Analytical study on the impact of technology in higher education during the age of COVID-19: Systematic literature review

Exploring the relationship between EFL students' writing performance and activity theory related influencing factors in the blended learning context

With the rapid development of technologies, blended learning is widespread in English writing instruction. The effect of blended learning on EFL writing outcomes is affected by various factors. This study examines the relationship between EFL students' writing performance and influencing factors and the relationship between these factors in a blended learning context based on the Activity Theory. The study used a quantitative method: English argumentative writing tests and questionnaires with 33 undergraduates. The results reveal that EFL students' argumentative writing performance is significantly and positively correlated with five influencing factors, in descending order of correlation: subject, community, object, rules, and division of labor. Moreover, the findings suggest a significant positive relationship within each factor in the blended learning environment, except for no relationship between rules and division of labor. Furthermore, the research provides useful references and insights for further research and educational practice in blended writing instruction. Due to limitations such as the relatively small sample size, the focus on argumentative writing, and the reliance on quantitative data, this study gives the impression that the results only represent a portion of the population and situation. Therefore, future research could consider enlarging the sample size, adopting a more comprehensive range of writing genres, involving qualitative methods, or expanding the scope of research on the impact of BL on other disciplines.

How did COVID-19 pandemic affect the older adults' needs for robot technologies in Japan?: comparison of participatory design workshops during versus after the COVID-19 pandemic

Social technology can improve the quality of social lives of older adults (OAs) and mitigate negative mental and physical health outcomes. When people engage with technology, they can do so to stimulate social interaction (stimulation hypothesis) or disengage from their real world (disengagement hypothesis), according to Nowland et al.'s model of the relationship between social Internet use and loneliness. External events, such as large periods of social isolation like during the COVID-19 pandemic, can also affect whether people use technology in line with the stimulation or disengagement hypothesis. We examined how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the social challenges OAs faced and their expectations for robot technology to solve their challenges. We conducted two participatory design (PD) workshops with OAs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, OAs' primary concern was distanced communication with family members, with a prevalent desire to assist them through technology. They also wanted to share experiences socially, as such OA's attitude toward technology could be explained mostly by the stimulation hypothesis. However, after COVID-19 the pandemic, their focus shifted towards their own wellbeing. Social isolation and loneliness were already significant issues for OAs, and these were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, such OAs' attitudes toward technology after the pandemic could be explained mostly by the disengagement hypothesis. This clearly reflect the OA's current situation that they have been getting further digitally excluded due to rapid technological development during the pandemic. Both during and after the pandemic, OAs found it important to have technologies that were easy to use, which would reduce their digital exclusion. After the pandemic, we found this especially in relation to newly developed technologies meant to help people keep at a distance. To effectively integrate these technologies and avoid excluding large parts of the population, society must address the social challenges faced by OAs.

The impact of COVID 19 restrictions on Australian nurse academics attitudes to technology: A survey of Technology Readiness Index 2.0

AIM

This study aimed to determine the attitude of Australian nursing lecturers to the use of technology applied to the teaching and learning of nursing students.

BACKGROUND

The use of technology in teaching was accelerated in reaction to the COVID-19 restrictions whereby measures, including social distancing and lockdowns, forced many higher education courses to transition online. Lecturers play a key role in the integration of technology in teaching, as it is the lecturer, not the technology, who facilitates the students' learning experience.

DESIGN

A cross sectional survey design was used for this study, distributed from April to June of 2022. The purpose of the survey was to gather technology readiness data (via the TRI 2 questions) and descriptive data representative of the nursing academic population in Australia.

RESULTS

There was no statistically significant differences between participants based on demographic data (such as gender or age). There was an association between TRI 2 score and: the sum of elearning technologies engaged with; the frequency of engagement with technology and self-rated confidence with elearning. Of note were statistically significant differences of TRI between states/territories. Finally, there was an inverse relationship between the impact of COVID-19 restrictions and TRI 2 score.

