School Students’ Perception and Challenges towards Online Classes during COVID-19 Pandemic in India: An Econometric Analysis

Behavioral intentions of university teachers and students toward the adoption of the hyb-blended learning method: Evidence from Bangladesh

Hyb-blended learning is a novel method that can serve as a substitute for conventional classroom-based learning activities, demonstrating effectiveness in both pandemics like COVID-19 and other crises, as well as in non-pandemic situations. The successful application of this method in the field of education depends on the users' intentions to adopt it. Therefore, this study aims to understand the behavioral intentions of teachers and students at Bangladeshi universities toward the adoption of the hyb-blended learning method. A correlational, cross-sectional, and sample survey-based research design was employed. Two structured questionnaires, one for teachers and one for students, were used to collect data from 171 teachers and 713 students from 11 public and 8 private universities in Bangladesh. The conceptual model of the study was developed on the theoretical underpinnings of the "Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)." The study used a structural equation modeling technique to test the hypotheses. The results of the study revealed that the proposed learning method would increase teaching and learning opportunities for both teachers and students in Bangladeshi universities. They would adopt this method without relying on the experiences of others or what others think or say. Unlike teachers, the study also found that students would use it if they received support and influence from friends, fellow students, university authorities, and other external factors. However, their intentions toward adopting this method depend on the availability of resources and support for adopting it, as well as adequate and necessary understanding and talent to use it effectively. Results also revealed that they would adopt the method if it was found to be simple to use. The study has a notable practical implication, as it has proposed an alternative learning and teaching method that would be effective in Bangladeshi universities during the COVID-19 pandemic or other crises and in non-pandemic situations as well.

Copywriters' preference evaluation on online copywriting course attributes during the COVID-19 pandemic

Copywriting online course has become a famous online training over the past years and the reliance on online courses increased even during the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent years, online courses have become a popular training platform, especially for copywriting courses. The demand for online courses increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting the need to optimize the learning experience of an online course's target audience. This study aimed to determine the combination of online course attributes most preferred by Filipino copywriters such as course style, payment method, course delivery, module duration, and course type. 292 Filipino copywriters from a leading Philippine-based copywriting group voluntarily participated in this study and answered an online questionnaire quantitative survey which was distributed using the purposive sampling method. Conjoint Analysis with an orthogonal design revealed that copywriters consider the course style attribute as the most important (46.007%), followed by payment method (18.236%), and course delivery (15.435%). Module duration (10.489%) and while the course type (9.833%) were was the least considered attribute of an online course. The result shows that Filipino copywriters prefer an intermediate-level video course on a Facebook group that lasts 1 to 3 hours per module and is paid per course for a total utility score of 0.281, while the least preferred combination was a beginner-level audiobook course that lasts less than 30 minutes per module, delivered via email, and paid per module, for a total utility score of -0.281. This study is the first study that analyzed the copywriters' preference for online copywriting course attributes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of this study are beneficial to online course creators who are targeting copywriters. Finally, the result of this study can be expanded further to other online courses worldwide.

Roadblocks in education amidst global crisis-A study based in India

BACKGROUND

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic compelled the closure of educational institutions and forced students to complete nearly two years of schooling online, impacting their physical and emotional development tremendously. This exploratory study investigates the wide-ranging impact of online education on Indian students during the COVID-19 pandemic and discusses the challenges exacerbated by disparities in access to digital devices and reliable internet service. The paper also focuses on the physical and mental health issues that arose in student cohorts as a result of the abrupt shift to online learning, and investigates the relationship between students' socioeconomic status and the nature and frequency of health issues experienced by them.

METHODS

A total of 832 respondents completed a 40-item survey that was administered online and through interviews. The paper analysed the impact of access to digital resources and teachers' training in information and communication technology on the perception of the quality of education provided by the institutions. We further analysed the impact of the adoption of online educational platforms on students' mental and physical health.

RESULTS

The study found a positive relationship between the number of hours spent online, and the physical and mental health issues experienced by students. Participants reported an overall higher perception of stress and anxiety, loss of concentration, and dissatisfaction with the quality of education. Our data suggest that COVID-19 has exacerbated the digital divide.

DISCUSSION

Urgent investments are needed to provide universal access to reliable internet services, and to develop a pedagogy that supports an agile and adaptable educational system, capable of providing effective learning and evaluation, while supporting students' physical and mental health.

