate gender inequality. The article explores the critical issues of academic work and childrearing drawing international attention to address issues of equity and inclusion in higher education among researchers, policymakers, and institutions.

Emergency transition to remote learning: DoIt@Home Lab in engineering

PurposeThe interruption of on-campus teaching and learning, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, forced universities around the globe to rethink their pedagogical models and adopt innovative strategies and approaches that enabled continuity of learning. Engineering schools and faculties were faced with the challenge of how to continue to engage students with the practical component of coursework, especially in terms of lab work and experimentation, which are mandatory requirements for degree awards.Design/methodology/approachThis study documents how the Faculty of Engineering in a university in Oman engaged students with the practical component of their course during the pandemic by launching the remote DoIt@Home Lab. The DoIt@Home Lab approach included the design and development of video recorded labs, virtual labs, simulation exercises and DoIt@Home experiments which were provided to students as teaching tools and guides to conducting home experiments remotely.FindingsThis study presents the DoIt@Home Lab approach introduced to Year 2 Chemistry for engineering students. Students' grades improved by 11% over the previous year when the course was delivered face-to-face. Failure rates dropped by 8% while the number of students earning a 3.25 grade point average (GPA) or higher increased by 18%.Originality/valueThe DoIt@Home Lab for engineering courses could enhance students' learning experience and create an effective remote learning environment. While the DoIt@Home Lab was created to supplement on-campus activity in the event of a temporary disruption, it can also be used to supplement regular face-to-face program delivery.

Promoting Students’ Autonomy in Online Classes: A Study on First-Year Non-English Major Students at Thuongmai University

Vietnam's higher education has experienced considerable changes due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. When schools are closed, online classes become the inevitable mode of teaching, and Information Technology shows its indispensable role. In response to significant challenges, not only do teachers have to upgrade themselves with new teaching forms and techniques, but students also need to adapt to a new remote learning environment. Classes occur outside the classroom and only via a computer screen, which means many difficulties faced by the teachers in giving good lectures and promoting students' active learning. Different tactics have been used to deal with these problems, bringing both positive and negative results. This study is aimed to investigate strategies that English teachers at Thuongmai University have been employing to improve students' autonomy in their online courses and the results they have achieved. To collect data for the study, five English teachers and fifty first-year non-English major students at Thuongmai University are invited as participants, while questionnaires and interviews are used as the main data collection tools. The research findings reveal that a wide range of IT tools have been employed in English online classes, and they show a great help in promoting students' autonomy. Among the listed IT tools, Padlet and Quizizz are the most preferred.

Did students learn less during the COVID-19 pandemic? Reading and mathematics competencies before and after the first pandemic wave

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted classes in spring 2020. Temporary school closures supposedly led to a considerable learning loss, particularly for low-achieving students. Teachers faced challenges of remote learning environments. Students spent less time learning. The present study investigates the competencies of fifth graders in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, using large-scale assessments in reading and mathematics from annual mandatory tests in September (each n > 80,000). Competence scores were slightly lower in 2020 (after 2 months of school closures) compared with the three previous years (–0.07 SD for reading comprehension, –0.09 for operations, and –0.03 for numbers). Regarding mathematics, low-achieving students seem to have a learning backlog that deserves attention in future education. School characteristics such as the average sociocultural capital and the proportion of students with a migration background played a minor role in mediating the schools’ learning loss. Still, lower sociocultural capital was positively associated with larger learning loss in mathematics.

Physical education student teachers' wellbeing during Covid-19: Resilience resources and challenges from school placement.

The coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has given rise to significant global challenges across education, and specifically in the physical education teacher education (PETE) community. Students attending teacher education programmes during the Covid-19 pandemic have experienced an abrupt and unprecedented pedagogical transition from a face-to-face capacity to remote teaching, learning, and assessment environments. Crucially, student teachers’ school placement experiences faced increased challenges and practical implications from additional environmental and social changes. In the context of continued global and national challenges for initial teacher education (ITE) programmes, the present qualitative study, using a representative sample of 24 student physical education (PE) teachers from a PETE programme, investigates the perceived implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on student teachers’ practice and wellbeing during their final 2020/2021 academic year. Results indicate that student teachers maintain that exercise, connections with the university and school placement communities, alongside personal and professional organisation skills serve as resilience resources protecting their wellbeing. Conversely, student teachers express that school placement isolation, restricted PE delivery, increased workload, low teacher efficacy, and the responsibility to implement Covid-19 behaviour regulations presented as challenges that negatively affect their wellbeing. The paper concludes with practices that may further support PETE and ITE programmes and their student teachers to maintain a stable level of wellbeing throughout their careers.

