Covid-19 and Virtual Learning on Academic Performance of Secondary School Students
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
- Introduction
In the recent time, the research on exploring students’ perception and their expectation from e-learning has been on surge. “National Center for Education Statistics” has reported the growing requirement of e-learning due to its increasing acceptance recently. Several studies indicate that most of the students enrolled in online courses are satisfied with the mode of learning. However, studies also reveal that perceptions of learners are affected by a host of factors. Factors such as age, gender, prior knowledge of computer literacy and learning styles of individual are the vital predictors of technology acceptance by students. There exists ample literature which discusses the theories of “technology acceptance” to study students’ perception. Country-wise research in the area as listed are contributed by Australia, United States and in the United Kingdom. These studies confirm that a majority of learners have their own internet enabled devices such as personal computers and mobile phones. They are using these digital devices for communication over formal and informal platforms of networking such as emails, blogging, etc. This study is based on the students’ expertise, expectation and perception of e-learning. Relevant literature is consulted to find the possible answers particularly in the area of users’ perception towards innovation. “Theory of diffusion of innovations” is so far is one of the most relevant theories used for the study of technology adoption in higher education. Roger has defined users’ perception of innovation immensely affects its adoption by them. The perception of relative advantage, the degree to which the innovation is perceived as better one than the compared product, compatibility, consistency with current value set up, past behaviour and experience of innovation recipients, the extent of complexities associated in understanding and making use of innovation. As per “Technology Acceptance Model”, two most important determining factors for technology acceptance are perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The study investigated the relationships among course structure/organization, learner interaction, student engagement, and instructor presence on student satisfaction and perceived learning in the online learning environments. This study indicated a significant relationship between course structure and perceived student learning. Furthermore, the data indicated that student interaction does not have a statistically significant impact on student satisfaction yet instructor presence does have a statistically significant impact on perceived student learning. The data, however, indicated that learner interaction does significantly impact perceived student learning. The data also indicated that instructor presence does influence student satisfaction. The mediated variable, student engagement, partially mediated the impact that instructor presence has on student satisfaction. Furthermore, student engagement fully mediated the impact of both instructor presence and learner interaction on perceived student learning. Online learning is still new, and it is continuously evolving by the rapidly changing technologies. More efforts are required by all online educators to integrate pedagogy with technologies in order to enhance student learning. In nutshell, online discourse as a communication activity could be very beneficial in current online learning environment to the students or learners, by providing a space for information exchange and to generate deeper thinking, but only if educators understand how it would work and how students learn in the online environment. This survey-based research study examined the perception of students on various engagement strategies used in online courses. Learner-to-instructor engagement strategies seemed to be most valued among the three categories of student engagement. Icebreaker/introduction discussions and working collaboratively by using online communication tools were rated the most beneficial engagement strategies in the learner-to-learner category, whereas sending regular announcements or email reminders and providing grading rubrics for all assignments were rated most beneficial in learner-to-instructor category. Thus, we can conclude that student engagement increases student satisfaction, enhances student motivation to learn, reduces the sense of isolation, and improves student performance in the online learning environment. The results of the study have implications for online instructors, instructional designers, and administrators who wish to enhance engagement in the online courses. This research study was conducted to investigate the perception of academic stress experienced by students during current online education and coping strategies using emotional intelligence adopted by them. The findings of the study indicated that significant differences were observed between the fear of academic failure and online and home environment among male and female students. Many of them have started diverting themselves to various creative activities and taking up online courses that are helping them to learn new technical skills. Thus, by using emotional intelligence and distancing from boredom and depressive thoughts, students were trying to cope with negative effects arising from the current pandemic situation in this new environment of online education. The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) has exerted a significant influence on adult learning. The current study tries to investigate the MOOCs’ effect on higher education systems. This research found the majority of university faculty think that MOOCs has a direct impact on improving educational outcomes. Furthermore, the research data support that MOOCs has a direct impact on developing students’ learning skills. Thus, we