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The coronavirus pandemic has led to major changes in higher education around the world. Higher education institutions (HEIs) moved to completely online learning and a range of new technologies including online videoconferencing and chat tools. Research has shown that users have privacy and security concerns about such tools, but little is known about the attitudes of HEI students to these issues, apart from reluctance to use webcams during online teaching. A survey of 71 UK HEI students explored attitudes and concerns about privacy and security in online teaching in the pandemic. Participants knew little about institutional policies on these issues and few had had any training. Ratings of concern across a range of issues were generally low, however in open-ended questions, a range of concerns such as being recorded without permission, unauthorised people entering and disrupting of online sessions, not knowing where recordings are stored and who has access to them. The main concerns about online teaching situations related to being monitored in examinations. HEIs moved very rapidly to deploy online technologies for teaching in response to the pandemic, but going forward, more transparency and information to students could alleviate many of these concerns and create better informed students. Copyright © 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
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The pandemic has globally changed the landscape of the educational system in most countries of the world, including Ukraine. Their educational systems have faced massive challenges in distance learning implementation. However, in addition to the destructive impact of the pandemic, Ukraine has a more serious problem in the form of a full-scale invasion by the Russian army. In the conditions of the active phase of the conflict, it is extremely problematic to conduct full-time classes, especially for higher education establishments. Therefore, distance learning technology is of particular importance for Ukraine. This research investigates the situation of distance learning implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic and martial law in Ukrainian system of higher education. Questions regarding the features of the distance learning development in Ukrainian universities and comparative analyses of key aspects of the distance learning implementation within two destructive phenomena (pandemic and war), are raised. The results clarify the historical background of the distance learning development in the Ukrainian system of higher education, general trends and the main problematic aspects of its implementation. The study makes it possible to more comprehensively understand this issue and find the most effective strategy for solving emerging problems. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Interactive Learning Environments is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, student well-being was highlighted as an important public health issue. The study aims to gain insights into the exact factors that bachelor and master students from engineering fields at Delft University of Technology are impacted by. Multiple interviews were performed to identify the key areas of impact and then incorporated into a comprehensive survey. The questionnaire was divided into five blocks: course work factors, thesis, communication, study environment, the COVID-19 pandemic and disseminated between June and September of 2021. A convenience sample of 165 responses was collected and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) test was employed to quantify the well-being of the students. The survey analysis found different well-being scores between the students from the bachelor and master programs and concluded that having a consistent work environment played an important role in students' welfare. The COVID-19-related findings revealed that the recordings of lectures and remote studying were the most appreciated. The thesis-related section showed that the clarity and objectives of the thesis writing are particularly impactful. Although some of the findings are university specific, the recommendations could be considered by other universities as they refer to general indicators and relationships. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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Teacher training/education is problematic in every country, and it was puzzling across historical epochs. There were questions and preoccupations about the perfect teacher or how to educate a better teacher for our children, although the quest for such a teacher was not always scientifical or sustained by proof. But starting with the early twentieth century the search for the better teacher became scientific and serios. Many theories have been developed. Starting from some of them, this paper, propose an innovative approach for the best adaptation of students to labour market. Our domain is teacher education in Business and Economics. The aim is to put together the labour market organizations (LMO), in our case, trainers form a commercial bank, with higher education (HE) teachers to construct joint activities from which students (the future teacher of Economics) become better critical thinkers. The reason is that in recent years, critical thinking (CT) was listed among the most desired skills for twenty-first century jobs. Hence, our project is aiming to enhance this skill in student-teachers and bring labour market in the university to create a more adapted curriculum to job needs. In the following we shall present a curriculum for Pedagogy of Economics and concrete examples of blended, work-based learning scenarios in an online synchronous environment (a condition determined by the Covid-19 pandemic). © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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To ensure quality assurance, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) implement a Quality Management System (QMS) anchored on international benchmarks like ISO 9001:2015 Standards. With the COVID-19 pandemic, quality audits have become more challenging. Also, to address the lapses due to human error and lack of technical knowledge in clause identification during audit processes, an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled QMS is presented. This study successfully demonstrated how AI-enabled QMS can match audit findings in accreditation compliance reports and internal quality audit reports with the clauses of ISO 9001:2015. Audit findings corpus data gathered are within the span of the last five years, which serve as the dataset to be employed. After data pre-processing, a long short-term memory (LSTM) deep neural network was created and trained using MATLAB. The AI model achieved a combined classification accuracy (CA) of 82.15% and predicted 70% of the examined audit findings in actual implementation. Further analyses illustrate how AI can be maximized in generating useful and precise and useful audit reports for HEIs to develop and implement globally competitive educational policies, programs, and standards. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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In the past two years, the "New Normal” such as blended university, COVID-19 Campus, hybrid everything, remote proctoring, and online networking has increasingly become the norm for Higher Education Institutions, and they will need to adapt accordingly. The importance of reflective learning and teaching is given special significance in numerous empirical findings on professionalization. Therefore, concepts and instruments are needed to make development, qualification, and competencies accessible on the way to becoming a "reflective practitioner” [1]. The article presents the implementation and the use of E-Portfolio as a reflective tool in the existing structure based on a seminar developed and conducted at the University of Passau. