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The school system was greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a need to assess the implementation of flexible learning in academic institutions. The study intends to describe the flexible learning as practiced in the highly urbanized University and the countryside University during the COVID-19 pandemic. This survey research aims to explore students' and faculty members' perceptions of the flexible learning modality implemented in the two institutions of higher learning. It also aims to discover the challenges, preferences, and support students and faculty need. Based on the results, learning becomes not workable given reasonable factors: strength of internet connectivity, quality of modules provided, the validity of the assessment, availability of learning devices such as smartphones, availability of budget for net data subscription, conduciveness of respective households for learning, et cetera. There should be standardized, normativized, and effective modules that are produced out of the intervention of various stakeholders. Requirements must be simple, reasonable, and workable given the students' time, resources, and capacity. Assessments should not be traditional and objective but should be authentic assessments. The digital divide should never be promoted directly or indirectly. The default system for all degree programs has to be the modules. The synchronous and/or asynchronous sessions should be made available to students but not mandatory;the University and teachers have to monitor every student's learning progress effectively. © 2022 IEEE.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the landscape of education around the world. As academic institutions moved from traditional face-to-face instruction to distance learning instruction to ensure educational continuity while dealing with the health global crisis. The present study reports on the effectiveness of blended online learning at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Phenomenological research design was employed to obtain empirical information from the participants, and the data collected were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings of the study revealed that blended online learning was beneficial for the learners since it offers flexibility, autonomous learning, engagement, and improved ICT skills. However, the participants also experienced challenges that hamper their learning including technical issues, incomprehensible materials, home distractions, and a lack of resources. © 2022 IEEE.
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Along with hitting certain regions of the country, the COVID-19 outbreak substantially impacted all academic institutions, prompting the traditional classroom structure to be adjusted immediately. Governments have shifted to a virtual learning environment to alleviate separation from educational activities and boost involvement. The primary objective of this research is to examine the different learning techniques used by senior high school students at a Philippine University when they engage in online learning. This study investigates the underlying pedagogies and instructional designs employed in the production and delivery of online courses. Numerous challenges, including infrastructure and school readiness for a rapid transition to distant education, would develop due to the rapid transformation in education. The researchers employed a descriptive technique in conducting this study and set survey questions to collect data from respondents. The non-probability sampling approach is used in this study, and the results are analyzed using a 5-point Likert scale to determine the mean and standard deviation. The study's results indicate that although students are dissatisfied with the online setting due to its performance differences from the traditional approach, they believe the course material to be fascinating and relevant for the future. It is also indicated that the online learning materials have a significant impact and are convenient to their education. The researchers recommend that institutions arrange asynchronous and synchronous sessions throughout the week and that institutions pay more attention to course design. Finally, students should investigate the school's potential for online instruction. © 2023 IEEE.
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The spread of the Corona Virus pandemic on a global scale had a great impact on the trend towards e-learning. In the virtual exams the student can take his exams online without any papers, in addition to the correction and electronic monitoring of the exams. Tests are supervised and controlled by a camera and proven cheat-checking tools. This technology has opened the doors of academic institutions for distance learning to be wide spread without any problems at all. In this paper, a proposed model was built by linking a computer network using a server/client model because it is a system that distributes tasks between the two. The main computer that acts as a server (exam observer) is connected to a group of sub-computers (students) who are being tested and these devices are considered the set of clients. The proposed student face recognition system is run on each computer (client) in order to identify and verify the identity of the student. When another face is detected, the program sends a warning signal to the server. Thus, the concerned student is alerted. This mechanism helps examinees reduce cheating cases in early time. The results obtained from the face recognition showed high accuracy despite the large number of students' faces. The performance speed was in line with the test performance requirements, handling 1,081 real photos and adding 960 photos. © 2022 IEEE.
