Globalizing Programmatic Perspectives in Pandemic Contexts

International Society for Technology, Education and Science (ISTES), 2021

The COVID-19 Pandemic impacted world society in many ways. The virus rode our interconnected transit systems and exploited a globally connected world where a person can traverse the planet within a day; far shorter a time than the incubation period. The virus challenged our assumptions on communicability of disease and transmission vectors. It challenged our medical systems; in the treatment of the infected, and an evolving understanding of the protocols needed for preserving the health of the vulnerable, and defining who is most vulnerable. COVID-19 challenged our social behaviors, our trust of one another, and the belief we had in our scientific systems to combat such a pandemic. Further, it stalled our educational systems. Unable to hold in-person classes, all levels of education were forced to utilize online platforms. Educators worldwide in disparate disciplines from elementary education through post-graduate study, in every field imaginable were forced to redefine their approaches and learn to adapt the technology we possess to the demands of maintaining progress in education. This pandemic has been no easy challenge. There is an old Chinese saying, “In the midst of adversity is opportunity.” So it has been in this pandemic. Scientists and medical providers around the globe have fought the virus and in record time produced protocols and vaccinations against it. Governments have shared information and pooled resources. Educators have developed new and impressive methods to not only maintain the education of students, but to ignite potentials and inspire the minds of learners despite having a “new normal.” This volume is a collection from educators around the planet who adapted to the changed landscape of education during COVID-19. Each of the contributors refused to accept that education would be stalled, that students would flounder, and that the virus’ impact would dim the lamp of learning. Rather each chapter brings a new and powerful adaption, which was implemented during the pandemic. The authors bring lessons, pitfalls, success, and failure to inform the reader of what worked, what did not, and what holds promise for online education long after the COVID-19 Pandemic is resigned to the history books. The range of topics in the chapters is vast, but groups around four major themes. First, the broad dynamics of the change under COVID-19 and the impact this has had on education. Diane Boothe provides a global overview in the first chapter, contextualizing the fundamental shift, which all the authors engaged. Then in the second chapter Fernando Almeida and Pedro Carneiro address the issue of privacy in the online environment as education redefined its standards. These two chapters help the reader get a sense of some of the issues, which defined this moment in history. The second theme is one of educational demands that presented granular and specific difficulties in online education during the pandemic. In the third chapter, Ömer Bilen examines ubiquitous learning and the need for learning management systems. This type of examination is paralleled in the fourth chapter wherein Abdullatif Kaban explores specifics in learning management systems. Then Zaenal Mustakim, Siti Fatimah, and Umi Mahmudah in the fifth chapter examine student perceptions and motivations as they were transitioned to e-learning. The sixth chapter sees Amjad Almusaed, Asaad Almssad, and Marisol Rico Cortez tackle the issue of student engagement as the difference of virtual education and live education become apparent. Then in the seventh chapter, Derar Serhan examines student learning perceptions when classes are synchronous versus asynchronous. The eighth chapter by Halil İbrahim Akyüz and Güler Tuluk focuses specifically on preservice mathematics students and looks at their perceptions and motivations. The ninth chapter by Sanaa Shehayeb, Eman Shaaban, and Nina Haifa explores the construction of assessment instruments for better typifying both teacher and student perceptions of online learning. Next, Ibrahim Benek and Behiye Akcay report the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on metacognitions, emotions and individual characteristics of candidate teachers preparing for national exam in Turkey. Finally, this second theme is rounded out in the eleventh chapter by Yasmeen Saeed Alzhrani, Atheer Mutlaq Alotaibi, Marwa Yousef Al-Huwail, and Abeer Toson Ahmed Nasr who explore the satisfaction of teachers of students with learning disabilities about virtual class during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia. The third theme in the volume is one of specific issues within national context. Chapter twelve by Nassima Kaid explores the dynamics at play in Algeria in pandemic online education. Basil C.E Oguguo, Christopher A. Ocheni, and Evangelista C. Oguguo in chapter thirteen focus on the structural demands in Nigeria for online education and the long ranging impact. Chapter fourteen then has Poonam Sharma, Sufang Zhang, and Hirsh Diamant examine cross-cultural exchange among three different countries when the pandemic stalled study abroad programs. Finally, David Akombo in chapter fifteen examines musical education in Barbados, addressing both national issues as well as issues specific to music education online. The fourth theme in the volume is that of subject specific challenges in online education during the pandemic. Steve Jackowicz in chapter sixteen addresses unique demands of clinical education in an online format where physical assessment and skills were reformatted for virtual education. Then in chapter seventeen, Emilio Williams, Julie Boldt, Arthur Kolat, and Renee Wehrle examine the complexities in literary education for complex works, focusing on a reading group for Finnegans Wake. Then in chapter eighteen, Awadhesh Kumar Shirotriya explores the interesting dynamic of physical education in a virtual format and the intrinsic value of physical activities to the student especially in a pandemic. Finally, in chapter nineteen, Maria Papadopoulou, Panagiota Argyri, and Zacharoula Smyrnaiou look at mathematical and historical modelling of epidemics as a unique way to both teach and contextualize the COVID-19 Pandemic to the benefit of those living through its challenges. Each of the chapters provides a different angle from which to view education during the pandemic. However, their value goes further. They all point to larger educational issues and approaches, which can be implemented in a world, which is increasingly more connected through technology. This volume should serve as a snapshot of the educational community as it addressed COVID-19, as well as a template of techniques and approaches for implementation in varied contexts to come. The editors would like to thank all the contributors for their excellent chapters. It is our hope that the reader finds value in this volume as well as inspiration for future adaption and development of new and progressive online educational methods.