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, it became increasingly necessary to rearrange the teaching process at all school levels. Higher education institutions all over the world have been facing the challenge since 2020, to find blended teaching formats and activities to provide higher education without compromising the quality of education, but at the same time mitigating health risks. This article deals with the HyFlex learning model. The aim of this paper is to identify problems that may arise when implementing HyFlex teaching and learning in higher education. Identifying problems also provides an opportunity to offer solutions to these problems and to introduce possible solutions more widely. In order to answer the research question an online survey was conducted in spring 2021 (n = 570). The survey consisted of both closed and open questions. The fact that Estonia was one of those countries, where periods of F2F classes during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic were possible, speaks in favor of conducting the research in Estonia. In conclusion, most of the students (75%) participating in the survey were rather positive, rating the learning experience to be good or even excellent. However, some problems were pointed out too: difficulties in concentrating, decrease of learning motivation/self-discipline, lack of depth in learning, and insufficient self-directed learning skills;followed by communication barriers and problems related to digital competencies and skills for both teachers and students. Based on the above, almost a quarter of the respondents found that the volume of learning increased. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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The purpose of this study is to investigate and explore the degree of success of the implementation of online learning in conventional higher education institutions instead of face-to-face learning during the spread of the Covid-19 Pandemic during the 2019/2020 academic year, via exploring the undergraduate students' perceptions of the application of the online learning system at Ajman University in UAE, and Griffith University in Australia. In the study, the descriptive approach was used. A questionnaire consisting of 40 items was designed and distributed to 630 students from Ajman University and 675 students from Griffith University, who were randomly selected from different faculties of the two universities during the 2019/2020 academic year during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the study revealed that students' a moderate satisfaction with the University's readiness, training, and technical support for online learning and the university's teaching and learning process during the COVID-19 pandemic, with female students finding them more satisfaction than male students. Disciplines and computer skills also showed an impact on such satisfaction, with Pharmacy & Health Science College students at Ajman University and Architecture, Art, and Design discipline students at Griffith University, and those with excellent computer skills in both Universities. In addition, the results showed positive attitudes of students towards the use of online learning at the two universities during the COVID-19 pandemic © 2023,International Journal of Emerging Technologies in LearningAll Rights Reserved.
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This article aims to describe student responses when implementing SFH and provide an outline of six recommendations for the implementation of online learning during COVID-19, with the expectancy that learning under any conditions will continue to run benevolently. This study had a total of 693 participants with 416 (60%) women and 277 (40%) men, with a vulnerable age 17-24 years. In total, 34 universities across Indonesia participated in this study. This study uses online surveys as a method of collecting qualitative research. In this situation, the state, to respond to instruction on integrating online learning during the epidemic in universities, was given recommendations. In order to make conclusions easily understood by researchers and readers, data is organized into categories and described as units. During COVID-19, the Ministry of Education and Culture prepares educational regulations that are socialized via digital media. Online learning rose by 10.3% between COVID-19 and prior. WhatsApp is utilized 38.2% and Google Classroom 34.92%. This article also discusses some student feedback and complaints. The education office and school have strong communication. However, it is vital to adopt national rules connected to online learning that do not burden schools, students, teachers, or parents. Aside from that, the government should work with local and international online education software developers. Ensuring that education continues to run ideally in Indonesia, despite its limitations and issues, by developing a standard operating process for online learning evaluation. © 2022 IEEE.
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While the almost complete conversion of university teaching to digital formats in March 2020 initially had a disruptive effect, in the meantime almost all university teachers and learners can look back on numerous experiences with different forms of university learning and teaching. These experiences can contribute to the design of higher education teaching and learning of the future. The article describes an explorative analysis that asks from the students’ point of view which studies from Germany can be identified that give hints and statements about the future of studying from the students’ point of view and what wishes, requirements, preferences are articulated for future higher education teaching. For this purpose, this article collects evidence from studies on higher education teaching and learning of the future and presents the inductively formed category system as the first result of a structuring content analysis, which gives first indications of significant topics, statements and preferences. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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This article presents a study about some perceptions of university students' perceptions in Barranquilla, Colombia about flipped classrooms during Covid-19 pandemic. The group of participants were 302 students who are studying in different universities of the city and took their virtual or remote classes with a flipped classroom strategy. Students identified their learning styles, experiences and characteristics of the virtual or remote classes and their class preferences. In addition, they mentioned resources and learning spaces used by the teachers that promote collaboration and knowledge development and technology used by the university to develop classes. Given the results of the survey, it was determined that flipped classroom strategy is a useful method for the students because it allowed them to be more self-taught (independent learning) during pandemic. It was possible to identify their learning styles and to create spaces of greater participation with the teachers as guides. Flipped classrooms allow learning by doing, developing and participating and no memorizing (traditional method) supported by emerging technologies applied in university teaching. These technologies must be combined with different strategies that allow the development of skills, teamwork and comprehension of the topics.
