The Challenge of Distance Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-152
Author(s):  
Michael E. Meagher ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
The United States ◽  
Liberal Arts Institutions ◽  
New Beginning ◽  
Midwestern University ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Silver Lining ◽  
Remote Learning

This essay explores the sudden shift from residential higher education to remote learning in the United States, a consequence of the novel coronavirus. It is a personal account of experiences as a professor at a Midwestern university. Many instructors had no training in online teaching. For university faculty, Covid-19 meant having to transform courses from in-person instruction to a remote platform practically overnight. Among the student comments I received were that I managed the online transition well. Over the next academic year, 2020-21, universities face challenges in resuming on-campus teaching, and the possibility that a new outbreak of the virus might bring a repeat of the Spring 2020 semester. Although that possibility sounds dire, there is hope that the shift to remote learning may offer a silver lining in the form of expanding course offerings beyond geographic areas and reaching a wider audience. For liberal arts institutions that are struggling financially, a rise in the use of remote learning and online education may offer a new beginning, and for public universities, potential new revenue given declining state support, a silver lining.

scholarly journals Empirical Research on the Application of Online Teaching in Chinese Colleges and Universities Under the Situation of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Prevention and Control

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiejun Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
And Control

At the turn of 2019-2020, a new epidemic broke out in China. China has entered the critical stage of epidemic prevention and control. And The severe situation has led to the failure of normal opening of new semester in Chinese colleges and universities. In order to effectively guarantee the education, teaching and talent cultivation in colleges and universities, the Ministry of education of China has rapidly put forward the requirements of launching online teaching. Therefore, under the situation of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (Hereinafter referred to as 2019-nCoV) prevention and control, online teaching in Chinese colleges and universities is widely used and develops rapidly. However, the demand for online education has been released in a short time and on a large scale, and each online teaching platform has encountered unprecedented pressure and challenges. In this regard, based on the situation of 2019-nCoV prevention and control in China, this paper demonstrates how the Chinese government deploy online teaching in an all-round way with specific measures, how the Chinese colleges and universities implement massive online teaching quickly, how teachers and students adapt to online teaching quickly. At the same time, this paper carries out empirical analysis to show the process and effectiveness of online teaching in Chinese colleges and universities in the unprecedented state of 2019-nCoV prevention and control with specific examples. On this basis, it analyzes and summarizes the advantages and disadvantages, so as to facilitate the later improvement and provide reference.

scholarly journals BRIDGES AND BARRIERS TO TEACHING ONLINE COLLEGE COURSES: A STUDY OF EXPERIENCED ONLINE FACULTY IN THIRTY- SIX COLLEGES

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Shea
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Education Student ◽  
Online Faculty ◽  
Teaching Online ◽  
Barriers To Teaching

This paper reports on initial findings from a research study of factors that enable and constrain faculty participation in online teaching and learning environments. It is noted that demand for higher education continues to grow in the United States. It is argued that the nature of the higher education student population will likely continue to transform towards a non-traditional profile. These two trends drive an increased demand for alternative routes to a college degree and have fueled dramatic growth in online learning recently. The study identifies faculty acceptance of online teaching as a critical component for future growth to meet this demand and ensure quality. Through analysis of data from 386 faculty teaching online in 36 colleges in a large state university system, the most significant factors that support and undermine motivation to teach online are identified. The top motivator is a more flexible work schedule. The top demotivator is inadequate compensation for perceived greater work than for traditionally delivered courses, especially for online course development, revision, and teaching. However, respondents in this study chose to teach online for a wide variety of reasons many of which were associated with demographic and contextual differences. These distinctions are reviewed in light of their implications for future quality of online education. Additionally, through factor analysis, underlyingconstructs for online faculty motivations are identified. Finally, recommendations are made for policy, practice, faculty development and future research.

scholarly journals The H.E.R.O.s of Online Education: What makes students succeed despite the odds?

