Search Results (143)

Historically, the assessment of mathematics in higher education comprised closed-book, summative, proctored examinations. Related disciplines and subjects like statistics, mathematics education, and the history of mathematics lend themselves to a broader range of assessment techniques that have been reported to provide a more balanced picture of students’ abilities. In 2020, an online environment for the teaching and learning of mathematics was imposed on the academic world globally as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an effort to teach and assess remotely while maintaining institutional academic standards, the majority of lecturers were in a situation where closed-book, proctored assessments were not an option. As a result, other methods were adopted. This paper reports on an investigation into how mathematics lecturers worldwide assessed mathematics before the pandemic, during the initial lockdown restrictions, and in the immediate aftermath, while some restrictions were still in place, to see if any changes were sustained. There was a statistically significant difference in the proportion of respondents who used many of the assessment types investigated across the three time periods, including open-book timed, open-book untimed, closed-book, multiple-choice questions, online proctored, in-person proctored, presentations, projects, and assignments. The majority of those who favoured closed-book proctored examinations prior to the pandemic moved to timed open-book assessments. Differences between the weightings of final examinations versus continuous assessments were also statistically significant, with greater weight given to continuous assessment once the pandemic began. Respondents’ satisfaction levels with their assessments were significantly different also, with the highest satisfaction levels prior to the pandemic and the lowest during the initial lockdown restrictions. Academic integrity was a key concern of the majority of respondents when assessing the learning outcomes of their modules and played a role in the vehicle of assessment they chose. Full article

This study explores the application of transformer-based language models for automated Topic Classification in qualitative datasets from interviews conducted in Modern Greek. The interviews captured the views of parents, teachers, and school directors regarding Emergency Remote Teaching. Identifying key themes in this kind of interview is crucial for informed decision-making in educational policies. Each dataset was segmented into sentences and labeled with one out of four topics. The dataset was imbalanced, presenting additional complexity for the classification task. The GreekBERT model was fine-tuned for Topic Classification, with preprocessing including accent stripping, lowercasing, and tokenization. The findings revealed GreekBERT’s effectiveness in achieving balanced performance across all themes, outperforming conventional machine learning models. The highest evaluation metric achieved was a macro-F1-score of 0.76, averaged across all classes, highlighting the effectiveness of the proposed approach. This study contributes the following: (i) datasets capturing diverse educational community perspectives in Modern Greek, (ii) a comparative evaluation of conventional ML models versus transformer-based models, (iii) an investigation of how domain-specific language enhances the performance and accuracy of Topic Classification models, showcasing their effectiveness in specialized datasets and the benefits of fine-tuned GreekBERT for such tasks, and (iv) capturing the complexities of ERT through an empirical investigation of the relationships between extracted topics and relevant variables. These contributions offer reliable, scalable solutions for policymakers, enabling data-driven educational policies to address challenges in remote learning and enhance decision-making based on comprehensive qualitative evidence. Full article

Emergency remote teaching was first introduced in the educational system of the Republic of Serbia during the COVID-19 pandemic, not as a planned change but as an imposed solution aimed at suppressing this infectious disease. This raises the question of the sustainability of remote teaching after the pandemic and the effects and experiences with emergency form of this method of teaching in the form it was used during the pandemic. Therefore, this paper is aimed at examining whether and in what manner technical factors such as digital competence, device equipment, Internet connection, and Zoom fatigue could contribute to students’ attitudes and satisfaction with this form of teaching, as well as how all these factors might contribute to the perception of satisfaction, efficiency, and sustainability of RT among the students of the teacher education faculties. The research involved 138 female university students from the faculties of education in Serbia. The results point to the unpreparedness of the educational system for the quick transition to emergency remote teaching and to inadequate logistic support for the implementation of this form of learning: from insufficient computer literacy, problems with the good-quality Internet in the territory of the whole country, having no adequate devices for following classes (most frequently mobile phones), students’ dissatisfaction with the effectiveness, to the phenomenon of Zoom fatigue as a consequence. The main finding is that students perceive remote teaching as a “necessary evil”, something that should be applied only when it is absolutely impossible to have the usual form of classes, only in emergency situations. This is also corroborated by the fact that after the pandemic, the school system returned to classes under traditional conditions. This leads to a conclusion about the unsustainability of the remote teaching model in Serbia, at least in the form that was applied, most probably because it was university students’ first and only experience in relation to it gained with emergency remote teaching, in the conditions of the COVID-19 crisis with its health, psychosocial, and economic pressures and with emergency form of this method of teaching. Full article