can conclude that MOOC is a suitable platform to train entrepreneurs because it provides tools to enable students’ collaborative mastering as properly as enhancing individuals’ affective key entrepreneurial factors together with such possibility reputation and aid acquisition. The present study analysed the satisfaction level of the participants from the MOOC run by Swayam, Coursera, FutureLearn and Edx. The satisfaction from the MOOCs has been studied on four parameters i.e., course delivery, course content, course assessment, and course support. The qualitative results highlighted that the participants have gained knowledge from the course and 65% of them preferred Swayam and Coursera MOOC portals. The overall findings revealed that participants were more satisfied than dissatisfied from the MOOC. Thus, MOOC providers should focus more on building great course content, ensuring timely and flawless delivery of the lectures along with appropriate course assessment, covering the correct information from the course content. Hence, the satisfaction of participants can be achieved and they can be encouraged to further enroll in other courses along with completing the current course
Virtual Learning Environments in Higher Education
Virtual Learning Environments
Virtual learning environments have been associated with formal learning and with relationships between teachers, students and school. There is an increasing interest in the virtual learning environments supported by the internet, namely among education institutions, students and teachers. The concept of virtual learning environment (VLE) could be considered as a dynamic concept due to the constant evolution of digital technologies, to its features and potentialities, and to the importance that such environments have within the learning processes. Educational systems based on the web are being used by an increasing number of universities, schools and companies, not only to incorporate web technology into their courses, but also to complement their traditional face-to-face courses. These systems gather a great quantity of data which is valuable to analyse the course contents and students’ use. Learning environments based on the use of technology and digital resources are mediators in the learning process through the activities they allow. This is due to the fact that they facilitate interaction and interrelation within a continuous communication process, thus enhancing the construction and reconstruction of knowledge and meanings as well as the formation of habits and attitudes within a framework that is common to all the ones involved in the educational process. The use of VLEs within each context implies the acknowledgment of their main features and potentialities. Learning environments and contexts are dynamic and multidimensional concepts which emerge from the new educational conceptions and practices in the digital society. In the view of Morais, Alves and Miranda, the main potentiality of VLEs is the provision of a set of tools aiming to support the production and distribution of contents, communication, and the assessment of the teaching and learning process. Bearing in mind the highlighted features, the concept of virtual learning environment involves several dimensions. The most relevant ones are associated with virtual space, time, resources, and strategies. VLEs provide institutions with great quantities of information and the possibility to manage it and provide it to their members in a simple way and with a guarantee of quality and validity. The features and potentialities of VLEs turn them into spaces which allow the testing, promotion and support of new highly planned and directed teaching and learning strategies. The observation of a constant dynamism is advisable in the use of the resources and in the changes witnessed around such resources, as this will allow them to be considered as a context for the building of learning processes. From a pedagogical perspective, the VLEs used in education institutions boost advance and originate innovative experiences. However, they are mainly directed towards the production and distribution of contents. These environments typically replicate traditional teaching through the online distribution of contents, messages and notices, and online communication through discussion forums and chats. The potentialities of web 2.0 and the changes in the use of network technologies have come to fill in some of the VLEs limitations and to enable the construction of new interaction and learning spaces. This challenges educators and researchers to think of student-centred pedagogical approaches. Virtual learning environments enable learning to take place according to the elements present in the learning environment, based on a continuous scale ranging from the elements specified in the environment to the elements emerging from use. Dahlstrom, Brooks, and Bichsel concluded that 74% of teachers say that VLEs are a very useful tool to the improvement of teaching; 71% of teachers say that VLEs are a very useful tool to the improvement of students’ learning; 99% of institutions use a VLE; 85% of teachers use the VLE; 56% of teachers use it on a daily basis; 83% of students use the VLE; and 56% say they use it in all or in most course units. Morais, Alves, and Miranda concluded that the VLE tools most valued by the highest percentage of teachers, over 90%, are resources (supporting the course unit), notices, messages, students’ register and summaries. The same authors also observed that the digital resources features which are most valued by teachers were accessibility, user-friendliness, integration with the virtual learning environment and PDF download. Also, the aspects most valued by teachers regarding the use of ICT in the course units they teach were the digital resources availability and access, the time saving and the improvement of communication with students
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