COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities in the Online University Education (original) (raw)
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University Students' Experiences and Attitudes Toward Online Learning During the Pandemic Covid-19
Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference - Sinteza 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant influence on university education and organization of lecturing. Most universities throughout the world had not been prepared for the new circumstances, and this ultimately affected both the organization and the quality of lectures. Universities were obliged to follow trends and implement new strategies in lecturing in order to support their students where help was most required, and furthermore, in order to maintain the quality of their experiences and education. The objective of this research was to gain insight into how students reacted to the new pandemic situation and whether they are satisfied with online teaching so that universities could use the results to adapt and conduct online teaching in the future. The research found that students considered online learning had affected their efficiency, productivity, and level of motivation in the process of learning. Apart from these adversities regarding online teaching and learning, the survey found that the students' attitude toward the implementation of technology in university education would improve the process of online lecturing and examination and enhance the present situation.
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The research focuses on identifying the way in which Romanian universities managed to provide knowledge during the Coronavirus pandemic, when, in a very short time, universities had to adapt the educational process for exclusively online teaching and learning. In this regard, we analyzed students’ perception regarding online learning, their capacity to assimilate information, and the use of E-learning platforms. An online survey based on a semi-structured questionnaire was conducted. Data was collected from 762 students from two of the largest Romanian universities. The results of the research revealed that higher education institutions in Romania were not prepared for exclusively online learning. Thus, the advantages of online learning identified in other studies seem to diminish in value, while disadvantages become more prominent. The hierarchy of problems that arise in online learning changes in the context of the crisis caused by the pandemic. Technical issues are the most impor...
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Due to COVID-19, higher education institutions all over the world transitioned to online learning. The sudden and forced transition to this new learning methodology pushed the Universities to rapidly adequate to the needs, upgrading their digital platforms to comply with the new requirements. In the same way, teachers had to adapt their teaching to fit the new medium’s potentials and limitations. The final receivers of this striking change, the students, had to adequate to the novelty approach, though this process has not been painless. Several difficulties, challenges and opportunities arose in this transition process for students, and the full digital class delivery also stressed them emotively. This study explores University of Foggia students’ perceptions of the emergency online learning. The factors analyzed involved their perception about the University implementation of the online class delivery, their consideration about the future of online learning and their emotional impa...
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The present study explores the perception and challenges students in tertiary institutions face in online teaching and learning during the pandemic. The paper employs a qualitative approach to study the perceptions and challenges of students on online teaching and learning. Online Collaborative Learning was found to be the most suitable model to be used. A total of three-hundred students were selected for the study. Data was collected for a period of two months, from October-November, 2020. A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted in the selection of students from different universities. Findings of the study revealed that more than half (54%) of the students used the Learning Management Systems teaching and learning platform tool. The majority (52.7%) of the students agreed that they had internet distortion during the course of lectures. More than half (53.7%) of the students agreed that they could not access the internet due to a lack of data. There is a need for future studie...
ONLINE TEACHING DURING COVID-19 FROM THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' PERSPECTIVE
Proceedings of INTED2021 Conference, 2021
Recently online teaching has become a fast-growing and developing reality in higher education worldwide. Despite similarities between them, didactical features of online lectures differ from those in face-to-face teaching. Online teaching requires adaptation of methods and techniques that "eteachers" and "e-students" need to acquire and deliver, striving for the same learning outcomes. The quality of teaching, its methods and techniques determine advantages and disadvantages of the teaching process and of the online education. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Spring 2020, Croatian higher educational system abruptly switched from face-to-face teaching to the online variant. The main issue was that all the courses that had initially been conceptualised and implemented only as face-toface, had to adjust to an online form that had previously not been envisioned. Relying on their previously acquired information and communication competences, as well as on their abilities to learn, teachers and students had to adapt to the new situation. This research, focused on students' point of view, had two objectives: 1) to explore the didactical methods used in the online higher education, and 2) to compare students' experiences of online and face-to-face education, specifically depending on their level of adjustment to online education. The sample comprised 272 university students, and the online questionnaire was administered in June 2020. The first objective was tackled with students' assessments of how vastly various teaching methods and techniques had been employed in the online courses in the March-June semester and how useful they had found them. Answers showed that teachers had (almost) always lectured and showed presentations. Then, in descending order, they had used e-mails, chat, other material from Internet and video streaming. Highly similar order was kept when students assessed the usefulness of those methods. Students reported that they had mostly taken part in lectures, in descending order, by listening, watching, chatting, replying to e-mails and to polls. They found their active participation more useful than it had been practiced. For the second objective students compared online and face-to-face education experience on an 18 items scale, and listed advantages and disadvantages of online education. Students' answers were compared regarding their self-assessed level of adjustment to online education: not adjusted, adjusted from the start, or adjusted gradually. Results reveal that students identified many similarities between online and face-to-face lectures, and they were not completely for or against online education. They placed as highest advantages of online education-personal benefits, time-related benefits, and features of the online lecture delivery. When ranking disadvantages, they put delivery of lectures and too many obligations on the top. Then lack of social interactions, technical problems and personal detriments followed. Students with better adjustment assessed online education more positively. It can be concluded that online lectures delivery in this research managed to resemble the face-to-face variation a lot. Students were almost polarised in their preferences towards online education, but they identified a great need for improvement of the online lectures delivery.
