Course Designs for Distance Teaching and Learning

Under the Geriatric Initiatives of the Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, USDHHS, Geriatric Education Centers (GEC) are established to ensure quality health care for older adults through geriatric and gerontology education. Distance Learning (DL) technology is an approach GECs are using to keep up with the demands for training and other resources. A questionnaire was distributed to 44 GECs to determine use of DL methods. Based on 33 responses, a return rate of 69%, 15 GECs offer a range of DL geriatric training programs. Eighty-five percent intend to have training programs using DL technology by the year 2000. GECs also use DL technology to conduct meetings, plan conferences, hold clinical consultations, conduct research, and disseminate information. Formal faculty training on DL is offered at six Centers; however, 15% are unable to access advanced technology. Results show a range of available DL geriatric educational resources and a strong interest to expand resources using DL technology. Financial support and sustainabil-ity of programs are important concerns. Recommendations are discussed, and the findings provide a beginning database on DL activities among GECs.

The pandemic has paved the way for a paradigm shift in most education systems, with the accelerated adoption of digital technology. Online learning has gained increased importance due to the availability and accessibility of Internet or Web technologies. This format of learning has offered students the opportunity to participate in educational courses and programs from rural and remote places. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of technologies and virtual learning in education. Internet technologies have helped to support the educational process and have allowed for more productive and interactive learning. There are different opinions in the academic environment concerning online education. As for learners' opinion on distance learning and Internet technologies, they are represented quite weakly in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to present students' perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of using web technologies in distance learning during the pandemic year (by the example of Moscow State University of Food Production, Russia). In addition, it sheds light on students' habits of using Internet technologies and their digital preferences. The present study uses qualitative and quantitative research methods where the instrument is the questionnaire. In their questionnaires the students mentioned ten leading web technologies and two social networks. The collected data allow to divide the web technologies used in distance learning into three rating groups: the most popular, popular and less popular. The findings of the research could be used to explain and forecast the applying of web technologies for improving learning outcomes in higher education.

Online education is a significant part of the educational process in Ukraine, particularly with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and, in 2022, a full-scale war, which determines the relevance of research on the regulatory framework to ensure the quality, accessibility and inclusiveness of distance education. The study aims to address and evaluate the legislative regulation of distance learning in higher education institutions. The study analysed regulatory documents and statistical data from education authorities in Ukraine. The study determined that the existing legislation does not fully meet the requirements of the 21st century and needs to be updated and integrated with new provisions that consider the specifics of digital education. The study established that the existing legal norms do not guarantee equal access to educational resources for all students, especially in the context of distance learning. This underscores the need for legislative changes to ensure that all students have equal access to the necessary materials and technology, regardless of their socio-economic status or place of residence. For instance, the Law of Ukraine No. 2145-VIII “On Education” does not contain sufficiently clear provisions that would oblige educational institutions to provide technical support for distance learning. The analysis of the Law of Ukraine No. 2145-VIII “On Education” shows that the regulatory framework does not include quality standards adapted to distance learning. The results of the study highlight the need to develop comprehensive legislation that would cover all aspects of distance and online learning. This includes harmonisation of national regulations with international standards, introducing flexible quality control mechanisms, and supporting equal access to educational technologies. For instance, the experience of Germany, with its regional laws that detail general federal requirements, can serve as an example for the development of such regulations in Ukraine. The practical significance of the study is to develop recommendations for improving the legislative framework for online and distance learning in higher education institutions

During the sudden shift towards online learning in the COVID-19 pandemic issues of low student engagement and dropout became a major concern in the mainstream of digital higher education. However, open and distance education has a long history concerning dropout research and practice. In the digital transformation, the terminologies and concepts that have been long adopted are inevitably subject to change. To understand dropout in open, distance, and digital education (ODDE), it is important to take an evidence-based approach and examine the literature to learn from previous research and experiences and to inform current practices and policies in digital education. Therefore, this study applies a conceptual analysis of the corpus yielded through the steps of a systematic literature review. Thus, the concept maps of the relevant articles on dropout and research trends between 2010 and 2022 through content analysis via text mining were created. The results indicate that student dropout and retention declined in publication during the pandemic despite remaining one of the critical issues in higher education. The main concepts indicate that most of the dropout studies focus on comparisons between face-to-face and online modalities; the learning environment and student engagement; and student support, motivation and social capital. The study concludes with a summary of key findings from dropout research in ODDE and a consideration of research desiderata.

