Students' and Teachers' E-Learning Experience as a Factor Affecting Their Perspectives Towards Its Advantages and Disadvantages (Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic)

The shift to "emergency remote teaching" forced by the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a huge challenge to most of the teachers and students in higher education institutions worldwide. Our research focus in previous publications was aimed at establishing the impact of e-learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic of separately teachers and students at Sofia University (Bulgaria) on their evaluations of e-learning strengths and weaknesses, as well as their attitudes towards this e-learning in general. As a follow up, in the present paper an attempt is made to compare the perspectives of the two groups towards e-learning, influenced by their experience. The survey of teachers and students' opinions was conducted through online surveys at the end of the summer semester of the 2019/2020 academic year, when, due to the pandemic, approximately 4 months of the learning process was provided entirely online. Participants in the study were 383 teachers and 1239 students from all 16 faculties of the Sofia University. Findings from the data analysis revealed the presence of statistically significant dependencies between teachers and students' experiences in online learning and their views of theoretically and practically proven advantages and disadvantages of e-learning. The results in the two groups appeared to be almost similar, which gave us reason to claim that richer experience in e-learning is a significant prerequisite for the formation of positive attitudes towards e-learning in both students and teachers, and vice versa, lack of experience or insignificant experience negatively affects their evaluations of e-learning.

Digital Competences and Educational Inequalities in European Context as a Consequence of an Accelerated Shift to Distance E-Learning in the Covid-19 Pandemic

This paper presents synthesized results from a rapid review based on a meta-analysis of evidence from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education in 11 European countries in the context of the "emergency" transition of school systems to remote e-learning. The study sets out to answer two main research questions - 1) in the field of digital competences of participants in the school system (teachers, parents and students) and 2) in the area of contextual factors and conditions that have caused and/or reinforced educational inequalities during the emergency distance e-learning. The data and results of the review study lead to the conclusion that. regardless of the pre-pandemic levels (even at high ones) of digitalization and technological equipment of European education systems and the relatively well developed digital competencies of educational actors, the situation of an emergency transition to a fully digital modality of learning is accompanied by many challenges and is perceived by actors as highly stressful. The results of the meta-analysis outline several areas in which an increase in educational inequalities in the context of "crisis" distance e-learning has been reported. These are 1) an increasing of the digital divide between students based on the socio-economic situation of their families, with the effect being a risk of non-inclusion or outright drop-out from the e-distance learning process;2) age-related educational inequalities, with the result of a lack or a stagnation of self-regulated learning skills, which makes students at lower educational stages almost entirely dependent on parental support;3) an amplification of educational barriers for specific groups of disadvantaged students, such as children with special needs, migrant children, refugee children, etc., the effects of which lead to an accumulation of learning losses, lag in personal skill development and also in their socio-cultural inclusion through education.

Risk of COVID-19 in children treated for demyelinating disorders in the UK

Objective: Paediatric neurologists are concerned about the risk of COVID-19 in children with demyelinating disorders receiving immunomodulatory treatment. To investigate this, we collected data via the UK Childhood Neuro-Inflammatory Disorders (UK-CNID) network of the British Paediatric Neurology Association (BPNA). Methods: Survey of paediatric neurologists managing unvaccinated UK children (<18 years) with a demyelinating disorder (multiple sclerosis [MS];neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder [NMOSD] and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody disease [MOGAD]) on immunomodulatory therapy with SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of nasopharyngeal swabs between March and December 2020. Results: Of 151 UK children (MS 98, MOGAD 37, NMOSD 16) with a median age of 9 years (range 6-18y), with a demyelinating disorder, nine (6.0%) had a positive PCR for SARS-CoV-2. Five had MS and four MOGAD. Four were from south Asian or south-east Asian, four were White and one was mixed White and south Asian. Seven children had COVID-19 symptoms;two were asymptomatic. Two required a brief hospital admission for typical COVID-19 respiratory symptoms and the remaining five had mild symptoms including fever, rash, cough and headache. One with MOGAD, treated with azathioprine, developed transverse myelitis 12 days after COVID-19 onset. She recovered fully with a course of corticosteroids. MS patients were on following disease modifying therapies;dimethylfumarate (n=2), fingolimod (n=1);natalizumab (n=1) and ocrelizumab (n=1). MOGAD cases were on the following immune therapy: combination of oral prednisolone and intravenous immunoglobulin (n=2), prednisolone steroids (n=1) and azathioprine (n=1). Conclusions: In contrast to adult patients, who often have underlying co-morbidities and advanced neurological disabilities, we have identified that children treated for demyelinating disorders appear to have a milder COVID-19 course. Whilst the number of children treated for demyelinating disorders that developed COVID-19 is low, the overall mild course described may provide reassurance to neurologists, patients and family members.

The effect of the teachers' experience in online education during the pandemic on their views of strengths and weaknesses of e-learning (SU case)

E-learning has never been so proliferated as it was and still is at a time of global Covid-19 pandemic when higher education institutions globally were forced to switch to fully online education. The strengths and weakness of e-learning have long been discussed in the literature. Most of the claimed strengths depend on an appropriate pedagogy approach with a combination of relevant technologies. At the same time the limitations are mainly associated with the technological issues arising in the context of e-learning. Teachers' perspectives on the benefits and limitations of e-learning are seriously affected by a number of factors, such as their digital competences and experience in e-learning. The study of these factors and their effect on teachers' perspectives could support the increase of the objectivity of teachers' evaluation and attitudes towards e-learning in general. Thus this research aimed to identify the impact of experience of Sofia University (SU) academic staff in forced introduction of online education on their views and perspectives about e-learning and its strengths and limitations in particular. The research method was an online survey, conducted at the end of the academic 2019/2020 with 383 teachers from all 16 SU faculties. The paper focused on three main aspects - 1) teachers' experience in online education before and during pandemic;2) teachers' views on strengths and weaknesses of e-learning;and 3) the impact of their experience on their views. Findings from data analysis revealed the existence of statistical dependencies between the experience in e-learning and the digital competencies of teachers before the pandemic, on the one hand, and different aspects of the online teaching during the pandemic, such as: the choice of e-learning environment;the ratio of synchronous / asynchronous forms of online learning;the frequency and variety of using e-resources in teaching and in supporting students' self-preparation;the tools and forms of e-assessment, on the other hand. It appeared that far more negative attitudes are formed in inexperienced teachers, which in turn has affected their assessments of benefits and limitations that quality e-learning provides for students - they did not recognize the strengths of e-learning proven in theory and practice and exaggerated its negative aspects. Thus conclusions imposed that the forced introduction of online education has enriched the experience of teachers in this form of education, but also has discredited its quality from their perspective. © 2021 ACM.