Qualitative Research Studying How Things Work

Online education changes all components of teaching and learning in higher education. Many empirical studies have been conducted to examine issues in delivering online courses; however, few have sy...

Issues and Challenges for Teaching Successful Online Courses in Higher Education: A Literature Review

Rapid advances in educational and information communications technology (ICT)have encouraged some educators to move beyond traditional face to face and distance education correspondence modes toward a rich, technology mediated e-learning environment. Ready access to multimedia at the desktop has provided the opportunity for educators to develop flexible, engaging and interactive learning resources incorporating multimedia and hypermedia. However, despite this opportunity, the adoption and integration of educational technologies by academics across the tertiary sector has typically been slow. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study that investigated factors influencing the manner in which academics adopt and integrate educational technology and ICT. The research was conducted at a regional Australian university, the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), and focused on the development of e-learning environments. These e-learning environments include a range of multimodal learning objects and multiple representations of content that seek to cater for different learning styles and modal preferences, increase interaction, improve learning outcomes, provide a more inclusive and equitable curriculum and more closely mirror the on campus learning experience. This focus of this paper is primarily on the barriers or inhibitors academics reported in the study, including institutional barriers, individual inhibitors and pedagogical concerns. Strategies for addressing these obstacles are presented and implications and recommendations for educational institutions are discussed.

Bringing academics on board : encouraging institution-wide diffusion of e-learning environments

eLearning systems have become a very important part of teaching, both as web-based systems for online education and as auxiliary tools for face-to-face study, where they provide an additional learning support for on-campus learners. To insure the sustainability of an eLearning system on both individual and social levels, we have to cover many aspects of sustainability requirements: human, technical, economic, and environmental. This paper provides a systematic literature review of the sustainability meta-requirements for eLearning systems to identify open problems and to present the state of the art of this research area. We analysed 124 papers, so we identified 18 high-level sustainability requirements for eLearning systems.

Sustainability requirements for eLearning systems: a systematic literature review and analysis

COVID-19 outbreak had spread rapidly all over the world, impacting on the education system. The students had to study at home. Teachers were to apply online class in conducting the teaching and learning proccess. The school stakeholders also had to create a new management in supporting the school system. The objective of this research was to find out and describe the applied strategies and also problems faced by teachers in conducting e-learning during this COVID-19 outbreak. The findings showed that there were three teaching strategies applied by teachers; they were: applying only online chat, using video conference, and combining both online chat and video conference in online teaching and learning proccess. Some of problems also arose during the e-learning, totally 6 problems. The arisen teachig problems were: the teachers’ disability in accessing technology, school facilities in supporting e-learning, the difficulties in explaining the material, students’ limitation in accessing internet, students’ economically disadvantaged familiy background, and parents’ support system. Nevertheless, the teachers expressed that the e-learning system really relieve their responsibility in conducting teaching and learning proccess during this COVID-19 outbreak.

https://ojs.unsiq.ac.id/index.php/cllient/article/download/1271/734

The Strategies and Problems Faced by Indonesian Teachers in Conducting e-learning during COVID-19 Outbreak

The globalization of online courses has transformed online learning into cross-cultural learning spaces. Students from non-English backgrounds are enrolling in credit-bearing courses and must adjust their thinking and writing to adapt to online practices. Online courses have as their aim the construction of knowledge, but students’ perceptions of the learning environment and teacher interactions may influence the quality of educational experiences. Limited social presence, delayed feedback, lack of social cues, gender, and cultural dynamics contribute to the complex online social context. This article explores how the globalization of online learning creates unique challenges in online courses in terms of how dominant pedagogical structures based on Western educational practices reinforce ways of knowing, thinking, and writing. Online courses can transform learning through selfreflection, critical thinking, and consciousness-raising when culturally inclusive assignments are designed to link both instructors’ and students’ lived experiences to classroom learning.

Bridging spaces: cross-cultural perspectives on promoting positive online learning experiences*

Distance education has provided the foundation for new generations of learning, including courses delivered through various web-based educational technologies, also referred to as online learning. Many post-secondary institutions face the challenge of creating processes and systems to support instructors who are required to design, deliver, and frequently update online courses. Effective online course design prioritizes a student-centered pedagogical approach through active learning and meaning-making using modern technologies. This requires a wide spectrum of experience, technological skills, and pedagogical knowledge that is difficult to achieve. On one hand of the spectrum, are instructors with experience in online course delivery, learning technologies, and knowledge of online learning pedagogies. On the other hand of the spectrum, are instructors with insufficient experience, technological skills and awareness of online pedagogies. This disparity in instructors' experiences, skills and knowledge results at times in a gap in ability. By providing a flexible and interactive model of support to instructors, instructional designers can shorten this gap in theoretical knowledge and practical skills. This paper explores the skill gap that some instructors face in the online learning domain and presents selected approaches to support instructors when transitioning to online courses based on the authors' professional experiences. This paper considers two models of course design support from two unique higher educational institutions in the United States and in Canada, using different learning management systems. The results show that while these models have different contexts, they offer significant insights about common goals, flexible content, and learner-centered course design.

Mind the gap: Enabling online faculty and instructional designers in mapping new models for quality online courses

Students enrolled in asynchronous online courses explore much of the subject matter through computer-mediated discussion. In this context, students must often negotiate complex factors such as the course content, the assignment goals, their audience, disciplinary expectations, and the writing process. Writing Centres offer students support services to help them succeed in these text-heavy courses. Typically, students come to Writing Centres in person for help with their critical reading and writing assignments; however, increasingly, tutors are asked to participate in online settings to assist student learning.  A question associated with online tutoring practices is whether students improve their writing skills when they are given the opportunity to get feedback from a tutor and from peers. How can a cooperative, collaborative pedagogical approach to computer-mediated tutoring support students and improve teaching? This paper examines a pedagogical exploration where one tutor interacted asynchronously with students by posting weekly writing activities. Students were asked to respond individually and collaboratively to each activity. I argue that when a tutor in an online course provides feedback, the collaboration creates a new online ecology of reflection and collaboration that may benefit students in their growth as writers. This exploration can be a useful writing pedagogy that can assist instructors by making stronger connections between students’ writing knowledge and writing practices.

Ilka Luyt

Papers

Bridging spaces: cross-cultural perspectives on promoting positive online learning experiences*

Mind the gap: Enabling online faculty and instructional designers in mapping new models for quality online courses

Location Matters: Using Online Writing Tutorials to Enhance Knowledge Production