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The COVID-19 pandemic has engulfed the whole planet, including the education sector in Malaysia. As a result, the quality of lecturers' work is critical in maintaining the number of students in a university, particularly during a pandemic. Lecturers are put through their paces as they move from traditional to e-learning, learning new ways to teach classes, navigating technology, using new skills, and utilising their own knowledge. This study analysed responses of 892 local students from various officially registered public higher learning institutions throughout Malaysia. Convenient sampling method was used to gather responses through online google forms from the above respondents. The outcomes of this study provided some insight on how Malaysian higher education institutions might redeem themselves by offering better service to the society, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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This qualitative study analyzed pedagogical effects of multilayer mitigation in a Thai classroom. The triangulated data set were confidential, comprising teachers' voluntary anonymous information, pedagogical views and opinions, respectively. First, pupils' low absence rates enabled pedagogical focus on learning losses, which were mainly skills. The second effect was related to assessment. None of the teachers mentioned test results as learning loss indicators but regarded learning and qualified assessment as dynamic processes. An interesting dilemma was the learning loss measurements by non-pedagogical experts. Mostly those were presented as test scores, working hour counts, or annual formalities. However, optimized learning strategies' research had existed for decades, being responded better by these pupils. The third effect was the improved resilience of pupils and caretakers. Initially worried parents turned relieved. Resilience fostered the intrinsic motivation of all. When compared to some countries, firmer resilience made the difference in learning loss endurance for this group. "All-inclusive" mitigation had given families meaningful support. They shared visions of community roles, mediated by teachers and school management. The latter were backed by epidemiologists and medical experts. Further studies should discuss schools in a longer timeframe. External, quantified test scores without in-depth pedagogical analyses seem outdated by the early fourth pandemic year.
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In spite of its increasing popularity, distance education faces challenges -- levels of digital literacy, access to technology, workload and time management, students' feelings of isolation and disconnection -- that can have a significant impact on the experience of the learners. In addressing these issues, we propose a pedagogical model for distance learning which promotes the synergy of eight ingredients -- Community, Openness, Multimodality, Participation, Personalisation, Learning, Experience, Technological-Enhancement, with their initial letters generating the acronym COMP-PLETE -- for the shaping of a highly participatory online learning experience and the creation of an active and cohesive community characterised by a strong sense of commitment towards the learning of the individuals and that of the group. This paper presents the theoretical rationale for and implementation of COMP-PLETE. It also provides recommendations for researchers and practitioners interested in cultivating an online learning community which responds well to the aforementioned challenges posed by distance education.
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Lesson study, observation and analysis are relevant to professional development and initial teacher education. As a strategy, it helps to bridge the gap between theory and practice. The health conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic forced the restriction of the tutors' direct observation of preservice teachers at school. This study analyses preservice teachers' performance through video observations to evaluate their professional activity at school during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fifteen Items Revised Tsang-Hester Observation Rubric (FIR-THOR) was administered to a sample of 166 preservice teachers in their internship schools and their video recordings each one of 45-minute teaching lessons were analysed. The results show that the FIR-THOR appears as a robust instrument, which allows us to conclude that the instrument works well in the three five-items dimensions that compose it - Instruction, Management, and Assessment - proving to be reliable for assessing teacher intervention in the classroom. Among the three dimensions, the preservice teachers' performance stands out in the Management of the classroom, as well as in the classroom Instruction. This contribution is relevant considering the potential of lesson analysis in learning and professional development during initial teacher training. © 2023 The Author(s).
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INTRODUCTION: During the recent pandemic, e-learning and e-assessment methods have been implemented worldwide, providing opportunities for further implementation in the dental curriculum. This study aims to research the dental students' and dental faculty's perceptions of online exams with e-invigilation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Online questionnaires were developed and delivered, after three semesters of online exams, to all students and faculty. Descriptive statistics were performed, and answers were grouped into Principal Components (PC) using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Statistical significance was set at p < .05. RESULTS: Two-hundred and sixty dental students (83.7%) and 24 dental faculty members (63.1%) answered the online questionnaires. PCA of students' responses revealed 4 PC, 'University support to students', 'Comparison between online and face-to-face exams', 'Preparation for the online exams' and 'Attitudes towards the technology used for the online exams'. PCA of faculty responses revealed 5 PC: 'Comparison between online and face-to-face exams', 'University support to faculty', 'Faculty attitudes towards the exam procedures', 'Human factors associated with the exam procedures' and 'Exam invigilation'. The overall satisfaction was high for both staff and students (higher for students and female staff). Students with previous experience in online exams scored more positively than first-year students. University support, process-related stress and e-invigilation were highlighted. CONCLUSIONS: The overall satisfaction with the e-exams was high, despite the technical problems, time-consuming processes and related stress. University support (training, IT support and resources) and mock exams emerged as important elements of online exams, as was the e-invigilation, which students perceived as efficient and non-intrusive.