In the post-pandemic era, characterized by rapid digital transformation, teaching and evaluation methods must evolve to meet the new reality, as students and educators continue to express concerns about fairness and integrity. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the perceptions of students and teachers on the introduction of remote assessments in the context of the evolving higher education landscape, which was significantly disrupted by the 2020 pandemic, but leaving methods and approaches that are still used. Data collection comprised a sample of 989 students and 266 teachers. The results demonstrated a current preference for face-to-face assessments, which were considered fairer and more equitable, with less dishonesty, stress, and time consumption. Dishonesty was the main concern related to remote assessments, both for students and teachers. Remote assessments were undervalued, likely due to the rapid adaptation that did not allow enough time for proper models to be developed. It is believed that improving remote and hybrid assessments will lead to a greater satisfaction and confidence among teachers and students. In the era of artificial intelligence and accelerated advancements in educational technology, this article exposed the limitations and advantages of remote assessment, suggested improvements, and highlighted the gap in perceptions on that evaluation between students and teachers. The findings underscore the need to reimagine traditional pedagogy to accommodate diverse learning preferences, integrate emerging technologies, and develop the skills needed for the rapidly evolving world. New teaching methodologies that help to foster critical thinking are crucial for improving student learning and initiating a necessary paradigm shift in evaluation methods to effectively prevent cheating. Full article

Emerging building information modelling (BIM) can be complex to teach during a regular face-to-face class schedule, and even more challenging remotely or virtually. This has been further exacerbated by the outbreak of COVID-19 whereby the adoption of virtual teaching techniques in higher education has been strongly recommended. However, since the outbreak, in December 2019, there has been a paucity of research with regards to experiences with the virtual delivery of BIM. This study explores lessons learnt in engaging students through the virtual delivery of BIM courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Quantitative data from a questionnaire and quantitative and qualitative data from the various module evaluation reports were used to inform this study. A main finding is that, despite being a technical course, BIM can still be delivered online without compromising any of its learning outcomes. In contrast to existing literature, the main contribution of this study is practical as it provides insights on methods that worked and those that can be used post-COVID-19 in delivering BIM courses. This study provides hope to prospective students, especially distance learning students, who often worry whether the technology aspects of BIM can be taught remotely. Although the study is grounded on BIM and driven by the COVID-19 context and distance learning, it has wider implications for learning and teaching in other technical disciplines and virtual learning in general. Specifically, the experiences and impacts of delivering BIM examined in this study can inform curricula design in other disciplines. Full article

Teaching that centers holistic understandings of humans and the natural environment is relatively new in Australian social work education. This position is purposefully embraced to embed ecological justice as a key consideration in day-to-day practice. Alongside the growing professional awareness of ecological concerns and emerging commitment to ecosocial work practice, field education is evolving and allowing students to engage in remote digitally facilitated field placements. This provides new opportunities for creatively embedding ecological learning and ecosocial work practices into student field education thus promoting incorporation of these into the students’ emerging professional practice frameworks. This descriptive article examines the structure and pedagogical approach used in a series of such placements provided in partnership with environmental not-for-profit organizations. These digitally facilitated field education experiences can provide a powerful mechanism for transformational ecosocial learning, particularly when underpinned by Freirean ecopedagogy which resonates with social work’s professional values and purpose. Additionally, there is opportunity for mutual benefit when these placements are hosted by environmental not-for-profit organizations. Full article

The Himalayan country of Nepal is vulnerable to landslides, earthquakes, and fires. Its inhabitants need to be empowered on how to react in emergencies to prevent fatalities and respond to crises efficiently while promoting longer-term sustainability and resilience. This research project, a collaborative effort involving teachers, students, and researchers, highlights the design and implementation of games for disaster risk reduction tested in remote schools. Three interactive games were developed using an iterative game design process and testing in workshops aiming to ensure the inclusivity and diversity of the project. The games targeted preparedness and response to landslides, earthquakes, and house fires. The outcome has proven that the game-based approach to teaching and learning is crucial in empowering underserved school children often left out in formal and informal disaster management processes. This study has shown that game-based learning of disaster preparedness and response effectively empowers resource-deficient communities and regions of the Global South. Full article