Building a Sense of Community Online: Rapport Building Activities for a Remote Learning Environment.

Building a Sense of Community Online: Rapport Building Activities for a Remote Learning Environment.

Virtual Simulation of Intra-operative Decision-Making for Open Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair: A Mixed Methods Analysis

To create and pilot test a novel open abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair virtual simulation focused on intraoperative decision-making. To identify if the simulation replicated real-time intra-operative decision-making and discover how learners' respond to this type of simulation. An explanatory sequential mixed methods study. We developed a step-by-step outline of major intra-operative decision points within a standard open AAA repair. Perioperative and intraoperative decision-making trees were developed and coded into an online virtual simulation. The simulation was piloted. Quantitative data was collected from the simulation platform. We then performed a qualitative thematic analysis on feedback from interviewed participants. Four academic general and vascular surgical training programs across the US. Seventeen vascular and general surgery trainees and 6 vascular surgery faculty. Participants spent on average 27 minutes (range: 8-45 minutes) interacting with the interface. 93% of participants reported feeling they were making real intraoperative decisions. 85% said it added to their knowledge base. 96% requested additional simulations. 22 interviews were completed: 241 primary codes were collapsed into 21 parent codes, and 6 emerging themes identified. Themes included the benefit of how (1) "Virtual Learning Could Standardize the Training Experience"; how (2) "Dealing with the Unexpected" as a trainee is an important part of surgical education growth, and that this (3) "Choose Your Own Adventure" virtual format simulates this intraoperative growth experience. Participants requested a (4) "Looping Feature Feedback Diagram" for future simulation iterations and highlighted that (5) "Fancier is Not Necessarily More Educational." Finally, many trainees wondered about (6) "The Attending Impact" from the simulation: if faculty would notice a difference between trainees who did vs did not utilize the simulation for case preparation. Operative simulation training should focus on both technical skills and intra-operative decision-making, particularly "dealing with the unexpected." The learners' responses indicate that a low-fidelity, scalable, virtual platform can effectively deliver knowledge and allow for intra-operative decision-making practice in a remote learning environment.

Tertiary Students’ Perceptions of Online Learning Strategies in Remote Learning Environment at Covid-19 Pandemic Era

This study aimed at investigating the perceptions of tertiary students about online learning strategies in the Remote Learning Environment during the Covid-19 pandemic era. The method used in this research was a descriptive qualitative method by using a survey to collect the data from 20 tertiary students’ perceptions of their online learning strategies in rural areas during this pandemic era. The results indicated that students agreed with online learning strategies with digital platforms but they are still confused about how to learn and access them. Virtual meetings declined students’ motivation to learn because of bad access to the internet in their areas. Using Video Conferences is more flexible because it can be used wherever whenever. Online learning still becomes the best learning strategy in this pandemic, but access to the internet in rural areas must be improved. Tertiary students need access to the internet and infrastructure and instructional materials design especially applied in this pandemic era. In conclusion, online learning strategies by using digital platforms still become the best solution to be applied in the remote learning environments during this Covid-19 outbreak, even there are some obstacles still existed.