Undergraduate Food and Resource Economics majors and those with different majors were surveyed to determine the perceived advantages and disadvantages of distance and online education courses from a student perspective. Specific objectives included determining if students who have been exposed to more online courses are more likely to rate online education as positive or negative relative to the traditional classroom setting. In general, Food and Resource Economics majors tended to view distance and online education courses less favorably than did the others.

Changes to Training Practices during a Pandemic - The Experience of the Irish National Trauma & Orthopaedic Training Scheme

The rapid expansion of distance education in higher education has left a high demand for faculty willing to design and teach online courses, often with little or no training. The path from face-to-face to online courses is not an easy one and can be filled with frustration and doubt for many faculty. Professional development often focuses on technology tools rather than pedagogical issues of online learning or course content. This chapter focuses on research that examines the experience of several faculty from the college of education at a state university in the Southeast United States, as they learned to teach online. It presents their negotiations of issues of online platform and pedagogy and their efforts to find professional development to meet their needs. The implications for institutions of higher learning are important as distance education continues to increase and more and more faculty are asked (or told) to transfer their courses online.

Online education is considered the latest generation in the practice of distance education. As described by professionals in the field, distance education is a form of teaching and learning characterized by the physical separation of student from teacher and from other students. In distance education, teaching and learning is always mediated by technology. The goal of technology has always been to decrease the distance between learners and teachers and to make education accessible. In online education, distance education teaching and learning is mediated by Internet technology. In its earliest days, distance education was accomplished using the postal system. This paper-based distance education model gave rise to the term “correspondence school.” This was used to describe vocational and technical schools using distance education as their primary means of instruction. Higher education institutions using this mode of instruction were designated “open universities.” As technology changed over the years, so did the means of instruction in distance education. Newer technologies were employed to bridge the physical distance. Increased use of television, radio, audio and video cassettes and video conferencing for instruction were some of the major technological shifts that changed the way education at a distance was mediated. Instead of completely paper-based instructional materials and communication modes, students could physically see and hear their teachers. In video conferencing, there was also the opportunity for synchronous communication with instructors. More recently, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Internet technology has also radically shifted the way distance education is carried out. Like previous electronic technologies, Internet technology affords opportunities to produce instructional materials in a variety of multimedia formats. Unlike previous electronic technologies, Internet technology allows this development to occur at significantly reduced costs, making the production of multimedia instructional materials more prevalent in distance education. It also promotes the sharing of these materials at much faster speeds. In addition, Internet technology has had a wide-ranging impact on the communication patterns that defined distance education. One of the well-documented limitations of distance education was the difficulty in supporting synchronous communication between teachers and students and among students themselves. Internet technology has removed this limitation by affording easy and affordable access to synchronous communication tools. Internet technology has not only changed the content delivery and communication models in distance education, it has also changed the way instruction is viewed and designed. Although online education is recognized as the latest generation of distance education, it remain true that distance education represents the larger field of theoretical study, With a deep foundation of research literature, distance education encompasses not only online education, but also every other form of mediated instruction.

