Distance Education for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and Support

Level of self-efficacy among skill-based allied health students in the University of Santo Tomas-Enriched Virtual Mode of learning: A cross-sectional study

Background

Self-efficacy expresses a learner's perception of how well they can do in the online academic setting. Although students' academic successes can be measured by online learning self-efficacy, there is a scarcity of evidence targeted toward allied health students.

Objective

The primary aim of this study is to determine the level of online self-efficacy among students from skill-based allied health programs. The secondary aim is to correlate online self-efficacy with age, sex, year level, and program of the students.

Methods

This cross-sectional analytic study utilized the Online Learning Self-Efficacy Scale (OLSE) to determine students' level of self-efficacy via a survey conducted with students who underwent the Enriched Virtual Mode of learning. Descriptive statistics was used to characterize the study participants, describe the level of self-efficacy, and compare the subscales of OLSE. Inferential statistics using Spearman's rho was performed to determine the correlation.

Results

A total of 117 respondents with a mean age ± SD of 20.59 ± 0.11 years old, predominantly female (71%) were included in the study. The students from allied health programs had an online self-efficacy overall mean score of 3.83 (SD = 0 . 05 ; range 2.64-5.00) with the use of technology subscales weighted the highest mean score (4.24). Females have a higher average OLSE score (M = 3 . 92 , SD = 0 . 05 ) compared to males. Significant correlation was found between OLSE scores to sex (r = 0 . 260 , p = 0 . 005 ) and year level (r =- 0 . 199 , p = 0 . 031 ) while nonsignificant correlation was found between OLSE scores to the program (r =- 0 . 048 , p = 0 . 604 ) and age (r =- 0 . 123 , p = 0 . 185 ).

Conclusion

Students of allied health programs generally have a very good level of online self-efficacy. This study assists educators in developing proactive strategies and approaches to promote students' self-confidence across all domains and encourage them to adopt a dynamic remote learning-based approach. Educational institutions should use this opportunity to assess how well they have implemented remote learning to ensure educational continuity, especially in times of crisis.

Socio-Emotional Experiences and Wellbeing of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Their Parents before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children in Victoria, Australia, were exposed to strict public health restrictions, including sustained lockdowns, during the COVID-19 pandemic. DHH children have higher health and socio-emotional needs than their hearing peers. We aimed to (1) describe the socio-emotional experiences of DHH children and their parents and (2) compare child and parent socio-emotional wellbeing, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between May and September 2020, 497 (62%) parents of DHH children from the Victorian Childhood Hearing Longitudinal Databank completed an online survey. Measures were drawn from the CoRonavIruS Health Impact Survey (CRISIS) v3.0. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics to compare outcomes before and during the pandemic. Parents reported their children to have more negative socio-emotional wellbeing (mean emotions/worries score, EWS, changed from 0.76 pre-pandemic to 1.10 during the pandemic, mean difference 0.34, 95% CI: 0.28 to 0.39), regardless of the type or severity of hearing loss. Parents also had more negative socio-emotional wellbeing (mean EWS changed from 1.05 pre-pandemic to 1.43 during the pandemic, mean difference 0.38, 95% CI: 0.31 to 0.44). Negative socio-emotional experiences co-occurred with large social changes during the pandemic. Additional services should support the socio-emotional wellbeing of DHH children during significant adverse childhood experiences.

If online learning works for you, what about deaf students? Emerging challenges of online learning for deaf and hearing-impaired students during COVID-19: a literature review

With the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, educational systems worldwide were abruptly affected and hampered, causing nearly total suspension of all in-person activities in schools, colleges, and universities. Government officials prohibited the physical gatherings in educational institutions to reduce the spread of the virus. Therefore, educational institutions have aggressively shifted to alternative learning methods and strategies such as online-based platforms-to seemingly avoid the disruption of education. However, the switch from the face-to-face setting to an entirely online setting introduced a series of challenges, especially for the deaf or hard-of-hearing students. Various recent studies have revealed the underlying infrastructure used by academic institutions may not be suitable for students with hearing impairments. The goal of this study is to perform a literature review of these studies and extract the pressing challenges that deaf and hard-of-hearing students have been facing since their transition to the online setting. We conducted a systematic literature review of 34 articles that were carefully collected, retrieved, and rigorously categorized from various scholarly databases. The articles, included in this study, focused primarily on highlighting high-demanding issues that deaf students experienced in higher education during the pandemic. This study contributes to the research literature by providing a detailed analysis of technological challenges hindering the learning experience of deaf students. Furthermore, the study extracts takeaways and proposed solutions, from the literature, for researchers, education specialists, and higher education authorities to adopt. This work calls for investigating broader and yet more effective teaching and learning strategies for deaf and hard-of-hearing students so that they can benefit from a better online learning experience.

School wellbeing and psychological characteristics of online learning in families of children with and without hearing loss during the Covid-19 pandemic

This study investigated the psychological characteristics of online learning on Italian students with and without hearing loss (HL) and on their parents, who were forced into isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic. An online survey collected information on socio-demographic data and opinions concerning online learning from 61 children (mean age 11; 25 males, 36 females), including 43 with HL and also from their parents; additionally, school wellbeing and anxiety were assessed. The results showed that, in both the student and parent groups, no significant effect of HL on school wellbeing and anxiety was found. Additionally, in parents, State Anxiety was significantly higher than Trait Anxiety, suggesting one possible impact of lockdown on psychological wellbeing. Differences due to HL were observed and discussed in correlation analyses. The Authors believe that this study is the first contribution to the psychological evaluation of the impact of online learning on families with hearing-impaired children, from the perspective of a successful, inclusive didactic.

Applicability of Collaborative Work in the COVID-19 Era: Use of Breakout Groups in Teaching L2 Translation

Social distancing became a must during the pandemic, which not only had implications for people’s social lives, but also for their learning. Collaborative work was almost impossible, especially in the classroom, despite a great need for this approach. For example, in their translation classes, the learners needed to collaborate with their peers, assisting each other in translating texts. Thus, the use of breakout groups is proposed in this study, although there is no guarantee that learners will accept this online approach. Consequently, the current research looks at learners’ acceptance of breakout groups on Blackboard in a translation class. To examine their acceptance, an existing scale was used, developed by Davis (1989) to measure two factors of technology acceptance: perceived usefulness and ease of use. A sample of 54 students on a Translation course at Al-Imam Mohammed Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, participated in this study. The results show that the learners found breakout groups on Blackboard to be useful and easy to use.