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Industry 4.0 has occurred and impacted many industries. Along with that are the heavy effects of the Covid-19 pandemic taking place globally. The dual impact on education is so great that the shift to compulsory online instruction has already taken place. And on that basis, universities and colleges promote their own educational digital transformation programs. The context of this study is a vocational college in which digital transformation has been applied for several years. This research aims to survey teachers' opinions about the implementation of digital transformation as well as their intention to continue teaching online in the future. The research method used in this study is a simple statistical method of data through an online survey via Google Form. The survey results show that the initial digital transformation process has received a lot of positivity and satisfaction from the teachers and students at the institution and the intention to continue implementing digital transformation in the future. © 2022 ACM.
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Aim/Purpose This study examines the impact of transitioning from in-person classrooms to remote online business education and provides analysis of key factors impacting course and instructor ratings as well as strategies for higher education institutions to provide engaging instruction. Background "Zoom”ing into teaching and moving out of traditional classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a path full of twists and has impacted student perceptions of courses as well as instructors. One challenge has been to make the quality of synchronous online instruction perceived by students as positive as classroom-delivered ones. Methodology We analyze primary data collected in the course evaluation process from Business & Accounting students over six semesters between Fall 2019 to Spring 2022, covering pre-pandemic instruction in the classroom and the conversion to virtual instruction via Zoom. A total of 1782 observations for 38 courses were examined using mean comparison, regression and correlation analyses, and pairwise comparisons. Contribution We provide insights from the evaluation of those instructors who were able to make their Zoom-delivered courses perceived by students as equivalent or better than room-delivered ones. Specifically, clear presentation, stimulating delivery, providing feedback and encouraging discussion were positively correlated with successful online classes. Findings We find that there is a clear downward shift in course and instructor ratings as the change to synchronous online delivery was made. However, in the Spring of 2022, even though instructors and students were still not completely back in the classroom, both instructor and course ratings moved back closer to the pre-pandemic levels. The parameters associated with instructor ratings, such as providing feedback, clear presentations, stimulating sessions, and encouraging discussion, showed similar downward fluctuations. Also, aspects related to course content were affected by the transition to online modality, including training on critical thinking quantitative analysis, research and writing abilities, and overall usefulness of the content. Moore's model of Transactional Distance helps explain these changes. Recommendations We recommend that practitioners allow sufficient time for students and faculty for Practitioners to learn through online instruction delivery and supply training for both populations in adapting to learning in this delivery mode. Recommendations The disruption in higher education caused by COVID-19 has provided a wealth for Researchers of information on the pluses and minuses of online delivery. Careful inspection of trends can help provide guidance to higher education leaders. Impact on Society One of the many changes the COVID-19 pandemic brought was the opportunity to try alternate ways of connecting and learning. This study shows how this experience can be used to guide the future of higher education. Future Research Further research is needed to explore the in-depth reactions of students and faculty to the switch from classroom to online delivery, to explore whether these findings can be more broadly applied to other subjects and other types of universities. © 2022 Informing Science Institute. All rights reserved.