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The pandemic has placed unprecedented pressures upon staff and students alike. Yet performance management of academics including Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) persists. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has intervened on this issue. We develop new methods enabling better treatment of pandemic-era SET. Analysis of UK National Student Survey (NSS) data suggests 85% of institutions meet reasonable performance expectations during the pandemic. Results emphasize the need for a more sensitive treatment of pandemic-era SET. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic caused major shifts in students' learning strategies as well as teaching environments that profoundly affected the delivery of anatomy courses in medical schools. The Department of Anatomy at the University of Zagreb School of Medicine had a unique experience where the anatomy course in 2019/2020 was first taught in-person before transferring to an online course delivery, while the inverse happened in 2020/2021. The core curriculum, course material and examination criteria were the same in both academic years. The aim of the study was to determine whether course delivery affected students' perceptions of the course and whether it impacted students' engagement and success. METHODS: The students' perceptions of the course were assessed via an anonymous course survey (student evaluation of teaching, SET). The questions in the SET assessed the usefulness of teaching modalities rather than students' satisfaction. Most questions were in the form of statements to which students responded with their level of agreement on a five-point Likert scale. Differences between responses in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test. Effect size was estimated using Cliff's delta and association between responses was assessed using Spearman's r coefficient. RESULTS: Students' perceptions were significantly affected by changes in course delivery. Students' success and engagement were higher in 2019/2020 when in-person teaching preceded online teaching. Furthermore, students' views on course organization and the usefulness of continuous assessment were more positive in 2019/2020. Finally, students' perceptions of the usefulness of online materials and activities were more positive in 2019/2020. All comparisons between the two academic years were statistically significant (P ≤ 0.0001 for all comparisons, Mann-Whitney test). CONCLUSIONS: Students' perceptions of the anatomy course were dependent on the teaching environment they were exposed to at the beginning of the course. A transfer from in-person to online course delivery was more successful than vice-versa. This has important implications for structuring hybrid courses in medical education in the future.
Subject(s)
Anatomy , COVID-19 , Students, Medical , Humans , Pandemics , Educational Measurement , Educational Status , Curriculum , Anatomy/educationABSTRACT
This contribution addresses the challenges brought on by the pandemic and argues that a forced acceleration in online teaching and assessment practices can become a sustainable model for the post-COVID-19 world. Technology is a great asset that provides learning opportunities for the whole community and the education sector should seek to adopt an innovative approach that "firmly" integrates face-to-face with virtual interaction. The effort to make the most of an unforeseen and challenging situation has brought Jisc's prediction for future learning forward: our publication "Education 4.0 Transforming the future of education through advanced technology," offers suggestions on how this can be achieved in the current climate. [For the complete volume, "Languages at Work, Competent Multilinguals and the Pedagogical Challenges of COVID-19," see ED612070.]
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This paper presents a retrospective evaluation of the Higher Colleges of Technology's student assessments during the COVID-19 lockdown, reflecting the justified decision to deploy graded assessments during the lockdown for students to academically progress and/or graduate on time, while maintaining the quality and rigor of academic awards. The outcome-based evaluation of this paper is intended to provide lessons for any future situations of this significance and magnitude. While online education was the obvious response to the pandemic, the provision of assessments was not possible without risk. Taking a high-stakes decision that would affect the future of thousands of students, for years to come, involved complex steps of reasoning and justification. Addressing the role of graded assessment in supporting institutional accountability and transferability of students' achievements, student efficacy and informed pedagogy alterations were the main objectives. To meet those objectives, the Higher Colleges of Technology was able to deploy an off-campus student assessment model that builds upon three pillars of adjustments (assessment development and deployment, technology infrastructure, and governance resilience) to support students' learning, while mitigating vulnerabilities. The evaluation of student performance indicators and stakeholders' satisfaction rates revealed a successful deployment of off-campus assessment while maintaining the traditional conventions pertaining to evaluation of assessments.
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Many research studies show that the use of technology inside and outside classrooms makes teaching and learning more engaging and motivating. Technology can provide learners with endless opportunities and can improve the learning experience, simplify access to educational resources, enhance autonomous learning, meet individual learning needs, and prepare the learners for future career success when using it to foster 21st-century skills. However, the range and number of technologies currently available can yield challenges for educators if they do not know how to effectively integrate them into their teaching pedagogy. "Policies, Practices, and Protocols for the Implementation of Technology Into Language Learning" discusses the skills necessary for successful technology use in education and examines technology tools that assist in teaching different languages with a focus on English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Covering a range of topics such as reading, writing, and integrated language skills, this book is ideal for instructors, policymakers, administrators, researchers, practitioners, academicians, and students.
