Remote laboratory for microcontroller programming course

this paper describes experience of changing microcontroller related course from face-to-face to remote format, which took place in Riga Technical University during the COVID- 19 pandemic during years 2020 and 2021. The name of the subject is Laboratory exercises in electronics. The primary ideology of that course is to let students touch and feel electronics without using any virtual stuff like simulators. Therefore, replacing everything with simulation is not a solution to such kind of course. In this publication, we want to describe system that is mixture of real physical system installed in the laboratory and remote interface interacting with the physical system.

Editors' Introduction: Teacher Candidates and Their Preparation: Inclusion, Care, and Critique

[...]the fourth article is a self-study of one teacher educator's ability to guide and support teacher candidates during the COVID-19 lockdown. Social emotional resiliency is no longer a nice aside but a central component to preventing future learning loss. [...]as the editorial team for Teacher Education Quarterly, we hope that these articles provide you with the opportunity to reflect, connect with the authors' ideas, and utilize their recommendations to support your own efforts to improve your teacher education program, teacher education courses, or to support the various other educator stakeholders that are in partnership with your schools of education. [...]the self-study article by Orit Schwarz-Franco and Oren Ergas, "Links in the Chain-A Self-Study ofEmotional Support in Teacher Education During COVID-19 Lockdown," reflects critically on a chain of emotional support by stakeholders linking a preservice philosophy teacher, a pedagogical instructor, a school counselor, and a high school student during the first COVID-19 lockdown.

An Evaluation of Online Education Efficacy and the Measures to Improve It From the Perspectives of Management Students in the Wake of COVID-19

The forced change to adopt the online mode of education delivery for postgraduate students has posed novel challenges. The efficacy of adopted online education in the wake of COVID-19 needs to be examined. The influence of individual student behaviour-related variables such as nutrition behaviour, physical activity behaviour, and social media usage on perceived online education efficacy and attainment of a learning goal is examined in the current study. A total of 185 post-graduate healthcare management students from different educational institutions of India were surveyed. Path analysis is performed to test the conceptual model. The results highlight that the effect of exercise on the attainment of a learning goal is best at the higher levels of self-study hours, and at the lower levels, there is a negative relationship between the two. The impact of social media on self-learning hours and the online education efficacy is negative. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Maintaining quality of higher education during difficult times: Accreditation compliance in foreign language education

The world has witnessed substantial changes as a consequence of Covid-19 pandemic in many spheres of life including higher education. Assuring quality and maintaining compliance with accreditation criteria during the pandemic have been two critical considerations requiring change and adaptation in higher education institutions. The aim of this study was to investigate challenges in terms of assuring and sustaining quality and completing accreditation self-study process effectively under the circumstances of the pandemic. The study featured a case study design employing qualitative research methodology through interviews conducted mainly face-to-face and over Zoom. A semi-structured interview from created by the researcher was used to collect data from 10 instructors involved in the accreditation self-study process of a program during the most chaotic period of the pandemic. The themes that emerged from the study based on quality criteria and influence of the pandemic were: "Course Delivery”, "Format and Content of Assessment” and "Instructors' Professional Development”. The perceptions of the instructors on the aforementioned themes were elaborated on and discussed in the study from different perspectives. © 2023 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

Virtual Reality as a Medium of Asynchronous Content Delivery for Teaching about Enzymes

Self-study is an integral part of chemistry learning, whereby the students consume knowledge outside of the classroom environment. The COVID-19 pandemic magnified the need for efficient methods of synchronous and asynchronous instructional content delivery worldwide. Virtual reality (VR) presents a prospective technological solution to aid asynchronous content delivery, particularly for visual subjects such as chemistry. We investigate the feasibility of using carefully designed VR-based content to assist offline instruction about enzymes and the differences in their types. They are an essential concept in biochemistry due to their comprehensiveness and the similarities between their amino acid sequences responsible for their different functions. We compare the efficacy of VR-aided self-study against self-study assisted by recorded video lectures. An experiment is conducted to simulate self-study in three scenarios, i.e., conventional text-based self-study (1) without any additional aids, (2) assisted by recorded video lectures, and (3) with VR aids. Our findings indicate that VR can assist asynchronous content consumption leading to better learning and satisfaction.

