"Locked Down, But Inspired”: Beginning Our Research Studies During COVID-19

This chapter presents a collaborative autoethnography of our experiences as beginning researchers during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020. Specifically, it explores how completing our doctoral preparation degrees during these unsettled times positively influenced the development of our academic identities. By drawing on transformative learning as a conceptual metaphor, we consider how we connected with our researcher voices online, reimagined our understanding of a virtual research community, and transformed the limitations imposed on our research as an impetus for creativity. We argue that just as we redefined our research and academic identities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important for academia as a whole to recognise and harness the potential for transformation as it responds to the new COVID-normal. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

Zoom in: Open educational resources for informal online learning during COVID-19 and beyond

Institutions, organisations, and policymakers use open educational resources (OERs) to promote student equity and social inclusion. The global COVID-19 crisis highlighted the need for lifelong learning and underscored the importance of the higher education system in this endeavour. This study describes informal learning among adults through OERs, during the COVID-19 crisis, distinguishing between employed and unemployed individuals and between professional and personal development. A questionnaire distributed during the COVID-19 lockdown focused on three themes: (1) types of OERs used for learning during this period;(2) perceived OERs' usefulness;and (3) changes in OER use due to the crisis. Our findings revealed group differences in types of OERs used and in changes brought about by COVID-19, as well as within-group differences based on personal characteristics. Only a few participants reported using massive open online courses (MOOCs). Moreover, videoconferencing usage increased despite low perceived usefulness ratings, pointing to a change in informal learning modes. This exploratory research provides insights into the preferences of individual groups. These insights may be used to reduce socioeconomic disparities, especially among those who have lost their jobs, and to develop effective models for open education. Implications for practice or policy: • Enhancing the discussions about the future of open education by reflecting a wide picture of OERs use. • Redesigning OERs for the labour market by distinguishing between employed and unemployed, and professional and personal development. • OER preferences according to personal characteristics can be used to achieve better engagement with learning. © Articles published in the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET) are available under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Authors retain copyright in their work and grant AJET right of first publication under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Response to the impact of COVID-19 by health professions education institutions in Africa: a case study on preparedness for remote learning and teaching

BackgroundAfrica, like other parts of the world, continuously strives to deliver quality health professions education. These efforts are influenced to a larger extent by the socio-economic and cultural context of the region, but also by what happens globally. The global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 necessitated the implementation of emergency remote teaching to continue delivering on the mandate of educating future health professionals. The purpose of this research was to describe the response of selected health professions education institutions in Southern Africa to the impact of COVID-19 and their preparedness for remote learning and teaching.MethodsA case study design was applied using an adapted ADKAR model as a conceptual framework for data interpretation. The purposively selected study population consisted of educators, students, and administrators in undergraduate medical and nursing programmes from six institutions in five countries.ResultsA total of 1307 respondents provided data for the study. Many of the institutions were caught off-guard when most educators and almost all students were required to leave their universities and go home. Stakeholders immediately became aware of the need to adopt online approaches as an emergency measure. In all programmes, educators, students, and administrators agreed that change was desired, and students realised that they had to take charge of their own learning independently. Overall educators reported confidence in the ability to use of standard Microsoft software, while knowledge of learning management systems proved more challenging for both educators and students. Many stakeholders, especially students and administrators, reported uncertainty about their ability to function in the new reality. Conducive family dynamics, a quiet space to study, good connectivity, a reliable electricity supply and appropriate devices were reported to reinforce learning and teaching.ConclusionsThe findings highlight the need for higher education institutions to prepare for alternative modes to face-to-face learning and teaching approaches with the ultimate aim of transitioning to full online learning more expeditiously. This requires scaling up educational infrastructure, prioritising strategic directives driving continuous professional development of educators and fostering co-constructivist approaches towards student centered education.

Remote Learning Readiness and Challenges: Perceptions and Experiences among Tertiary State University Management Students

COVID-19 has disrupted the education system globally, leading education institutions to migrate into remote learning. This study on online learning readiness and competence was conducted among management students on their perceptions on the importance of, and the confidence level of their online learning competence factors. Using the Student Readiness for Online Learning (SROL) instrument, the results show that the students consider Technical Competence as very important and that they are somewhat confident with their online learning competence. Both perceptions of the importance of the online competence factors and competency levels significantly correlate with the students' self-report of whether or not they have learned in the course. Among the eight online learning challenges, the students find the "lack of technical skills in using online learning” as the least challenging. This study concludes with the recommendations that pedagogical and technological interventions be pursued to address the inadequacies in the online teaching-learning process. © 2021, University of San Jose-Recoletos. All rights reserved.

