MIMIC model of teachers and students attitudes towards online learning during Covid-19: A gender perspective

Academic institutions around the globe have shifted to online learning because of the unpredictable spread of COVID-19. The present study aimed to compare teachers' and students' attitudes towards online learning during the pandemic and to examine the effects of gender differences on their attitudes. In study 1, we adapted the Test of eLearning Related Attitudes for Pakistani students in three steps: expert review, piloting, and validation. The individual and collective expert review was performed to adapt the teacher version into the student version using the Technique for Research of Information by the Animation of a Group of Experts (TRIAGE). We tested three sets of measurement invariance models for participants' status and gender in study 2. Data were collected from 289 university teachers (men = 158, women = 131) and 444 undergraduate students (boys = 156, girls = 287). The results demonstrated that both groups had highly positive yet different attitudes towards online learning. Teachers were more satisfied than students. Model fit was poor, and the overall factor structure, factor loadings, and intercepts varied across groups. Intergroup gender invariance illustrated heterogeneity in attitudes towards online learning favoring men teachers and boy students. Study strengths and implications for the promotion of a positive experience of online learning are discussed.

E-Learning Readiness Assessment Using Machine Learning Methods

Assessing e-learning readiness is crucial for educational institutions to identify areas in their e-learning systems needing improvement and to develop strategies to enhance students' readiness. This paper presents an effective approach for assessing e-learning readiness by combining the ADKAR model and machine learning-based feature importance identification methods. The motivation behind using machine learning approaches lies in their ability to capture nonlinearity in data and flexibility as data-driven models. This study surveyed faculty members and students in the Economics faculty at Tlemcen University, Algeria, to gather data based on the ADKAR model's five dimensions: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement. Correlation analysis revealed a significant relationship between all dimensions. Specifically, the pairwise correlation coefficients between readiness and awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement are 0.5233, 0.5983, 0.6374, 0.6645, and 0.3693, respectively. Two machine learning algorithms, random forest (RF) and decision tree (DT), were used to identify the most important ADKAR factors influencing e-learning readiness. In the results, ability and knowledge were consistently identified as the most significant factors, with scores of ability (0.565, 0.514) and knowledge (0.170, 0.251) using RF and DT algorithms, respectively. Additionally, SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values were used to explore further the impact of each variable on the final prediction, highlighting ability as the most influential factor. These findings suggest that universities should focus on enhancing students' abilities and providing them with the necessary knowledge to increase their readiness for e-learning. This study provides valuable insights into the factors influencing university students' e-learning readiness.

Performance Analysis of Learner Behavior Through Online Learning Using Learning Management System

This paper discusses the performance analysis of learner behavior through online learning using Learning Management System (LMS). The analysis is performed based on the survey of lecturers and students activities. The parameters of survey consist of the problems discussion which arise in the online learning, the level of student absorption of lecture material, the level of student attendance, and the feedback on lecturer performance carried out by students. Problems that arise in the online learning include lecturers are not being able to control as much as 37%, network disturbances are as much as 22%, students having difficulty understanding lecture material are as much as 19% which are indicated by students with D score of 10%, C score of 60%, and B score of 30%. Meanwhile 17% of students use LMS and the remaining 5% have no problems with the online learning. On the other hand, students have difficulty obtaining connection for online learning of 45%, do not have a quota of 28%, and lazy of 17%. Lecturer performance feedback carried out by students based on competency parameters of pedagogic, personality, professionalism, and social shows very good score. © 2023 IEEE.

Learner' Online Self-regulated Learning Skills: A Comparison Between Chinese Undergraduates and International African Undergraduates

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced students to move from face-to-face learning to online learning. Online learning has high demands on students' Self-regulated Learning (SRL) skills. In this study, a questionnaire that used five-point Likert scale was administrated between international African undergraduates and Chinese undergraduate students to investigate their online learning behaviors. The questionnaire was composed of six categories: environment structuring, goal setting, time management, help-seeking, task strategies, and self-evaluation. 441 valid responses were received, 89 from international African students and 352 from Chinese undergraduates. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS Version 24.0. The results showed that there was no significant difference between Chinese student' and international African students' SRL skills in the six sub-scales. This may be due to the small sample size of African students and the similar learning environment. Larger samples are needed in future research to further verify the conclusion. The research results can be used as a reference for the future online learning design to strengthen learners' SRL skills. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Connectivity, community, and sense of belonging