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charmaine Bissessar ◽  
Debra Black ◽  
Mehraz Boolaky
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Psychological Capital ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Online Instructors

The study of psychological capital (PsyCap) is prevalent in organizations globally and is part of the movement towards attaining positive organizational behavior. This concept is slowly being transferred to the education realm with teachers becoming more mindful of students’ inner H. E. R. O. (Hope, Efficacy, Resilience, and Optimism). Little research, however, has been conducted upon the PsyCap of university students in fully online programs. The purpose of this study was to determine what aspects of students’ psychological capital lead to success despite adversity. An exploratory qualitative methodology was used to interview five participants from the United States, Canada, Africa, France, and Serbia in order to determine whether or not PsyCap influenced their drive to complete their online graduate programs of study at the University of Liverpool. This convenience sample yielded compelling results for future research and indicated similarities in hope and efficacy as well as differences in gender regarding participant resilience and approach to challenges. Further research is needed to determine whether gender does play a critical role in online students’ PsyCap, especially resilience. Another revealing result was that the participants credited their online instructors for motivating and discouraging them based on their feedback, grading, and overall communication. This points to a possible relationship between the students’ PsyCap and the three online teaching presences in communities of inquiry (cognitive, teaching, and social).

MEDICAL EDUCATION BY E-LEARNING METHODS: A TEMPORARY ALTERNATIVE OR A NEW BEGINNING

2021 ◽  
pp. 73-74
Author(s):  
Suneel Kumar ◽  
Kamaldeep Singh ◽  
Dheeraj Kumar Jakhar
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Traditional Teaching ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
New Beginning ◽  
Physical Presence ◽  
E Learning ◽  
The Government

The Covid-19 epidemic made the educational institutions to adopt online education systems in an attempt to continue teaching safely as well as to comply to the instructions from the government. Online education systems have been there for many years but they have gained popularity recently, more in the form of a necessity rather than a luxury. This presented a new challenge for the institutions, teachers and the students as they needed to adapt to the online teaching systems. E-learning is the outcome of development of science and technology and is different from traditional teaching in many ways. In traditional teaching the physical presence of the student and teacher at same site is a very crucial factor, while in E-learning the presence is virtual. There are two types of e-learning, synchronous and asynchronous. E-learning has many advantages as well as disadvantages, but how gracefully it gets incorporated in the traditional medical teaching, that only time will tell.

COVID-19 and the Growth Mindset

2021 ◽  
pp. 223-244
Author(s):  
Joy Kutaka-Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Instructional Delivery ◽  
Growth Mindset ◽  
Online Pedagogy ◽  
Dark Cloud ◽  
Online Teaching And Learning ◽  
Silver Lining

The pervasive shelter in place mandates of March 2020 forced all educators to precipitously migrate to online education. After grappling with myriad technical concerns such as hardware, software, and internet connectivity, educators began addressing more complex issues such as a new, different online pedagogy. Other hurdles to virtual education included appropriate curricular adaptations, modifications to instructional delivery and assessment, and evolving parameters of social engagement. This chapter explores the intersection of the pandemic and the growth mindset which many educators manifested during online migration, often with no preparation and under the duress of immediacy. Successfully navigating such a large magnitude of change challenged educators, and their ability to embrace a growth mindset often facilitated more positive outcomes with online teaching and learning. The silver lining of the dark cloud of COVID-19 was its unexpected intersection with the growth mindset, leading teachers and learners to develop new skills, abilities, and potentialities.

Developing Successful Online Degree Programs at a Historically Black University

2019 ◽  
pp. 51-68
Author(s):  
Anisah Bagasra
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Historically Black ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Natural Extension ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black College ◽  
Degree Programs ◽  
Historically Black University ◽  
Online Degree ◽  
The University

This chapter presents an overview of the process of building online degree programs from the ground up utilizing data from the process at a four-year liberal-arts institution in the United States that also has a designation as a Historically Black College (HBCU). The university has expanded both its research and global focus in the past several years, and the development of online degree programs was a natural extension of a desire to produce global leaders through the lens of a traditional liberal arts degree program. This chapter discusses some of the challenges HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs) face entering the online education marketplace, particularly the challenge of how HBCUs and MSIs can use their historic legacy and missions to distinguish themselves from competitors and meet the needs of online students.

scholarly journals The PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics, Version 1.0: A Valid and Equitable Tool to Measure Transformation of Life Sciences Departments at All Institution Types

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. ar60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loretta Brancaccio-Taras ◽  
Pamela Pape-Lindstrom ◽  
Marcy Peteroy-Kelly ◽  
Karen Aguirre ◽  
Judy Awong-Taylor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
The United States ◽  
Curriculum Alignment ◽  
Faculty Support ◽  
Liberal Arts Institutions ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Vision Change

The PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics, version 1.0, assess life sciences departments’ progress toward implementation of the principles of the Vision and Change report. This paper reports on the development of the rubrics, their validation, and their reliability in measuring departmental change aligned with the Vision and Change recommendations. The rubrics assess 66 different criteria across five areas: Curriculum Alignment, Assessment, Faculty Practice/Faculty Support, Infrastructure, and Climate for Change. The results from this work demonstrate the rubrics can be used to evaluate departmental transformation equitably across institution types and represent baseline data about the adoption of the Vision and Change recommendations by life sciences programs across the United States. While all institution types have made progress, liberal arts institutions are farther along in implementing these recommendations. Generally, institutions earned the highest scores on the Curriculum Alignment rubric and the lowest scores on the Assessment rubric. The results of this study clearly indicate that the Vision & Change Rubrics, version 1.0, are valid and equitable and can track long-term progress of the transformation of life sciences departments. In addition, four of the five rubrics have broad applicability and can be used to evaluate departmental transformation by other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.

scholarly journals E-Learning Acceptance: Online Teaching Degree Earners and What Principals Think

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Applegate
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
The United States ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Critical Case Study ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Teaching Programs ◽  
Principals Perceptions

Online education continues to increase in popularity and one degree currently offered is a bachelor degree of education. Once students graduate, they will begin to seek employment. Those seeking positions in K-12 education settings do not know if they have the same opportunity to get hired as someone from a traditional degree program. Previous researchers on this topic have failed to address the issue of an online degree earner getting hired. Based on the growth of online education, it was necessary to find out if K-12 principals’ perceptions of online education programs may prevent graduates of online teacher programs from successful employment. The purpose of the qualitative critical case study was to explore how K-12 principals’ perceptions directly related to the hiring of licensed graduates with bachelor degrees from online teaching programs. The results identified numerous factors related to principals making hiring decisions of teacher candidates, however, where or how they complete their degrees is not one of them. The study became more pertinent with the arrival of Covid 19 in the United States and school districts moving to an online learning environment.

scholarly journals Developing and teaching of a world-class online project management curriculum

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Stephen A Leybourne ◽  
Vijay Kanabar ◽  
Roger D.H. Warburton
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
The United States ◽  
Academic Quality ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Face ◽  
Faculty Time

  The evolution of the internet and collaboration tools have made it possible to enhance the range of online education, and make it universally accessible and eminently affordable. Around 2000, the faculty at Boston University’s Metropolitan College proposed an online master’s degree in project management, using the emerging learning management systems. The program grew quickly from 40 to 200 students, and was one of the first in the United States to be accredited by the Project Management Institute’s Global Accreditation Committee. This academic model has now been extended to other disciplines and programs.It was expected from the outset that the BU online and classroom academic experiences would be completely equivalent. This presented several challenges, the first of which was developing online equivalents for the face-to-face pedagogical course components. Second, writing online courses, recording videos and developing innovative discussion topics is time-consuming, and we quickly realised that only fulltime faculty had the commitment and motivation to devote the required effort to produce quality courses. Finally, the technological resources associated with course development and course operation required significant investment, beyond the faculty time, currently estimated at around $60,000 per course.We surveyed our students and alumni every two years and now have enough data to describe accurately the evolution in attitudes to online education.As one of the earlier and premier adopters of a rigorous academic online education model, BU has a vested interest to contribute to the growing debate about the academic quality and rigour of online education, the application of high pedagogical standards, and the innovative use of online teaching frameworks and tools. This paper will address and document these issues and assist in raising awareness of emerging “best practice” in the online education domain. 

scholarly journals In Search of Pedagogies for Teaching Qualitative Research Online: A Vygotskian Approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Maja Miskovic ◽  
Elena Lyutykh
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
The United States ◽  
Leadership Studies ◽  
Liberal Arts University ◽  
Constructivist Approaches ◽  
Do So

Little has been said on how to teach qualitative research in general and more recently on how to do so in online courses. Drawing on the cultural-historical theory of Lev Vygotsky and his followers, we engage with theoretical tenets that inform a design of an online qualitative research course in a private liberal arts university in the United States with large enrollments of doctoral students in leadership studies. Though examination of constructivist approaches to online education that are integrated within our classroom practices, we highlight unique challenges of teaching qualitative research online and offer insights to inform instructors of similar courses with intent to continue an important conversation about complexities of teaching qualitative research.

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