Learning Postdisruption: Lessons from Students in a Fully Online Nonmajors Laboratory Course

Almost since the onset of emergency remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, studies examined how teachers and students adjusted to the change, including in language courses. Some of this research has explored language teachers’ self-efficacy and confidence in teaching remotely, and to a lesser extent how student language learning has been affected; most studies have not differentiated among languages taught or between different student age groups. Through a survey of 173 PK–16 language instructors in the United States who switched from face-to-face classroom teaching to remote teaching in the spring of 2020, the present study examines teachers’ perceptions of their success in transferring specific teaching skills to a remote teaching context and their perceptions of the effects of remote learning on their students’ language learning experience. Across the teaching skills respondents were asked to report on, a majority of teachers reported that their in-person teaching skills were at least somewhat useful for remote teaching, but PK–12 teachers were more likely to report poorer transfer of teaching skills than instructors of adult students. Across different aspects of the student learning experience, teachers of PK–12 learners generally reported a more negative impact of remote instruction on their students’ learning than instructors of adults, while teachers of less commonly taught languages reported a more positive impact of remote teaching on their students’ learning than teachers of commonly taught languages. Our results provide new evidence of differences in the remote language learning and teaching experience between different groups of students and teachers, and underscore the importance for teachers and schools to prepare generally for flexibility in teaching, which includes remote teaching.

While massive research has been conducted to see how remote learning and teaching is conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic, less focus has been paid on remote special education for students with disabilities. Therefore, it is still not clear how those students learned and what types of challenges they faced. To fill this gap, this study first collected data from the literature via a systematic literature review, and from both 51 teachers and 21 students with disabilities who were involved in this remote teaching and learning experiences via surveys. It then conducted bibliometric, content and thematic analysis to draw conclusions. The obtained findings highlighted that online and offline remote teaching methods from home were applied. Additionally, different learning assessment methods, such as mini-projects and simple quizzes were adopted by teachers to assess the gained knowledge of students remotely, but none of these methods relied on emerging technologies, such as big data and learning analytics. Finally, parents were a core actor to maintain remote learning from home for students with disabilities.

Digitalization, globalization, and online learning have revolutionized the educational scenario. It was not long ago when remote learning, which essentially means learning without being physically present in the boundaries of an educational institution, was condemned and deemed ineffective. However, the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus has forced students and teachers to adopt remote learning, causing unprecedented changes in the learning process. Based on the recent switch to remote learning, it is safe to say that not only remote education ensures better reach and lifelong learning, but it is also learner-oriented, flexible, convenient, economical, and saves a lot of time and resources. The need of the hour is to make remote learning available to everyone, by broadcasting lessons on television, radio, social media, YouTube, distributing informative books, and attention-grabbing pamphlets. Keeping in mind the benefits and freedom that come with remote education, we can presume that remote education is here to stay. The present paper will analyze the educational scenario during COVID-19, andwill also discuss the future of E-learning as a brighter prospect for students around the world. It will attempt to provide insights into the various aspects of remote learning through the analysis of the results ofan online survey, which was conducted on seventeen students from different countries all over the globe. The participants shared their views and experiences regarding the remote learning experiences during Covid-19. Keywords: Education during Covid-19, future of e-learning, remote learning as an effective tool to promote worldwide education and literacy.

Fully online courses and degree programs are popular with students. These courses should provide the rigor and value of traditional learning in a face-to-face classroom to ensure mastery of concepts and learning objectives. This research expands previous work to investigate the effectiveness of online laboratory exercises in enhancing student understanding of core concepts taught in fully online introductory astronomy, physics, and biology courses. Identical classes, with or without an online laboratory, were compared to determine gains in content mastery. A Likert-style survey was also used to quantify student perception of the laboratory component for those courses. Results indicated astronomy and physics students in online laboratory courses showed significant gains in mastery of learning outcomes whereas biology students in online courses showed more mixed results. Further, surveys indicated student perceptions strongly support the belief that the labs helped to learn the course material and labs were an effective “hands-on” experience, directly contributing to student satisfaction in all disciplines studied.

This chapter addresses common concerns related to teaching online courses with laboratory components. The concerns align with three types of interactions central to student learning and engagement: student interactions with their instructor, student interactions with course content, and student interactions with their peers. Drawing on observations from instructors, strategies from an instructional designer, and student data from an online, asynchronous chemistry lab course for nonmajors, this chapter provides recommendations that promote student engagement and learning in online chemistry courses. These findings and recommendations may translate to other online and hybrid science courses. Specific suggestions for transitions back to in-person classes also are highlighted.

Abrupt disruptions to academia, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020, have brought unprecedented challenges in teaching, yet it has brought many lessons, driving the development of strategies in response to the crisis. The general chemistry laboratory course is often considered difficult to teach, due to students’ heterogeneous chemistry backgrounds and learning levels, and transitioning from in-person to remote teaching made it even more challenging. In this communication, we will share our experiences, strategies, and lessons learned from the remote teaching of a large general laboratory course at Brown University (Providence, RI, USA) during the pandemic. Future improvements to maximize student learning will also be outlined. Several novel approaches have been applied to our remote teaching; interactive lab videos, created prior to the pandemic through a collaborative effort for students to visualize the experimental procedures, enabled a less stressful transition to remote teaching for this large laboratory course. Furthermore, our hybrid lab reports, along with other online materials, helped students to better understand how experiments are conducted. The lessons learned from this pandemic prompted further improvement to the pedagogy of remote teaching. Such experiences and reflections will benefit other educators to combat pandemic crises in the future.

