Learning to Teach Online

Online education is growing rapidly. Online education is a Web-based form of education where students gain access to online materials and communicate with instructors and other students. There are four distinguishing characteristics that separate it from e-learning and other modes of learning (Paulsen, 2003). First, there is a physical separation of teachers and learners in online education. This differentiates it from face-toface education. Second, online education is regulated or instituted by an educational organization, hence disqualifying it from the self-study mode of learning. Third, educational content is distributed over a computer network, unlike e-learning, which includes educational content distributed by CD-ROMS and DVD-ROMS. Fourth, students and instructors communicate with each other over a computer network. There is a twoway flow of information which is not always available in e-learning. Indeed, the communicative element is a unique feature of online education and is an extension of the individualized experience of earlier technologies (Piccoli, Ahmad, & Ives, 2001). Not solely an interaction between the student and the system, online education allows communication between peers and instructors and even collaborative learning communities. Online education also provides high levels of student control and supports participant contact and interaction continuously during the learning process. There are different levels of “onlineness” (Hosie & Schibeci, 2005). The most basic level is Web supplemented. It is optional for students to interact with the education content, and to communicate with instructors and other students. These online learning resources are a component in addition to their face-to-face learning. The intermediate level is Web dependent. Students need to participate online as part of the course requirement, besides some face-to-face component. Students should utilize the online education content, which includes course descriptions, study guides, examination details, assessment overview, reading lists, and online quizzes. Also, students are expected to interact with lecturers and peers by participating in the online discussion forum or other computer-mediated communications (CMC). This is the most popular form of online education today. The advanced level is fully online. This final level requires no face-to-face meetings with the students. Education content, learning activities, assessment, and support services can only be referred to vis-à-vis the computer network. Distance education could occur in this manner, but the term “distance education” also includes the use of other types of media which may not be electronic. Online education is supported by various systems. The core system in most educational institutes is the learning management system or the virtual learning environment. Learning management systems grant access to online learning resources for students and instructors; they register users, provide communication tools for users, manage courses, evaluate learners, and provide administrative reports (Paulsen, 2003). They can be commercial software like Blackboard or developed in-house. Online education can also require library and digital resources, learner support services, accounting, security, the Internet and e-commerce technology, which may be integrated with the core system Online educational technologies can be categorized into synchronous or asynchronous. Synchronous applications require users to be available at the same time. They include networked group decision support systems (GDSS), e-meetings, e-conferences, and features like whiteboards, text-based chat, and video conferencing. Asynchronous technologies are time independent and comprise discussion boards or Web boards, document repositories, Web logging, podcast audio content, and Web cast lectures.

The present study is aimed at taking a deep look at the differences between digital native and digital immigrant lecturers’ strategies in doing online learning in higher education. Online teaching is the teaching carried out not physically face to face between students and lecturer, rather by the use of any internet platform in distance. Digital native lecturers are lecturers born in the era of knowing the growth of technology and very familiar and skilled of operating any technological media of teaching (in this research, for those lecturers born after 1980). Digital immigrant lecturers are lecturers born in the era when the technology was not yet grown and popular and they still maintain to use conventional media of teaching (those lecturers born before 1980). The objectives of the present study are (1) to investigate how digital native lecturer is different from digital immigrant lecturer in the stage of implementation in teaching online courses for higher education student? This includes the problems such as their perception toward teaching online course, what platform they use for teaching online course, how they use the platform to implement and evaluate the online course; (2) to examine how digital native lecturer is different from digital immigrant lecturer in the stage of obstacles in teaching online courses for higher education student; (3) to elaborate how digital native lecturer is different from digital immigrant lecturer in the stage of overcoming obstacles in teaching online courses for higher education student. The findings of the present study provides insight on the practice of online teaching by both digital native and digital immigrant lecturers in higher education, then provides insight on the obstacles and strategies for solving them. Mostly (80%) of all lecturers have positive perception toward online teaching; merely five (mixed male and female lecturers) out of 21 lecturers who have negative perceptions and those are only digital immigrant lecturers (born before 1980) from different departments. Only few digital immigrant lecturers have negative perception toward online teaching. There are no disparity (no significant difference) between digital immigrant lecturers and digital native lecturers in terms of obstacles they face in online teaching as well as in solving the obstacles. Considering that there are many positive things in the use of technology in online teaching; in this case technology can optimize the quality of teaching, this can be the basis for universities broadly to make policies about the percentage of online teaching in the post-pandemic era with applicable terms and conditions. With background insight and the gap in technology literacy between digital native and digital immigrant lecturers, universities need to routinely provide training on the use of various technologybased platforms that support the optimization of teaching.