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Closure of Higher Education Institutions in the early phase of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was largely diffused. With their reopening, numerous preventive measures have been enacted, but limited evidence exists on students' behavior that could influence their infection risk. We conducted a case-control study at the Sapienza University of Rome to identify protective and risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Students attending the campus within 48 h of SARS-CoV-2 infection were considered cases. Controls were students who come in contact with a confirmed case within the campus. Demographic features and activities carried out before positivity or contact were investigated. Multivariable logistic regression models were built to identify factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, estimating adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). The analysis showed an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection for attending the second year or above of university (aOR 17.7, 95% CI 2.21-142.82) and participating in private parties or ceremonies (aOR 15.9, 95% CI 2.30-109.67) while living outside the family (aOR 0.08, 95% CI 0.01-0.54) and attending practical activities or libraries on campus (aOR 0.29, 95% CI 0.08-0.97) reduced the risk. Data strongly suggests that it may be safe to participate in activities organized under strict infection prevention guidelines. Tailored prevention measures might reduce the risk of infection in university students.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Humans , COVID-19/epidemiology , SARS-CoV-2 , Universities , Case-Control Studies , StudentsABSTRACT
The use of the Internet and the development of new technologies have introduced remarkable changes in the teaching-knowledge process in higher education. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most of universities have had to change from the traditional face-to-face teaching to online teaching methods (eLearning). For this reason, the present research aims to measure the quality of service perceived by the students about the eLearning process during the period of the Covid-19. To attain this goal, a variant of the Importance-Performance-Analysis (Gap-IPA) method is used. The importance is evaluated by means of the Structural Equation Method. The data was gathered from a sample of 467 students from a Spanish southern University, who receive face-to-face teaching under normal or customary circumstances. The results show that for improving the quality of online teaching priority action must be taken on the following aspects: interaction between students, concentration during online lessons, revision of online tests, system utility and diversity of assessment methods. The findings of this study allow to guide educational managers in the correct definition of their strategies. © 2022 Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. All rights reserved.
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The demand for e-learning services increased during the developments of the COVID-19 virus and its rapid spread, and the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) that social distancing should be required. The rapid transition to the e-learning environment quickly led to the neglect of some security aspects, which led to an increase in cyber attacks targeting computer accounts, which is one of the most important pillars of e-learning. In these papers, the attacks that target the cloud computer used in the most important e-learning have been studied and classified according to the victim using an inductive methodology based on global statistics related to cyber attacks and recent research. And suggest appropriate solutions to avoid its occurrence in the near future and raise the level of protection for those computer clouds. © 2022 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved.
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Our objective is to study the COVID-19 pandemic impact on weekly time allocation change for undergraduate students in Canada. We used Cross-sectional Study, conducted on Undergraduate students at department of Economics at University of Toronto (2020- 2021). Participants are second and or higher year undergraduate students from University of Toronto. The primary and secondary outcome measure is the change in number of hours allocated to five major time use categories per week between pre-pandemic academic year (Sept. 2019 - Apr. 2020) and during pandemic academic year (Sept. 2020 - Apr. 2021). The change in productivity between pre-pandemic academic year (Sept. 2019 - Apr. 2020) and during pandemic academic year (Sept. 2020 - Apr. 2021). We used Numbers (%) and median (interquartile range, IQR) were used to descriptively summarize the data. Linear regression was applied to characterize the relation- ship between pandemic effect (accounted for the effect of other variables) and change in study time/productivity. The study showed that 570 participants were included in the study. The pandemic increased students' studying time outside of classes, tutorials, and labs by 4 hours per week, mostly reallocated from time spent on activities other than sleeping, studying, socializing and entertainment. Moreover, students who spend more time on classes, tutorials and labs were more productive during the pandemic. In conclusion, compared with pre-pandemic period, students allocated more time to studying outside of lectures, tutorials, and labs during the pandemic academic year. Students spent more time in lectures, tutorials and labs tend to have a higher productivity. Therefore, universities should work to improve online teaching strategies to encourage students attending lectures, tutorials and labs. Also, mental health is another concern, it is suggested that more psychological counseling and counseling services can be provided. More online or offline group activities can be carried out within controllable scope to reconnect students. © 2022 ACM.