568 Virtualization of In-school, Teacher-Directed Prevention Programs for Children

IntroductionWhile remote/virtual teaching has been used for many years, Covid-19 increased the need for quality educational programs in virtual format. BPN has two in-school, school-based programs, Flicks Fire and Burn Safety for grades 1-5 and The Great Escape for grades 6-8. These teacher-directed programs cover essential topics such as home fire safety, stop drop and roll, youth fire misuse, and home fire escape. They have, historically, been deployed as hard copy curriculum, student workbooks, and associated educational videos, which were physically mailed directly to classrooms within the BPN’s 24-county service area. When Covid-19 became the new reality, the need to pivot to a different type of program delivery became apparent.MethodsBPN recruited professional educators from targeted grade levels, representing varying geographic locations and socioeconomic backgrounds to recreate these programs in a format that will work in a remote learning environment. This team researched various e-learning platforms to determine what would work best for our content and is commonly used across all school districts. We determined that Google Classroom combined with Bitmoji would best serve our needs. We recreated a set of age-appropriate lessons for each grade level from 1-8. Each grade has information that ties each lesson to the appropriate academic standard for education. We employed multiple content formats based on best practices, including videos, audio tracks, text-based articles, and more. Lastly, we virtualized activities by turning them into on-screen interactive games, puzzles, quizzes, worksheets, etc.ResultsOur result is a virtual program for grades 1-8 conducive to both classroom and remote learning environments. It is linked directly to academic standards for education for each grade level and includes engaging, interactive content in various forms. This format not only gives us the ability to update and add new content quickly it also gives us the ability to expand geographic distribution seamlessly.ConclusionsBy utilizing platforms preferred by professional educators and integrating fire safety and burn prevention lessons into existing mandated educational standards, we can more effectively and cost-efficiently expand quality educational programming to children ages 6 – 14.

Examining the effect of self-regulation failure on academic achievement in emergency remote teaching and learning versus face-to-face

PurposeThe study aimed to examine the relationship between self-regulation failure and academic achievement in an emergency remote teaching (ERT) and learning environment compared to a face-to-face setting.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to investigate the impact of students falling behind (as proxy for self-regulation failure) on their final course mark. The sample comprised students from four undergraduate modules offered at a South African university in a face-to-face setting (N = 1,604), as well as an ERT setting (N = 1,478). Students falling behind were measured as the days behind, relative to the academic program, using learning management system (LMS) log data. The study further explored whether self-regulation failure had a greater effect on academic achievement in ERT as opposed to a face-to-face context.FindingsThe results indicated a negative correlation between self-regulation failure, evidenced by falling further behind in the academic program, and students' final course marks. Furthermore, the negative impact of falling behind was found to be greater on a student's final course mark during ERT compared to a face-to-face setting.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on ERT by highlighting the increased negative effect of self-regulation failure on academic achievement in ERT as opposed to face-to-face teaching and learning. Findings of this research may be of value to educators and policymakers in identifying ways of supporting self-regulated learning in future ERT situations to ensure that academic success is maintained.

"Why wasn't I doing this before?": Changed school social work practice in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The American education system has been significantly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led schools to shut down and convert to remote learning environments in spring 2020. However, long before these school closures, school social workers (SSWs) have faced significant practice dilemmas, as they have encountered obstacles to their engagement in best practices. While initial pandemic school closures presented SSWs with a range of uncertain situations, they also provided the possibility to respond to practice demands in different and dynamic ways. This article explores the pandemic's impact upon SSWs’ practice, and how SSWs responded in turn as they quickly adapted their practice during this widespread, ongoing crisis. Informed by crisis theory, previous analyses of SSW practice trends and dilemmas, and a review of traditional social work values and ethics, we conducted three focus groups in July 2020 with SSWs during the pandemic’s early months. From these interviews, we learned that participants’ work was disrupted by dramatic shifts in school and community settings, as well as changes in support needs within their respective school communities. Those disruptions gave way to substantial shifts in practice, which reflect a more prominent role for systemic practice and for traditional social work values in SSW decision-making. These findings offer implications for post-pandemic practice, and practice in other host settings.

Imagining Feminist Academic Collaborations Beyond Exceptionalized Crises

In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, universities and colleges across the United States began to unroll plans to shift residential teaching to remote or virtual learning environments. As feminist scholars primarily located in the US academy, we are invested in mapping longer genealogies of crises in the settler-colonial US academy, delineating how racist, imperial, and hierarchical structures that are replicated and reinstated by the academy formulate continuous and ongoing discursive and material violence towards racialized, classed, and gendered minorities. By centering what we refer to as feminist modalities of care tthat center collective, communal, and transnational feminist interventions, this article challenges the imperatives of academic success and survival beyond the logics of emergency and crisis. We explore the interlinked transnational discourses of emergency and crisis, mapping their travels and circulations in local and global academic networks in ways that reproduce systemic inequalities and the politics of value that inform power hierarchies within the academy. Energized by a refusal to normalize crises, this essay is invested in showing how feminist interventions, here explored under three modalities, including research and teaching collaborations and coalitions that take place inside and beyond the academy and against its competitive logics, can challenge the imperatives of academic survival premised on notions of individualistic care, productivity, and worth.