CONCLUSION

The study found that there was significant variation between states/territories and self-reported impact of TRI. Given that increased frequency and increased number of technologies engaged with are associated with technology readiness the variation between states/territories lockdowns which required engagement with technology, may have had an impact on the nursing academics attitude to technology. Importantly, this study found those who were highly technology ready found COVID-19 restrictions had less impact on them, suggesting that technology readiness may have assisted their transition to online learning.

Blended Learning in Algeria: Assessing Students' Satisfaction and Future Preferences Using SEM and Sentiment Analysis

Given the still existing restrictions of COVID-19, blended learning is undoubtedly becoming a better-fitting strategy for higher education institutions in underprivileged countries. Acknowledging the current changes in higher education, this study aims to investigate the elements that influence students' satisfaction and their future preferences regarding blended learning in Algeria. A total of 782 questionnaires were collected from different Algerian universities. A structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship among the latent variables of the proposed theoretical model. Moreover, an unsupervised sentiment analysis approach was applied to analyze the qualitative data received in the form of feedback from the participants. The results show that students' perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of blended learning had a significant positive impact on their satisfaction. Similarly, satisfaction had a positive influence on students' future preferences regarding blended learning. In turn, students' perceived ease of use and usefulness had an indirect effect on their future preferences, mediated by satisfaction. Additionally, qualitative data echoed students' eagerness to adopt more advanced learning technologies and what obstacles currently stand in their way. The contribution of this study is to reflect the current situation of blended learning adoption in developing countries and to support future curriculum planning and development. It can also help teachers, students, and policymakers to make better decisions and recommendations for an improved and more sustainable learning and teaching environment in the future.

A tale of online learning during COVID-19: A reflection from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the higher education industry around the world. The battle that was fought by institutions and their faculty members to move classes and programs from a face-to-face environment to an online one has resulted in a new set of challenges for them to overcome. In the context of online education, academics working in less developed countries are confronted with quite different realities than their peers working in more developed economies. This article investigates the effect that COVID-19 had on the higher education systems of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, three of the most important SAARC nations at a time when these countries were struggling with limited resources, unreliable infrastructure, and a pronounced "digital divide" in higher education. The literature review and in-depth interviews conducted for the purpose of this study uncovered six primary challenges. These challenges were identified as facilitating conditions, technology readiness, learning experience, mental health, concerns regarding performance improvement and sustainability. The findings presented here highlight the necessity for more government intervention and investment in order to: firstly, improve the quality of teaching and learning; and secondly, close the digital divide. Several recommendations are stated in this paper for future research to consider.

Digital technology adaptation and initiatives: a systematic review of teaching and learning during COVID-19

COVID-19 dramatically influenced students' and staff's learning and teaching experiences and approaches to learning. While many papers examined individual experiences in the context of higher education, synthesising these papers to determine enabling and hindering influences of digital adaptation was needed to guide the next phase of online learning reforms. This study explored the main dimensions of digital technology adaptation in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The consequences for student and staff experiences and what aspects should be sustained and developed were discussed in this review. A total of 90 articles (published between 1st January 2020 and 30th June 2021) were identified and analysed based on the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses framework. Four dimensions (with associated sub-factors) were found to influence student and staff experiences: techno-economic; personal and psychological; teaching, learning and assessment; and social. The findings highlighted that an integrated approach, across institutional, technical platforms, and individuals would be required to sustain digital learning initiatives during the crisis time.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12528-023-09376-z.

