The Covid Aftermath. Are Students Ready for Massive Online Learning?

This presentation looks at the motivation of students when they returned to campus and how this relates with new and flexible ways of teaching and learning that were adopted during Covid.

During COVID-19, teachers got acquainted with new technologies for teaching and learning. Within Windesheim University of Applied Sciences we introduced new tools to support live sessions and asynchronous learning. The idea was that when things would return back to normal and we could get back to campus, to try to keep the good things that we adopted during Covid: new and flexible ways of teaching and learning, such as through the hybrid classroom.

In a set of pilots, we learned more about it, closely supported it and evaluated it with students and teachers. Meanwhile, we noticed that classrooms in 2021/2022 weren’t as full as they should be, students seemed less motivated, and results became concerning: students seemed “off”.

In an evaluation with teachers and management we concluded that a more flexible approach was needed, in line with our new vision on learning (a personal, challenging, and flexible learning experience). However, we needed to be very cautious not to “lose” students because of the troubled times they experienced.

Students need to appreciate studying as part of a community. It is important for their well-being and relates positively to their motivation. The more flexible a curriculum is, the more the learning design need to be clearly structured. This helps students to organise their learning activities. These insights from theory and practice had implications for the redesign of our curricula.

In this presentation we want to share our experiences. We want to hear from others about their experiences in the matter and how they support the curriculum (re)design in their institutions.

Overview

• Better understand what students who experienced studying during COVID times coped with, with respect to motivation and self-efficacy.
• Value the use of educational design-based research in pilots to learn more from how innovative learning and teaching works, to create better learning designs.
• Reflect on your own support structures in your institution and get inspired by that of others.

This presentation explores the rapid transformation and its long-term effects on higher education. It is based on research performed by the Instructional Technologies faculty at HIT throughout 2020 and 2021 the collection of data from both students and faculty.

From March 2020 till mid - late 2021, most academia campuses were closed for frontal studies and social activities. University teachers/lectures went online on a moment notice. The digital learning transformation was complete but not permanent. As Covid hazards were reduced dramatically in late 2021, Campuses re-opened and most returned of frontal teaching on campus.

As we are now seeing the light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel, it's time to seriously consider how to design higher education learning experience looking forward. If we are to stay online at least 30-50%, we need to consider teachers' and students' skills and readiness for massive online learning.

Our research shows social and pedagogical skills are imminent for a successful online experience. It also shows that the entire system is focused on the skill set of teachers, and those of students are completely neglected. In this session, participants aiming at successful hybrid programmes will receive recommended tools and insights based on research for skill mastering programmes for both students and teachers.

The preliminary research which will be discussed in this session included 103 university teachers who experienced the Covid teaching transformation. The research focused on three aspects considered by literature fundamental for teachers' successful transitions: Technological, social, and pedagogical.

Results revealed the story of a quick but decisive change in which the social aspect played a critical role. The change was supported by massive "learn as you go" by both private and institutional bound initiatives. Following the first three months of online teaching, teachers claimed success from a pedagogical point of view with massive investment in content redesign and development. The main barrier was and still is social behaviour and communication with students in an online session.

At the end of the presentation, we will reveal our updated post Covid graduate programme based on 80% remote teaching and both students’ and teachers’ views as to digital learning experiences over time.

Overview

• Understand how the rapid transformation from March 2020 contributed to changes in the teaching and learning experience.
• Receive research-based recommendations for teachers' training tracks for mastering effective online teaching.
• Be able to construct your own online learning and teaching training tracks.

This presentation discusses the diverse approaches carried out by faculty members at a national university to combat the limitations faced in the abrupt change of the internship ecosystem from an on-campus to a virtual mode during the pandemic.

The research faculty of the center provides efficient services for undergraduate students during summer and winter with different types of research experience programs.

Prior to the Covid era, students were provided with the opportunity to work in funded research projects for a short span of time, specializing in a particular skill set like material processing, simulations, fabrication, data analysis and so on. With the onset of Covid, the undergraduate student internships could no longer be practiced outside the country or even at their university campuses.

Challenges we faced were:

• Students were deprived from hands-on research experiences in real world research laboratories and from the opportunity to familiarize with lab equipment through lab-based scientific research internships.
• Students were deprived from conducting field experiments and social research (including group discussions, market studies and analysis) or from in-person communication through managerial apprenticeships by joining a corporate team.

These constraints opened up the digital transformation of internship programs in our center and paved new pathways for the future scope of our project. Our approach was a technology-driven internship model, that exercised a smooth transition of practical learning platforms using Edtech tools:

• Students were offered online internship courses using diverse Edtech tools that facilitated research-based learning.
• Students of social science discipline, conducted online research that included data collection via surveys, interviews and data analysis.
• Students of scientific and engineering disciplines were provided with online lectures on fabrication and engineering-based activities through simulations and videos.

Through this encompassing approach, the center was able to define solutions that provided a new direction to empower the young generation in a constantly evolving digital world.

Students now receive a flexible learning plan and better opportunities, as they are now offered both offline and online courses. It also increased the students’ opportunities to attend multiple courses delivered at the same time through both synchronous and asynchronous sessions and even those delivered at different venues. A student in India for example can now attend an in-person internship at a local company and at the same time attend the lecture recordings of internship sessions held at Qatar University.

Overview

• The aftermath of a 2-year Covid period that successfully enabled a considerably more flexible system of attending internships both online and On-Campus
• How efficiently do online internships enhance student engagement in comparison with in-person internships.
• New possibilities in developing adaptable internship programs.