The paper analyzes up-to-date distance learning technologies used in European education system for ensuring overall organization of the educational process during the COVID-19 pandemic. Quarantine conditions have become a catalyst for development and practical testing of virtual learning tools and innovative pedagogical technologies, and application of the experience with them is a necessity of today and a strategy for the future. The article is focused on distance learning technologies in higher education. Institutions of England, Germany and France are chosen for the study due to their banner quality of educational service, like the University of Oxford, for example. The basis for successful conduct of all types of classes is employment of universities’ own specialized learning platforms. The learning model remains more similar to the traditional one. The main role continues to belong to communication between qualified teachers and students through various interactive web applications, while digital technologies create space for such interaction, filling it with learning materials. Students get access to all educational services using a single password to the university network. At the same time, some learning materials are available with open access, video lectures and podcasts are popular. Unlike other countries, education in Germany is governed by strict principles of information and data protection. In the contrary, in France many courses have been made available on network, and the education system has instantly adapted to work in virtual mode through the developed system of national distance learning platforms and the massive open online courses. The result of effective distance learning organization in Europe during the pandemic is that the introduction of digital technologies and transition to more flexible learning models become the education strategy at the state level, while pedagogy becomes an area of advanced development of information and communication technologies. Key words: distance education, online learning, information and communication technologies, educational platforms, quarantine, COVID-19.

University students who had completed at least one distance education course were surveyed during their first and fourth year of postsecondary studies. When controlled for those who had previous distance education experience in high school, it was found that self-regulatory learning behaviors, which are frequently linked to positive experiences and outcomes in online and distance education courses, were equally apparent in all of the participating students regardless of whether they had previously studied online. These findings suggest that high school students do not gain independent learning skills and attitudes in an online environment regardless of what stakeholders, administrators, teachers, parents, and even students themselves believe.

Since mid-March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education has been facing a very uncertain situation, despite the hasty implementation of information and communication technologies for distance and online learning. Hybrid learning, i.e., the mixing of distance and face-to-face learning, seems to be the rule in most universities today. In order to build a post-COVID-19 university education, i.e., one that is increasingly digital and sustainable, it is essential to learn from these years of health crisis. In this context, this paper aims to identify and quantify the main factors affecting mechanical engineering student performance in order to build a generalized linear autoregressive (GLAR) model. This model, which is distinguished by its simplicity and ease of implementation, is responsible for predicting student grades in online learning situations in hybrid environments. The thirty or so variables identified by a previously tested model in 2020–2021, in which distance learning was the exclusive mode of learning, were evaluated in blended learning spaces. Given the low predictive power of the original model, about ten new factors, specific to blended learning, were then identified and tested. The refined version of the GLAR model predicts student grades to within ±1 with a success rate of 63.70%, making it 28.08% more accurate than the model originally created in 2020–2021. Special attention was also given to students whose grade predictions were underestimated and who failed. The methodology presented is applicable to all aspects of the academic process, including students, instructors, and decisionmakers.

Problem and purpose. The article analyzes the development of massive open online courses (MOOC), their structure and application in the practice of higher education, the introduction of new experience and strategy of distance learning at the Department of Physical Culture of the Siberian Federal University. The purpose of the article is to analyze the stages of the emergence and development of one of the areas of distance learning – massive open online courses (MOOC) and to analyze their application in the educational process of the University. The methodology of the research is based on the analysis of theoretical materials and research works of foreign and domestic scientists on the development of massive open online courses and the experience in the implementation of massive open online courses. Results. The article is devoted to the theory and experience of using MOОС in the world and in the educational process of the University. The authors describe the main intermediate results of the massive open online courses introduction in the educational process at the Department of Physical Culture of the Siberian Federal University. The problems, errors in the work with the MOОС and the aspects correcting the errors in future are analyzed. Conclusion. The results obtained so far allow us to conclude that the possible option of using distance learning technologies in the form of MOОС in teaching the discipline of „Physical Culture” is effective but requires additional research and further considerations.

