Research Article
Valentina Lukina, Tuiaara Sidorova, Nadezhda Okoneshnikova, Egor Nikolaev, Viktoria Shamaeva, Irina Kuznetsova
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 14, Issue 3, Article No: ep376
ABSTRACT
The subject of the study is the psychological difficulties of adopting distance education technologies by university students. The materials of exploratory research obtained on a sample of students from several universities of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) are presented. The study involved respondents aged 19 to 22 (N = 86), 39% of whom were males. In the research, the unstructured interview method was used, during which we asked students to share in detail about their user experience, describing not only the learning process itself but the whole learning context in general. Considering the results using the TAM model, it can be assumed that students are not satisfied with any of the components. Distance learning technologies are not perceived by students as easy to use, and there is a low assessment of the perceived usefulness of these technologies. The attitude towards technology is also rather negative. From the point of view of student acceptance of technology, it can be said that distance learning causes some difficulties associated with cognitive, and emotional aspects, as well as interaction in a virtual environment, and the learning process. Learning creates anxiety and dissatisfaction with the learning process itself.
Keywords: distance education, psychological difficulties, pedagogical communication, students, technology adoption model (TAM)
Review Article
Rakesh Kumar Meet, Devkant Kala
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 3, Article No: ep312
ABSTRACT
Advent of internet has a revolutionary impact on every sector of economy and so is with the education sector, which has witnessed the evolution of online education through scalable educational technology, namely, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The purpose of this paper is to summarize the pool of available knowledge related to MOOCs in the scholarly literature, published during the period 2013–2020. One hundred and two available published studies in peer reviewed journals & conferences searched in major academic databases have been reviewed and presented in the systematic literature review. The findings have been divided under the various research themes of MOOCs including geographical contribution of MOOC studies, citation trends, prominent research themes, theoretical frameworks and methodological rigor in the existing scholarly works. The results demonstrate that most empirical research were conducted by the researchers having affiliation to institutions based out of United States followed by institutions in the developing economies of China and India. The most focused area of research in MOOCs is on MOOC adoption. Limited research has happened on poor MOOC completion status, the instructor-related topics and on democratization of MOOC. Thrust areas of MOOC researches and future research directions are also discussed.
Keywords: Massive Online Open Course (MOOC), e-learning, online education, educational technology, technology adoption, literature review
Research Article
Jamal N. Al-Karaki, Nedal Ababneh, Yasir Hamid, Amjad Gawanmeh
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 3, Article No: ep311
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 Pandemic affected all sectors worldwide including education sector changing the students learning environment at a large scale. In the education sector, governments had to close schools and universities around the world and turn into online mode of delivery. The sudden transformation to online learning demands educators and institutions to develop more innovative teaching methods in supporting students during this growing crisis. It is pertinent that this is the era of large-scale online learning, where education is delivered remotely utilizing various digital platforms. To this end, this move presented many challenges to students, educators, families, administrators, and government regulations. In this paper, we conduct an oriented and well-rounded survey that captures all aspects of distance learning verticals as perceived by educators in order to study online delivery aspects, including teaching models, communication media, and teaching best practices in distance learning. The paper will answer subtle and comprehensive questions related to student satisfaction and success, technical needs and challenges, teaching models, educator mobility, etc. across different universities in the UAE. In particular, the paper tries to identify best model to use given many key issues related to the adoption of e-learning during COVID-19. Overall, the survey results showed almost all participants agreed that online learning during the COVID-19 is a very good alternative solution to Face-to-Face approach. However, teaching models do vary in promoting students’ participation and students’ engagement. All participants agree that absence of the proper infrastructure at home will hinder the operation especially in courses with hands-on components. Finally, the educators questioned the credibility of online assessments despite the enforced exam integrity tools and methods. The paper concluded with many recommendations for continuous development of the distance learning systems during and after COVID -19.
Keywords: COVID-19, distance learning, online education, technology adoption, education models, higher education