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Telemedicine and telehealth care system show the revolutionary and modern way to deal with the coronavirus 2019 pandemic. However, such systems are facing increased security risks. As a result, healthcare providers and academic institutions must be well-informed, safe, and prepared to respond to any cyber-attack. The aim of this paper is to conduct a review of healthcare information systems together with how security can be provided for such systems. The paper main focus is on the adoption of blockchain technology to support the security of the healthcare system. This adoption has been investigated and assessed to show its benefits compared with other conventional technologies. Finally, a recommendation was pointed out for the security of healthcare with the usage of blockchain technology. © 2022 IEEE.
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Academic Integrity (AI) violations have long been a concern of educators and academic institutions within all fields of study. AI violations can consist of a broad range of student behaviors that are considered dishonest, including but not limited to plagiarism, copying others' assignments, and paying for others to complete their work [1]. As the risks for academic integrity issues become ever more prevalent, particularly as more academic institutions rely on online course formats, researchers are continually attempting to identify what underlying factors lead students to commit AI violations. The COVID-19 pandemic among other factors has contributed to the rise in online learning formats. This change in course modality combined with easier access to digital resources has lowered the boundary for many students for violating AI, thus increasing our need to understand what factors influence students to consider violating AI. This poster represents an initial step in a larger research study looking at the relationship between AI violations and students' sense of belonging within their discipline. This poster presents findings from a literature review looking to identify research investigating students' beliefs regarding AI, institutional policies for AI violations, and underlying causes for AI violations. Findings from this literature review are mixed;while several factors have been identified that contribute to students' propensity to violate AI, few concrete solutions have been proposed or evaluated, indicating that there is a need for further research. © 2022 Owner/Author.
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According to Robert E. Schofield, looking back to the golden age of Scientific Societies we discover that, from the middle of XVII to the XIX century, rather than academic institutions they were considered as the proper alma mater by scientists [1]. Over time, the general reform of the university has gradually reversed this state of things, with few exceptions. This paper proposes some brief reflections on being a Scientific Society (of Geometry and Graphics) nowadays (in its 30th year), including a glance at the present COVID-19 pandemic impact. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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In this paper, we develop a dynamic model for a low-cost ventilator, Novavent, developed at Villanova University. Since 2020, several academic institutions have focused on developing a less expensive ventilator system with the goal of increasing accessibility of medical ventilation for low-income countries. This is mainly a response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Due to the demand the pandemic has created, the development process of these new designs have prioritized development and implementation speed over model validation. In order to increase the understanding and aid in the controller design process of these new ventilator designs, an empirical model was developed for a low-cost ventilator design, developed at Villanova University. The process of this model design was systematically documented with the intention that other institutions can use this process as a template for modeling their own designs. After developing expressions of the different responses in the system observed through empirical data, Simulink was then used to combine all expressions into a holistic model. This model was then validated using data collected from the response of the ventilator design observed. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.. All rights reserved.
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The development of systems that help automate and manage people’s lives at different levels is what has driven the enormous growth that humanity has had. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant an unprecedented event that has marked a before and after for the entire world. As a result of this, companies and institutions implemented various technological tools to have a greater capacity to respond to the challenges generated by this and other similar potential diseases, however, the development of these technological tools is not always clear and accessible, particularly to small companies and to academic institutions. This paper describes the development of a web tool for the analysis of physical and mental health data of students using a COVID-19 screening tool, commonly used psychological questionnaires and inventories which help diagnose symptoms of mental illnesses, and a microblogging tool for further natural language processing. The results and conclusions reached at the end of this work are also presented. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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The United Nations General Assembly established a set of 17 goals in 2015 known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They inspire concerted efforts around the world to be accomplished by the year 2030. Goal 17, “Partnerships for the Goals”, embraces the fundamental strategy to achieve all the goals by the effective collaboration of all nations, institutions, organizations, and individuals. It relies on extensive global awareness as the fundamental ground to build the recognition of diversity and inclusion;striving to consider every perspective in our shared world. Academic institutions, particularly colleges and universities, should take leadership roles in educating the upcoming generation of professionals and leaders to accomplish this mission. Engineering schools and departments are required to demonstrate these as educational outcomes for their students. Specifically, Student Outcomes 2, 3, and 4 of ABET Criterion 3, all involve awareness, communication, and consideration of global contexts. This is critical to address the Sustainable Development goals as the students make up the future workforce in charge of advancing technical solutions for a better and sustainable world. This paper discusses a three-year experience in the Chemical Engineering Department, with the participation of 162 college students, in 33 projects, as a curricular requirement for a capstone course. The project provided a unique opportunity for students to become acquainted with problems around the world and to challenge them to consider multiple solutions. Student teams collaborated with foreign organizations (in the country they chose to address a problem) to analyze and propose solutions for challenges in that country. Activities are organized during the entire semester following project management techniques. They include an early presentation of the proposal, a scheduled progress report presentation, a poster, and a final presentation. Foreign partners are asked to provide their reflections on the experience. All classmates review and peer grade every deliverable from other teams. Students evaluate their teammates' performance and provide a self-assessment of their individual experience at the end of the course. A ChE Global Day was held at the end of the semester to display the posters and presentations to a broad audience with the support of university offices and centers focused on global experiences and international relations. Students earn up to 10% of the definitive grade of the course for these global engagement projects. This approach has proved to be fully sustainable, and with an overwhelming satisfaction of all the participants. It is important to note that the incorporation of a virtual platform during COVID-19 and the continuous monitoring and coaching by the instructor are producing best practices to foster communication between students and stakeholders. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022
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The driving forces changing how we work and the jobs that we do are impacting organizations of all sizes across all sectors. The global pandemic has accelerated the pace of change and disruption to a level not experienced before. The combination of Industry 4.0, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and COVID-19 are creating a new sense of urgency to drive collaboration between industry and education. In 2022, academic institutions offer three paths to prospective engineering students, which students qualify for via standardized testing;Path 1) 4-year bachelor degrees with “R1” research focus: typically following on to postgraduate degrees and careers in research or academia. Path 2) 2-year associate degree (community college): typically leading to a career based on a technical skill or trade. Path 3) 4-year bachelor degree with industry focus: typically leading to careers in technical-based industries This paper presents a new approach to the “third path,” the industry-based bachelor degrees. The new approach is an alternative to the traditional programs currently offered by the majority of engineering schools in the United States. The traditional academic approach is failing to fill the talent pipeline. Academic policies and practices are unable to keep pace with the exponential growth of technology, the evolving motivations of a four-generation workforce (soon to be 5 generation) and the unpredictable development of new engineering business models [1-4]. The global competitiveness of the United States is at risk, the stakes are too high to stay on the traditional course. The authors contend that paths 1 and 2, despite shortcomings of their own, are in far better shape than the third path, so they are not addressed in this paper. This paper, written more like a position paper, proposes a new model for the third path;it is based on extensive research that was discussed in prior publications by the same authors [10,11,24-26]. The Third Path model proposes revised roles for the four key stakeholders involved in undergraduate engineering and technical education. The stakeholders are: 1) Industry (United States), 2) Academic institutions, 3) Federal and State Governments, and most importantly 4) next-generation student-engineers and technicians. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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In March 2020, academic institutions across the world were involuntarily presented with the challenge of teaching and engaging students remotely through online classes. These forced adaptations allowed instructors to develop best practices they would carry with them into their classrooms post initial pandemic stages. During the spring semester of 2021, an Introduction to Environmental Engineering Course offered to college Juniors was taught using one of these initial best practices, a hyflex teaching pedagogy. This study looks at the effectiveness of a hyflex teaching pedagogy in environmental engineering education based on student performance on major graded events and achievement of course outcomes. These results can help shape the future of environmental engineering education by helping to evaluate the effectiveness of changes made to traditional education because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pedagogical changes that enhanced student engagement and performance should be retained in a post-pandemic classroom while those that inhibited engagement and performance should be modified before continuing. Under the flexible pedagogy, during the 2021 spring semester, students were afforded the opportunity to choose their modality for receiving classroom instruction in an introduction to environmental engineering course. For each lesson, the student could choose