ABSTRACT
This study focuses on one particular attribute of critical pedagogy, which is engaging with the lived experiences of students. The aim was to examine how students experienced writing about their immediate realities under emergency remote teaching and learning conditions. Students were asked to write about what they had learnt as a result of being impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Then, they were invited to post these stories on an online platform. Four themes emerged from students' reflections on writing about this experience. First, they felt that writing was purposeful and that they were writing for a larger audience. Second, because time and space for critical reflection was provided, some level of renewed dispositions towards the self and others was experienced. Third, writing became an emotionally charged process. Finally, numerous students reflected that writing about something so personal and being encouraged to share their experiences on a public online platform brought about a sense of discomfort. Hence, teachers who want to engage with critical pedagogy under "emergency” conditions may need to recontextualise their practice to suit the present needs and realities of students.
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic is the most disturbing event in the lifetime of most of our planet's citizens. The lockdown measures directly impacted many areas of our lives, including the educational sector, because locking down countries meant implicitly locking down the educational system. Moreover, what was first considered a temporary solution for an extraordinary situation began to look more and more like a medium to long-term general rule. Nevertheless, the questions are: are we all ready to move the entire educational process online and fully understand the challenges and implications for all stakeholders involved? This two-part research aims to provide some answers to these questions by identifying and analyzing the perceptions of Romanian engineering students enrolled at "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi (TUIASI) regarding the changes registered in the past year once the emergency e-learning situation started. The first part of the research was conducted between April and May 2020 through an online survey among 134 engineering students. It aimed at identifying the students' perception of the online learning systems provided by their university, considering the significant speed with which changes were imposed. In addition, this research phase focused on students' access to resources and knowledge to use and integrate online learning into their study routine. The second part of the research was carried out after almost a year of e-learning between March and April 2021 and consisted of six online focus groups with 36 students and aimed at identifying the main advantages and challenges students experience throughout the online educational process. The research revealed that although students are digital natives, they still have difficulties harnessing e-learning's advantages and integrating them into their study routine. Another significant aspect refers to the changing role of the professor perceived not only as an instructor but as a mentor during a time of crisis. The study results can offer higher education institutions insight and valuable information that can be used in designing and implementing online and hybrid activities and classes that better fit the students' needs and expectations in terms of e-learning.
ABSTRACT
The article concerns the opinion on stationary and remote examinations carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, perceived from the perspective of the assessed students. The study aimed to find out about the students' perspective on remote final and midterm exams at The Maria Grzegorzewska University and to attempt to compare it with the traditional examination. The subject of the research was, among others, the forms of checking knowledge and skills, problems arising during the exams, as well as the way of taking into account the special needs of the exam-takers. The students' opinions on the above-mentioned issues and their preferences regarding the examination situation were taken into account. The research used the method of diagnostic survey. The obtained results indicate that students during remote exams declare a higher level of stress related to potential technical problems, and in the case of stationary examinations the problem is chaos, noise and distraction. Regardless of the form of the exam, a similar percentage of students declare that they do not cheat - 73.53% during full-time exams, 68.49% pass fair during remote exams. The most common form of cheating during remote examinations is the use of previously prepared notes (21.85%), and 2.52% use the help of colleagues. © The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
ABSTRACT
The article concerns the opinion on stationary and remote examinations carried out during a pandemic, perceived from the perspective of examiners. The aim of the study was to find out about the perspective of academic teachers on remote examination at The Maria Grzegorzewska University and to compare it with the traditional, stationary exams. The subject of the research were, inter alia, the forms of checking knowledge and skills used by lecturers, the motivations driving their choice, problems arising during the exams, as well as the way of taking into account the special needs of the examinees. The research used the method of diagnostic survey. The obtained results indicate that, according to the lecturers, the students' independence during remote exams is smaller and the intensity of using unauthorized help by them is greater. Remote exams generate more problems - technical and related to the dishonesty of students. Lecturers hardly recognize and take into account the special educational needs of students during remote exams. © The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the Article is properly cited.
ABSTRACT
Telecollaboration, also called virtual exchange or online intercultural exchange, is a form of collaborative learning whereby language learners in different locations engage in computer-mediated communication to complete tasks online. There is ample evidence that telecollaboration promotes the acquisition of language skills, intercultural competence, and digital literacies. Challenges faced implementing virtual exchanges include differences in time zones, learning objectives, academic calendars, and cultural attitudes. The present article describes a case of a multilateral telecollaboration project based on the facilitated dialogue model involving four institutions-two in Europe and two in the United States-that was designed to prepare students for the experience of giving online peer feedback on collaborative writing assignments. Our initial goal was to explore the challenges students would face and the benefits they would receive from a complex telecollaboration project involving multiple institutions and two task sequences: 1) input and reflection on giving and receiving peer feedback, 2) completion of the collaborative writing task to be peer reviewed. However, new challenges and opportunities emerged after the switch to emergency e-learning and remote teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic. Relying upon multiple data sources-including correspondence, observations, class discussions, surveys, reflective writing, and information stored in virtual learning environments-our methods of data collection involved convenience sampling, while data analysis was predominantly descriptive. Our results demonstrate that even during a global pandemic, students and instructors face similar logistical challenges and reap similar benefits as has been reported in the literature. Yet our experience also reveals the resiliency of telecollaboration in the face of extreme disruption as well as the potential to exploit virtual exchange to develop learning strategies-such as methods for giving and receiving peer feedback-and meta-awareness of how language is used in the real-world-such as the implications of English as a lingua franca.