In modern educational system reform in Russia, there is a deepening contradiction between the required and real level of professional competence of teachers. One way to overcome this contradiction is the systematic professional development of the teaching staff implemented with the help of distance learning technologies (DLT). One of the means to ensure high quality of training is course evaluation by trainees. It allows for motivation and a high level of training, to understand the directions of the course modification. At the same time, teachers themselves are professional experts in training, and their assessment of the e-course may be more objective than that of the trainees of other professions. Additional vocational education is primarily characterized by a high degree of applied orientation to modern learning technologies. Such are the realities that changes, especially in digital technology in education, are changing rapidly. And it is so fast that, in fact, one person cannot be aware of the full range of directions in which they (the changes) are taking place. This problem can be solved using the DLT through systematic modification of the e-course. The object of the study in this paper is the process of teachers’ training in the system of professional development of pedagogical staff using distance learning technologies. The subject of the study: the mechanism of optimization of elearning distance learning courses used in the system of professional development of pedagogical staff. Research purpose: to identify mechanisms to optimize the effectiveness of e-courses to increase trainees’ motivation, correlation of theory content with practice with the help of trainees themselves under conditions of synergetic approach [1]. Research objectives: a) to identify parameters for improving the effectiveness of e-courses; b) to develop a toolkit for improving the effectiveness of e-courses; c) to develop recommendations for improving the effectiveness of e-courses. The method used in the study is the analysis of pedagogical literature, Google-form-based questionnaire, synthesis, and generalization. The novelty of the study is related to the creation of conditions for modifying e-courses for teachers’ professional development through the examination of the course by the teachers themselves. This article is written within the framework of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research project 19-29-14176 “Building a Fundamental Model of Digital Transformation of the General Education System Using a Digital Platform for Results-Based Education”.

Over the past few decades, online, open, and distance education (ODE) has enjoyed phenomenal growth across different regions, and with the spread of the COVID-19 virus, its use has adopted more quickly and widely at all levels of education in both developed and developing countries. There has also been a surge in trans-institutional online courses and programs. Despite this surge in widespread practice of ODE, an image problem that perceives ODE as a second-rate education, indicated by Daniel (Quality assurance and accreditation in distance education and e-learning: Models, policies, and research. Routledge, New York, 2011) a decade ago, still exists, meaning that there is a need for even stronger measures to ensure that ODE is as good as in-person education and that quality assurance (QA) systems are in place as it enters the mainstream of education.Applying QA to ODE processes and outcomes is a relatively new phenomenon. Drawing upon previous literature on quality and QA in ODE, including institutional case studies, this chapter examines various definitions of quality and QA in ODE practice, difficulties, and challenges presented by QA in ODE and the role of stakeholders in QA in ODE. It then discusses how different ODE institutions judge and assure the quality of their courses, programs, and services and what values and assumptions underpin such QA approaches. It finally draws conclusions about what still needs to be considered and actioned.

The article considers the peculiarities of providing English-language training of (future) aviation specialists for professional self-realization and performance of professional duties with the use of modern distance learning technologies. The specifics of distance learning are revealed. Terms and concepts, forms of learning are provided. Distance learning technologies, namely: psychological and pedagogical, information and communication, web-environment provide an opportunity to implement the process of distance learning in educational institutions. There are also two strategies for organizing distance learning: asynchronous distance learning and synchronous distance learning. During the planning and organization of distance learning a great role is given to the independent work of cadets. There are also IT elements that a lecturer and a cadet should be able to use in professional interaction. It is noted that Internet technologies, the ability to use Internet resources have a special place in the formation of professional self-realization of a future aviation specialist and providing innovative approaches to the educational environment. The main tasks of English language training in the educational language centers of the Flight Academy of NAU are: improving language skills and strengthening the communicative competence of the teacher / instructor to teach the professional disciplines in English, teaching professional English, preparation for the general English exam at level B2. The use of distance learning technologies in the English-language training of future aviation specialists requires a high level of knowledge, both theoretical and practical. It is necessary to interest and direct students to the use of innovative methods in order to build their professional capacity to use information and communication technologies in their further professional self-realization. Key words: distance learning, English language training of an aviation specialist, ICT, Internet resources, innovations, professional self-realization.