This chapter illustrates how the change to a virtual setting challenged students' social connectedness and sense of belonging. It demonstrates how students found a way to build social connectedness in a virtual setting that reinforced their sense of community. The chapter discusses how Students of Color experienced the COVID-19 interruption. It offers insights into whether thriving in college is even possible for students when their means of creating community have been disrupted. At the University of Utah, the detachment was experienced by students in their interactions with faculty and their relationships with their friends, peers, and classmates. The closing of campus and the shift to online learning also limited students' social connectedness with friends, classmates, and peers. Students also relied on new communities to gain motivation and achieve academically. University employees were also a part of students' relational communities. Some students created a strong emotional connection with staff members, such as advisors and student affairs professionals. The pandemic and the resulting educational changes added another layer of complexity to the academic experiences of Students of Color. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Impact of Teachers' Support Strategies on Students' Engagement of Online College English Class Experiences

During the covid-19 pandemic, students' online learning quality is imbued with teachers' support strategies while students' learning engagement is another great indicator underlies their learning experiences. Through a questionnaire survey of 500 freshmen who have had their college English class online in 2022 fall, an investigation using exploratory factor analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, stepwise regression analysis and parallel mediator model reveals the impact of teachers' support strategies (the six dimensions of challenge, authentic context, curiosity, autonomy, recognition and feedback) on the learners' online college English learning engagement (the four dimensions of cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, social engagement), thus particular concern is also given to the correlation with students' online learning experiences. It was found that even under diversified and comprehensive guiding strategies from teachers, university students' online college English learning engagement is at the medium level, among which the cognitive engagement should be devoted more. The experimental data also shows that teachers' support strategies have significant influence on learners' engagement, especially teachers' feedback and challenge setting will stimulate students to involve more in their study. In addition, both teachers' support strategies and students' learning engagement involves significant reflection of learning experiences accordingly. Based on this learning concept, related proposals see different degrees of prominence reflected in online instructional design, teachers' and students' feedback literacy, and technology-enabled innovative teaching practice are put forward, in order to effectively play the role of teacher scaffolding, learning experiences enrichment and students' engagement enhancement of online English learning. © 2023 IEEE.

Impact of Modality on Workload among Engineering Undergraduates during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented disruptions in models for engineering student training. At The Citadel, an undergraduate-focused college in the Southeastern United States, a variety of modalities were implemented following the onset of the pandemic, including emergency online and Hyflex learning. We conducted a longitudinal study to analyze the cognitive load among our undergraduate engineering students throughout changing modalities. Using data from the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) and open-ended reflections on student challenges, we found that total workload (a surrogate for cognitive load) was generally highest during emergency online learning in the second half of Spring 2020 semester, with experiences possibly varying across different demographic and academic groups. Emergency online challenges were often related to time management, personal organization, and responsibility for learning. In contrast, HyFlex challenges were often related to technology and communication challenges. While emergency online learning was a cognitive load disruption, that disruption was often associated with personal and/or academic development. HyFlex learning mediated cognitive load disruption;although, student challenges may have been simple nuisances rather than mediators of developmental change. © 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Drivers and Barriers of Social Sustainable Development and Growth of Online Higher Education: The Roles of Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness

Online and distance learning classes have been touted for the last several years as an innovation in higher education that should help improve the entrepreneurial growth mindset of students. However, the reported negative online learning experience of many college students worldwide during the COVID-19 epidemic has shown that many opportunities remain to improve the sustainable development and growth of online visual instruction practices. In this study, we outline and investigate a set of hypotheses related to the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (from TAM) of online video instruction in higher education courses during the pandemic. We employ grounded theory using autoethnographic case studies as a data source. We found that (a) synchronous broadcast lectures improve participant attitude (H1) and motivation (H2) toward online instruction, (b) prerecorded video instruction increases participant perceived "ease of use" (H3) and perceived behavioral control (H4) of online instruction, but (c) indicators of recorded dates on pre-recorded video instruction decreases participant perceived "usefulness" (H5) and "certainty" (H6) of online instruction. We enrich the insights of popular motivation models for organizations and the higher education industry by outlining a set of emotional elements originating in neuroscience leadership research (SCARF) that might either amplify or diminish the perceived the ease of use and perceived usefulness to technology usage relationships when participations engage in online learning situations.