to either attend the 55-minute lesson in person or remotely using a Blackboard Collaborate classroom. Students were not tied to a single modality and could change the method of instruction for each lesson. In support of hybrid pedagogy, during class time the instructor used tools to encourage student engagement from both in-person and remote students during each of the 40 lessons. The attendance modality was recorded for all 213 students for every lesson. Their performance across three exams, three problem sets, and the final exam were correlated, using Microsoft Excel's built-in correlation matrix function, to the students' method of attendance. This evaluation provided insight regarding if the method of instruction affected student performance. All students enrolled in the course received the same lesson content where the only difference was whether they chose to receive that instruction remotely or in person. This study also compared student performance on course outcomes to previous years when the class was only offered in-person to determine if the hyflex pedagogies affected students' achievement on any of the four desired course outcomes. The results of this study show that student performance throughout the semester on graded events had only a low to moderate correlation with chosen modality. Attendance favoring in-person learning only showed a slight correlation towards an increased overall average in the class but not enough to make it statistically significant. Overall, students performed only slightly better on some of the course outcomes to the previous years' performance. These results encourage instructors to continue to explore teaching pedagogies that were bred out of the adherence to pandemic constraints. Through deliberate and inclusive engagement strategies regarding preparation and the conduct of instruction, students may be allowed to select their teaching modality without significant impact on performance. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022
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The majority of the academic institutions across the globe transitioned education delivery to alternate methods, irrespective of specializations, in response to the pandemic. However, very little is explored regarding how architecture educators perceive the Online Learning Environment (OLE) transition impacts based on gender differences. The need for such a study emerges as the literature indicates that women are more impacted than males during natural disasters, which might include a pandemic. The unit of analysis for the study was architecture educators in India. India was purposely selected as it is one of the top three countries globally from the perspective of enrolled university students. The study explored the impacts of the OLE transition among architecture educators as per gender in India. An online survey method was used to allow adequate data collection during a pandemic. The developed online instrument was hosted on Qualtrics. The developed online instrument was pilot tested by education experts in India. The instrument was emailed to the deans of more than 450 architecture colleges in India for dissemination among the educators affiliated with the institutions. In addition, the research team used interpersonal channels such as Whatsapp for instrument distribution. Two follow-up emails were sent to increase the response rate. The survey instrument was disseminated in March and April 2021, one year after the pandemic had impacted globally, also the timeframe when the pandemic started to severely impact India. The study used 165 complete responses from architecture educators. Approximately 59% of the respondents identified themselves as females. Further, most of the respondents had a Master's degree as a terminal degree. The study identified perception differences of COVID-19 impact on architecture educators. The study found that female educators had less experience with OLE and were less aware of the resources available at the University and institute levels before the impact of COVID-19. At the same time, a higher number of male educators indicated a negative productivity impact than their female counterparts. Finally, agreement among genders could be observed in the areas of administration monitoring online teaching, factors impacting the productivity of the architecture educators, and concerns about working from home. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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Since COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic in March 2020, the world as we know it has changed. Most academic institutions in the U.S. have switch to fully online or remote classes. This abrupt change has left both the instructors and students with a lot of challenges to face, with the most concerning of them all is being able to fully focus and actively engage in a remote classroom. One of the ways to help students in a remote online classroom is incorporating active learning techniques. This paper will study the effect of using different active learning techniques, in a remote classroom, on improving the students' level of engagement and ability to focus. The study will be divided in two different aspects, first: the authors will analyze the students' perspectives on the use of active learning techniques, through a survey-based study. Second, we will investigate the students' scores before and after using active learning techniques in different course modules. The study took place over Summer 2020 and 2021 and covered three different courses, with more than 80 students participating in it. The results obtained are very promising and the authors will be recommending the best active learning techniques to be used in an online environment. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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According to Robert E. Schofield, looking back to the golden age of Scientific Societies we discover that, from the middle of XVII to the XIX century, rather than academic institutions they were considered as the proper alma mater by scientists [1]. Over time, the general reform of the university has gradually reversed this state of things, with few exceptions. This paper proposes some brief reflections on being a Scientific Society (of Geometry and Graphics) nowadays (in its 30th year), including a glance at the present COVID-19 pandemic impact. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Introduction: Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a multi-component career planning worksheet that guides trainees through an iterative self-assessment. This paper provides the first investigation of IDP use and experiences among junior faculty at academic institutions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where IDP is seldomly used by trainees. Methods: An online survey determined the utilization and impact of IDP among junior faculty trainees enrolled on "NURTURE" mentored research program to support career development for faculty at Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) between 2016-2020. Responses were received between March and June 2021, a period of intense COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Results: Of 64 trainees 64(39%) were female and 60/64(98%) developed an IDP during the fellowship period; of whom 45/60(75%) had never been exposed to IDP. Trainees' benefits included intentional thinking about own career goals and support to execute the goals as well as self-management skills of time management and communication, among others. Conclusion: IDP was well-received by junior faculty trainees, with several self-management and motivation benefits to the scholars. We recommend that academic programs and faculty at academic institutions in LMIC should consider taking on the IDP approach to promote focused career development for all trainees including junior faculty.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Inosine Diphosphate , Female , Humans , Male , Universities , Pandemics , Faculty , Social Planning , Faculty, MedicalABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruption to academic institutions as well as the conferences associated with those disciplines. The Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) was among those affected and was forced to cancel their 2020 conference and shift their 2021 conference to a Smart Conference. This study collected feedback from the authors to gauge their perceptions of presenting in a virtual format to determine if the ASC should continue to integrate smart options for future events post-pandemic. The results indicated that the smart option for presenting conference proceedings papers was well received, and that almost 60% of the respondents indicated that if a smart option was available in the future, they would be more inclined to submit a paper for publication. These results indicate that an opportunity exists for the ASC to broaden its engagement with faculty members and further its mission to advance construction education by embracing Smart Conference techniques at future events. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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As we know that COVID-19 Pandemic persists and it is resilient for students to attend classroom due to health concerns. Almost every academic institution has shifted towards an online education system. It is mandatory to encounter problems which are usually faced by students during online education. A survey was conducted to spot whether a student is contented with this new era of online education or not, by foreseeing the complications and outcomes of online education. A questionnaire with variegated sections was shared among students to cover supplementary issues faced by them and a response about the same was received from 263 students in total. Proposed model of classification will acquire data for training from the survey. It will predict the sentiment of students towards online education. Along with the model, the survey data is useful to discover additional problems faced by students and also do the needful in favor of students. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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Since COVID 19, there have been significant advancements in the field of teaching and learning. Academic institutions are going digital to provide their students more resources. Due to technology, students now have more alternatives to study and improve skills at their own pace. In terms of assessments, there has been a shift toward online tests. The absence of a physical invigilator is perhaps the most significant impediment in online mode. Henceforth, online proctoring services are becoming more popular, and AI-powered proctoring solutions are becoming demanding. In this project, we describe a strategy for avoiding the physical presence of a proctor during the test by developing a multi-modal system. We captured video using a webcam along active window capture. The face of the test taker is identified and analyzed to forecast his emotions. To identify his head pose, his feature points are identified. Furthermore, aspects including a phone, a book, or the presence of another person are detected. This combination of models creates an intelligent rule-based inference system which is capable of determining if any malpractice took place during the examination. © 2022 IEEE.
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The research focused on the challenges and opportunities given by the fast transition of academic institutions to remote online learning amid the country's Covid-19 pandemic. Data from online surveys and focus groups were analyzed using descriptive statistics and theme analysis. The consequences and complexity of limited internet connectivity, loss of human interaction, and low skill in digital platforms were highlighted as the primary problems and disadvantages of online learning. The adaptability of the children to the online platform and the teachers' originality, flexibility, and eagerness to learn and adapt in the digital environment transformed these issues into learning opportunities. The university's continued efforts and will to prosper in the new normal of education, eventually preparing itself for the future normal of education, were attributed to the success of distant synchronous and asynchronous online learning. © 2022 ACM.