This chapter provides guidance for administering strategies for overcoming two persistent barriers to instructors' willingness to develop and teach online courses. In addition to addressing barriers, as a distance learning administrator you need to arrange for professional development that prepares instructors to (a) use distance learning technologies, (b) design accessible courses that are free of copyright infringements, (c) follow a systemic & systematic design process, (d) create a course-map, and (e) modularize course content. You also need to address instructors' readiness to teach engaging online courses and programs by facilitating persistence with high levels of presence, interaction, engagement, support, feedback, community, and cultural responsiveness. Beyond fundamentals of online course design, instructors benefit from professional development in constructivist, student-centered course design, motivational learning design; and integrating open educational resources and social media in courses to support active inquiry and multimodal learning. Instructors also need preparation in the basics of how to flip and blend face-face courses, build competency-based instruction, and use learning analytics to understand the impacts of inputs on student outcomes.

Online teaching and learning for the professional development of workers in service is ever pervasive and continually growing. Yet, studies of teaching and learning with technology are mostly conducted in K-12, pre-service, or higher education contexts resulting in a lack of attention given to the in-service or professional development field. This study aims to alleviate the issue by investigating online courses in a professional development context, particularly in a government institution such as the Financial Education and Training Agency (FETA) under the Indonesian Ministry of Finance. By conducting a study in the institution providing online professional development courses, this study focuses on adult learners. There are also more studies investigating learners compared to instructors, even though the latter are reportedly struggling in conducting online courses. One of the struggles instructor faces includes choosing relevant technologically enhanced andragogy that are in line with the learning contents and intents. This happened amidst the growth of online professional development courses due to increasing demand accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Online learning needs to be improved not only in terms of quantity but also quality. By analysing 148 curriculum documents known as the course syllabi, followed by interviewing three gatekeepers and seven instructors conducting online courses at FETA, and informed by prevailing theories of education and educational technology adoption, the present study aimed to uncover practice-based considerations in crafting online course curricula for professional development. Frameworks used in this study include the adult learning principles of andragogy, the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, and the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) model. The study found the distinction between various types of online courses for professional development: distance learning, webinars, and web-based learning courses. Distance learning can be supplemented with prerequisite and/or action learning. Web-based learning can be limited to specific learners or opened to the general population of learners depending on the learning content. The study also found connections between learning objectives and the use of technology in online courses. The considerations in choosing internet-assisted course types and relevant technologies for online courses include learning content. Characteristics of learning content are considered, such as range, specificity, and confidentiality. These characters correspond to the specification of learners which are adult learners. Both content and audience are considered in crafting online course curricula. The findings gathered through this study may not only sharpen the crafting of online course curricula but also assist in providing effective support for online teaching and learning. It provides a better understanding of the connection between learning content and the use of technology for online courses in a professional development context meant for adult learners. Such a better understanding of instructors’ considerations helped explain why online course curricula are crafted with certain approaches. It is hoped that the considerations borne by this study can be useful in guiding the practice of designing the curricula for online courses in professional development contexts for adult learners while assisting in providing relevant support for instructors.