Disruption or interruption to Schools during Covid-19 in the United Arab Emirates: A Rapid Review of Impact and Mitigation Efforts

This study explored the level of readiness of schools in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to use remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. To safeguard students and ensure the continuity of education, the UAE's education system implemented online learning to address extended school closures and sudden changes in normal school operations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, schools were forced to quickly adapt to online instruction despite its challenges during lockdowns and isolation. Furthermore, the study provided insight into the theoretical underpinnings of the UAE's massive implementation of distance learning in schools. Moreover, various distance learning programs were implemented by schools to facilitate students' and instructors' education across schools. The findings of this study may be used to strengthen educational systems and accelerate educational opportunities by providing evidence for better orienting and adapting policy responses in emergencies in the UAE. © 2023 Otjivanda Presse.Essen. All rights reserved.

Employees' perception towards e-learning: an exploratory study in the information technology sector in India

Purpose: The primary purpose of this research paper is to evaluate e-learning among employees of Information Technology (IT) companies based in Hyderabad, India. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was undertaken among the employees from different IT companies based in Hyderabad, India, to gauge the perception towards e-learning. The participants were selected randomly. The evaluation is based on a few factors: convenience, usefulness, course content, quality, effectiveness and benefits for employees and organizations. The responses were recorded online through a structured questionnaire. In total, 237 responses have been collected for this present study, of which 227 questionnaires were used for analysis. Findings: The surveyed employees perceived that e-learning helped them enhance their workplace competency in a flexible but effective manner. The e-learning also empowered the learners and ultimately contributed to the enhancement of organizational performance in some ways. Research limitations/implications: Limitation of the study – by examining the pris study was confined to employees working with IT companies based in Hyderabad City, India. The data is collected online, and there may be some insufficient responses. Implications of the study – the study results show a deep insight into the critical aspects of e-learning as a tool for employee training for the benefit of employees and organizational development. The surveyed respondents from the IT sector at Hyderabad perceived that keys to successful e-learning programs should give due consideration towards availability of internet bandwidth, making the course more interactive, providing more choices to the learners and user-friendly and personalized learning experience. The study also shows that the e-learning programs primarily benefit the employees as well as the organization in a manner, namely, improved productivity, helping to achieve business objectives of the firm, growth and advancement to the employees and enhancing the job-related knowledge. The study also discovered that e-learning improves employees' opportunities for professional growth and advancement inside and outside the organization by assisting them in learning new skills and enhancing job-related information. Practical implications: The internet penetration in recent years, as well as post-Covid-19, has given rise to online learning in the education and corporate sectors. The emergence of online or e-learning has been gaining ground in the corporate world by replacing the existing face-to-face or physical training model because of the cost factor and flexible learning to the learners. E-learning improves the learner's ability to adapt to the company's constantly changing business environment, which in turn helps the company increase departmental productivity and, ultimately, achieve its overall business goals. Social implications: The e-learning also empowered the learners and ultimately contributed to the enhancement of organizational performance in some ways. The e-learning also empowers the learner to perform better at his workplace and at the same time moving on the social ladder as the learning makes him/her confident at the job market. Originality/value: This study provides a valuable understanding of employee perceptions on the adoption and effectiveness of e-learning, which ultimately improves the benefits of the training and development department in realizing and enhancing the quality in corporate companies. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Online art therapy classroom in Thailand

This chapter discusses the format of the International Program of Art Therapy in Thailand (IPATT) program before and during the COVID pandemic. A survey will contrast the strengths and weaknesses of online learning as experienced by IPATT students who participated in the program in-person as well as online. The IPATT studio is equipped with audio-visual aids for instructors to present art therapy theories and a studio working area with a wide assortment of art materials that allow students to work experientially. In addition to art therapy education, having students in the studio also gives them opportunities to learn relational literacy inside and outside class time, such as confronting or allying, deepening or skipping, and encouraging or letting go. The student survey that contrasted in-person and online classroom experiences revealed that face-to-face teaching gets a higher score in 3 out of 9 quality sub-categories;most aspects remain the same in both classroom settings. There are advantages and disadvantages to sharing art and personal experiences online, where group dynamics can be different, benefiting some group members but not others. While there is a preference for face-to-face education, the small student survey shows that most IPATT students accept online education as an alternative. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Designing gamification for case and project-based online learning: A study in higher education