International Journal of Information and Education Technology

A serious situation the world has faced, a virus is spreading very fast almost in every country leaving millions infected and hundreds of thousands dead. The whole aspects of life have been affected, health, economy, travel, manufacturing, trade and education is no exception. Universities cancelled face-to-face study, canceled study-abroad programs, forced students to leave dorms and in some cases students in off-campus housing, too, were asked to vacate and moved to online teaching. Meanwhile, Scheduled conferences have been cancelled, and almost every sports event or even practice have also been put on hold. The coronavirus pandemic has upended the world’s education system, as most schools in almost every country have closed their doors for extended periods to combat the spread of the virus. Millions of students across 209 countries infected by the COVID-19 virus have been affected by school closures and health officials were predicting the crisis would last for months. The uncert...

Higher Learning Research Communications

The outbreak of the COVID-19 began in the Wuhan region of China in December 2019. By February 2020, cases of COVID-19 had been detected on every continent. Governments are advising citizens to be prepared for an outbreak in their community. Today, we are globally experiencing closures in schools and universities, postponements or even cancellations of conferences and other organised events, and social distancing. In addition, we have also seen the promotion of flexible ways of studying and working to hinder the rapid spread of the virus. This position paper aims to reflect on where exactly does online education figure into this crisis situation by focusing on 4 important pillars: a) policy-making, b) access to resources, c) training opportunities and d) ongoing evaluation and monitoring.

Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Education Technology and Computers

In this paper we present some ideas of what we consider a model for online Engineering courses in the post pandemic era should include. As universities worldwide returned to the campuses after two long years of online teaching in some countries, some lessons or good practices could be taken for designing new models for online teaching in the coming years. Online education has shown its value during the pandemic terms and students and universities are now moving on new teaching models that could benefit from online education. In this work we present some perceptions of what a group of students in a Mexican private university think of their overall online experience during the pandemic terms and some ideas or suggestions that are given based on their own experience for universities to consider when designing new teaching models that include online education.

Arab Media & Society, 2021

When the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world in 2020, it affected every aspect of life, including education. The spread of this pandemic compelled the world to shift from traditional classroom education to online learning. This exploratory qualitative research study investigates the critical and timely topic of the sudden transition to online teaching amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It studies its multiple implications through in-depth interviews with a diverse group of international educators from different higher education institutions, representing different nationalities, ethnicities, genders, ranks, and generations. The findings reflect an early snapshot of the continuous teaching and learning development efforts on a large scale, across different regions of the world, and provide insights for future research and practice in the field of international education. The results also reveal some areas of concern in the educational digital environment, requiring further investigation moving forward, such as the digital divide, the gender gap, especially the gender digital gap, and the importance of meeting the needs of students with various physical and mental disabilities. The study offers suggestions to improve online education strategies, both amid the pandemic and in the post-pandemic era.

Studies in Linguistics, Culture, and FLT

When “school in the classroom” became “school at home”, both teachers and learners found themselves on an unexplored territory. We hypothesized that the change came along with a set of challenges that were partly similar, partly different around the world. Challenges were met with either timid or firm immediate efforts of applying approaches, strategies and techniques that could make teaching an effective process, even under the new circumstances. The aims of the paper are to provide insights into the challenges online teaching faced during the Covid-19 pandemic in countries around the world, to identify the (applied or suggested) solutions for diverse challenges and similarities or differences between challenges/solutions. In our research, we used a qualitative method based on a purposeful sampling technique and collected data from the research work of scholars in countries from the six inhabited continents. Results confirmed our hypotheses. Although we had glimpses of the world on...

2021

The Corona virus (Covid-19) pandemic out broken at the late 2019 was reported as a cluster of cases in December at Wuhan, China by The World Health Organization. The pandemic has been lasting about a year claimed more than 55 million cases and 1.5 million of death globally. This has brought into drastic changes in the normal lifestyle of people worldwide, especially into the routine of education field creating many changes into their policies and practices. The Pandemic has disrupted the cl assroom education system and paved a new normal way to online education system. The Information Communication Technologies have provided a rescue hand to bring back the student and teacher communication through online classes to persist the education. The study involves in analyzing the new normal practices at education sector in providing their classes online and the precautionary measures in enhancing the effectiveness of online classes.

2020

This research study examines the attitudes of Pakistani higher education students towards compulsory digital and distance learning university courses amid Coronavirus (COVID-19). Undergraduate and postgraduate were surveyed to find their perspectives about online education in Pakistan. The findings of the study highlighted that online learning cannot produce desired results in underdeveloped countries like Pakistan, where a vast majority of students are unable to access the internet due to technical as well as monetary issues. The lack of face-to-face interaction with the instructor, response time and absence of traditional classroom socialization were among some other issues highlighted by higher education students.

isara solutions, 2020

COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the normal lifestyle of people across the world and the virtual world has come to the rescue. Amongst many institutions/schools have also shifted their base to virtual platforms to conduct online education.

Educational Process: International Journal, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a remarkable economic impact worldwide, including in Pakistan, and was soon declared an international public health issue. The education sector in Pakistan, specifically school (K-12) education, has seen a staggering impact due to obstacles in delivering alternative forms of education during the pandemic. Educational institutions in Pakistan closed on March 13, 2020, and then, on April 13, 2020, the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, announced the launch of a “tele-schooling” initiative. Teaching staff, who are arguably the most vital resource in any schooling system, faced considerable physical, mental, and financial challenges due to an overnight shift to an online mode of teaching, with issues concerning inadequate digital pedagogical knowledge and infrastructure limitations relating mostly to power connectivity. The current study investigated the perception of Pakistani school teachers regarding t...