Links in the Chain: A Self-Study of Emotional Support in Teacher Education During COVID-19 Lockdown

In this self-study, I reflect critically on a chain of emotional support linking a preservice philosophy teacher, a pedagogical instructor, a school counselor, and a high school student during the first COVID-19 lockdown. With the help ofa critical friend, I focus on my role as the preservice teacher's pedagogical instructor and examine the particular challenges and new opportunities granted to this profesional and personal chain of response and responsibility under the conditions of remote learning. My interviews with the preservice teacher and a senior counselor revealed two main themes, which are also central objectives of my work in teacher education: integration of social emotional learning into subject matter contents and integration of preservice teachers into school staff during practical training. These two objectives merge in a holistic approach to teacher education. I suggest that teacher-educators should recognize three aspects of teaching in conditions of social distancing: the greater need for emotional support, unique obstacles to giving support, and new ways to overcome these obstacles. Additionally, I argue that we should embrace the new possibilities that digital channels offer us for creating intimacy and accessibility in our relationships with our students.

LEARNING STRATEGIES, AN ADDITIONAL PINCH TO LEARNING A Study of the use of learning strategies by high school students in Mexico

This research presents an analysis of the learning strategies employed by students during confinement due to Covid-19 in the year 2021. The study sample consisted of 200 students from the Licenciado Benito Juárez García high school of the morning shift of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. A survey was applied to measure the degree of satisfaction in relation to their use and impact on the acquisition of knowledge, allowing them to be more self-taught. The results show that the hypothesis was partially fulfilled, since practice and organization are the learning strategies that most supported them in learning. © GKA Ediciones, authors. Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada.

A Self-Study of My Parallel Journey of Unlearning and Relearning Using Blackout Poetry in a Literature Didactics Module

As a teacher educator of literature methodology in Mauritius, this arts-based self-study is rooted in the need to improve my professional practice. It emanated from a critical incident during the COVID pandemic when I used blackout poetry during an online synchronous session with in-service teachers for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. The data production tools for this self-study include my own blackout poem, a reflection on the critical incident and an autobiographical resume. In addition, I engaged in dialogic discussion with the in-service teachers who served as critical friends. These tools empowered me to reflect on how I use blackout poetry as a creative writing activity and as a form of poetic inquiry with in-service teachers as andragogic learners. It also provided me with the opportunity to learn how I could become more empathetic to the learning experiences of in-service teachers. The thematic analysis revealed that the blackout poetry activity had not been fully optimized for creative and reflective purposes. First, there was the misassumption that this activity would interest the in-service teachers and intrinsically motivate them to engage in deep reflection and dialogic discussion. Second, I had overlooked temporal and technological challenges faced by in-service teachers. Lastly, the inability to align andragogic (adult learning) theory and practice and renegotiate learning expectations impeded the in-service teachers' learning experiences. This study thus valorizes how reflexive blackout poems, alongside other data production tools, can contribute to the unlearning and relearning of teacher educators to better teach adult learners.

Data Collection in Times of Pandemic: A Self-Study and Revisit of Research Practices During a Crisis.

COVID-19 as a global pandemic has greatly disrupted research, not only in terms of the practicality of research activities such as data collection, but also in data quality. Using self-study in form of duoethnography method for reflecting on research practice, this article reviews and reflects on the practices of remote data collection during the pandemic and further revisits additional issues brought about by these practices and concerns. One key observation from this self-study is the prevalence of practical challenges, particularly those related to participant access, that overshadows the potential advantages of remote data collection as well as other challenges. This challenge results in researchers' reduced control of the research process and also a requirement for more flexibility, greater sensitivity toward the participants and research skills for the researchers. We also observe greater conflation of quantitative and qualitative data collection and the emergence of triangulation as the main strategy to offset potential threats to data quality. This article concludes by calling for more discussions on several areas that feature scarce discussion in literature, including potential rhetoric importance assigned to data collection, adequacy of triangulation to safeguard data quality, and the potential difference between COVID-19's impact on quantitative and qualitative research.