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Access to technology is essential to educational success in today's digitized society, but disparities in access to technology can handicap students. This study examines to what extent this digital divide exists among underserved students in online instruction during COVID-19 and in their adoption of free Technology Loaner programs. Focusing on underserved students that are characterized by their generational status, minority background or low income, we predict that underserved college students will show lower levels of technology access and higher levels of free technology adoption than their counterparts. However, the quantitative analysis of survey data (n=258) collected from a U.S. minority-serving university provides mixed, surprising results. Follow-up analysis of qualitative data from 10 interviews offers us further insights and partial explanations for these unexpected results. Our study suggests that individual background should be considered in designing a policy to mitigate digital divide and enhance student learning in online education. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
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Digital education has progressed through several stages and transitions over the past thirty or forty years. It is an umbrella term that represents the continued integration of digital education. It provides complementary use of technology in the classroom, using one or more of online instruction tools. Libya for instance is currently between those developing countries that used to be a unified, interconnected world of free trade. However, the past and recent studies highlight several boundaries and shortcomings that significantly delay the inclusive performance and procedure of the education system in Libya such as complicated exchange of information due to poor infrastructure, previous conflict, and recently impact of Covid -19 pandemic. Covid-19 pandemic has made many countries adapt to new situations in different sectors including education. This study supports the need to prepare and implement e-learning strategies, and shift into resilience e-learning technologies in Libyan educational system. This is done by conducting a comprehensive and critical review in some of the past and recent related studies to understand better its status. Besides to determine which factors or barriers that the most significant challenges and limit stakeholder to implement e-learning technologies, to identify related solutions to prepare and implement learning strategies, and then to shifting into resilience e-learning technologies with its role in modern and sustainable Libyan society. These solutions can be implemented not only during the current pandemic and after, but it can be shifted into resilience e-learning technologies that are adopted into other crises such as those caused by weather and digital infrastructure. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most university classes were moved to online instruction. This greatly stimulated the need for online learning tools. WeBWorK is an open source online homework system, which has been used extensively in a variety of subjects. However, it has not been widely adopted by the Computer Science education community. In this paper, we discuss our experience using WeBWorK in teaching two large online sections of discrete mathematics. Emphasis is given to how we created randomized and auto-graded problems for many topics. In addition, we summarize student performance and feedback. We conclude with our reflections on using WeBWorK and propose future work for exploring its adaptive learning features. © 2023 ACM.
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The abrupt transition to online instruction in the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity for instructors in information science to engage with new teaching and learning modalities. After their online semester (i.e., Spring 2020), some decided to utilize the insights they gained and offer blended-learning courses in the post-pandemic semester. In this mixed-methods study, we surveyed a sample of 388 students in a large undergraduate information science course that transitioned from online to blended learning: 212 students in the online offering and 176 students in the blended offering of the course. We compared students' experiences in online and blended learning modalities and examined their perspectives on the blended learning component. Our quantitative and qualitative analyses yielded mixed results. Findings showed students preferred blended learning over online learning. They perceived it to be more engaging and active and reported that it allowed more peer interaction. Students had mostly positive perspectives of the blended learning components. However, some offered feedback on improving attendance requirements for the online component of the blended learning. Others reported online fatigue following online instruction during the pandemic. We discuss the findings and offer suggestions for effectively incorporating blended instruction in large information science courses. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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CONTEXT A primarily undergraduate military college shifted from face-to-face instruction to emergency online instruction in Spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are examining student experiences with the shift using Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), which asserts that learning is hindered when cognitive load overwhelms finite working memory capacity. At the onset of the pandemic, we hypothesized that the need to manage learning in new and changing modalities may increase students' cognitive load and development. PURPOSE OR GOAL We seek to triangulate a previous finding that middle-years students experienced more cognitive load demands than either freshmen or seniors during the Spring 2020 semester. In this study, we examine cognitive load experienced by students in sophomore-, junior-, and senior-level civil engineering courses when engaging in various types of summative assessments. Our goal was to understand how academic course level and assessment type (closed-ended vs. open-ended) may have impacted cognitive load among students. APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS We are engaged in a longitudinal mixed-methods study to explore the impacts of changing modalities on cognitive load and student development during the pandemic. For this study, we measured cognitive load experienced during five assessments administered across civil engineering courses of different academic levels using the NASA Task Load Index (TLX). The TLX is a rigorously-developed instrument that quantifies workload (a surrogate for cognitive load) across six dimensions: mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, performance, effort, and frustration. We used non-parametric analysis to identify differences in cognitive workload by course level and assessment type. We supplemented interpretation of findings through analysis of open-ended questions and focus group transcripts. ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES Sophomores and juniors experienced summative assessments differently than seniors, a finding that is consistent with our previous publications suggesting that modality changes may have disproportionately impacted middle-years students. Analysis of TLX data showed that sophomores and juniors reported highest time-demand and frustration, respectively, during closed-ended assessments. Open-ended assessments elicited significant frustration among juniors, a trend that was not observed for seniors. Qualitatively, both sophomores and juniors discussed workload-associated aspects of the modality shift more than seniors. CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY We seek to further understand the unique experiences of middle-years students as a means for developing recommendations for managing cognitive load during online engineering courses - whether planned or unplanned. Copyright © Mary K. Watson, Elise Barrella, Kevin Skenes, Benjamin Kicklighter and Aidan Puzzio, 2021.