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This article describes the implementation of a distance learning course in programmable logic control designed and delivered during the Covid 19 pandemic. The course has a strong practical orientation, so it was a particular challenge to maintain this orientation in the remote implementation of the course. The goal was achieved through a combination of software simulation tools, remote access to computers in the lab and interactive sessions with an instructor. © 2022 IEEE.
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The main challenges in the health crisis, as experienced in a Portuguese public university observed during this period, are presented in this paper. The pandemic forced the suspension of university calendars and work routines in higher education institutions, requiring several changes, both in the ways of interacting with students and professors, and in the structure of interaction with the surrounding community. Institutions of higher education are microcosms that reflect well the great trends of social change. The text is supported by the analysis of documents, as well as the content analysis of meetings and interviews conducted with students from a Portuguese university. The results show that, at the same time as the pandemic changes introduced that will be momentary and that require successive adjustments, they also led to changes that will be more definitive and that could represent, in fact, the transformation of the patterns of organization of academic work.
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The ability of spatial thinking is a demand for learning outcomes for geography education students. This research is to answer the question of how the level of students' spatial thinking skills in geography learning. This study uses a quantitative method with a population of all students of. Data collection techniques using questionnaires given online via Google Form. The data got from the questionnaire were analyzed using the mode. The results are 1) In the class of 2017 students as many as 68.89% have not been maximized in using concepts;62.22% has not been maximized in connecting between concepts;37.78% have not been maximally in predicting the impact;66.66% have not been maximal in problem-solving;51.11% have not been maximal in reading maps;2) In the class of 2018 students, 66.66% have not been maximized in using concepts;87.77% has not been maximized in connecting between concepts;37.78% have not been maximal in predicting the impact;77.78% not optimal in problem-solving;57.78% not maximal in reading maps;3) In the class of 2019 students, 64.91% have not maximized the use of concepts;68.41% has not been maximized in connecting between concepts;45.61% have not been maximal in predicting the impact;63.16% have not been maximal in problem-solving;75.44% have not been maximal in reading maps. From the results, it can be seen that students' spatial thinking skills in learning geography need to be further developed, especially the ability of students to read and interpret maps in analyzing problems raised in learning. © 2021 ACM.
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With the increasing popularity of the Internet and the spread of COVID-19, epidemic-related rumors have attracted significant attention, allowing them to brew quickly and pose extremely negative social impacts. It is of great significance to investigate the propagation process of online rumors and offer tentative strategies to curb it. Based on the traditional susceptible, infected, recovered (SIR) model of online rumor propagation, groups of potential and die-hard rumor believers were introduced in this paper, establishing an authoritative rumor-refuting mechanism. Meanwhile, this paper considered factors such as the time-lag effect of rumor refutation from the nonauthoritative and authoritative institutions and the impact of the popularizing rate of higher education on the propagation and refutation of rumors. As a result of the process, the SEIRD (susceptible, exposed, infected, recovered, die-hard-infected) rumor propagation model was established to study how the proportion of the susceptible, exposed, infected, recovered, and die-hard-infected varies under different popularizing rates of higher education, the presence or absence of the authoritative rumor-refuting institutions, and the time-lag effect of rumor refutation. Finally, the model's effectiveness was verified via experimental simulation, which provided a reference for controlling the spread of online rumor propagation. In addition, the paper proposed a rumor-refuting coefficient to measure the rumor-refuting ability of the nonauthoritative and authoritative institutions. The results show that (1) increasing popularizing rate of higher education significantly slows down the rumor propagation and reduces the rumor propagation peak;(2) refuting the rumors based on the authoritative institutions is decisive for the ultimate elimination of rumors;and (3) eliminating the time-lag effect in refuting rumors facilitates slowing down the propagation of the online rumors. Therefore, the paper puts forward a feasible strategy to eliminate the time-lag effect of online rumor refutation in the future. Copyright ©2022 Chinese Journal of Engineering. All rights reserved.
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So far, the biggest challenge for a comprehensive Business Information Systems (BIS) education curriculum was the fast-changing nature of its target market and the resulting demand for a combination of up-to-date technical knowledge, organization-centred mindset, and adaptive skills. However, advances in pedagogical methods, changes in the skills of high-school graduates, and widening online options in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic brought on a new set of expectations. This situation may be considered an opportunity to address the threat of potentially increasing mismatch and misalignment between competences required by the IS industry labour market and current training contents offered and methods used by higher education institutions. This paper provides a systematic and comprehensive overview of the challenges BIS programs have to face and address. It considers everyday experiences of BIS educators and current best practices as starting point. Then provides an overview of employer and alumni opinion, as well as reviews up-to-date teaching methods related to teaching soft computer skills. It also considers the requirements and opportunities related to an increasingly online-centred situation. Based on these challenges the paper lays down the foundation for a potential curriculum design approach intended to address all of the above issues in an integrated framework. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.