Education Commons^™

Deaf And Hard -Of -Hearing Students' Experience Of Distance Education During Covid-19: Advantages And Barriers, Nourah Ibrahim Albash Ph.D., Maryam Hafez Turkestani Ph.D.

International Journal for Research in Education

This study investigated the deaf and hard-of-hearing students' experience of distance education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during COVID-19 during the 2020 academic year. The authors followed a phenomenological approach, conducting an in-depth interview with 10 female teachers of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Qualitative data revealed four main themes, which show students' experience of distance education. It was found that there is a general satisfaction among teachers in relation to the experience of distance education. Findings also revealed a set of advantages to the distance education experience (i.e., creating fun and increasing motivation, saving time, considering individual differences, and …

Practical Leadership In Implementing Online Education Programs, Felix O. Quayson, Christopher Zirkle

Journal of Research Initiatives

The growing presence of online education can become a challenge for academic leaders and institutions to lead, manage, and explore in higher education. Online education can be complex when considering the social presence (Keast, 2022; Quayson, 2022), course development (Martin et al., 2019; Orlando, 2019), and economic outcomes (Burnett & Conley, 2013; Rubin, 2013; Seaman et al., 2019). However, unraveling the fundamentals of practical leadership can help educational leaders to facilitate, maintain, and implement online education programs. The study found published research studies that helped us to extricate the fundamentals of practical leadership in implementing online education programs in the …

Development, Implementation, And Delivery Of A Remote Burnout Prevention Elective Course In An Accelerated Doctor Of Pharmacy Program During Covid-19, Melissa Santibanez, Jonathon May, Paul M. Boylan, Andrea Duque, Taylor Harris

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: There is limited evidence describing burnout among graduate health professions students, including pharmacy students, and there is a need for educational institutions to mitigate burnout and promote future healthcare provider wellness. Methods: A burnout prevention elective course was developed within an accelerated Doctor of Pharmacy program. Course faculty transitioned from live to fully remote instruction in April 2020. The modified course format combined discussion-based lectures, burnout self-assessments, reflective writing assignments, and applications-based presentations. Results: Twenty-one second-year pharmacy students completed the elective, and 13 completed post-course evaluations (61.9% response rate). Evaluations indicated substantial student support, with 92.3% “strongly agree” and …

Enhancing Technology-Based Distance Education Delivery Using Collaborative Team-Teaching Methods, Susan Egbert, Sean Camp

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this article here.

Present pandemic-related circumstances have created unique challenges for educators and students alike. Information and communication technology (ICT) based team-teaching and collaborative course design can effectively mitigate feelings of isolation and disconnection, and enhance student engagement within a remote education context. This article presents a theory-driven framework and ‘how-to’ practical strategies for utilizing team-teaching methodology through web-based delivery platforms. Content focuses on student participation and active learning, curriculum- and technology-related issues, and challenges inherent in synchronous web-based course delivery.

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, 2022 Special Issue (Vol. 5, Iss. 3)

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full-length 2022 Special Issue (Volume 5, Issue 3) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version (with downloadable EPUB format) here.

Teaching And Assessing College Stem Courses Online During Covid-19: Evidence-Based Strategies And Recommendations, Santanu De, Georgina Arguello

FDLA Journal

Since the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, most schools, colleges, and universities worldwide underwent a paradigm shift by transitioning to digital teaching and learning modalities. This phenomenon was essential to mitigate the contagion; however, the academic institutions needed to quickly come up with ways to ensure that the quality and rigor of education were maintained, especially the active and experiential learning required by undergraduate and graduate courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This paper highlights key approaches reported or proposed to effectively conduct college-level, in-person STEM courses online owing to the pandemic. These would range from synchronous versus asynchronous pedagogies …

Studying Chinese Characters In A Web-Based Learning Environment: A Case Study Of Swedish University Students, Tao Yang, Man Gao

Chinese Language Teaching Methodology and Technology

This survey study aims to investigate the perceptions learners have of the character-learning strategies they employ when taking a web-based course in Chinese. The seven Likert-scale statements are included in the questionnaire to examine learners’ opinions on the three character-learning strategies that are widely used in traditional campus courses. A total of 65 students who completed the beginner level ‘Chinese Characters’ web-based course at a university in Sweden completed the survey. The results suggest that students in web-based courses consider these three strategies to be just as helpful and effective as campus students; moreover, the more orthodox strategy – rote …

Overcoming The Feeling Isolation In Distance Learning: A Collaborative Auto-Ethnographic Research, Jayrome Lleva Núñez, Marie Camille Cuisia-Villanueva

FDLA Journal

In this research, we present our own experience as distance education (DE) learners the process of overcoming the feelings of alienation and isolation. The participants of the study are the authors, themselves, which are graduate students from the University of the Philippines – Open University. Thus, auto-ethnography is used. Autoethnography is an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyze (graphy) personal experience (auto) in order to understand cultural experience (ethno) (Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2010). This research is significant because we, the authors ourselves, are distance learners and have experienced isolation in our journey. This …

Looking Through The Lens Of Online Faculty In Higher Education, Theresa West

FDLA Journal

This article aims to provide a meaningful, insightful, and educational perceptiveness of online faculty. Specifically, this article will provide specific insight of online faculty’s changing role, cultivate an educational teaching philosophy, incorporate a structural teaching methodology, and exemplify a multicultural teaching presence.

