COVID-19 and its implications on students’ learning behaviour

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the educational institutions in India suddenly switched to online mode of teaching. This new learning mode gives the flexibility to connect at any time from any place. This sudden shift has impacted the learning behaviour of students to a large extent, which is studied and analysed in this paper for a computer programming course. An online questionnaire is prepared and circulated among the students for which 158 responses were received. Based on the responses, it is found out from the analysis that 75.32% of students favour learning this course in offline mode while 48.1% favour the virtual mode. The maximum support for the classroom teaching is evident from the data which shows that 98.73% students find the teacher’s competency good in offline mode, 98.1% find teacher’s content delivery effective in offline mode and 79.75% are of the view that possibility of frequent interaction is more in offline mode, whereas 87.97%, 85.44% and 42.41% of students are congenial with the online mode in terms of same parameters. Also, 69.62% of students are comfortable with offline mode, while 55.06% with online mode. For evaluation mode and pattern of question paper, 78.5% favour online mode of evaluation with a mix of multiple-choice questions and coding questions. It is irrespective of their preference to offline mode for teaching-learning. In the end, some recommendations are proposed based on the analysis to improve the teaching-learning methodology during the time of crisis

Maximising Social Interactions and Effectiveness within Distance Learning Courses: Cases from Construction

Advanced Internet technologies have revolutionised the delivery of distance learning education. As a result, the physical proximity between learners and the learning providers has become less important. However, whilst the pervasiveness of these technological developments has reached unprecedented levels, critics argue that the student learning experience is still not as effective as conventional face-to-face delivery. In this regard, surveys of distance learning courses reveal that there is often a lack of social interaction attributed to this method of delivery, which tends to leave learners feeling isolated due to a lack of engagement, direction, guidance and support by the tutor. This paper defines and conceptualises this phenomenon by investigating the extent to which distance-learning programmes provide the social interactions of an equivalent traditional classroom setting. In this respect, two distance learning case studies were investigated, covering the UK and Slovenian markets respectively. Research findings identified that delivery success is strongly dependent on the particular context to which the specific distance learning course is designed, structured and augmented. It is therefore recommended that designers of distance learning courses should balance the tensions and nuances associated with commercial viability and pedagogic effectiveness

Maximising social interactions and effectiveness within distance learning courses : cases from construction

Advanced Internet technologies have revolutionised the delivery of distance learning education. As a result, the physical proximity between learners and the learning providers has become less important. However, whilst the pervasiveness of these technological developments has reached unprecedented levels, critics argue that the student learning experience is still not as effective as conventional face-to-face delivery. In this regard, surveys of distance learning courses reveal that there is often a lack of social interaction attributed to this method of delivery, which tends to leave learners feeling isolated due to a lack of engagement, direction, guidance and support by the tutor. This paper defines and conceptualises this phenomenon by investigating the extent to which distance-learning programmes provide the social interactions of an equivalent traditional classroom setting. In this respect, two distance learning case studies were investigated, covering the UK and Slovenian markets respectively. Research findings identified that delivery success is strongly dependent on the particular context to which the specific distance learning course is designed, structured and augmented. It is therefore recommended that designers of distance learning courses should balance the tensions and nuances associated with commercial viability and pedagogic effectiveness

E-Learning Initiatives in India

Abstract: emergence of world wide web has completely globalized the whole world into a global village business, entertainment, education, teaching, learning every field has achieved new dimensions and plays important role in the development of nation.one of the outcome of this is e learning. E-Learning is the extended form of traditional classroom teaching. The paper highlights concept, tools and initiatives taken by several and institutions and Library centers around the world and in India

Enhancing online climate change education: distance and conventional university collaboration for a Master's curriculum

See also a longer version: ‘Expanding Citizen and Practitioner Engagement with the Climate Change Challenge Through Collaborative Masters Curriculum, Open Educational Resources, E-learning Communities and Virtual Mobility’, presented at a conference of European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EDTU), Zermatt, Switzerland, September 2010 (www.eadtu.nl/.../Accepted%20Presentations%20for%20Newsletter.pd).This paper analyses the different ways in which both distance and conventional universities engage with learning and teaching. It argues that rather than seeing their roles as institutionally compartmentalised, there is much benefit in delivering online education through an institutional collaboration which develops synergies with a potential to contribute to citizen and professional practitioner empowerment, in this case, for debates about climate change. The example the paper draws on is that of a European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students (Erasmus) project ‘The Lived experience of climate change (LECH-e): interdisciplinary e-module development and virtual mobility’. The project brings together five distance and three conventional universities across six EU countries, plus the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU), to create a Master’s curriculum in the area of climate change. It argues that universities across Europe have complementary strengths, both in terms of their disciplinary expertise and the ways in which they engage with students. Understanding the complex, real-world challenge of climate change requires a holistic approach which draws on these complementary strengths through collaborative work. Keywords: conventional universities; distance-learning universities; Master’s curriculum in climate change; collaboration

Exploring the virtual classroom: What students need to know (and teachers should consider)