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With the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts focusing on student engagement in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses have shifted towards engagement in online instruction, resulting in a need for increased understanding of how instructors adapt active learning from in person instruction to online learning. Active learning occurs in many different formats across different classrooms. Despite these broadly different formats, a common thread across all active learning is that using it in classrooms results in greater student engagement as compared to passive listening to lectures. Educational researchers have found that active learning has a positive impact on student outcomes, especially for underrepresented students in STEM.The research outlined in this paper seeks to understand how instructors are adapting from in person courses and the strategies they use to engage students in online STEM courses. To do this, we interviewed 20 instructors who were using active learning in teaching an online STEM course about the strategies they were using to engage their students in online activities. We coded these interviews using a grounded theory approach. After several rounds of coding, we found six overarching themes about how instructors viewed active learning in their online classrooms: Instructor Emotion, Instructor Strategy, Instructor Goal, Active Learning Example, Instructor Barrier, and Student Behavior. This paper focuses on the instructor strategy theme and its 55 individual codes. © 2022 IEEE.
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The COVID-19 pandemic forced many educational institutions to transition to online learning activities. This significantly impacted various aspects of students' lives. Many of the studies aimed at assessing the impact of the online instruction on students' wellbeing and performance have mainly focused on issues such as mental health. However, the impact on student grades-a key measure of student success-has been given little attention. The handful existing studies are either focused on primary schools-where the dynamics are different from higher education-or based on statistical correlations, which are usually not causally rigorous, therefore, prone to biased estimates due to various confounding variables. There are many variables associated with students' grades, thus, to assess the causal impact of the online instruction on students' grades, there is a need for a causally-grounded approach that can control for confounding variables. To that end, we use a causal tree to investigate the impact of online instruction on the grades of the general population as well as different demographic subgroups. Our analysis is based on the demographic and engagement data for the 2019 (offline/control) and 2020 (online/treatment) cohorts of 3 mandatory courses in an Australian university. For all 3 courses, our results show that for any given student in the population, the average grade they would have gotten, had they studied offline, reduced by 3.6%, 4.7%, and 14% respectively. Further analyses show that among students with similar level of (low) engagement with the virtual learning environment, the average grade international students would have gotten, had they studied face-to-face, reduced by 19.9%, 36.6%, and 46.9% more than their domestic counterparts despite having similar engagement for the 3 courses respectively. These subgroup disparities have the potential to exacerbate existing inequalities. Given the current concerns about algorithmic bias in learning analytics (LA), we trained grade prediction models with the data and investigated for algorithmic bias. Interestingly, we find that by simply changing citizenship status, a student gets a new predicted grade, entirely different from what was initially predicted given their actual citizenship status. This implies that researchers must be careful when building LA models on COVID-19 era data. © 2022 ACM.