Factors influencing teachers’ satisfaction and performance with online teaching in universities during the COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed the teaching model, promoting educational institutions to initiate more explorations in online teaching. This study examines the factors influencing teachers’ online teaching performance and satisfaction in universities during the COVID-19. We applied a model of technology acceptance (TAM), expectation confirmation (ECM), and computer self-efficacy (CSE) to develop a questionnaire. The survey was used to collect data from 347 teachers from 6 universities in eastern China to identify factors affecting teachers’ performance and satisfaction during the COVID-19. The results indicated that teachers’ performance of online teaching is significantly affected by satisfaction, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use of online teaching. Meanwhile, confirmation of online teaching expectations and computer self-efficacy significantly impacted teachers’ satisfaction with online teaching. This work is an original empirical study guided by multiple theories. It contributes to the online education literature and provides advice regarding how teachers’ online teaching satisfaction and performance can be developed in a situation like the one that occurred with COVID-19. This work also broadens the application of TAM and provides an alternative theoretical framework for future research on teachers’ online teaching performance.

Online learning challenges in Thailand and strategies to overcome the challenges from the students' perspectives

Recently, at the end of 2019, the whole world was affected by the outbreak of COVID - 19 disease, which has caused massive disruption of the normal teaching and learning process worldwide, including Thailand's educational system. This sudden shift of the educational processes to online learning and teaching has caused many challenges as teachers, learners, and educational institutes are not well-prepared, especially in developing countries like Thailand. This research used a mixed-methods approach, quantitative and qualitative data, in which a google form survey questionnaire was designed in both English and Thai language to 1). investigate Thai students' perceptions of the online learning experience; 2). assess factors that cause challenges in online learning in Thailand; 3). find out strategies for improvement and overcome the challenges. For the sample of the study, 465 students were selected purposively from two public Universities in Thailand due to convenience for collecting data as two co-researchers were teaching in these universities. Results identified major challenges such as the temptation to see other sites, difficulty in understanding the lesson context, poor internet connectivity, difficulty in time management, difficulty in attending the online examination, poor quality of learning experience, low interest/motivation, difficulty in selecting the area at home, difficulty in doing work assignment/task, and distraction at home learning environment. Among the identified factors for these challenges were distraction due to noise and poor learning environment at home, teacher's incompetency due to technical, poor teaching skills, unstructured content or no follow-up, and technological constraint affecting the quality of audio/video uploaded connectivity, technical issue or data limit. Students also suggested strategies to overcome online learning challenges such as improvement in evaluation, connectivity, interactivity, content and accessing materials. The study concluded that all these factors and strategies should be considered for the effective implementation of the online education system in Thailand.

Financial Development and Environmental Degradation: Promoting Low-Carbon Competitiveness in E7 Economies' Industries

Emerging countries are approaching economic prosperity. However, the development process has enhanced their ecological footprints, thus promoting low-carbon competitiveness among E7 countries' industries. Therefore, it is essential to identify the factors that affect a country's ecological footprint (EF) in order to safeguard the environment. This study explored the effect of financial development, human capital, and institutional quality on the EF of emerging countries. Furthermore, we explored the effect of financial development on the EF of emerging countries through the human capital channel. In addition, we investigated the role of institutional quality in the financial development-EF nexus. Using panel data from 1990 to 2018, we employed the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) technique to conduct a short-term and long-term empirical analysis. The empirical outcomes revealed that financial development degrades ecological quality by raising the EF. The findings further demonstrated that human capital and institutional quality reduce the EF. Moreover, financial development fosters environmental sustainability through the channel of human capital. Additionally, institutional quality reduces the negative ecological impacts of financial development. The causality analysis suggested that any policy related to financial development, human capital, and institutional quality will affect the EF. However, the inverse conclusion was not sustained. Based on these findings, emerging economies should increase their environmental sustainability by promoting human capital and effectively using financial resources.

Motivation and Engagement of Final-Year Students When Using E-learning: A Qualitative Study of Gamification in Pandemic Situation

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how the education system operates. The shift from face-to-face learning to online learning generated many problems, including decreasing students’ motivation and engagement. Gamification has been used as one of the solutions to overcome the problem of low motivation and engagement in learning. The current study aims to examine students’ behavioral change when using e-learning with gamification, investigate gamification elements that are important to students and how it influences students’ motivation and engagement, and investigate whether population characteristics may influence students’ motivation and engagement. Qualitative methods were employed to gather and analyze the data. The thematic analysis resulted in six main themes. The findings revealed that there were behavioral changes in students during gamification implementation, i.e., from negative to positive and from positive to negative. Four gamification elements were found to be the most important gamification elements to students, i.e., points, leaderboard, badges, and gamified test. The mechanism of how these elements influenced motivation and engagement was discussed. The population characteristics of final-year students also had an impact on gamification effectiveness. Despite gamification’s capabilities to influence motivation and engagement, there are some concerns related to negative impacts that must be addressed in the future.