Learning, Growing, Embracing, Transitioning, and Changing: Exploring Resilient Teaching and Learning during the Covid-19 Shutdown

This paper presents a collective self-study that examines what student teachers and a teacher educator learned from our collective work during the initial Covid-19 shutdown. Using a theory of collaborative inquiry grounded in Brené Brown's work on resiliency and vulnerability, we examined our work during this time of great struggle. We learned how severe challenges prompted us to enhance our practices and reimagine typical roles while thinking critically and creatively about teaching and learning. © 2023 Kappa Delta Pi.

Remote laboratory for microcontroller programming course

this paper describes experience of changing microcontroller related course from face-to-face to remote format, which took place in Riga Technical University during the COVID-19 pandemic during years 2020 and 2021. The name of the subject is Laboratory exercises in electronics. The primary ideology of that course is to let students touch and feel electronics without using any virtual stuff like simulators. Therefore, replacing everything with simulation is not a solution to such kind of course. In this publication, we want to describe system that is mixture of real physical system installed in the laboratory and remote interface interacting with the physical system. © 2022 IEEE.

The effectiveness of blended learning on students' academic achievement, self-study skills and learning attitudes: A quasi-experiment study in teaching the conventions for coordinates in the plane.

Individuals attempting to study remotely during the COVID-19 lockdown will find that blended learning is a helpful solution and results in a significant increase in learning engagement. The best benefits for teachers and students are obtained by maximizing the advantages of each teaching method and by combining the advantages of online and face-to-face instruction. The study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the flex model of blended learning in teaching the mathematics subtopic of coordinates in the plane through the improvement of students' academic achievement, self-study skills and learning attitudes. A quasi-experiment was conducted to compare the academic achievement, self-study skills and learning attitudes of 46 students in the control class who used traditional methods to those of 44 students in the experimental group who used the blended learning model. The pre-and post-test results, observations, and student opinion survey were used to compile data, which were then analyzed quantitatively (with SPSS) and qualitatively. The study confirmed that blended learning positively impacts students' academic achievement in the experimental class compared with the control class (Sig (2-tailed) = 0.001 and SMD = 0.6717), as demonstrated by the outcomes of the independent t-test analysis of the two groups in the post-test phase. In addition, observations and student opinion survey results also indicated that blended learning increased student interactions with teachers and improved students' academic achievement, self-study abilities and learning attitudes. Due to time constraints, not all the students who participated in the experiment could make progress. On the other hand, the study's relatively small sample size gave the impression that the results were only partially representative of the population. As a result, additional studies focusing on improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning within different blended learning models, broadening the scope of research on the influence of blended learning in other subjects, or increasing the sample size can all be considered.

Research on Solutions to Improve Self-Worth Awareness Skills to Enhance Self-Study of Students in the Post-Covid Period

Self-education skill is an essential skill to be improved, as well as being an important skill needed for students in schools and universities. And especially, in the covid period, the most focused skill is the self-study ability of students. The survey has been designed through surveying each group of students and individuals of each department in FPT University during the time students are studying online and at school. The research is completed using qualitative and quantitative methods. It can be concluded from the survey that, by switching to online learning platforms, the survey indicated that students improve their self-awareness and learn how to find and evaluate information sources online. However, there is still a small number of students who have problems with self-education. And this, there are causes such as weak self-perception, the guidance of teachers and mentors. The research aims to find out more available and flexible methods that give students a guide on how to improve their awareness about self - education and self - improvement after the pandemic through both direct means like quizzes and social experiments, and indirect means by reviewing written research from known authors and publishers. © 2022 IEEE.