Coping Strategies for Online Learning from Home

The closure of schools as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented situation where parents have to take an active role in their children's learning process. This fact has generated both positive and negative emotions and behaviors that had not been evidenced before. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the coping strategies used by parents and their perceptions regarding online learning methods during the pandemic. The research was carried out with a mixed approach, where 201 parents with children in elementary school were recruited through social networks. In the quantitative part, the results revealed that cognitive and spiritual coping strategies predominated, motivated by the level of parental involvement in their children's education. On the other hand, in the qualitative part, a semi-structured interview was used focusing on social relationship, self-blame, and planning, where the emotional and affective bond that parents provided to their children during this period was highlighted. However, their concern and frustration were also evidenced by not having the necessary competencies to support their children's tasks and being unfamiliar with the use of technology, so they sought help from specialists and family members to obtain technological and didactic support that would allow sustaining the parent-school dyad in the transition to online learning from home. These findings lead to a rethink of learning management from the perspective of parents, which gives rise to a digital communication model that links the cognitive, affective, and spiritual aspects. © 2023 Society for Research and Knowledge Management. All rights reserved.

Understanding Chinese students' online learning experiences with emergency remote teaching: a case study

Despite the growing body of research on college students' online learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about how individual students perceive and experience emergency remote teaching in China. To fill this gap, this study seeks to explore college students' perceptions of emergency remote teaching as well as the factors deemed favourable and unfavourable to online learning. This study, adopting a photo elicitation method, investigated four college students' online learning experiences in an emergency remote instruction context. Our study revealed that students went through three stages of online learning and their perceptions of emergency remote teaching changed from one stage to another. Additionally, student-content interaction, strong teacher support and a high-level of digital inclusion were three factors that facilitated effective online learning, whereas lack of interaction with teachers and peers and dormitory confinement were two factors perceived as hindrance. The study explored possible explanations of the findings and made pedagogical recommendations to foster online learning success. The study bears significance for teachers and administrators practicing technology-supported teaching activities amid and beyond the pandemic.

Text presentation or video: Malaysian university students' preferences with synchronous and asynchronous learning

In overcoming the obstacles of online learning with the current Covid-19 pandemic crisis, synchronous and asynchronous learning has been a significant part of teaching strategies applied by educators to construct a collaborative online environment with Malaysian university students. Synchronous learning has always been the most effective strategy for social learning, while asynchronous learning allows students to learn on their own schedule. Moreover, despite having many educational platforms created for higher educational settings, the practicality of selection between two teaching–learning approaches of text-presentation and video is still a debate among teachers/ lecturers with students' learning styles. Therefore, this paper explored Malaysian university students' preferences between synchronous and asynchronous learning modes with text-presentation or video. Qualitative and quantitative data from 178 participants from both public and private universities were collected via open and close-ended questions in the designed questionnaire. The findings indicated that 68% of the students preferred synchronous learning mode compared to asynchronous. Meanwhile, 39% of the students favoured both text-presentation and video learning tools to be implemented in synchronous and asynchronous approaches as it provided them better opportunities to grasp the learning content better. Thus, it can be concluded that the synchronous learning mode is preferred if only one method is provided as the students highly value the teacher's presence for ease of communication, but students prefer a range of delivery methods. Moreover, the students also displayed a strong preference for applying both text-presentation and video to achieve their learning outcomes. Thus, it is suggested that the university lecturers need to explore and apply interactive pedagogical methods in online teaching-learning process, while contributing to the development of motivation, participation, and engagement among the university students in acquiring their subjects. As such, the findings of this study have informed the pedagogical implications, and further studies are mandatory. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

To determine attitude, comfortability and challenges faced by undergraduate dental students during online classes

Context: Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic, the education system swiftly shifted to online mode. Aims: To understand the attitude, comfortability, challenges, and health issues faced by dental students during online classes. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among dental undergraduate students in Haryana. Materials and Methods: A self-designed questionnaire survey form having five sections and 28 questions was used. Statistical Analysis Used: The content validity index was 0.88. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for attitude was 0.844, and 0.905 for health issues. Descriptive statistics and frequency distribution were studied. Results: The response rate was 94.25%. Most students reported that they find it difficult to concentrate during online classes and strongly agreed that learning is better during offline classes. Practical classes were a bigger challenge in online mode. Conclusions: The majority of students preferred offline classes to online classes. © 2023 Journal of Indian Academy of Oral Medicine & Radiology ;Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow.

Privacy, Security and Usability Comparison of Online Learning Platforms in Developing Countries: A Study on Bangladeshi Universities

As the number of MS Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet users increases with online education, so do the privacy and security vulnerabilities. This study aims to investigate the privacy, security, and usability aspects of few tools that are frequently used for educational purposes by Bangladeshi universities. Consumer security, privacy, and usability are also concerns when it comes to online-based software. This study assesses the most commonly used tools that are used for online education based on three important factors: privacy, security, and usability. Assessment factors concerning the privacy, security, and usability aspects are initially identified. Afterwards, each of the applications was assessed and ranked by comparing their characteristics, functionalities, and terms and conditions (T&C) in contradiction of those factors. In addition, for the purpose of additional validation, a survey was carried out with 57 university students who were enrolled at one of several private universities in Bangladesh. Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet have been ranked based on an evaluation of their security, privacy, and usability features, which was accomplished through the use of a knowledge base and a user survey. © 2022 IEEE.

