Distance education during COVID 19: an Italian survey on the university teachers’ perspectives and their emotional conditions

Background Following the COVID-19 pandemic, distance education (DE) replaced traditional “face-to-face” teaching and has become the main method of teaching. The aim of this study was to 1) evaluate the impact of DE by teachers in our department during the second semester of the 2019–20 academic year following the March–May 2020 Italian national lockdown and 2) evaluate the relationship between DE and the emotional well-being of teachers during the period of home confinement. Methods Ninety-seven university teachers (51.5% women; most represented age group 60–69 years range, 40.2%) responded to an anonymous online cross-sectional survey between July 15 – September 30, 2020, on the advantages and disadvantages of DE, developed by one online teacher focus group. The emotional conditions were assessed by a short version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). The internal consistency reliability survey and the 10-item BDI-II were measured by Cronbach’s alpha. A correlation analysis (r-Pearson) was conducted between the overall evaluation of the experience of DE and the variables included in the study. Results Teachers reported difficulties in technical aspects, and in psychological factors, as the discomfort of “speaking in the void” (64.7%). The absence of “face-to-face” eye contact with the students was complained by 81% of teachers. Significant impairments in sleep patterns and loss of energy were reported, with female teachers having greater difficulty concentrating than their male colleagues. A quarter of teachers showed depressive symptoms of varying severity. The most satisfied teachers were those most stimulated by DE (r = 0.752, p < 0.000), who showed a lower impact of depressive symptoms (r = − 0.289, p = 0.005). The teaching load in hours influenced the perception of disadvantages (r = 0.214, p = 0.035) and contributed to a lower appreciation of the challenges of DE. The more significant the manifestation of depressive symptoms during the lockdown was, the greater the subjective recovery of a good emotional condition once the domestic confinement was over (r = 0.344, p = 0.001), despite maintaining DE. Conclusions Our study highlights the impact of technical, didactic, and psychological difficulties of DE, reported by our teachers. The appreciation of their new learning promoted by DE seemed related to better emotional well-being of university teachers accepting this “challenge” in their important role in the high-education system, influencing good learning and promoting students’ professional success.

Training Modern Teacher – Personnels Is The Main Factor In Our Development

In this article has been analyzed the process modern teaching profession ant its important factors which increasing English teachers in high education system. Besides, full important information given in our education in the research. This article also dwells widely and comprehensively on modern English teachers’ abilities and their effectiveness in our development.

Remote Control of the FESTO MPS PA Compact Workstation for the Development of a Remotely Accessible Process Control Laboratory

<strong>The technical education sector of the UAE adopts hands-on dominated curricula with the aim of meeting the industrial needs of highly qualified technical personnel with significant practical experience in their field. The utilization of remotely accessible laboratories is one of the technologies that is expected to have a significant role in improving the attainment of hands-on skills. This paper presents the design and implementation of a LabVIEW software interface to remotely control the FESTO MPS PA compact workstations. This workstation is commonly used as laboratory equipment and for training in the process-control filed. To showcase the developed remotely accessible process control laboratory, Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) and ON/OFF controllers were designed and implemented on the system. The proposed remotely accessible process control laboratory offers practical and industrial training over the Internet. This feature could open doors for sharing the laboratory's resources between higher educational institutes of the UAE. Which is expected to result in the optimal utilization of the available resources. The proposed remotely accessible process control laboratory is expected to have a major cost reduction of the usually high education system cost through the efficient utilization of the available laboratory equipment.</strong>

Implementation of ICT in Engineering Education in Brazil: Drivers and Barriers

The purpose of this paper was to provide information on encouraging the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in engineering education in Brazil developing the traditional method of science education due to the technological advances. After a brief outline and the definition of terms used, each assumption is placed in the context of the current. The paper will examine the driving forces and barriers to implement ICT in high education system This article has selected a comparison between traditional system students and distance students who have tried the virtual editions. Subsequently, it will be delivered arguments which explain why teachers have a strong impact on the integration of ICT into education but that they encountered many barriers to it. Among the barriers faced by teachers and students analysed in this article, the lack of accessibility, ICT resources including software and hardware, effective professional development, sufficient time, and technical support appear prominently. It is seen that no component alone is sufficient to provide the best education but the combination of these components. This research was funded by RFBR, project number 20-010-00571 “The Impact of Digital Transformation on Improving the Quality and Innovation of Services”.

BENCHMARKING: ESTIMATING EFFICIENCY AND ENSURING DEVELOPMENT TOOL OF NATIONAL HIGH EDUCATION SYSTEMS

Establishing efficient system of high education at present circumstances is the most important state task, because of this solution depends not only economic and social welfare of society, but the national competitiveness of the country. Nevertheless today is still the open question what is should be understood as effectiveness of universities and the national system of high education in general. Current approach of estimating university efficiency is based on indicators ratings on national and international levels, which have market discourse, estimate individual achievements of certain universities, and is the reason to refuse the concept of social state and social oriented market which were prevalent in XX century. In this article is proposed to make the transition from estimating the efficiency of certain universities and to review the efficiency of the national high education system in general, based on benchmarking — intercountry suppositions, mutual education and support processes of developing, related to assessment the best managing methods of whole university groups of the particular country.

Characterisation of structure and trends in the higher education

Romanian education system faces structural failures due to increased labour market instability and the proliferation of austere economic policies in adjusting the value of GDP. Open competition on the labour market, both in the EU and countries outside the European Union also stresses the need to adapt the education system to meet current and future needs of society by contributing to the development of information technology research and eco-awareness. The education system in Romania will have to take into account the need to give people the skills and abilities needed to adapt quickly to a changing labour market. Keywords: High education system, study programs, macro economical indicators, linear trend, labour market.