The emergence of online learning has become important during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the advent of internet technology. The unpreparedness of planning and implementing online learning has caused many problems during the pandemic such as limited or monotonous academic materials as well as difficulty in organizing activities and student involvement. Online learning is also more stressful because students are stuck in private academic processes in the absence of challenging and fun activities leading to knowledge development difficulties. Therefore, this study aims to develop and analyze the feasibility of a gamification model for case and project-based online learning in universities. This analysis used the research and development (R&D) method with the experimental procedure containing model development as well as product validation and testing. In the validation process, two learning design and media experts as well as 76 students participated with a descriptive statistical analysis used to analyze the data. The results of the learning design experts' assessment showed a score of 4.35, learning media experts' assessment showed a score of 4.90 and the average score of the students' assessment was 4.33. Based on the results, the developed learning model was feasible to use in university academic processes. © 2023 by the authors.

LearnIT2teach: Teacher training and online learning for newcomers in times of crises

How teachers creatively adopted and adapted to the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak is at the heart of the findings presented in this chapter. With the support of the Avenue-LearnIT2teach project, English Second Language (ESL) teachers in Canada enabled the rapid response of many Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) programs to site closures, resulting in an unprecedented uptake of online learning (OL) in a matter of weeks. The project rapidly changed course to support LINC teachers to adopt blended learning (BL) courseware and adapt teaching practices to the new OL reality. This chapter discusses the impact of the project's efforts to meet the surge in demand in teacher training and learner courseware for these online immigrant settlement and language learning programs. The project's rapid response to onsite LINC program closures during the COVID-19 crisis is reviewed. As a result of the disruptions to in-person program delivery, the focus of the project has shifted from blended learning (BL) to online learning (OL) by adapting its formal and informal professional development (PD) offerings. Findings with respect to the surge in demand for teacher training, course development, and mentoring are presented. Feedback from teachers on the "front lines" further illustrates teachers' OL uptake. The chapter also addresses the impact of formal and informal PD provided by a committed team of mentors as well as the importance of teacher presence in online program delivery. Implications and recommendations with respect to rapid responses in situations of crises conclude the chapter. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.

Kaleidoscope: A Reflective Documentation Tool for a User Interface Design Course

Documentation can support design work and create opportunities for learning and reflection. We explore how a novel documentation tool for a remote interaction design course provides insight into design process and integrates strategies from expert practice to support studio-style collaboration and reflection. Using Research through Design, we develop and deploy Kaleidoscope, an online tool for documenting design process, in an upper-level HCI class during the COVID-19 pandemic, iteratively developing it in response to student feedback and needs. We discuss key themes from the real-world deployment of Kaleidoscope, including: tensions between documentation and creation;effects of centralizing discussion;privacy and visibility in shared spaces;balancing evidence of achievement with feelings of overwhelm;and the effects of initial perceptions and incentives on tool usage. These successes and challenges provide insights to guide future tools for design documentation and HCI education that scaffold learning process as an equal partner to execution. © 2023 Owner/Author.

International Students' Perceptions towards Their Learning Experience in an International Network Seminar in Japan: During and Post the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has struck educational experience systems around the globe. This paper investigates and evaluates the student participants' perceptions who joined the international exchange seminar on global citizenship and peace held at a University in Hiroshima, Japan. Approximately seventy students and faculty members from nine to ten different universities from around the globe joined this summer program in August 2021 (online) and 2022 (face-to-face). This study is a mixed-method study. The first part consists of a quantitative analysis of BEVI data obtained from the students in the seminar before COVID-19 and after. The research concludes that there are no changes in the effects of what students learn. The second part consists of qualitative data. The data shows the perceptions of students of online teaching versus hybrid teaching. It compares the differences in participants' perceptions reported in students' feedback on the programs during and post-COVID-19. Our results confirm prominent differences exist in the students' perceptions of their learning experience during the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods. The findings indicate based on lessons learned post-pandemic, universities need to strive and define the meaning and purpose of international seminars, which enable students to experience a high level of intercultural social interaction online and face-to-face. As the world becomes more interconnected, virtual environments, such as the ones presented within the International Seminar in Hiroshima, Japan, are vital to facilitating intercultural teaching environments and the implications within this paper indicate that these virtual mediums can promote inclusion, leading to a more sustainable world.