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a brain disorder causing issues among many young children. For children suffering from ASD, their learning ability is typically slower when compared to normal children. Therefore, many technologies aiming to teach ASD children with optimized learning approaches have emerged. With this motivation, this study presents a smart autism spectrum disorder learning system based on remote edge healthcare clinics and the Internet of Medical Things, the objective of which is to offer an online education and healthcare environment for autistic children. Concave and convex optimization constraints, such as accuracy, learning score, total processing time with deadline, and resource failure, are considered in the proposed system, with a focus on different autism education learning applications (e.g., speaking, reading, writing, and listening), while respecting the system’s quality of service (QoS) requirements. All of the autism applications are executed on smartwatches, mobile devices, and edge healthcare nodes during their training and analysis in the system. This study presents the smartwatch autism spectrum data learning scheme (SM-ASDS), which consists of different offloading approaches, training analyses, and schemes. The SM-ASDS algorithm methodology includes partitioning offloading and deep convolutional neural network (DCNN)- and adaptive long short-term memory (ALSTM)-based schemes, which are used to train autism-related data on different nodes. The simulation results show that SM-ASDS improved the learning score by 30%, accuracy by 98%, and minimized the total processing time by 33%, when compared to baseline methods. Overall, this study presents an education learning system based on smartwatches for autistic patients, which facilitates educational training for autistic patients based on the use of artificial intelligence techniques. Full article

The integration of technology in higher education increased online courses available to students, although traditional face-to-face interaction remains dominant. The COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT), impacting public health nursing (PHN) education in Norway, which primarily consists of adult learners. The impact of the transition to online-only lectures on these students remains largely unexplored. The aim of this study is to examine how Norwegian PHN students experienced the transition from traditional classroom lectures to online-only lectures during the global pandemic. It also identifies the self-reported advantages and challenges associated with online-only lectures and whether this transition affected their perceived learning outcome. A cross-sectional sample of public health nursing (PHN) students (n = 275) participated in a survey in from May to November 2020. The questionnaire was specifically developed for this study and covers student motivation, perceived benefits and challenges of transitioning to online lectures, peer collaboration, and self-assessed learning outcomes. It was distributed to the PHN students via their respective education’s LMS system. Most PHN students managed the technical aspects of the abrupt transition to online-only lectures effectively. They reported high digital competence, found the transition relatively easy, and remained motivated to continue their studies. Despite these positives, students reported a reduction in learning outcomes compared to classroom lectures. Challenges included the missing face-to-face interaction with peers, difficulties in managing childcare, and issues with structuring their studies. Full article

This article questions the changes brought about in the teaching system of university courses after the COVID-19 pandemic. Online learning, once considered an experimental and emergency tool, is increasingly becoming a standard practice integrated into teaching delivery systems. This article examines the impact that blended learning has on the host city and how it is perceived and experienced by the key stakeholders. Focusing on two degree courses that employ a blended learning model, the article proposes a survey for teachers and students to investigate the problems and advantages of blended courses. In both groups, there is no consensus of opinion or a clear trend on any issue. This fragmentation of responses should be understood as stemming from the individual motivations, unique characteristics, and personal experiences of each participant, intertwined with their university careers. It also reflects the level of adaptation to blended teaching achieved by each individual. It becomes clear that blended teaching encompasses all the challenges of online teaching but also expands access to university education and offers the possibility of exploring the educational potential offered by technology. Blended learning encourages students to be more independent and to develop their capacity for self-directed learning, though not all students are prepared for this shift. For teachers, blended learning also demands a methodological shift, differentiating between online and in-person lessons. However, while challenges remain, the progress made so far appears promising for the future. To ensure continued success, it is essential to focus on improving internet access, strengthening students’ self-learning abilities, and simultaneously enhancing teachers’ competencies in using digital tools and facilitating remote teaching. Full article

This study aims to explore the self-reported affective experiences of U.S. school personnel during 2021. This year found school personnel balancing remote learning, health emergencies, a global pandemic, and intense political upheaval. We contextualize school personnel experiences within the current sociopolitical context. In this sample, school personnel (n = 8052) represent all U.S. states and territories alongside representation of diverse racial and ethnic identities (n = 1901). Participants were surveyed before completing a free virtual course on emotion management. The survey included open-ended questions and scale items. Participants reported primary feelings, sources of stress and joy, and perceptions of personal and social and emotional support for themselves and students. Findings are presented in five cohorts of school personnel across the year. The primary feelings were being anxious, stressed, and overwhelmed, the stressors were lack of support, time, and resources, as well as COVID-19, and workload, and the sources of joy were students, coworkers, and teaching. Anxiety and gratitude decreased throughout the year while happiness increased. Responses differed across time and between racial groups, with Black and African American participants reporting the highest percentages of being stressed by COVID-19 and community fluctuated over time as a source of joy. Implications for the education system and opportunities for emotion management are discussed. Full article