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Background: This article describes teachers' equity concerns related to teaching mathematics online as a result of the COVID-19 pivot to online/distance-based instruction. COVID-19 restrictions forced the creation of virtual education contexts that magnified existing equity issues related to access to technology and the challenges of providing inquiry-based, student-centered instruction. Methods: This study took place under conditions promulgated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nine teachers agreed to share their observations and experiences with the sudden switch to teaching mathematics online. Our methods included two online open response surveys. We qualitatively analyzed the responses from the surveys, coding for a priori, and emergent themes (Charmaz, 1995, Emerson et al., 2011). Findings: The results indicate that our participants experienced concerns for students and families struggling to effectively engage with and access online education, and shared the practices and online tools they found most and least helpful in enacting equitable instruction. Contribution: This work sheds light on how skilled and caring teachers leveraged prior experiences, collegial support, and technological tools to meet the challenges brought by the sudden transition to online mathematics pedagogy.
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Like all other sectors, higher education in the agriculture sector has been affected by the COVID-19. Both teachers and students have faced problems in communication, learning and motivation during online education. The major issues include the limited internet access coupled with poor supply of electricity especially in rural areas, in most of the developing countries. In this article, we have discussed various challenges faced by agricultural students and teachers during online teaching and learning after the COVID-19 pandemic. The article also discusses prospects and strategies to improve online teaching and learning in the higher education of the agriculture sector of developing countries.
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In the wake of the Corona Virus pandemic, many universities have rapidly shifted to remote education. In this regard, students are enrolled in online learning instead of, or sometimes along with, physical classroom presence. As a result, the online assessment also appeared as an alternative method to assess students. The current research paper aims to provide an in-depth look at the online reviews in EFL teaching and learning in the Algerian context during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main questions that set the study are: How do Algerian English language teachers perceive e-assessment via Moodle? What impact did the online reviews have on assessment practices?, How did an online assessment affect students 'achievements? To answer these questions, the researcher conducted a study with Algerian EFL teachers and students from three Universities. The researcher collected data through a questionnaire addressed to EFL teachers and a comparative analysis of Project-Based Language essays done by the students in face-to-face assessment and online assessment. The findings revealed that although the challenges facing teachers in online review, positive attitudes appeared towards this method. The analysis also demonstrated that the assessment practice used mainly by participated teachers is a summative assessment. The results also showed a big difference in students' achievements between face-to-face assignments and online evaluation, in favor of e-assessment.
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At the end of 2021, the spread of the COVID-19 virus Delta variant and the start of the new school year combined to present many educators and administrators with the hardest year yet in the pandemic, in terms of both delivering instruction and assessing student learning. Students entered the school year with increased anxiety, and assessment was an added stresspoint. Nonetheless, assessment is crucial for understanding where each child is academically and is particularly important for identifying any learning gaps caused by situations such as the pandemic-related school closures. So how do educators shift students' negative perception of assessments to an understanding that they are a positive part of their learning journey? This article offers five ways.
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While some tertiary mathematics educators approximated the familiar invigilated, closed-book assessment regime in the online environment forced upon us all by a pandemic, others either by choice or necessity needed to devise a new way to assess their students' learning. This Classroom Note both synthesizes advice from the literature about what might comprise 'internet resistant' question design and provides practical, specific examples to demonstrate how such advice can be put into everyday practice. The examples are annotated, and the potential long-term utility of such question design is discussed, whatever the future of assessment may be.
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The aim of this research is to reveal the features of a Web 2.0 tool for measurement and evaluation that will be developed for primary education teachers, in line with the opinions of experts from the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology (CEIT) and Primary Education (PE). Case study is one of the qualitative research methods used in this research. Participants consisted of 20 (CEIT: 10, PE: 10) field experts, with professional experiences ranging from 1 to 27 years. The opinions of the field experts were received through semistructured interviews. The findings obtained in the research were evaluated in general. It has been determined that the measurement and evaluation Web 2.0 tool to be developed for the use of primary education teachers, should not only have a question/answer design with multimedia support, but also include awards/competition and teamwork' interaction in order to be preferred by students. Additionally, it should provide ease of use and be supported by stakeholders in order to be preferred by teachers. It is recommended that the specified Web 2.0 tool should include outcome-based and graphical-based reporting features. Especially in the Covid-19 pandemic, in order for parents to support their child and follow the student's progress, it is recommended that a detailed statistical development report be included in the parent interface limited to their children only.