Investigating Factors That Influence College Students' Online Continuous Learning Intention during COVID-19 Epidemic

This study aims to explore university students' continuous intention toward online learning during COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 120 students enrolled in online learning were surveyed to collect their perception of an extended model by adding task value to the expectation-confirmation model. Structural equation modeling was employed to verify the hypotheses proposed in this study. The results indicated that task value and technology usefulness were significant predictors of students' continuous intention toward online learning. More specifically, technology usefulness had a direct impact on students' continuous intention, while students' perceived task value played an indirect role in the prediction of their continuous intention. However, the impacts of both confirmation and satisfaction were not statistically significant on students' continuous intention. The results suggest that practitioners and researchers should pay special attention to the technological usefulness of online learning environments and task value, especially task value, in order to enhance students' retention of online learning. This study would contribute to implications to better design and implement online learning. © 2023 IEEE.

Achieving success in online teaching and learning: Strategies

Student enrollment for online education has seen a constant rise over the last two decades (Dixson, 2015) and has been very popular even before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the unprecedented acceleration toward online teaching in Winter 2020 has taken many education institutions by surprise. This unwanted rapidness in transition to online teaching has created challenges for students, educators, and administrators alike. In this chapter we hope to bring some of those challenges to light. We present a literature review along with our own reflections on how student engagement has changed due to this sudden, unplanned transition to online teaching. Students and instructors are finding it difficult to navigate through these troubled times. We provide some suggestions on how to overcome these concerns. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.

Blending Academic Writing: The Use of Technology to teach amid Covid-19 Pandemic

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers have to hesitantly switch to the virtual world of teaching, known as enriched virtual blended learning in which technology, surely plays a significant role in material delivery and discussion. Studies related to blended learning in English language classes, especially in academic writing classes, have been done in many countries, but they are still lacking in the Indonesian setting. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of technology utilization in enriched blended learning to teach academic writing and the students' perspectives towards the use of technology in blended learning. This study involving forty-five students in a university in Jakarta applied both quantitative and qualitative methods. A pre-test and a post-test were assigned before and after the blended learning period to study the effectiveness of blended learning. In addition, surveys and interviews were conducted to investigate the students' perspectives. The results indicated that the use of technology in blended learning effectively helped students develop their academic writing skills despite being a new experience. Furthermore, despite some limitations, this strategy of using technology in teaching-learning was accepted with optimism as they started to get accustomed to it. Hence, the use of technology is promising for the future of learning. © 2023 IEEE.

Impact, adaptation and digital transformation in higher education as a consequence of Covid-19: the case of the master's degree Comincrea of the University of Alicante

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic has not only meant a paradigm shift in university teaching processes during the health crisis, but also an opportunity to rethink the challenges and opportunities that this crisis has generated in both edu-communication and media literacy in the context of higher education. The general aim of this research is to analyse the challenge of digital transformation because of the pandemic in the official master's degree in Communication and Creative In-dustries at the University of Alicante (hereinafter Comincrea) during the academic year 2021-2022. To this end, three specific objectives are proposed to analyse the impact that online learning and digital transformation have had on teaching staff, students, and companies that offer external curricular internships. The methodo-logy applied is systematic surveys of closed and open-ended questions. The results indicate that there is a predisposition on the part of teaching staff towards digital transformation, although with a certain rejection of duality (online and face-to-face learning), and evidence that students, despite having the necessary resources and skills, continue to prefer face-to-face teaching as a system, although they emphasize the flexibility of mixing online with face-to-face learning.

The Benefits and Limitations of Teaching English for Specific Purposes Online and Face-to-Face: Sport and Health Sciences Students' Perspectives

The restrictions imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19 resulted in the switch from in-person to online teaching, including the teaching of foreign languages in 2020-2022. This study uses the feedback of students who have studied English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in virtual and classroom settings. The aim is to investigate the benefits and limitations of each approach for language acquisition in ESP for sport and health sciences. A questionnaire to ascertain students' experiences was distributed to 60 students in sport and health sciences who studied ESP at the Latvian Academy of Sport Education. It was found that online and face-to-face studies of ESP in sport and health sciences tended to facilitate the acquisition of different language skills. In the questionnaire, students reported consistent progress in the study of vocabulary and reading the texts related to their area of study during both online and face-to-face studies, but less improvement was reported in the areas of grammar and speaking skills. Overall, synchronous online live classes would facilitate the steady and continuous development of all language skills if supplemented by continuous support from the teaching personnel, regular offline meetings or classes, and access to specially designed online resources.