A Self-Study of My Parallel Journey of Unlearning and Relearning Using Blackout Poetry in a Literature Didactics Module

As a teacher educator of literature methodology in Mauritius, this arts-based self-study is rooted in the need to improve my professional practice. It emanated from a critical incident during the COVID pandemic when I used blackout poetry during an online synchronous session with in-service teachers for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. The data production tools for this self-study include my own blackout poem, a reflection on the critical incident and an autobiographical resume. In addition, I engaged in dialogic discussion with the in-service teachers who served as critical friends. These tools empowered me to reflect on how I use blackout poetry as a creative writing activity and as a form of poetic inquiry with in-service teachers as andragogic learners. It also provided me with the opportunity to learn how I could become more empathetic to the learning experiences of in-service teachers. The thematic analysis revealed that the blackout poetry activity had not been fully optimized for creative and reflective purposes. First, there was the misassumption that this activity would interest the in-service teachers and intrinsically motivate them to engage in deep reflection and dialogic discussion. Second, I had overlooked temporal and technological challenges faced by in-service teachers. Lastly, the inability to align andragogic (adult learning) theory and practice and renegotiate learning expectations impeded the in-service teachers' learning experiences. This study thus valorizes how reflexive blackout poems, alongside other data production tools, can contribute to the unlearning and relearning of teacher educators to better teach adult learners. [ FROM AUTHOR]

EDUCATION DOCTORAL STUDENTS’ SELF-STUDY OF THEIR IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT: A THEMATIC REVIEW

Aim/Purpose Doctoral students’ experiences in PhD programs could be a journey of identity evolution. Existing research on doctoral students’ identities has typically been conducted by faculties. As the main character in the identity evolution process, it is critical to understand doctoral students’ interpretation of their own identities and identity development in PhD programs. The purpose of this paper is to examine how and what education doctoral students discovered when they used self-study and relevant qualitative methodologies (e.g., auto-ethnography) to investigate their identities and identity development through their own practices in PhD programs. Background This research began as part of a larger project to synthesize studies on doctoral students’ identities. A cluster of articles was identified in which students were examining their experiences as developing individuals from the perspective of identities and identity development. In contrast to most of the previous research on doctoral education, this collection of articles was written by doctoral students as part of their academic and professional practice. Methodology The larger qualitative systematic review (i.e., qualitative evidence synthesis) of doctoral students’ identity development began with database searches that were not restricted by year (e.g., PsycINFO, Education Research Complete, and Education Resources Information Center). Thirteen articles written by doctoral students discussing their identities and identity development in PhD programs were further identified from selected articles ranging from 2009 to 2021. These articles and their implications were analyzed using a qualitative research synthesis approach. Contribution Although scholars have looked at doctoral students’ identities and identity development from various viewpoints, the current investigation deepens the understanding of this focus from doctoral students’ own perspectives. Doctoral students are trained investigators with research skills and mindsets. As novice researchers and educators, their open and honest reflections about their challenges, opportunities, and development are worthwhile to identify significant aspects of their identities and identity development in PhD programs. Findings There are two dimensions to the findings: the Approach Dimension and the Content Dimension. The Approach Dimension is concerned with how doctoral students investigated their identities and identity development, whereas the Content Dimension is concerned with what they found. Findings in the Approach Dimension show that doctoral students applied the self-study inquiry approach or used the notion of self-study inquiry to interpret their identity and identity development. The self-study inquiry encompasses five main features, including (1) Self-Initiated and Focused, (2) Improvement-Aimed, (3) Collaborative/Interactive, (4) Reflective Data Collection, and (5) Exemplar-Based Validation. Doctoral students examined the five self-study features both directly and indirectly in their studies. The investigation revealed four major themes in the Content Dimension, including (1) Identity Development as a Dynamic Process, (2) Multiple Identities, (3) Learning Contexts, and (4) Socialization. Recommendations The findings suggest that practitioners in PhD programs should be aware of for Practitioners the existence, process, and dynamics of identity evolution in doctoral programs. The best possible way for PhD program administrators, faculties, and advisors to support doctoral students’ growth and identity development is to incorporate doctoral students’ own insights into practice. Given the unprecedented influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the educational environment and the diversity of doctoral students, it is crucial to discover how doctoral students use structured research methods to reflect, learn, and self-support their identity development during their PhD programs. The self-study inquiry process would be a helpful and effective approach to support doctoral students’ advan ement. For instance, PhD programs could create self-evaluation assignments or courses that incorporate both self-study and identity development concepts. Recommendations When studying doctoral students’ identity development, it is critical to emphafor Researchers size the essence of identity, which is people’s perceptions of who they are. We recommend that researchers who study doctoral students could further integrate doctoral students’ insights about their own identity status (e.g., multiple identities) into research. Impact on Society Successful completion of PhD programs is a critical foundation for doctoral students to serve society as expert researchers and educators. Support for the growth and development of doctoral students could facilitate the completion of their doctoral programs and strengthen their sense of agency through the lens of identity. Future Research Future research could go beyond the field of education and expand to more disciplines to identify common and diverse factors influencing doctoral students’ identity and identity development across domains. Future research on the post-COVID-19 era and its implications for online programs must also be studied in connection with doctoral students’ identities and identity development. © 2022 Informing Science Institute. All rights reserved.

