Deep and meaningful learning (DML) in distant education should be an essential outcome of quality education. In this literature review, we focus on e-learning effectiveness along with the factors and conditions leading to DML when using social virtual reality environments (SVREs) in distance mode higher education (HE). Hence, a systematic literature review was conducted summarizing the findings from thirty-three empirical studies in HE between 2004 (appearance of VR) and 2019 (before coronavirus appearance). We searched for the cognitive, social, and affective aspects of DML in a research framework and studied their weight in SVREs. The findings suggest that the use of SVREs can provide authentic, simulated, cognitively challenging experiences in engaging, motivating environments for open-ended social and collaborative interactions and intentional, personalized learning. Furthermore, the findings indicate that educators and SVRE designers need to place more emphasis on the socio-cultural semiotics and emotional aspects of e-learning and ethical issues such as privacy and security. The mediating factors for DML in SVREs were accumulated and classified in the resultant Blended Model for Deep and Meaningful e-learning in SVREs. Improvement recommendations include meaningful contexts, purposeful activation, learner agency, intrinsic emotional engagement, holistic social integration, and meticulous user obstacle removal.

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/5/2412/pdf

Deep and Meaningful E-Learning with Social Virtual Reality Environments in Higher Education: A Systematic Literature Review

Education in Emergencies, Inequalities and the Digital Divide: Strategies for Supporting Teachers and Students in Higher Education in Bangladesh

● Digital opportunities to enhance students’ learning invoke positive feelings. ● Technical aspects, an impersonal ICT helpdesk system, and lack of time cause stress. ● Student feedback, interaction, structured learning materials, and flexibility are assets. ● Collaboration with direct colleagues is valued for reflection on practice. ● Students experience difficulties distinguishing main from side issues in online learning materials. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, universities across the world radically shifted to emergency remote teaching. Since then, many universities have moved forward considerably and many lessons were learned in the area of online education. The aim of this qualitative study is to investigate how university teachers in a Belgian university experienced online education since the start of the pandemic and what exactly influences their experiences with online education. Six online focus groups (with thirty-two lecturers) revealed both enthusiasm and stress, and six tension fields that influenced their experiences with online education during COVID-19: (1) connection with students, (2) connection with colleagues, (3) digital opportunities and threats for students’ learning processes (online student feedback, online interaction, structured learning materials, flexibility in time and space), (4) changing teacher roles, (5) tension due to time pressure and (6) support issues. Every tension field contains both opportunities and threats for online education, which can inform practitioners of online education in the future of university education. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2022.100095

Exploring university teachers’ online education during COVID-19: Tensions between enthusiasm and stress

For many teachers, the COVID-19 pandemic meant an instant shift from teaching in traditional to a virtual classroom to reduce the spread of infection. It represents a widespread and intensive case of digitalization of teaching practice and many stakeholders are asking the imminent question of which transformations that ‘will stick’ and become a constant in the ‘new normal’ onwards. However, research of online teaching in a high school context remains limited. In this study, we analyze what happens when teaching is redirected from the traditional to the virtual classroom and explore what characterizes educational affordances in the virtual classroom. The context is 15 high schools in Sweden and the empirical data includes a survey with a total of 1109 teachers. Educational affordances are used as an analytic lens to conceptualize what teaching activities that the virtual classroom afford. The main contribution includes theorizing about what activities, interactions, and procedures that the virtual classroom affords by presenting seven educational affordances and contrast these with teaching in traditional classrooms. The affordances consist of (1) Structure (2) One-to-one communication (3) Formalized reconciliations (4) Peace and quiet (5) Hidden back channels (6) Right time and (7) Reaches certain students. The seven affordances can make a foundation for reflection and discussions of how to create a didactic design adapted for different classrooms. Furthermore, we contribute with implications to teachers and school leaders. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2022.100078

Seven educational affordances of virtual classrooms

Little is known about the intraindividual dispositional factors related to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional academic learning outcomes under COVID-19. This study investigated (i) the associations of intraindividual factors, some related to studying (motivation to learn, self-regulated learning, and study resilience), others more general (soft skills, intolerance of uncertainty) with three situational academic learning outcomes (general distress, online self-regulated learning, study-related emotions), and (ii) the effect of time, intraindividual factors, online self-regulated learning, and study-related emotions on distress and achievement over the following three exam sessions. A total of 331 university students took part in the study during the first Italian nationwide lockdown (T1; March–May 2020). Of those, 121 also completed at least one follow-up (T2: August 2020; T3: September 2020; T4: February 2021). At T1, study-related dispositions and soft skills were positively associated with online self-regulated learning and study-related emotions, while study-related dispositions were also negatively associated with general distress. Intolerance of uncertainty was associated positively with general distress and negatively with study-related emotions. Longitudinal effects of T2 and T3 for intolerance of uncertainty and study-related emotions were observed for distress, while those for T4 were study-related dispositions for achievement. Nurturing intraindividual factors can help students cope with a prolonged stressful situation such as a pandemic.

/pdf/the-role-of-general-and-study-related-intraindividual-2ash3pql.pdf

The Role of General and Study-Related Intraindividual Factors on Academic Learning Outcomes under COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis

Highlights • Performance was not negatively affected when students faced Emergency Remote Teaching.• Experimental groups who transitioned to ERT performed better than control groups.• Students’ sense of responsibility was enhanced by the ERT state.

Bawa D

Papers

Learning in the Age of SARS-COV-2: A Quantitative Study of Learners’ Performance in the Age of Emergency Remote Teaching