Social Presence In Online Counselor Education, Courtney M. Holmes, Christine Reid, Carolyn Hawley, Christopher Wagner

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

Outcome research in online counselor education is lacking as is the focus on online teaching andragogy. To address this gap, the Community of Inquiry framework and social presence are discussed within the context of online learning in a counselor education program. Data were collected in a counselor education program in the mid-Atlantic comparing online and on-campus learning outcomes and perceptions of social presence in the classroom. On-campus learners had significantly higher perceptions of social presence when compared with online learners, although perceived level of social presence was not correlated with learning outcomes. Implications for counselor education are discussed.

Grand Challenge No. 3: Digital Archaeology Technology-Enabled Learning In Archaeology, Meaghan M. Peuramaki-Brown, Shawn G. Morton, Oula Seitsonen, Chris Sims, Dave Blaine

Journal of Archaeology and Education

Archaeology is traditionally a hands-on, in-person discipline when it comes to formal and informal instruction; however, more and more we are seeing the application of blended and online instruction and outreach implemented within our discipline. To this point, much of the movement in this direction has been related to a greater administrative emphasis on filling university classrooms, as well as the increasing importance of public outreach and engagement when it comes to presenting our research. More recently, we have all had to adjust our activities and interactions in reaction to physical distancing requirements during a pandemic. Whether in a physical …

Exploring The Development Of Pre-Service Teachers' Knowledge And Attitudes Toward Integrating Computational Thinking And Robotics Into The Classroom, Jillian Powers, Ann Musgrove, Victoria Brown, Mohammad Azhar

FDLA Journal

This paper presents an introductory computational thinking (CT) module that can be implemented into teacher education curricula. The researchers examined how the integration of CT and robotics instruction into an undergraduate instructional technology course influenced pre-service teachers' understanding of CT and robotics and their attitudes towards adopting these tools in their future classrooms. The online module was developed as a result of a collaboration between computer science and education faculty from two universities. A total of 93 students participated in the study. The course was delivered during the spring, summer, and fall semesters of 2020 via distance learning at a …

Electronic Field Trips For Science Engagement: The Streaming Science Model, Jamie Loizzo, Mary J. Harner, Deborah J. Weitzenkamp, Kevin Kent

Journal of Applied Communications

While institutions of higher education work to engage PK-12 youth in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) concepts and careers via in-person programming, PK-12 teachers and students face many logistical and access constraints for physically traveling to sites off of school grounds during the school day. Throughout the years, electronic field trips (EFTs) have offered a digital way for schools to engage in meaningful ways with museums, parks, laboratories, and field research sites. In order for EFTs to be effective, they should be cost effective and created collaboratively with teachers, students, subject matter experts, and instructional design and communication professionals. …

Pioneering Alternative Forms Of Collaboration, Rebecca J. Hogue, Jeffrey M. Keefer, Maha Bali, Keith Hamon, Apostolos Koutropoulos, Ron Leunissen, Lenandlar Singh

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

One key experience of human work, life, and play is people working together on a common goal. Yet this aspect of working together does not have one primary recognizable instantiation of what it means to work together. Words like collaboration and cooperation are often used to describe such instances, but even words like ‘collaboration’ don’t always have a neat formula for working through a collaboration. In this article we examine and reflect on our own collaborative experiences as a research group. We do this through an examination of past experiences, and through a method of writing that developed in our …

Engagement Across The Miles: Using Videoconferencing With Small Groups In Synchronous Distance Courses, Amy Piotrowski, Marla Robertson

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

This article presents suggestions for conducting small group work in synchronous distance courses taught using Interactive Videoconferencing (IVC) systems. One challenge of teaching over an IVC system is getting students involved in class activities. The authors share how they have used a videoconferencing tool to break up IVC classes into small groups for discussion activities and get peer feedback on written work. These activities engage students in applying what they are learning and constructing knowledge through discussion with their peers.

The Road To Hybrid Courses: Challenging Yet Rewarding, Phyllis K. Adcock

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Faculty who have good technology skills and are searching for a way to adapt a course into some form of a distance education course have a number of options. Faculty who have the support of a technology specialist who can share many opportunities such as collaboration technologies and digital media, enable more flexibility in how courses are delivered. The ability to reach beyond the four walls of a classroom has helped developed an attitude that faculty are looking for innovative methodology, using technology in the classroom. Online programs, hybrid courses, audio-video conferencing, and virtual office hours have the power to …

A World Apart: How Distance Education Can Effectively Reach Around The Globe, Joseph J. Frantiska Jr.