Natural multi-hazard risk perception and educational insights among Geography and Tourism students and graduates amid the Covid-19 pandemic

Multi-hazard risk perception is an emerging research topic that has been gaining more and more interest since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to the unprecedented interactions between the management practices of the pandemic and of other co-occurring natural hazards, and to the compounded impact of these multi-hazards. This paper aims to investigate the specialization and study level-dependent differences concerning multi-hazard risk perception and hazard-related education insights of future potential specialists in natural hazard-induced risk management and tourism reconstruction. These differences were explored by applying a multi-layer questionnaire on 547 Geography and Tourism students and graduates from two universities in Iași City (Romania) and Novi Sad (Serbia), and performing descriptive and differential statistical analyses. The statistically significant differences that emerged refer to estimations of the impact level of the Covid-19 pandemic and of other natural hazards at different spatial scales and on different socio-economic activities, on the training/career of the respondents, and to the hazard-related education improvements. Up to date, none of the papers in the existing literature integrate both the Covid-19 pandemic and the co-occurrent natural hazards as objects of students' perception, which makes the present study a starting point for such research endeavours.

Analyzing the impact of COVID-19 on the grades of university education: A case study with economics students

COVID-19 has been one of the major incidents in the global university education system in recent years. Its influence and effects on education are still difficult to determine today. Both students and teachers have had to change their study and work routines and disciplines, in many cases lacking the necessary infrastructure to adapt to online learning. Students had to start a new academic year with a complete return to face-to-face teaching without having overcome, in many cases, the incidence of online learning. This study, through 167 responses to a survey addressed to economics students at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, aims to analyse the causes of an improvement or a worsening of the academic performance of university students in the return to normality after having gone through COVID-19's restrictions. The results obtained show that students, students who attend tutorials and those who have evaluated online teaching positively, are the ones who have most improved their performance in the return to face-to-face teaching. And those who have suffered the physical and psychological consequences of COVID and those with less infrastructure and income have worsened their results.

Experiences of preservice mathematics teachers during their education in times of pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions at all levels closed their doors and began to operate remotely. In this paper, we analyze the educational experiences of preservice mathematics teachers (PMTs) enrolled in mathematics teacher education programs from three South American universities, as the pandemic was unfolding. An exploratory study was conducted, based on an inductive and thematic qualitative text analysis of narratives written by 24 PMTs. Based on the study, we report on the following aspects: (1) experiences of PMTs in the passage to remote education (RE) mode (considering characteristics of remote classes-interactions, the rhythm of the class, teaching work-time management, home-classroom fusion, and physical and psychological discomfort), and (2) opportunities and limitation experienced by PMTs in relation to the use of technologies. The results of the study suggest the need to rethink teacher education programs regarding the integration of technologies in mathematics classes, the opportunities offered by hybrid education, and teacher education for distance teaching.

Insights from online education in the Egyptian higher education

Purpose

The introduction of technology in education has been a strategic objective at both the governmental and educational institutional levels long before Covid-19. However, the acceleration to e-learning caused by the pandemic disrupted the traditional classroom environment overnight forcing the entire sector at all levels, school, undergraduate and postgraduate, to shift to online learning. Regardless of readiness, the action was taken, and online instruction was implemented, improved, adjusted and enhanced during the experience. After 18 months comprising three semesters of online education amongst MBA and DBA students, the researchers decided to survey to investigate and assess the quality of the experience. The study aims to investigate the students’ perception of this unique opportunity to provide an assessment of online education in higher education, achievement or failure, and based on the results, provide a roadmap for improvement. The study also addresses the uniqueness of the Egyptian higher education environment and the particularity of its student’s context.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used a quantitative descriptive survey method to find out how students felt about their online education by giving them a questionnaire and using automated numerical computation to generate data. The total number of the completed survey was 853. However, to include only those responses that were completed attentively, a speed factor was calculated for each respondent. Cases with speed factors higher than three were excluded from the sample, leading to 666 accepted responses. Data collected were analysed using correlation, regression and path analysis.

Findings

Favourable satisfaction levels towards online education, and favourable perceptions towards university support, instructor–student communication and course design were found. Less favourable perceptions were found towards peer collaborations and student initiative.

Research limitations/implications

While the study proves reliability through the number of candidates participating in the survey, the rigorous measures of eliminations in the sample, the validity value of the questionnaire and the literature recommendation of the model are used here; yet it is important to point out that: further elements in the e-learning can and need to be studied, such as cultural implications, generational differences, government support reality from policies to infrastructure and management philosophy readiness in developing countries amongst other factors.