Practice of singing in virtual mode to develop primary emotions in university students

Currently, the development of primary emotions through a singing workshop for university students is a relevant issue, where, due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the teaching-learning process has been transformed into a virtual modality, therefore, generating certain emotional difficulties such as discouragement, anguish, depression, etc. Therefore, the objective of this research is to determine the percentage of emotional development of university students before and after the application of the singing workshop. The methodology responds to a pre-experimental, quantitative investigation with a descriptive scope. The findings focus on the identification of the emotions that the students bring before and after each workshop session, the active participation of the 8 sessions of singing practice in virtual mode in a creative way, the adaptation that the students made in their houses for the practice of singing and the importance of the musical repertoire that was used. It is concluded that the development, control and education of emotions is vital for the life of man as a decisive process to live in harmony with the society that surrounds him, therefore, his progress must be monitored. © 2022, Associacao Iberica de Sistemas e Tecnologias de Informacao. All rights reserved.

COVID-DRIVEN FRUSTRATIONS AND FULFILLMENTS WITH ONLINE LEARNING: DO MALES AND FEMALES DIFFER?

This paper reports the results of a study to determine whether the emotional impact of online education during the pandemic affected male and female students differently. We see these results as an important contribution to the redesign of courses either for online classes generally or for more urgent applications should a similar event occur. In general, we found that females were more likely to be prone to detrimental emotions than males – stress, negative feelings about the online learning experience, and the need to vent their frustrations. Males on the other hand were more positive about the online learning experience and less likely to vent. © (2022) by Association for Information Systems (AIS) All rights reserved.

Teaching Geography in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Chinese University: A Case Study of Beijing Normal University

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been making higher education confront great challenges globally, while COVID-19 has been speeding up the necessity to overcome them. Traditionally, geographical teaching in China involves indoor experiments, fieldtrips and other practical activities in addition to lectures in class. We asked what impacts or changes the COVID-19 epidemic would have on geographical education in universities of China. Based on the case of Beijing Normal University, this chapter aims to examine new learning patterns as a response to the outbreak and the real impacts in China. Questionnaire surveys and typical cases are used to examine the teaching arrangements and effects in three periods, viz., the early stage of the outbreak when it was necessary to prepare contingent teaching plans, the middle and late stage of the spring semester to examine the adaptations and feedback of online learning, and later when traditional teaching resumed in the autumn semester of 2020 to evaluate online learning. This research aims to seek some innovative measurements for reforming geographical education in Chinese universities in post COVID-19 pandemic times. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

The Construction of Intelligent Homework System in Schools under the Concept of Wisdom Education

The mega-scale online education conducted nationwide during the COVID-19 epidemic has enabled online learning to move from individualized participation to full participation, practicing and advancing the development of wisdom education to a large extent. In the post-epidemic era, a new educational order that integrates online and offline learning is gradually taking shape, and online learning has become a new norm from emergency. The popularization and promotion of online education has been the general trend. The "double reduction"policy has led to a trust dilemma, a communication dilemma, a cooperation dilemma and an organizational dilemma in the practice of home-school-society collaborative parenting, and an unprecedented challenge for school education and teachers teaching. This study proposes an intelligent operating system based on big data and adaptive learning traction model, rooted in rich pedagogical theories, to solve the above-mentioned challenges in online education by virtue of "wisdom". © 2023 IEEE.

The Acceptance and Readiness of Micro-credentials and its Barriers in the Tech-related Job Market in Malaysia

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an acceleration unlike any other in terms of digital and technological acceleration for the entire world and also within Malaysia. The sudden and rapid need for organisations as well as businesses to shift their day-to-day operations online has changed the way people are working everywhere. And what that means is now more than ever, there is a huge increase in demand for a workforce that is ready and can pioneer this new age of rising technological needs in conjunction with the government's aim of heading towards Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0). Micro-credential (MC) has grown in popularity in recent years and have been labelled as a new disruptor to lifelong learning and higher learning. The Malaysian workforce and job seekers now have more options in their reskilling and upskilling efforts as they seek to remain relevant in the present-day job market which has shifted towards a digital transformation. An extensive study is proposed to be done to explore the current status quo of MC in Malaysia from the viewpoint of the hiring parties in the tech-related job markets as well as how MC will be able to play a part in the continuous growth of the tech and digital ecosystem in Malaysia. © 2023 IEEE.