Aim/Purpose. Higher education institutions face difficulties and challenges when it comes to distance learning. The purpose of this paper is to examine self-efficacy indicators and student satisfaction during online English classes. Background. E-learning has been very relevant since the Covid-19 era and is still relevant today. It is possible for students to study regardless of their location or time. By measuring students’ self-efficacy, instructors can gain valuable insights into their students’ ability to create social interaction, cope with technology, and acquire knowledge and tools to manage the learning process. Methodology. This study uses mixed methods along with two measurements. Before and after the course, quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Higher education students in Israel participated. A total of 964 students enrolled in English as a foreign language courses at the pre-basic, basic, and advanced levels. Contribution. Analyzing self-efficacy from several angles provides insight into students. What influences students’ confidence and belief in their ability to succeed in online courses. Moreover, how students perceive their own learning and how they cope with challenges. Findings. Compared to the measurement before the course, self-efficacy decreased on average. Most significant decreases occurred in ‘creating social interactions’ and ‘acquirement of knowledge and tools’ to manage the learning process. A slight decrease was observed in the ability to cope with technology. Additionally, self-efficacy and satisfaction with the course were positively correlated. Recommendations for Practitioners. An overview is provided of the most effective tools and techniques for teaching languages in digital format in this paper. This will allow instructors to design and deliver courses in a more effective way. Thus, they will be able to make better informed decisions, resulting in better outcomes for students. Recommendations for Researchers. Distance Learning courses should resemble the common digital environments in everyday life, rather than imitating face-to-face courses mainly in the field of social interaction. Impact on Society. Digital tools should be encouraged that facilitate effective learning processes instead of sticking to traditional methods that characterize face-to-face courses. Using common interfaces in daily use among the general population will enable the implementation of these recommendations. Future Research. Future studies could be helpful if they compared the English courses developed in the CEFR model with those taught face-to-face as well as those taught online. In addition, motivation and self-monitoring should be examined in both synchronous and asynchronous courses as well.

With the continuous deepening of the process of education informatization, modern educational technology skills have become an important part of the professional quality of teachers, and they are the necessary qualities that every teacher should master in order to adapt to the modern education reform. As a major branch of online courses, the challenge lies in the reusability and standardization of learning resources, as well as development efficiency and other issues. In order to make the calculation simple and fast, a direct fuzzy clustering algorithm of web users and pages is given, which can classify, summarize and predict the trend of page content according to the access rules of students, guide the construction of college websites, and improve online education. Has very good practical value. The development of online distance education is one of the important means to build a lifelong learning system in the knowledge age. Based on the development principles of online courses, this paper introduces the design and development methods of modern educational technology public courses online courses combined with fuzzy clustering algorithms, and puts forward some issues that should be paid attention to in the development of the online courses.

Difference between Online and On-site Mathematics Courses in Higher Education

This case presents a best-practice in higher education, whereby a balanced scorecard approach was used to assess the effectiveness of a distance education (online) course in an accredited business degree program at an Australian public university. The assessment rubric was created by applying the concept of the balanced scorecard (from management science) to measure student performance, satisfaction, as well as content and delivery effectiveness. Performance was derived from the course grades while a validated survey instrument was utilized to gather estimates of all other factors from the students. One of the key lessons-learned in the case was that rather than reinvent the wheel, it was better to reuse accreditation surveys designed for the classroom to assess online courses and leverage the management science philosophy of measuring more than just performance to evaluate program success. Similar scorecard concepts have already been applied in U.S. universities, thus their differences with this case are also discussed.

Purpose of the study. The digital turn in higher education and pedagogical technologies requires the use of a variety of teaching approaches and methods. The quarantine period in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic caused the need for a radical transformation of the higher education system, its new paradigm in a modern digital society. In such conditions, it becomes necessary to form a digital educational environment and many countries, including the Republic of Uzbekistan, have faced this task. Students need to develop skills in working with information, in particular, the use of information and communication technologies in the process of solving cognitive tasks and performing creative tasks in cognitive and educational activities. All these processes update the topic of the article and require an analysis of the experience of using electronic educational resources in the Republic of Uzbekistan.Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the research was the activity-oriented, personality-oriented, systemic, project-based and individually creative approaches. The analysis of the historiography of the problem showed: despite a significant number of studies in the field of application of various information technologies in historical research, there are still no works that would summarize data on working with electronic educational resources in the Republic of Uzbekistan. This article is an attempt to offer an analysis of the possibilities, as well as the main advantages of using electronic educational resources in teaching disciplines in higher education, using the example of Uzbekistan.Results. The article examines electronic resources for distance education that are present in the CIS countries, since online educational resources as a complex of various educational materials, for which gadgets are used, can improve the quality of education and diversify the forms of teaching. The author analyzes the conditions and prospects for the development of distance education in the Republic of Uzbekistan, notes a conceptual approach to educational digital platforms that contribute to improving the quality of education. The system of higher education of the Republic as well as the conditions and prospects for the development of distance education in the Republic of Uzbekistan are investigated. The author identifies the main trends in the modern online educational environment. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of electronic educational resources have been identified. The article defines the strategic goals for the development of higher education in the Republic of Uzbekistan at a new stage of development, and also presents an analysis of Internet resources for distance education that are available in Uzbekistan. Conclusion. Thus, we come to the conclusion that in the current conditions, many countries are switching to digital and electronic means of education; the article shows the main Internet resources that contribute to the effectiveness of the system of professional training for bachelors, using the example of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The effectiveness, intensity, activation, individualization, and communicativeness of the educational process depend to a greater extent on how electronic resources are used, what tasks are solved during their use.

