Researchers are interested in task design in distance learning. This task design is critical in emergency education that uses distance learning. The present research investigated mathematics and science teachers’ task design in distance learning during the emergency education due to COVID-19. Fourteen teachers participated in the research: seven mathematics teachers and seven science teachers. The data collection tool was the interview, and the data analysis tools were deductive and inductive content analysis, where the deductive analysis was based on the didactic situation framework. The research results indicated that the participating teachers could utilize the technological tools to design tasks that encourage the students’ devolution regarding the activities that they carry out. Furthermore, the use of the potentialities of the distance learning platforms enabled successful communication between the participants in the didactic situation. It is recommended that quantitative research is used to investigate the ways in which the various components in the design could affect students’ learning.

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The Design of Tasks to Suit Distance Learning in Emergency Education

Due to COVID-19 and the limitation of face-face teaching, electronic adaptation for formative and continuous assessment methods were greatly used and documented between 2020 and 2021. This study aims to implement a virtual escape room that will help assist and refine problem-solving skills in fifth-year pharmacy students by reviewing Beer’s criteria and selecting the most appropriate management. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted following the implementation of the virtual escape room using google form. Students had to unlock five puzzles using Beer’s criteria. To evaluate pharmacy students’ perception of this method, they completed a survey to identify their views of the game. Of the 128 students enrolled in the geriatric course, all were able to escape (100%). A one-sample t-test indicated statistical significance between gender. Female students escaped statistically faster than male students (p < 0.00002) and were more likely to recommend the game to other students and thought the game encouraged them to think of the material in a new way, whereas male students were more neutral towards it. In conclusion, the geriatric virtual escape room was successfully implemented as a pilot innovative method to assist in virtual learning. However, future studies should investigate virtual gamification in pharmacy education and its impact on learning, as well as identify if there were any gender-specific differences in using these tools.

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The Geriatric Virtual Escape Room in Pharmacy Education: Female Students Escape Significantly Faster than Male Students

The present study aims to identify the role of a Ministry of Education in meeting the challenges faced due to distance education as emergency education. The study participants were nine officials working at the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education. We used interviews to collect data and inductive content analysis to analyze these data. The study result indicates that the ministry carried out action related to the different educational aspects to meet distance education challenges. It is recommended that ministries of education strengthen their collaboration with the local community. The aim of this collaboration is two-fold: encouraging parents’ support of technology integration in education and encouraging their role in positively influencing their students’ perceptions of the use of ICT in learning. Teachers also need to engage in the change of students’ perception towards a more positive one regarding the influence of ICT on learning.

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The Role of a Ministry of Education in Addressing Distance Education during Emergency Education

The present research intended to verify the role of ICT centers in Palestinian universities in managing the academic process in emergency education due to the pandemic. The research investigated this issue using a descriptive qualitative approach. The data collection was carried out using individual interviews during the first semester of the academic year 2020/2021. The data analysis was carried out using an inductive thematic analysis. The research participants were ten officials in the ICT centers of five universities. The main study findings show that the universities performed several actions in the context of their management of the distance learning processes. These actions targeted quality education by holding workshops for the professional development of the instructor, which resulted in being a main factor in the success of the distance learning process. In addition, the ICT centers were engaged in addressing the communication between the instructor, the student, and officials at the universities. They also addressed strengthening the infrastructure for distance learning in the universities.

https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/8/542/pdf?version=1660209259

The Role of ICT Centers in the Management of Distance Education in Palestinian Universities during Emergency Education

This research will focus on a specific case of teaching innovation involving the use of the “hashtag” phenomenon on the digital platform Twitter by students as a measure of educational improvement. The objective, therefore, is to analyze how this system acts a teaching innovation measure in the educational development of university students. This experience puts into practice the use of social networks as platforms for publication and analysis of relevant news in university students. The sample analyzed is composed of accounting and finance students enrolled in the subjects of Financial Management and Working Capital Management at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in three different campuses, where the teaching innovation system was only applied in two of the campus, and results were compared. The purpose, therefore, is to observe and analyze how this innovation system affects the group and what results are obtained in comparison with the group that did not apply it. 

Teaching Innovation Through the Use of Hashtag in Social Networks for the Educational Development of University Students of Accounting and Finance

The research aimed to identify the role of the e-learning departments in Palestinian universities in controlling the quality of the academic processes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data collection was conducted using interviews starting from November 2020 and ending in December 2020 during the academic year 2020/2021. The interviews included a number of questions within the axis of electronic assessment. The population of the study consisted of directors of e-learning departments in a number of Palestinian universities, namely: University A, University B, University C, University D, and University E. The main study findings indicated that the universities agreed that the assessment at the beginning of the pandemic sought to save what could be saved in the emergency period, which made electronic assessment a complex issue in this pandemic. Moreover, the problem of plagiarism and faked identities was one of the biggest problems faced by university instructors in the electronic assessment; consequently, changes have been made to the assessment methods that were used before the COVID-19 pandemic. To do so, alternative methods of learning and assessment were sought and arrived at.

Rabab Hamdan

Papers

The Role of the E-Learning Departments in Controlling the Quality of Electronic Assessments in Palestinian Universities during the COVID-19 Pandemic