Factors Affecting Computer Science Student's Academic Performance During Covid-19

In this research, the factors that affect the computer science student's academic performance are investigated in the scenario of online learning induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is found that while staying at home, and getting tutored online, the academic achievement of the students of Computer Science gets affected by the following group of factors: Family characteristics (family causal factors), Student's academic characteristics, Social and personal characteristics, Psychological and Health Related Factors, Institutional characteristics, Teachers (academic causal factors), Perceptions about Online Learning, Perception about Computers. As opposed to the general usage of only the CGPA as a measure of the academic performance, this research introduces the online self-study time (OSST) as well, as a measure of the academic performance. A total of 170 students had responded to a questionnaire administered to them to assess the effects of the identified factors. The questionnaire was checked for reliability and validity as well, using construct reliability, indicator reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. The students were from various semesters of Bachelor of Computer Science degree program. The questionnaire data is subjected to the multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results have shown that there is relation that exists between the identified factors and the academic performance of the students that is reflected in their CGPAand the OSST. © 2022, Rajarambapu Institute Of Technology. All rights reserved.

Assessing Students' Perceived Engagement and Perceived Performance for E-learning in East Coast Malaysia: A Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) Approach

Perceived Engagement is defined as the extensive use of learning management system services, features, and capabilities. In the wake of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), studies show that there is an increase in user engagement level towards learning management systems, especially among tertiary education. Perceived engagement extends the previous concept of information system usage by incorporating several dimensions: cognitive, affective, and behavioural perspectives. However, most of the research on user engagement are focusing on the level of the engagement, with the scarcity of research on its impacts. Thus, the aim of this study is twofold: first, to revisit and determine the level of user engagement with the learning management system. Second, to determine the relationship between perceived engagement and perceived performance. To find the answer for the purpose of the study, a quantitative research methodology was adopted using convenience sampling. The instrument was developed by adapting and adopting previous research instruments. The instrument was expert reviewed and a pilot test was performed before the actual data collection. Data collection took 2 weeks involving students in one of the public universities in Malaysia. A total of 206 valid responses were received. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 for descriptive analysis and SmartPLS version 3.3.3 for inferential analysis. Findings show that: (1) the current level of user engagement in using learning management system is moderate;(2) perceived engagement has a predictive power on perceived performance;(3) perceived engagement has a large effect size on perceived performance;and (4) there is a moderate level of perceived performance among respondents. IEEE