Students’ Perception towards New Face of Education during This Unprecedented Phase of COVID-19 Outbreak: An Empirical Study of Higher Educational Institutions in Saudi Arabia

Purpose: To examine the perception of students regarding an e-learning system adopted by various educational institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: A web-based-survey was conducted among selected university students in Saudi Arabia. A total of 294 students were randomly chosen to determine the utilities and credibility of the adopted e-learning mode of education. The reliability of latent constructs was assessed according to Cronbach’s alpha, and confirmatory factors analysis was conducted via AMOS software (version 24) to measure the students’ perceptions of online learning. Results: The outcomes of the present study reveal that e-learning has been very useful throughout the pandemic period among selected Saudi Arabian universities. The students have a positive view of the online system of education, which has many benefits, including flexibility, low cost, self-learning, and convenience. Implications: The results of the present study will be beneficial for all educational institutions that are largely dependent on the findings of the online survey.

Constructing a Digital Competence Evaluation Framework for In-Service Teachers’ Online Teaching

The focus on online teaching and teachers’ digital competence (DC) has reached a new level following the emergence of COVID-19 and its dramatic influence on the educational industry, requiring teachers to be equipped with DC. However, there is no consensus on the measuring framework of teachers’ DC. Therefore, this study aimed to construct a reliable self-evaluation framework for in-service teachers’ DC during online teaching. The data of 1342 teachers with online teaching experience were obtained. The methods of data analysis included exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and item analysis. Results demonstrated that the constructed evaluation framework performed consistently with the collected data. CFA also confirmed a good model fitting of the relevant 10 factors of the teachers’ DC framework. Therefore, in the teachers’ DC evaluation framework, the constructs interacting with each other consist of technical knowledge (TK, four items), learner knowledge (LK, three items), pedagogical knowledge (PK, three items), ethical knowledge (EK, three items), learner technical knowledge (LTK, four items), learner pedagogical knowledge (LPK, four items), learner ethical knowledge (LEK, four items), technical pedagogical knowledge (TPK, three items), technical ethical knowledge (TEK, four items), and pedagogical ethical knowledge (PEK, three items), but in total the scale comprises 35 items. It can be an effective instrument to support in-service teachers’ DC measurement for their online teaching.

Grade Prediction Modeling in Hybrid Learning Environments for Sustainable Engineering Education

Since mid-March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education has been facing a very uncertain situation, despite the hasty implementation of information and communication technologies for distance and online learning. Hybrid learning, i.e., the mixing of distance and face-to-face learning, seems to be the rule in most universities today. In order to build a post-COVID-19 university education, i.e., one that is increasingly digital and sustainable, it is essential to learn from these years of health crisis. In this context, this paper aims to identify and quantify the main factors affecting mechanical engineering student performance in order to build a generalized linear autoregressive (GLAR) model. This model, which is distinguished by its simplicity and ease of implementation, is responsible for predicting student grades in online learning situations in hybrid environments. The thirty or so variables identified by a previously tested model in 2020–2021, in which distance learning was the exclusive mode of learning, were evaluated in blended learning spaces. Given the low predictive power of the original model, about ten new factors, specific to blended learning, were then identified and tested. The refined version of the GLAR model predicts student grades to within ±1 with a success rate of 63.70%, making it 28.08% more accurate than the model originally created in 2020–2021. Special attention was also given to students whose grade predictions were underestimated and who failed. The methodology presented is applicable to all aspects of the academic process, including students, instructors, and decisionmakers.

Mobile Assisted Language Learning: Evaluation of Accessibility, Adoption, and Perceived Outcome among Students of Higher Education

The present study was aimed at analyzing students’ perceptions toward mobile assisted language learning (MALL), their use patterns, and their usefulness in their academic outcomes. The results indicated that students use widely different MALL software for different applications. In a survey of 581 students from Indian colleges and universities, the research identified five antecedent factors (namely, individual desire and motives, perceived ease of use, technological factors, social influence, and perceived usefulness) which influenced students in the areas of adopting MALL software, students’ readiness, students’ motivation, and the subsequent effect on student performances. The research further indicated that students’ readiness and their motivation level mediated the relationship between factors of adoption of MALL and perceived outcome. The relevance of positive language learning outcomes, theoretical contribution and managerial implications of the study are discussed.