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.

The laboratory courses in chemistry at tertiary level are expected to (i) expose students to experimental techniques and skills, (ii) allow sufficient practice to master these techniques and (iii) also provide opportunities to students as investigators of the experimental work. The present paper discusses and analyses the laboratory courses in organic chemistry, prescribed by Mumbai University, one of the oldest Universities of India for (i) the content, (ii) skills/technical demands of the experiments, (iii) weightage with respect to time and marks, (iv) evaluation criteria used for assessment of students, and (v) the changes it has undergone over time.

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

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many schools rapidly rolled out online learning due to school closure or lockdown. This study assessed the online learning experience of 193 students in different universities of Rwanda during COVID-19. The reported main advantages of online learning revolved around the comfortability and self-responsibility in their studies. However, internet access and stability remained the biggest challenges. Respondents reported online learning not stimulating, lacked interactions with other students and with instructors, and they were distracted easily and had difficulty to maintain their discipline. Many students indicated they prefer in-person classes over online learning. Investment to provide students stable internet access and to training instructors to design more interactive and engaging online learning materials according to best practices could improve the students’ online experience. The use of blended online and in-person classroom learning to maximize students learning experiences and outcomes should be explored.

COVID-19 challenged higher education to rapidly shift to remote course delivery. This study surveyed community college students (N = 356) about their confidence in completing learning related tasks before and after the shift, access to technologies used in in remote learning, and disruptions that impacted their learning. Results indicated notable declines in confidence across all demographics with significant changes in those age 18-21and for those without prior online course experience. Technology use for remote courses was primarily laptops and smartphones. Students reported the most significant changes to work-life balance came through employment changes and mental health issues. Instructional changes were both positive and negative in workload organization, course delivery, communication and technology. Institutions can use this study’s findings to enact contingency planning, expand online and blended course options, refine academic and social support, and allocate resources to mental health.

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

The strike of COVID-19 pandemic has affected various sectors tremendously, including the education sector around the globe. This situation has forced the closure of most educational institutions, which include higher learning institutions. Since the Movement Control Order announcement, most teaching and learning processes in higher learning institutions were transferred online. The shift to online learning brings different challenges for teachers in higher learning institutions, including English teachers, regarding technological skills and assessment. In this study, the researchers adopted a multiple case study to explore the strategies of 34 English teachers from nine universities in Malaysia, Indonesia and Maldives to overcome the challenges during Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning. The data was collected through focused group interview sessions, individual open-ended responses via Google Forms and Whatsapp discussion threads. The recorded sessions were transcribed verbatim and analysed using NVIVO software to identify the common categories and themes. The findings showed that the teachers of English overcome problems concerning their technological skills by seeking help from their colleagues, attending courses, training and webinars and choosing suitable platforms for online learning, also conducting better online assessments. The faculty could also provide more webinars, online training, and courses to help teachers to perform better during online learning. This study is believed to shed some light on aspects that need to be considered while planning and executing a meaningful ESL online teaching and learning experience in higher learning institutions, particularly in developing countries.

This chapter explores the use of Web-based technologies incorporating communities of practice and social networks to enhance the learning experience in hybrid and distance (online) classes. Research suggests that using a variety of technologies and methods to reach people with different learning styles improves overall learning in a class delivery though different methods are more effective in traditional vs. online classes. Moreover, using new, emerging Web-based technologies, including both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 software, further enhances the engagement and value of the learning experience in these classes. This chapter examines the methods and technologies that can be potentially used to create excellence learning environments in traditional hybrid and online classes.

Motivation instigates and guides learning in open, distance, and digital education (ODDE). It is indispensable to distance learners’ engagement, persistence, and achievement. A lack of motivation is associated with perennial issues such as early dropout and poor performance in ODDE. This chapter provides an introduction to key theoretical perspectives on motivation, including sociocognitive theories, sociocultural theories, and the concept of perezhivanie. Each perspective provides a unique way for understanding and researching motivation in open and distance learning (ODL). Motivation is discussed as personal attributes internal to the distance learner from a sociocognitive perspective. Drawing attention to social processes and contextual influences, sociocultural theories situate motivation in relevant contexts and highlight motivation as a social, interactive, mediated, and evolving construct. The concept of perezhivanie gives prominence to distance learners’ learning experiences and subjective meanings they derived from personally significant experiences in ODL. This perspective pinpoints motivation that is experiential, reflective, and affect-laden. To advance the goal of empowering distance learners to engage and persist in ODL, these theoretical perspectives are important as they underscore empowerment derived from enabling personal attributes (sociocognitive theories), motivating contexts (sociocultural theories), and personally significant experiences (perezhivanie).