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TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) is a crucial necessity for instructors and teachers during the teaching and learning process, particularly when using instructional technologies. The goal of this study is to learn more about the TPACK level of knowledge and skill among school trainee teachers in teaching Arabic language and conducting online teaching and assessment during the shutdown of schools in Malaysia due to COVID-19 Movement Restriction Control (MCO). The 32 final year students from the Kulliyyah of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia, were purposefully selected as trainee instructors (IIUM). They were assigned to teach practicum in several secondary schools in Selangor, Malaysia, in order to fulfil the Bachelor of Education degree's graduation requirement. Open-ended surveys on obstacles and challenges faced during the use of educational technology in teaching and online assessment of Arabic learning at home before and during MCO, platforms used, and further suggestions to strengthen the use of educational technology in implementing online assessment of Arabic learning were used to investigate the teachers' knowledge about three main components of TPACK, which include technology, content, and pedagogy, as well as open-ended surveys on obstacles and challenges faced during the use of educational technology in teaching and online assessment of Arabic learning at home before and during MCO. The findings and findings are helping to improve the trainee teachers' comprehension of their level of knowledge and skill in technology, pedagogy, and material in teaching Arabic, particularly during online instruction and assessment during the COVID-19 epidemic. The research could also help schools enhance their online learning techniques in preparation for post-COVID 19 schooling.
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COVID-19 pandemic made a sudden shift of all ages to online learning and distance learning instructions. However, there is a paucity of research to address the possible impacts of the pedagogical shift integrated into new online platforms on learning, interaction, and assessment, especially in higher education settings from the vantage point of EFL students. Framed in a descriptive quantitative study, the main objective of this study includes two folds: a) to identify the possible effects of online learning via Microsoft TEAMS platform during the COVID-19 pandemic on assessment, interaction, and learning English as a foreign language from EFL students' perception and b) to reveal the possible significant correlation between learning, interaction and online assessment via Microsoft TEAMs. Data were collected using a developed questionnaire consisting of 30 items focusing on three dimensions: interaction, learning, and assessment among 440 EFL students whose major was English at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait. At the significance level of 0.01, the results revealed the effect of online learning via Microsoft TEAMS during the COVID-19 pandemic on learning of English skills, students' interaction and achievement assessment as perceived by the EFL students in the English Language Department in the CBE was rather high, moderate and moderate and moderate respectively. There is a strong/high statistically significant correlation between Interaction and Assessing (r = 0.538), interaction and Learning (r = 0.747). There is a statistically significant moderate correlation between Assessing and Learning (r = 0.467). This study is of some pedagogical and assessment ramifications for EFL contexts in the pandemic era.
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Studies in the fields of education and social sciences have always been important in terms of their impacts on society. These studies have gained even more importance during the COVID-19 pandemic process. The impact of the pandemic period on children, schools and society has been demonstrated through such studies. This book also includes studies conducted during the pandemic period. The studies in this book contribute to the fields of education and social sciences by different research methods, participants, and contexts and add a global perspective to these fields. The book is divided into two sections related to studies on social sciences and education sciences. Each section includes four chapters. The chapter's contributors are from the following countries: the United States, Turkey, China, Indonesia, Russia, Rwanda, and Malaysia.
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Education, science, and technology disciplines at all levels have never been more important, more exciting, or more crucial for its broader impacts on human society. The need for advanced technical skills is increasingly pressing to address climate change, combat COVID and other diseases, enhance the infrastructural built environment, grow food sources to feed an expanding planetary population, make new scientific discoveries, and interface synergistically with the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Teachers/instructors/mentors/professors need to be proficient in the best ways to convey knowledge and motivate the next generations of productive and engaged citizens of an increasingly diverse planet on which its human inhabitants must learn to confront and surmount increasingly difficult challenges to survival and prosperity. Students need to be focused on honing their learning skills and adapting to an ever-evolving global economy demanding always higher levels of technical proficiency. Students also need to be free to pursue any and all areas of interest without interference from cultural, political, ideological, or faith-imposed limitations. Policymakers need to provide the financial and human resources to fuel the engine of education, and they must create the maximum possible latitude for both those who teach and those who learn to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to their limits. This book contributes to addressing these needs and to suggesting potential solutions from multiple global perspectives. Adaptability of instructional methods, relevance of instructional content to students' lived experiences, and sensitivity to the mental and physical demands imposed on students must be hallmarks of education. The book is divided into three sections related to studies on education, science, and technology. Each section includes three chapters. The chapter's contributors are from the following countries: the United States, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Malaysia. This diversity brings an international perspective to the book.