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This Work in Progress Paper presents techniques adapted to teach first-year engineering courses post-pandemic. Challenges faced by students and faculty will also be presented in this paper along with some guidance and best practices. In March 2020, COVID-19 was announced as a pandemic that began impacting higher education during the Spring semester. Many land-grant universities were not fully equipped with the tools to offer the best learning experience to students due to lock-down and the inability to access the laboratories and teaching equipment. This global pandemic had caused the universities to change their operations and impelled instructors to switch to online instruction halfway into the semester. Many universities began exploring options and investing their resources to devise teaching pedagogies that best fit the needs of their students. Although universities had been utilizing some learning management systems such as Blackboard, D2L, Canvas, etc., an unanticipated need for online instruction impelled a mandated use of these learning management systems for full content delivery. Although engineering courses could easily be revamped to distance learning platforms, there were some challenges due to the nature of the coursework and assessment of outcomes. Adhering to the social distancing guidelines and university mask mandates along with the availability of vaccination have made it possible to return to in-person teaching and learning. The purpose of this paper is to: a) present some of the challenges faced by the first-year engineering students during the transition to and from distance learning approaches, b) share some of the results from the assessment of student attitudes during this transition, and c) share some of the best practices adopted by the instructors during these uncertain times. The first-year engineering curriculum usually involves fundamental concepts and provides an opportunity for students to explore several engineering disciplines. In a normal learning environment, engineering courses tend to be challenging due to higher expectations for problem-solving, mathematics, and scientific concepts, and adding external factors such as the pandemic adds more complications. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, students and instructors have been under constant pressure to satisfy the basic requirements of attaining student learning objectives. In this process of attaining the objectives, several challenges had been encountered and overcome in different ways. The focus of this research work is to study the first-year engineering course and present the challenges associated with the delivery of the course content, teaching engineering concepts and applications in a remote setting, and communication between instructors and students during the lock-down period. This paper also presents some of the teaching strategies that have been investigated by the instructors to assist students during difficult times while balancing student expectations. This work in progress study was initiated in Spring 2020 at a small regional campus of The Ohio State University. Challenges arising due to the transition to and from distance learning modalities were observed in the first-year engineering courses, Fundamentals of Engineering I and Fundamentals of Engineering II. These courses are two-credit hours each and introduce engineering problem-solving, data analysis, project-based learning, computer programming, 3-D Modeling and simulation, project management, and teamwork. Teaching strategies adopted by the instructors including restructuring the course, revisioning the assessment of course goals, and utilizing alternative approaches to assess student performance will be discussed in this paper. The findings of this paper will provide an opportunity for educators to learn from the unique experience and develop strategies to address the continuously changing teaching and learning environments that have evolved as a result of the pandemic. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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The COVID-19 pandemic forced educators and students to transition to online instruction. This change brought the importance of user interfaces into stark relief for engineering lab classes, compelling educators to consider how the design of online courses and virtual laboratory experiences either served or worked against student learning. In summer 2020, we began educational and user experience (UX) research with the online laboratory experiences in an electrical engineering lab classroom at the University of Georgia's College of Engineering. The NSF-funded project work draws on ready-to-use remote labs for electronics applied to several courses. It seeks to explore the faculty and student perspective on online experimentation in engineering curricula. However, the UX thrust of the project rounds out a holistic view of the online learning ecosystem and might specifically uncover barriers or factors of success related to the implementation of online labs. This project highlighted the importance of UX design in delivering science curriculum via virtual laboratory exercises with the specific conclusion that deficits in perspicuity in the UX create an obstacle to learning for engineering students. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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Many universities stopped face-to-face instruction in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and forced courses to be online through the summer 2021. In the fall 2021, many students returned to face-to-face instruction. After the two face-to-face exams, nearly 60% of the class was failing a heat transfer class that is significantly higher than pre-pandemic semesters. The instructor offered to meet one-on-one with each student and two-thirds of the class did meet with the instructor. The instructor learned that many students (1) devoting less than 2 hours per week to the course outside class room, (2) do not read the textbook and (3) primarily study by reviewing instructor-provided notes the evening before the exam. The individual meeting helped build instructor-student connectedness and helped students develop a personal strategy to improve class performance. Many students responded positively and grades improved from 40% mid-term pass rate to 73% final course pass rate, yet this is about 20% lower than pre-pandemic pass rates. The improvement is largely attributed to improved student-instructor rapport and students being open to practical suggestions to help increase study productivity and improve student learning. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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In this Work in progress (WIP) study, we discuss the impact of the comprehensive shift in the modes of instruction since the onset of Covid-19. The need for variant modes required the instructors to be creative and flexible in their teaching methods. The designers of the engineering courses had to be creative to retain student attention and add flexibility based on changing needs. This research study was a timely need as it identifies the impact of various modes of instruction, i.e., emergency remote instruction (ERI), online instruction, and HyFlex (Hybrid+flexible) through a technical design course. The evaluation of varying methods of instruction and their impact on learning and student performance is a timely necessity. This study statistically analyzes the implication of the changes in instruction modalities, which happened to make imparting education a possibility. In this paper, we have studied the relationship between student performances and the modes of instruction. For this purpose, data has been collected throughout different semesters from 236 students in an AutoCAD design course. For this year-long study, we have used regression analysis to understand the impact of the different modes of instruction on students' performances. We also conducted ANOVA to compare the mean difference in students' performance during different modalities. The results indicate that students in emergency remote instruction (ERI) outperform students in online instruction and HyFlex (Hybrid+flexible) modality. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many institutions of higher learning across the United States to pivot to online instruction immediately or close altogether. This transition highlighted many inequities in access to education as well as the sense of community on college campuses for the students. Earlier digital divide research focused mainly on physical access, identifying patterns of hardware access by different social identities such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Soon after, digital divide researchers began to recognize that the divide exists even when there is physical access to hardware, because the usage and the quality of usage varies (Katz & Aspden, 1996). During the COVID-19 pandemic, many students have lost access to the free, public technology resources at their college or university. These inequities in online learning and the potential impact on student success were highlighted by our team in our prior publication (Simpson, 2020). In addition to access to education, students also lose connection with their community available on college campuses. The purpose of our study was to understand the challenges of online learning and the relationship between the Digital Divide and Sense of Belonging in underrepresented students amid a global pandemic. Using qualitative research methods, we examined the questions "How does the Digital Divide currently impact Sense of Belonging and community in students?" and "What patterns will be revealed when we investigate Sense of Belonging across different social identities?" We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with current and recently graduated undergraduate engineering students. We were intentional to compose a diverse group of interview participants including students from underrepresented groups, including ethnic and gender minorities as well as first-generation students. Of the 20 participants, five self-identified as men and 15 as women;nine self-identified as Black/African American, eight as White, and three as Asian. Four were first-generation students. Four participants were rising juniors, 10 were rising seniors (one 5th year senior), and five were recent alumni (December and May 2020). We conducted first and second-cycle coding data analyses to identify themes regarding the impact of COVID-19 and Digital Divide on Sense of Belonging. Preliminary results suggest the presence of themes highlighting both victories and defeats within the realms of Digital Divide and Sense of Belonging. Digital Divide was highlighted by limitations of students' Physical Home Learning Environment, Internet Connectivity. The negative factors affecting students' Sense of Belonging included Social Isolation;Impersonal Learning;Missing Professional Opportunities, and Individual Differences. The themes highlighting factors that increased students' Sense of Belonging were: Student Organizations Impact;Togetherness in Pandemic;Group Work Benefits;and Connecting Through Tech. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique perspective for researchers to study the commonalities and differences among the experience of engineering students from diverse backgrounds. These findings will help to inform higher education administration of the impact of Sense of Belonging on college campuses and how it contributes to students' success. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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The COVID-19 pandemic caused a major disruption to colleges and universities, with many institutions cancelling in-person learning and moving to completely online instruction for a time. Since the pandemic began, institutions of higher education have utilized varying degrees of face-to-face, hybrid and online instruction. These changes have impacted both students and faculty in science and engineering fields. Traditional science and engineering students have had to adapt quickly to new, and largely unwelcome, means of learning. In addition, faculty have had to abruptly alter their teaching to adjust to changes in teaching formats imposed by the pandemic. Using a web-based survey of engineering and computer science programs in US and Canadian universities, this paper studies the challenges introduced to STEM education due to the COVID-19 pandemic from students' perspectives. The survey was administered in face-to-face, hybrid and completely online classes to study students' perceptions and attitudes as well as challenges related to changes in teaching formats during the pandemic. Furthermore, this study assesses students' perceptions about the future of teaching in a post COVID-19 environment. Results of this study provide insights into both current and future impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on engineering and computer science education. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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Learning Assistants (LAs) are undergraduate students that serve as course assistants in STEM courses to facilitate the learning of their near-peers. This paper explored the perspectives of LAs at four institutions with respect to mentoring and their personal outcomes. Interviews with program coordinators revealed different goals and implementation of the LA programs at each institution. Survey responses from the LAs revealed differences by school in the percentage who felt that they had been mentored as well as how the LA's perceived that they had mentored others. The most common outcomes from serving as an LA were teaching skills, communication skills, confidence, and satisfaction from giving back. Statistically significant correlations were found between some mentoring attributes and outcomes, such as perceiving that their mentoring included listening was correlated with the outcomes of satisfaction from giving back (phi 0.323) and communication skills (phi 0.134). The results may be impacted by COVID-related online instruction. This preliminary study is laying the groundwork for a larger study to examine the ties between different LA program characteristics and the outcomes for LAs. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
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The paper presents results of research that deals with online distance instruction from students’ point of view. The main objective of the research is to detect the principal features of the process and propose recommendations to improve the quality in the future. Data were collected via a questionnaire consisting of 18 items that required multiple-choice and open answers. The research sample included 228 respondents who attended upper secondary and higher education institutions in the Czech Republic. Each respondent provided feedback on two courses taught within the second closure of schools (September 2020–May 2021). First, they reflected on the course they appreciated;second, they described the course which was not designed and conducted in accord with didactic principles from their point of view. The collected data were structured using four criteria: (1) First contact and communication, (2) Learning content acquisition, (3) Learning content delivery, (4) Student’s final feedback on online distance instruction, including teachers’ and learners’ effort devoted to teaching and learning, and the quality of learning outcomes. Based on the collected data, recommendations for further development in online distance instruction are proposed. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Yo-Yo Machines are playful communication devices designed to help people feel socially connected while physically separated. We designed them to reach as many people as possible, both to make a positive impact during the COVID-19 pandemic and to assess a self-build approach to circulating research products and the appeal of peripheral and expressive communication devices. A portfolio of four distinct designs, based on over 30 years of research, were made available for people to make by following simple online instructions (yoyomachines.io). Each involves connecting a pair of identical devices over the internet to allow simple communication at a distance. This paper describes our motivation for the project, previous work in the area, the design of the devices, supporting website and publicity, and how users have made and used Yo-Yo Machines. Finally, we reflect on what we learned about peripheral and expressive communication devices and implications for the self-build approach. © 2022 ACM.
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Covid-19 is increasingly forcing educational institutions to explore new avenues and weight the pros and cons between on-site instruction, online instruction, and mixed formats. Understanding teaching format preferences of lecturers may be helpful for creating meaningful solutions with educational technologies. The paper at hand documents and reflects on the organization and implementation of a large-scale first-semester course in Switzerland in the fall term 2020, where seminar lecturers were free to decide on their used course format (on-site, online, mixed). The format preferences of all 39 seminar lecturers were captured and evaluated. Our results indicate that seminar lecturers predominantly opted for mixed or online seminars;often they like to conduct the very first lesson on site for the purpose of becoming familiar with the students. © 2021 Gesellschaft fur Informatik (GI). All rights reserved.
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To examine the online teaching attitudes of university teachers and the influencing factors during the Covid-19 pandemic, this study conducted a large-scale survey (N=1090) on university teachers in 16 provinces in China. A series of Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric tests were performed to determine the impact of teacher demographic characteristics on their online teaching attitudes. The results revealed that most teachers had positive opinions of online instruction with several perceived benefits, but also recognized the challenges and disadvantages to teach online. The differences in age, educational background, professional titles and prior online teaching experience significantly affected teachers' attitudes towards online teaching. The study concluded with several implication for preparing university teachers for online instruction in the post-pandemic world. © 2021 IEEE.