Practical implications

Resources and skills are amongst the factors that were found to affect students’ satisfaction with online education, directly and positively. Student initiative was found to have a moderating role in how student, instructor and institution determinants affect students’ satisfaction with online education.

Originality/value

The uniqueness of this paper is that it seeks to assess the agility of the Egyptian education system during COVID-19 in higher education. It provides evidence to the current status as no study assesses the student perception.

The use of technology in higher education teaching by academics during the COVID-19 emergency remote teaching period: a systematic review

This paper presents a systematic review of scholarly efforts that uniquely emerged at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and focused primarily on higher education teachers' perspectives on technology use and on associated changes in the relationship between teachers and students amidst the transition to emergency remote teaching worldwide. Our narrative synthesis of 32 studies, the majority of which come from lower-and middle-income countries/regions, suggests that numerous factors interact to shape academics' technology use in emergency remote teaching across higher education contexts. We report strong findings of teachers' resilience and resourcefulness in their self-exploration of various technologies and teaching strategies in response to the continued severity of the pandemic. Ultimately, this review suggests directions for further research on engaging educational leaders and faculty in reimagining teaching as not only a core academic function of higher education, but also, and importantly, a humanising experience shaped by an ethics of care.

Delivering Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Remotely: Educators’ Views and Perspectives During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Many Clinical Pastoral Education programs pivoted to remote delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our survey explored educators’ preparedness, self-efficacy, and views regarding remote Clinical Pastoral Education. Few respondents were either very (14.2%) or not at all (16.5%) prepared. Most were confident facilitating remote learning (69.8%–88.5%), believing remote Clinical Pastoral Education can achieve outcomes equivalent to in-person (59.1%). Six qualitative themes emerged: educator development, educator challenges, remote Clinical Pastoral Education efficacy, remote group dynamics, clinical practice/supervision implications, and benefits and opportunities.

Online education in higher education: emerging solutions in crisis times

The COVID-19 pandemic caused changes in higher education institutions, mainly due to the temporary closure of face-to-face activities in universities worldwide. The transformation from face-to-face to online education was one of the emerging solutions to this crisis. This research aims to analyse and describe the adaptation process from face-to-face to online education and the perceptions of faculty and students during the pandemic in a literature review study. We developed this study following the methodology supported by the PRISMA statement and the PICoS strategy, retrieving scientific literature from Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC and PsycINFO. Of the 241 studies that the search yielded, 29 have been included. The results showed that online education was an enabling alternative for the development of higher education, but numerous weaknesses in the transition to online education were identified. The study concludes that online learning is a future direction in higher education. Therefore, institutions should invest more in online education platforms and improve faculty training plans.

Emergency Remote Learning in Higher Education in Cyprus during COVID-19 Lockdown: A Zoom-Out View of Challenges and Opportunities for Quality Online Learning

This study provides a zoom-out perspective of higher education students’ experiences related to the emergency remote learning (ERL) following the first lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic as captured by a national, in-depth survey administered to all higher education institutions in Cyprus (different fields of study and educational levels). Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data collected from 1051 students provide valuable information and insights regarding learners’ prior technology background and level of preparedness for online learning, the challenges and benefits of ERL and how they would like their online learning experience to be improved in case of future ERL. The results underline that students’ knowledge of and self-efficacy in using e-learning tools do not directly equate to being a digital learner equipped with necessary digital skills such as self-regulation to fully benefit from online learning. The educational disparities caused by inequalities in access and accessibility to high-quality education laid bare by the pandemic stressed the need for online environments that would afford quality learning for all learners. Online learning demands are discussed in the article, as well as implications for research, practice and policy making.