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.

This special issue of seminar.net is the result of a collaboration between teachers at the two master programmes, “Communication, Design and Learning” at the University of Oslo and “ICT Supported Learning” at the Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences. For 2013-2015, we received a grant from Norgesuniversitetet to develop partnership, flexible teaching and study methods, and to increase learning outcomes among students. The four papers represent the first research results from our project. We are grateful to Norgesuniversitetet for its support.Per HetlandGeneral editorThe first paper, by Per Hetland and Anders I. Mørch, both from the University of Oslo has a title called “Ethnography for Investigating the Internet”. They describe the field by giving an overview of the competing concepts, and argue for their chosen path. They point at important crossing roads and selections that needs to be taken for future research.Jan Erik Dahl, also of The University of Oslo, presents the paper “Supporting learning through epistemic scaffolds embedded in a highlighter tool”. It explores how the use of the tool was used to support students’ readings and discussions of research articles. He argues that the use of annotation technologies in education is increasing, and that annotations can play a wide variety of epistemic roles; e.g., they can facilitate a deeper level of engagement, support critical thinking, develop cognitive and metacognitive skills and introduce practices that can support knowledge building and independent learning. Dahl criticises some of the underlying assumption of present research in the field and suggest that one needs to look for the active co-construction that students do in collaboration with others.Monica Johannesen and Leikny Øgrim, of the Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, has collaborated with Ole Smørdal of the University of Oslo on the paper “Facebook as an actor - a case of students negotiating their social presence in an online course”. Their paperreports on a study of a higher education online course based on asynchronous communication. In the selection of technology for online discussions they aimed at creating a sense of togetherness among the teachers and the students. Their choice proved to be a insightful experience of how the differences of agency of a virtual learning environment (VLE) are compared to social media when it comes to social presence.Anders I. Mørch of the University of Oslo has collaborated with Louise Mifsud and Bård Kjetil Engen, of Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences on the fourth paper, called “Problem-Based Learning in Synchronous Networked Environments: Comparing Adobe Connect and Second Life”. Their approach was to compare experiences from using two networked learning environments: Adobe Connect (AC) and Second Life (SL) for supporting teaching and learning in distance education courses. Data were collected from two separate case studies: one in Norway (AC) and the other in the United States (SL), using different but comparable methods of data analysis. They focus on problem-based learning (PBL), using four application characteristics of PBL (learner activity, collaborative learning, feedback, and valuation of previous knowledge).General sectionIn addition to the four papers in the special issue of Seminar.net, we also contribute with two more papers.David Hallberg, representing both The Swedish Red Cross University College and the Stockholm University, has written a paper with Henrik Hansson and Anders G.Nilsson, also from Stockholm University called: “Immigrant Women's Reasoning and Use of Information and Communications Technology in Lifelong Learning”. The paper explores the reasoning and use of information and communications technology (ICT) in lifelong learning by immigrant women. The researchers collected data from semi-structured and unstructured interviews. The study was carried out primarily in a school environment, which also made it possible to draw conclusions about the connection between learning in and outside school environments.Trine Fossland, of University of Tromsø UiT The Arctic University of Norway, presents the last paper in this issue. Her paper, “Stories of technology-enhancement in higher education – a critical approach”, continues a critical stance of educational technology, suggesting that even if there is a large body of research on technology-enhanced learning, questions related to the educational effectiveness of technology use still needs to be questioned. She argues that “digital innovators’” stories about technology enhancement may constitute a rich source for understanding this complex educational phenomenon both in relation to teachers’ daily practices and the implementation of ICT in higher education at large. Her paper relies on biographical interviews with “digital innovators”. Her findings suggest that technology-enhancement is linked to nine key characteristics: different educational models, authenticity, pedagogical added values, meaningful student activities, changing approaches to feedback, assessment and connection with the outside world, as well as holistic planning, supportive leaders and strong micro-cultures. This paper proposes a more nuanced understanding of the term technology enhanced learning and suggests strategies for educational development and further investigations related to this phenomenon in higher education. Yngve Nordkvelle

