IMPACT OF DISTANCE LEARNING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

This article describes a new method for identifying the impact of distance learning during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the teaching and learning environment and for developing teachers' technical skills and attitudes toward distance learning. It is based on a relevant questionnaire filled in by 453 teachers in the Jordanian capital of Amman during the second semester of 2019/2020. Using the two parts of the questionnaire, one of 22 items on the effectiveness of distance learning and one of 15 items on the teachers' attitudes toward distance learning, the authors have found that distance learning was moderately effective and that the teachers' attitudes toward distance learning were positive. More particularly, statistically significant differences at a level of α ≤ 0.05 existed between the teachers' mean scores on the distance learning scale in favor of humanities (t = 13.19). From our findings, we propose establishing a comprehensive assessment system for the distance learning program to monitor its implementation in computer labs;assisting teachers in using the program;implementing tutorials and training lessons for teachers to share their experiences;and providing tablets, computers, or smartphones to students from vulnerable social groups. © 2022 Science Press. All rights reserved.

Predicting Pandemic Curve Distribution Using Statistical Models

This article discusses the distribution of pandemic in the world and pandemic curve in Jordan and how the science of probability and statistics predict when active cases tend to zero by determining the shape of epidemic curve and relating it to a special probability distribution that has specific measures and properties. At the beginning of the outbreak of any virus in a society, reliable data describing it and its spread will be rare, hence researchers set up statistical models that have the ability to predict the spreads’ shape, where the prospected people hosting such viruses will go to and the likelihood of transmitting it to places they travel. Those models use known statistical measures that estimate the probability of disease transmission from infected people to others. In addition, the factors related to roads and people’s movement, taking into consideration, public health interventions, such as wearing masks, closing places of people’s aggregations like schools, universities mosques and churches and quarantine make difference in numbers of infected people. The fundamental differences between the “Spanish flu” that attacked the world a hundred years ago and “Coronavirus” the world facing since the beginning of the current year 2020 is the amount of huge data concluded from scientific studies and reports related to virology and epidemiology.