Online mathematics education as bio-eco-techno process: bibliometric analysis using co-authorship and bibliographic coupling

Under the COVID-19 pandemic, mathematics education has moved completely online. To tackle this new norm based on bio-eco-techno theories, this study aims to provide educators an overview of the research landscape for envisioning educational practices through bibliometric analysis of 319 articles and reviews published in peer-reviewed journals from 1993 to 2020. Country and institutional co-authorship depicts the social network structure of the field to identify top productive contributors. Bibliographic coupling of publications forms the conceptual structure, revealing research themes. Together, the results are mapped according to the bio-eco-techno perspective. The bioecological system highlights student achievement as the central concerns. The microsystem emphasizes techno-subsystems for supporting flipped learning. The exosystem and mesosystem require institution support for teacher pedagogical design, digital competencies, and collaboration. The macrosystem raises the issue of distribution or centralization in the strengths of online mathematics education and calls for greater cross-national boundary digital use and collaboration. The chronosystem asks: Does Covid-19 force the popularity of blended or flipped learning into online education? Based on the bio-eco-techno perspective, further recommendations are provided.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11192-022-04441-3.

Using Bloom's Digital Taxonomy as a framework to evaluate webcast learning experience in the context of Covid-19 pandemic

Distance education has been the concern of educational institutions nowadays due to COVID 19 pandemic. The purpose of this study which was carried out during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period in 2020 was to evaluate the effectiveness of webcast applications on teacher training. Since it was a sudden and an unpredicted transition from face-to-face education to webcast education, it was crucial to evaluate the outcome of teaching applications in order to compensate for the missing points in education. The evaluation framework in this study was based on Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. The participants' responses demonstrated that as a consequence of the webcast application in education, remembering, understanding, and analyzing skills were activated better than applying, evaluating, and creating thinking skills in the digital taxonomy. The findings would not be applicable to all webcast training but only to the course design that was delivered as an emergency remote course in a global pandemic.

Academia's responses to crisis: A bibliometric analysis of literature on online learning in higher education during COVID-19

This paper aimed to provide a holistic view of research that investigated online learning in higher education around the globe during COVID-19 utilizing a bibliometric analysis. The researchers used co-citation analysis and text mining afforded by VOSviewer to document and analyze research patterns and topics reported in peer-reviewed documents published between January 2020 and August 2021. Findings of this study indicated that scholars from 103 countries or regions from the Global North and Global South investigated a wide array of topics, such as use of various technologies and strategies, redesigned curriculum, student perceptions and psychological impacts of the pandemic-imposed online learning. Many researchers applied technology acceptance theories and structural equation modeling to investigate factors associated with adoption and impacts of the pandemic-imposed online learning. Of the large quantity of research, medical education and chemical education were the most investigated disciplines. Inquiry-based learning, discovery learning, hands-on learning and collaborative learning emerged as instructional approaches frequently discussed or utilized across the target studies. This paper discussed (a) ongoing and emerging challenges to online higher education, (b) placing innovative pedagogies at the forefront of online learning, and (c) rapid, but imbalanced distribution of evolving literature based on the findings.

Obstacles to Applying Electronic Exams amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Exploratory Study in the Palestinian Universities in Gaza

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we aim to identify and understand the obstacles and barriers in applying electronic exams successfully in the process of distance education. We followed an exploratory descriptive approach through a questionnaire (one general, open question) with a sample of university teachers and students in four of the largest universities Palestinian in Gaza. A total of 152 were returned from 300 distributed questionnaires. The results indicate that the university teachers and students faced 13 obstacles, of which 9 were shown to be shared between teachers and students, with a significant agreement in the regression analysis. Several of the obstacles perceived by respondents are in line with the literature and can be addressed by improved examination design, training, and preparation, or use of suitable software. Other obstacles related to infrastructure issues, leading to frequent power outages and unreliable internet access. Difficult living conditions in students’ homes and disparities in access to suitable devices or the internet make social equity in connection with high-stakes examinations a major concern. Some recommendations and suggestions are listed at the end of this study, considering local conditions in the Gaza governorates.