Online Education: Benefits, Challenges and Strategies During and After COVID-19 in Higher Education
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The pandemic COVID-19 has forcefully shifted the mode of teaching and learning from only face to face to online in the higher education of Nepal, which is new experiences and practices for many of the teachers and students. In this context, this study investigated teachers’ and learners’ perspectives on online education in relation to its benefits, challenges and strategies during and after COVID-19 in higher education of Nepal. To achieve this objective, online survey research design was employed. Survey questionnaire were used in the study to determine the perspectives of 280 teachers and students from five universities of Nepal. The results showed that the participants experienced online education beneficial primarily for promoting online research, connecting the practitioners to the global community and getting huge and authentic resource of knowledge though they have found time-management skills, more freedom to the teachers and learners, and reliable internet at workplace as the extreme challenges. The research also revealed time management skills, technological prepared and computer literate are the basic qualities for the practitioners who want to have online education. The participants suggested that ICT policy should be clear and courses should be developed accordingly. Only online mode of teaching and learning in the context of Nepal cannot be effective so the participants preferred blended learning. The findings of the research indicated that online education can be an alternative means of traditional education. Thus, if blended approach is implemented, the education process would be more effective and successful in the contexts like Nepal.
Students' Perception on Online Learning During the Covid-19 Pandemic
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This paper focuses on students’ perception of the effectiveness of online vs onsite learning within two faculties (Arts and Science) of the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the results of this study are compared to those of similar studies conducted in several other countries. The research problem addressed in this study is: What is the impact of ICT knowledge, digital infrastructure, classroom environment, and policy support on undergraduates’ perception of online teaching and learning? The primary data for the study was collected using a structured questionnaire. The objective of the questionnaire was to measure the impact of ICT knowledge, digital infrastructure, classroom environment, and policy support on undergraduates’ perception of online teaching and learning. A questionnaire was made available through an online platform to two hundred undergraduates of the two faculties, Arts and Science, of the University of Colombo, and the one hundred eighty (180) responses received were analysed using SPSS. The neutrality of the impact of ICT knowledge, digital infrastructure, classroom environment, and the policy framework on the participants’ perception of the online teaching/learning process can be interpreted as the non-existence of a significant difference between online and onsite classes. However, the additional comments provided by the same respondents at the end of the questionnaire indicate opinions contradictory to the above finding.
Higher Education Students’ Perceptions of Online Learning during COVID-19—A Comparative Study
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The pandemic and subsequent ‘lockdowns’ dramatically changed the educational landscape of higher education institutions. Before-COVID-19, traditional universities had choices in pedagogical practice, which included a variety of teaching delivery modes. Overnight, a single mode of delivery became the only option for traditional higher education institutions. All services migrated to digital platforms, leading to a period of “emergency eLearning”. The full impact of this sudden shift to digital platforms on all cohorts of students is still unclear. A measure of disruption to the normal student learning experience, especially for those attending traditional universities, was inevitable. Moreover, this disruption was varied depending on the University’s country and the country’s lockdown logistics. This international, comparative, quantitative research project investigated and explored higher education students’ perceptions of emergency eLearning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Experience...
Journal of Advanced Research in Applied Sciences and Engineering Technology, 2023
Online learning refers to teaching and learning process through asynchronous and realtime communication over the Internet and with multimedia. This study examines the perception and acceptance of online learning as an alternative way in teaching undergraduate courses at School of Technology Management and Logistics (STML) after COVID-19. It also aims at identifying factors that facilitate online learning and the challenges of online learning. To accomplish the aim, this study applied a quantitative approach, in which data were collected using an online survey involving 156 undergraduate students at STML. Results show a moderate high level of acceptance on online learning. In addition, it was found that among four main factors that facilitate online learning, Enthusiasm ranked the highest, followed by Satisfaction, Self-Efficacy, and Enhancement of Communication Skills. Besides, results also reveal that among the main challenges encountered by majority of the students, delivery speed of teaching and learning, students' attitude, struggles and stress of online learning mode were the most common issues. Results yielded in this study add to the existing literature on the possibility of online learning as an alternative pedagogy in post COVID-19.
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The aim of this study is to determine distance education students’ perceptions of online learning during the COVID-19 era. The descriptive design was employed to examine students' views on online learning. The population of the study was 876 students from all the campuses and learning centres of Valley View University (VVU) across the country. The Yamane (1967) sample size calculation formula was used to sample the respondents. The questionnaire was the only data collection instrument used in this study. The researcher sent copies of the questionnaire to the participants via Google forms. The IBM- Statistical Product and Service Solutions (IBM-SPSS) was used for the analysis. The study found that the perceptions of the majority of the students toward online learning were negative. The results revealed that smartphones were ranked first with a value of (RII = 0.659) as the devices used by students during online learning classes. The findings indicated that students found it diffi...