Promoting College Student's Systems Thinking

This study examined how college students in a medical school in China engaged in learning in asynchronous online learning environments during the COVID-19 health crisis. A quasi-experimental design approach was employed to compare if a class of students had better learning outcomes and developed systems thinking when asynchronous discussion forums incorporated an inquiry-based pedagogical approach in one unit, whereas the other unit followed a traditional instructor-led approach. In sum, 25 junior students participated in this study. Quantitative results show that the students had statistically significant higher assessment scores and improved systems thinking when the unit incorporated the inquiry-based pedagogical approach. Qualitative findings also demonstrated how students engaged in learning and how the instructor scaffolded students' inquiries and learning. Practical implications for instructors' teaching online courses are also discussed. © The author(s) 2023.

Emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the Covid-19 pandemic: a case study of experiences and challenges of lecturers

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to investigate the lived experiences, challenges and coping mechanisms of lecturers during the emergency remote teaching (ERT) situation induced by the Covid-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachA case study on lecturers in colleges and universities in Penang, Malaysia is selected. A qualitative research approach is adopted with semi-structured interviews as the data-gathering tool. Purposive sampling is used for diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity, age, subject or discipline taught and teaching experience.FindingsThe findings are composed into four (4) themes - Theme 1: Lecturers down-shift to lower levels of satisfaction and well-being, Theme 2: Wide diversity of experience with various intervening variables, Theme 3: Lecturers accept and adapt toward the situation and Theme 4: Socialization is compromised.Research limitations/implicationsDespite this being a case study on Malaysia, it is postulated that the findings and recommendations have global relevancy as ERT is a worldwide phenomenon.Practical implicationsPractical education management and public-policy implications are evident and recommendations are made based on the emergent themes.Social implicationsThe findings in the form of emergent themes have considerable social implications in terms of social sustainability of education practices and policies.Originality/valueThis research is novel as lecturers' experience of ERT in Malaysia has not been specifically addressed to date. Even though the fieldwork is conducted in Malaysia, the findings and recommendations have global relevancy.

Australian Entrepreneurship Education: A Stakeholder Perspective

Research on entrepreneurship education is growing due to its practical significance and its role in fostering economic growth. The aim of this chapter is to highlight and present an overview of the current state of entrepreneurship education (challenges and opportunities) and how COVID-19 can be a transformational opportunity for entrepreneurship education as one has to reimagine new ways to design and deliver curriculum based on collaboration and cooperation in between students and teachers and various educational institutions. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

The New Normal: Student Preferences for Online Advising Before, During, and After the Pandemic

Learning advisers have traditionally been reluctant to conduct online appointments. We compared proportional student use of online appointments over the course of the pandemic, and relative student satisfaction between online and in-person appointments in 2021. After the initial lockdowns eased and students were able to choose their preferred appointment type, online appointments have remained popular on an ongoing basis, although in-person appointments are slightly preferred overall. There was no difference in student satisfaction between modes.

Designing and Implementation of Web-enhanced Inquiry Learning for Literacy in Science Platform for Post COVID-19 Education

Teaching and learning for school science became more challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic as regular science classes were offered online in real-time remote, synchronized, asynchronized, and hybrid learning modes. In science education, students often cannot collect the real-time data necessary for inquiry in science classrooms. During the COVID-19 outbreak, web-based or e-learning platforms play a significant role in science education during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. To overcome the outbreak limitation, teachers and students were required to transform their teaching and learning to be online with and without the available online platforms, enabling both teachers and learners to easily different learning sources and make teaching and learning work efficient and effective. Therefore, this study proposed a prototype of a Web-enhanced Inquiry Learning for Literacy in Science (WILL-S) platform aiming to provide innovative and flexible teaching to enhance the science competencies of middle school students. This web platform allows teachers and students to maximize their teaching practices and learning processes in science. A preliminary evaluation of the proposed platform was carried out with eight in-service science teachers and 221 middle school students from eight different secondary schools located in northeastern Thailand to estimate their acceptance of the proposed platform from teachers' and students' perspectives. The preliminary result was the positive acceptability of the teachers and students. © 2023 IEEE.

Baseline Estimation in Face Detection for AI Proctored Examinations through Convoluted Neural Networks

The COVID-19 pandemic took the world by surprise, and everything came to a halt. The education sector had to adjust accordingly by shifting to online learning. If the online delivery experience was overall successful, assessment integrity becomes questionable as examinees still manage to circumvent the anti-plagiarism mechanism put in place. In this paper, we propose an artificial intelligence solution using face and head pose detection to estimate the neutral position of the examinee which will form the basis to detect any suspicious behavior. The resulting implementation achieved a 97% accuracy when detecting the examinee in the frame and a 98% accuracy when there are multiple faces detected. © 2023 IEEE.