Enrollments in online courses continue to grow. With this growth has come an increased need for instructors to develop content for their courses using digital technology. To address instructors’ abilities to develop content for a virtual environment, institutions have focused on the most effective and efficient ways to design online courses and programs. However, despite increased focus on the instructional design of online courses, little attention has been given to their visual design. This is problematic because research suggests that the visual design of online courses can improve the student learning experience. Given this problem, additional research is needed to understand the visual design of online courses, including page layout design and the integration of visual media. Three different studies were conducted to address this problem (a.) Study 1 is a literature review that synthesizes the relevant topics in visual communication design to online course development. The study addressed the mechanics of visual design but also external factors that influence visual design thinking. In this chapter, the authors seek to clarify the process of using visual design to improve the online learning experience. The chapter concludes by suggesting strategies that colleges and universities can use to help faculty and instructional designers learn visual design skills through the creation of a design studio. (b.) Study 2 is an exploratory qualitative study that investigates the ways in which educators in higher education apply visual design to their online courses through the design process framework of looking, thinking, doing, and critiquing (LTD+C). Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore instructor’s use of a visual design process, application of visual design thinking, and perceived barriers in designing online classrooms. Based on the findings of the study, it is suggested that the visual design process in online courses can fit within the LTD+C framework and activities associated with each part of the process should be further explored. (c.) Study 3 is a qualitative content analysis of images used in online courses. The study examined the current use of images in higher-education online classrooms along with the ability of instructors to create, select, and apply images to an online classroom learning management system by exploring well-known frameworks of image taxonomy in online classrooms. Based on the findings of this study it is suggested that the current framework of educational image taxonomy can be elaborated upon and that instructors need better training in appropriately handling using images in online classrooms. The general conclusion promoted in this dissertation is that visual design needs more emphasis within the field of education from both practical applications and research-based studies.

Online and distance education presents many challenges for both educators and system designers. The nature of these challenges is given particular clarity when examining online education in respect to pedagogical approaches which emphasize the importance of dialogue as part of the educational process. In order to begin to understand the dialogic role that technology plays in online education, a phenomenologically-oriented conceptual framework is sketched out. Taking computer interactions to be structured largely as interpretive processes that occur within a wider cultural context, the role of online educational systems in instructor-student dialogue is presented as a form of technological utterance, able to both sustain, as well as instantiate, messages in a dialogue between students and instructors. Introducing questions for future research, the aim is to develop design theory for both the design of online education as well as for design in general.

The purposes of this research are 1) to identify the factors that influence students’ satisfaction with online courses at Guangxi Logistics Vocational and Technical College and 2) to provide guidelines for the development of online courses at the college based on the factors affecting students’ satisfaction. The population for this research primarily consists of 1600 university students enrolled at Guangxi Logistics Vocational and Technical College in China. The sample group, following Krejcie and Morgan (1970), comprised 310 students who were selected based on their participation in online courses and completion of an online survey. The research instruments used in this study include an online survey questionnaire that assessed students’ satisfaction levels across four dimensions: Course Content, Teaching Quality, Learning Experience, and Evaluation Mechanism. The statistics used to analyze the data were descriptive statistics, including mean values (M) and regression Analysis.The results of this research contribute to achieving the objectives as follows:1.Factors influencing students’ satisfaction with online courses: The study found that Teaching Quality received the highest average value (M) and ranked first, indicating that students were highly satisfied with the quality of teaching in online courses. Course Content ranked second, suggesting that it largely meets the professional development needs of students. The Learning Experience dimension ranked third, highlighting the importance of optimizing platform management and technical aspects to enhance students’ overall learning experience. The Evaluation Mechanism dimension ranked fourth, indicating that students were less satisfied with the current evaluation mechanism and desired a more scientifically designed and personalized evaluation system.2.Guidelines for the development of online courses: Based on the factors identified, the research provides valuable guidelines for the development of online courses at Guangxi Logistics Vocational and Technical College. These guidelines emphasize the importance of maintaining high teaching quality, addressing the professional development needs of students through course content, optimizing the platform management and technical aspects to enhance the learning experience, and implementing a scientifically designed and personalized evaluation system to improve student satisfaction.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Continuing Professional Development: Go Green and Go Home?