IT Education in Clouds and Clouds in IT Education

The rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT) and growing participation of students in work life has already in several decades moved ICT education into 'clouds', using sources of knowledge on Internet from all around the world. The COVID pandemic has increased this process, forcing universities to restrict classroom teaching and rapidly increased student's self-study.At the same time, increase of amounts of data to be processed is constantly introducing new high-level software technologies, layers and layers of packages and libraries, deeper and more complex. This has created a new 'top-down' programming style: a new project is started with importing mass of libraries which have been used in earlier projects and only then is considered how to use them in order to solve the programming task. The self-studying ICT students see only tips of modern software icebergs and it is difficult for them to understand their working without face-to-face classroom communication where details of the 'depths' are explained. © 2022 Croatian Society MIPRO.

Virtual auscultation course via video chat in times of COVID-19 improves cardiac auscultation skills compared to literature self-study in third-year medical students: a prospective randomized controlled cross-over study.

Background: Cardiac auscultation is a core clinical skill taught in medical school. Due to contact restrictions during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, interaction with patients was very limited. Therefore, a peer-to-peer virtual case-based auscultation course via video conference was established. Methods: A randomized controlled cross-over study was conducted to evaluate whether participation in a virtual auscultation course could improve heart auscultation skills in 3rd-year medical students. A total of sixty medical students were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group after informed consent was obtained. Due to no-shows, 55 students participated. Depending on allocation, students attended three ninety-minute courses in intervals of one week in a different order: a virtual case-based auscultation course held via video chat, literature self-study, and an on-site course using a high-fidelity auscultation simulator (SAM II). The study's primary endpoint was the performance of the two groups at the simulator after participating in the virtual auscultation course or literature self-study. To evaluate their auscultation skills, students participated in five assessments using the same six pathologies: stenosis and regurgitation of the aortic and mitral valve, ventricular septal defect, and patent ductus arteriosus. Moreover, participants rated their satisfaction with each course and provided a self-assessment of competence. Results: Compared to literature self-study, participation in the virtual auscultation course led to a significantly improved description of heart murmurs at the auscultation simulator with regard to the presence in systole and diastole, low- and high-pitched sounds, and volume dynamics. There was no significant difference between the groups in diagnostic accuracy and identification of the point of maximal intensity. After the virtual course, students showed higher satisfaction rates and a higher increase in self-assessed competence compared to participants who engaged in literature self-study. Conclusions: For the first time, this study demonstrates that a case-based virtual auscultation course can improve aspects of cardiac auscultation skills on a simulator. This may facilitate the further acquisition of an essential clinical skill, even when contact restrictions will be lifted.

Effect of active learning and online discussions on the academic performances of dental students.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 caused significant confusion around the world, and dental education was no exception. Therefore, in line with the demands of the times, this study sought to determine the applicability of online active learning to dental education. METHODS: This study was conducted in the second semester of 2020 at a school of dentistry in a selective university in Korea. A total of 114 dental students were recruited. Participants were assigned to four different groups (lecture and discussion [LD], lecture and discussion with instructor's worksheet [LW], self-study and discussion [SSD], and self-study and discussion with instructor's worksheet [SW]) using the random breakout room function in the Zoom video conference application. Their final test scores were then analyzed using analysis of variance and the online active learning results were compared with the offline learning results. RESULTS: The scores were highest for the transfer type items in the SSD group, followed by the SW group and the two lecture groups, which had no significant differences. These scores and pattern differences between the groups were similar for all items. The results suggested that studying by oneself rather than simply listening to lectures enhanced the effects of the discussions and led to higher learning outcomes. In addition, the effect of the instructor's intervention in the middle of the discussion varied depending on the pre-learning activities of discussion. As with previous offline experiments, self-study followed by group discussion had higher learning outcomes for both the verbatim and transfer type items. CONCLUSIONS: In agreement with the Interactive, Constructive, Active, and Passive (ICAP) framework and other active learning theories, the findings clearly indicated that online active learning was applicable to dental students, and when self-study precedes discussion, the learning is richer and the learning outcomes are better.