Nanolearning: A New Paradigm Shift in Teaching and Learning

Nanolearning is the process of learning in short pieces of information. The content must be within five minutes, in most cases two minutes or less. Nano learning is effective in modern education, especially Generation Z, since students' attention span has reduced drastically. The students are finding it challenging to focus for a longer duration. Nano learning is bite-size learning in shorter condensed learning capsules. This paper discusses methodologies for applying nanolearning in both classroom and blended learning environments. This paper deliberates nanolearning in the remote learning environment. The paper also discusses applications of nanolearning in different fields. The paper concludes with the future enhancements of nanolearning.

Remote Presentations: Making L2 Presentations Less Stressful

This explanatory-sequential mixed-method study was conducted to find out if the affordances of computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments help alleviate L2 public speaking anxiety when giving presentations remotely. Participants were 57 young adult EFL Arabic-speaking learners enrolled in an intermediate listening/speaking class in a preparatory 1 year program at a Saudi public university. Data were collected towards the end of the spring 2021 semester, and the study was conducted in a fully remote learning environment. Two speaking anxiety scales were administered: the Public Speaking Class Anxiety Scale (PSCAS), which measures in-person presentation anxiety, and the Remote Presentation Anxiety Scale (RPAS), an adapted version of PSCAS measuring remote presentation anxiety created and validated by this study. Online follow-up semistructured interviews were then conducted with 10 participants to explain and contextualize the results from the scales. Results of the PSCAS and RPAS analyses indicate that students had medium anxiety for in-person presentations, whereas they experienced low anxiety levels during remote presentations (RPs). Qualitative analyses of the interviews revealed that students preferred RPs over in-person presentations mainly due to its lower anxiety environment. Participants underscored several sociopsychological benefits of presenting remotely such as less stress, less confusion, high self-confidence, comfort, calmness, and relaxation. Implications for research and language teaching are discussed.

Open Educational Resources in the Time of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many post-secondary institutions to close abruptly in early 2020, and instructors were expected to transition to remote online instruction with little notice. For many instructors, hastily recorded lecture-capture videos alongside digital slides became the default mode of sharing instructional content. This sudden shift to video-based instruction was a significant challenge but also presented an opportunity to develop some instructional videos as open educational resources (OER). This paper outlines two case studies from the University of Saskatchewan in which a mix of OER and class-specific, closed-content videos were designed and integrated into remote learning environments. In designing these videos, we focused on technical design elements and accessibility, ability to reuse and share, and student engagement. Both cases, one in veterinary microbiology and the other in music research methods, followed similar strategies for creating multiple types of video content for the course, focusing on four distinct types (labs and demonstrations, guest interviews, lectures, and course information). Choosing to develop and share some of this video content as OER allowed us to expand the use of these learning objects beyond the online classroom. We discuss our considerations for making some videos open, including novelty of the content, reusability, copyright, privacy, and demands on instructor time. We also provide an introduction to our production process and practical tips, including planning, audiovisual production, editing, accessibility, and sharing platforms. The COVID-19 closures made 2020 an unexpectedly challenging year for students and instructors, but the necessity of moving instruction online prompted us to focus on supporting students in this new environment and helped us contribute to the growing body of OER.

Development of Brief Video Intervention to Promote Physical Activity among Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

ABSTRACT Background Obesity and physical inactivity are serious public health concerns in the United States (US) and globally. COVID-19 restrictions are resulting in decreased physical activity (PA) levels among children. Purpose To determine barriers and challenges to PA promotion among children during COVID-19 and inform a PA promotion video. Methods An explanatory sequential mixed methods approach was used to collect data from adults who have influence over the PA levels of children. Analysis included descriptive statistics of the quantitative data and a rapid qualitative analysis of qualitative data. Results Quantitative and qualitative data indicated that space, eq\\uipment, and virtual learning environments, among others, were key barriers to PA promotion, and that movement activities, game ideas, and brain breaks would be helpful video content. Discussion Considering the content and features desired by participants, PA promotion video content can be used in various settings. Translation to Health Education Practice We developed an animated video to promote PA in children and made it freely available on a variety of social media sites. The video may be used to enhance children’s PA levels in remote learning, school, and family environments. Participation in movement will contribute to children’s overall wellbeing and help prevent obesity.