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Distance education has revolutionized the field of education by giving faculty the ability to reach students anywhere on Earth. In many cases, the distances between faculty and students can be rather large with associated opportunities and challenges. An obvious challenge is the need for timely communications between faculty and students as well as among the students themselves. This can be compounded if the nature of the course requires widely dispersed students to work together as a group with the transfer of documents and frequent communications driven by deadlines as well as the desire to produce a complete document that adheres …

Engaging Students In A Synchronous Distance Setting: Asking Online Questions, Christopher J. Hartwell

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

One major challenge in higher education is engaging student in the learning process, and this challenge is of particular concern in synchronous broadcast classes, where students are geographically dispersed. This paper argues that the use of online questions, that students can respond to using their electronic devices, is an effective way to increase student participation and engagement in such settings. Personal experience with one particular online question platform – Poll Everywhere (www.polleverywhere.com) – is used to illustrate potential capabilities, question types. Both advantages and challenges of using online questions are discussed.

Participant Perspectives And Critical Reflections On Language Teacher Education By Distance, John S. Knox

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Language teaching is a profession which is international in character. Language teachers often work and study in foreign countries, and distance education has become very important in the education of language teachers. Drawing on two international surveys, this paper explores language teacher education by distance from the perspective of students (i.e. trainee or practicing language teachers) and teacher-educators in such distance programs. There are significant educational advantages for language teachers who choose to study by distance, and e-learning technologies have enhanced these benefits. This paper also includes an in-depth analysis of the qualitative survey responses from two individual students, highlighting …

How Fast Is Fast Enough? Education Students’ Perceptions Of Email Response Time In Online Courses, Ching-Wen Zhang, Beth Hurst, Annice Mclean

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

An unintended consequence of the ubiquitous use of email for online course communication is that some faculty believe students now seem to expect 24/7 access to their instructors. Emails come from students at all hours of the day and night, and they seem to expect answers quickly. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of college students in the field of education of how long they expect to wait for their online instructors to respond to their emails and how quickly they respond to emails from their online instructors. A voluntary, anonymous survey was sent to undergraduate …

Practising Teaching Using Virtual Classroom Role Plays, Barney Dalgarno, Sue Gregory, Vicki Knox, Torsten Reiners

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Practice in the role of the teacher is an essential part of teacher education, however professional experience placements are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Consequently, additional university-based teaching practice, such as classroom role play with student teacher peers is important. Classroom role plays can be effective but there are limits to the realism of the experience and such strategies are not feasible for students studying at a distance. This article reports on a study in which a classroom in the virtual world of Second Life was used to house role plays of student teachers in preparation for their first professional …

Virtual Instructor-Student Interaction: A New Method For Stimulating Class Participation In An Asynchronous Learning Network, Christopher Donoghue

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

The goal of this paper is to describe a new virtual form of instructor-student interaction that can enable students to interact with their instructors without the pressures inherent in a traditional setting where they must face other students. Virtual instructor-student interaction (VISI) is a new pedagogical technique, developed by the author, which involves the transformation of an online survey into a medium that can simultaneously present course material, ask questions, obtain feedback and deliver responses. The interaction takes place asynchronously in a private space between the student and the instructor. By using this method instructors can enable students to grow …

E-Learning Enhances Both Student Achievement And Career Change Options, Rochelle P. Ripple

Perspectives In Learning

It seems as if everyone is using e-learning (online learning) these days. There are many options available, including self-paced courses, skills-based courses, virtual classrooms (and their cousins, live web seminars), web-enhanced courses, and asynchronous courses. There is a plethora of technological methods that can be utilized for course delivery. Which of these technologies and methods of use will maximize e-learning’s effectiveness? In other words, for the university, the instructor and students, which seems to work the best? In a nutshell - all of them. The beauty of e-learning is that there are so many options that can be tailored to …

Managing A Ripple In The New Wave Of Education Initiatives: Validity Of Assessment, Judson C. Faurer

Mountain Plains Journal of Business and Technology

With the increased attention to, and interest in, Distance Education/Online courses by academic institutions, students, and faculty, there is a concomitant increase in the difficulty of assessing the integrity of the assignments produced by students. Academic institutions see the opportunity for increased enrollment without an increase in campus facilities. Students appreciate the flexibility in scheduling and the self-paced opportunity while faculty may have mixed feeling about the drawn out interaction with and between students and the lack of assurance that assignments submitted are truly the work of the respective student. Personal experience and discussion with students and other faculty validates …