Through the pivot to emergency remote teaching during the pandemic, most universities have managed to become ‘digital’, at least in the delivery of educational programmes and business operations. And yet, the purposeful design and use of technology for education is far from the reality of such a pivot and remains difficult to achieve. While most universities outline some level of digital transformation as part of their innovation narrative and strategies, there is only a limited number of universities that adopt the culture of co-creation. This paper illustrates a bottom-up approach to the co-creation of a new digital and medical education strategy in a London-based Russell Group university to bring on change that is fit for purpose. The findings include the key insights, specifically, the five key values of what the community believed to be crucial—(i) broadening access to education, (ii) flexibility, efficiency and convenience, (iii) authentic learning, (iv) business proposition, and (v) pastoral care; and the eight areas of opportunities and challenges—(i) human relationships, (ii) co-creation, (iii) digital engagement, (iv) digital pedagogy, (v) digital literacy, (vi) edtech and IT infrastructure, (vii) support, and (viii) digital assessment and feedback. This paper also outlines the strategic project plans that were generated and since implemented as a result of the co-creation process. The limitations and future directions of this study are also noted. Full article

Online teaching and learning has had a presence in K12 public education since the 1990s. Following the COVID-19 global pandemic, there has been a surge in online learning and an increase in research surrounding the role of online teaching and learning within the K12 context. However, while the inclusion of online pedagogies flourishes throughout middle-grade educational settings, there is limited contemporary research that speaks specifically to effective online instruction of young adolescent learners. This scoping review examines the existing body of literature pertaining to online pedagogies within the middle grades in an effort to map the current trends, gaps, and overall state of research pertaining to national and international middle-level online pedagogy. Researchers screened research and pedagogically centered peer-reviewed articles published between 2013 and 2024. The reviewed articles were charted according to standardized details—e.g., author(s), publication year, research purpose, study location, participant demographics, methodology, and outcomes—to identify themes relevant to online pedagogical approaches, national or international contextual considerations, connection to the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) characteristics, and more. The findings speak to trends and gaps within middle-grade online pedagogical research with recommendations for additional examination of research and pedagogy specific to middle-grade online teaching and learning. Full article

Given the unemployment wave caused by COVID-19, the Israeli Ministry of Education and other organizations initiated a unique alternative short-term retraining program to offer unemployed college and university graduates the opportunity to earn teaching certificates. This study aimed to examine the alternative short-term program from the coordinators’ perspectives. We assess the personal and organizational impact of the program and its contribution to teacher-education initiatives. The present study had two main goals: to learn about the structure of the program and its implementation from the professional and personal points of view of the program’s coordinators as they experienced it and to examine the contribution of the new short-term program to the participants—the teacher trainees—and the Israeli education system in general. Analyzing semi-structured interviews with program coordinators revealed insights regarding the program’s various phases in five categories: recruitment of the coordinator; establishing the program; clinical experience; the students of the program; and future initiatives for teacher education. Although the effectiveness of the online format for practical clinical training was questioned, the conclusion suggests that this alternative short-term teacher-education program may have broader relevance in routine times. Full article

The objective of the study is to characterize the ways of understanding and functioning of the formative triads of pedagogical practices, based on the decisions, tensions, and challenges faced by the initial teacher training programs in times of pandemic. The research used a qualitative-phenomenological perspective, inquiring into natural situations experienced by the formative triads of the pedagogical careers of 23 Chilean universities with recognized trajectories in teacher training. The interviews were conducted when the country was in a health emergency, that is, when schools and universities were carrying out remote teaching. The results show that the pandemic transformed the collaborative links between schools and universities, some links were broken, and others were strengthened, showing that the functioning of the triads is more declarative than real. In addition, the trainers (university tutor teacher and school guide teacher) faced two disconnected scenarios (school and university) that did not provide them with clear guidelines and concrete support for the development of their roles. This research has relevance for teacher training programs because it stresses the design of action plans to give continuity to practices in emergency situations and orients the evaluation of practice models to decide if they have the conditions to implement a model based on the formative triad. Full article