Technological improvements in many countries have meant that institutions offering distance education programmes now have more options available to them to communicate and interact with their students, and increasingly, attention is being turned to the potential of Web2 technologies to facilitate synchronous interaction. This study explores the affordances and limitations of an online virtual classroom, Adobe Connect Pro, when used in the learning programmes of two groups of undergraduate and postgraduate education students. Results indicate that while both groups gained value from using the classroom, they also found it a completely new environment, and one to which many had trouble transferring the interaction and communication skills developed in other contexts. The reasons for this related to three specific areas of knowledge – technical, procedural and operational, that were identified as being critical to student performance in this environment. The study suggests that educators and course designers need to embed strategies into their online offerings to enable students to develop these, if they are to gain substantial benefit from the availability of virtual classrooms. Additionally, the study identified that when making design decisions about online learning environments, it is very much a matter of horses for courses when selecting tools for specific purposes. While the virtual classroom proved useful for developing social connection and a sense of community, it may not be so beneficial for supporting deeper learning

Using ODL and ICT to develop the skills of the unreached: a contribution to the ADEA triennial of the Working Group on Distance Education and Open Learning

Innovation in technology is occurring at rapid pace thus shrinking the distances and making information and knowledge more than ever accessible to everyone irrespective of where the person resides. This paper consists of four main articles. The first one deals with technological trends. The second one focuses on the deployment and use of open and distance education mode in rural areas by documenting initiatives that embrace information and communication technologies (ICTs). Due to challenges faced in rural areas only a few success stories/cases currently exist and some of these are cited in this article. The challenges faced in the deployment of ICT enhanced ODL have been highlighted as well as the potential of developing and delivering effective and relevant ODL programmes in rural areas in order to ensure that issues of educational equity and social exclusion rural communities are adequately addressed. ICTs in ODL are perhaps the greatest tool to date for self-education and value addition to any community’s development efforts, yet poor rural communities particularly in Africa do not have the necessary awareness, skills or facilities to enable themselves to develop using ICTs. Inadequate ICT infrastructures in rural areas remain a major source for the digital divide in Africa and for under-performance of distance learners. The third one analyses the support provided to ODL learners who often encounter difficulties in completing their studies through the distance education mode due to loneliness, uncertainties and de-motivation. ICT has not been able to sufficiently support distance learners in overcoming those obstacles efficiently. An investigation regarding those learning supports has been conducted in ten distance learning institutions, along with an intensive literature review with the aim of understanding the high percentage of dropout rates of distant learners. The learners’ interactions have been scrutinized through content analysis of their synchronous exchanges, during a completely online course. After taking into account the limited technical and human resources in Africa, a technological virtual environment along with a pedagogical framework has been proposed with the aim of giving adequate educational support to them. The fourth article has explored The Open University (UK) and its efforts to use new technologies to deliver online courses to difficult-to- reach learners in prison environments. The case study analysed here is an international course (called, B201- Business Organisations and their environments) which also touches an African cohort of learners. The implications for designing and delivering online ODL to the complex unreachable environments of prisons anywhere, and particularly in Africa, have been discussed

Partners with clinical practice: Evaluating the student and staff experiences of on-line continuing professional development for qualified nephrology practitioners

The inclusion of online learning technologies into the higher education (HE) curriculum is frequently associated with the design and development of new models of learning. One could argue that e-learning even demands a reconfiguration of traditional methods of learning and teaching. However, this transformation in pedagogic methodology does not just impact on lecturers and teachers alone. Online learning has ‘pervasive impacts and changes in other HE functions’ (HEFCE, p.2). Thus, e-learning is a transformational process that posits new challenges for staff and students, both in educational methods and support. Many political, clinical, financial and social influences impact on registered health professionals’ ability to continue their professional development. This is particularly pertinent in the delivery of nephrology care. In order to evaluate the programme that has now run for 2 years in the context of this institution, evaluative research methodology sought to explore the experiences of the staff and students involved. Qualitative data was collected from the students and a reflective framework was used to form the basis of a focus group for the staff. This paper will present how a virtual learning environment (VLE) was developed utilising the pedagogic framework of solution-focused learning. It will demonstrate evaluation of the students’ experiences compared to their traditional classroom-learning counterparts, and highlight the reflections of staff developers as they moved into new roles and developed different aspects of their present roles within a traditional HE context

The global classroom for supply chain management, any time, anywhere!

Academia is facing increasing demands in the design and delivery of their degree programmes due to resource constraints and the demands to embrace. The purpose of this article is to examine the requirement for quality education in the field of supply chain management. The approach adopted here is a reflective one, looking at recent trends in postgraduate Supply Chain Management (SCM) education and focusing in particular on a new mode of delivery, that of e-learning. The paper considers the development of SCM education and presents the range of supply chain management programmes and modules being offered across a selection of UK universities. The article also highlights the dynamic character of SCM education and considers whether the e-learning format is capable of responding to the requirements for quality in this field. Through a focus on one particular programme, the wholly online postgraduate programme in Operations and Supply Chain Management at the University of Liverpool. The conclusions are that new forms of teaching and learning are opening up to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The aim of the research was to discover the real time dynamic of SCM practice and theory, objective and subjective perspectives