Educational technology- primary school
S. Mansoori; M. Talebbeygi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Virtual learning has become an integral part of today's learning. Therefore, the continuous evaluation of the quality of these learnings is one of the basic missions of the educational system, and the existence of a valid tool to measure these learning is necessary. On the ...
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Background and Objectives: Virtual learning has become an integral part of today's learning. Therefore, the continuous evaluation of the quality of these learnings is one of the basic missions of the educational system, and the existence of a valid tool to measure these learning is necessary. On the other hand, in the field of virtual education curriculum, a tool that can measure all aspects of elementary education curriculum elements has not been developed. Therefore, it seems necessary to build a reliable tool. According to this, the purpose of the current research was to construct and validate the quality assessment scale of the virtual education curriculum of elementary school in Iran's educational system.Methods: The research design was a combination in order to make a tool for measuring the quality of the virtual education curriculum of the elementary school. The participants in the content validity section were 12 experts in the field of virtual education, and in the construct validity section, there were 217 elementary teachers from Central Province, who were selected by stratified random sampling method. In the first stage, by reviewing the upstream documents, curriculum guide, articles and studies in the field of virtual education indicators were abstracted and then validity and reliability were calculated. In order to analyze the data, content validity index of Lavshe, confirmatory factor analysis and correlation coefficient of the items were used. Data analysis was done using SPSS and SMART PLS software.Findings:. In the first stage, 51 indicators (items) were extracted in the form of 4 basic components to measure the curriculum. Then, by checking the content validity of the scale using Lavshe's validity index, 48 items in the form of 4 components of goal, content, teaching-learning strategies and evaluation of learning with validity of 0.77, 0.95, 0.94 and 0.98, respectively, were identified. In the next step, in order to check the construct validity of the desired scale, confirmatory factor analysis was used, and the results showed that except for one item (item 42), the rest of the items had a favorable factor load and after modifying the model (item 42), the t coefficients of all items in all components were higher than 1.96, which indicated the suitability of the measurement model. Also, the combined reliability for all components was greater than 0.70, which indicated the reliability of these variables or scales. The average variance extracted, which measured the convergent validity of each scale, was higher than 0.50, which indicated convergent validity. In total, the results showed the reliability and validity of the components of the virtual education curriculum scale and the tool made to measure the quality of virtual education includes 48 items and was designed in the form of four components: goal, content, teaching, learning and evaluation strategies.Conclusion: Considering that virtual learning has become an integral part of formal education in Iran's educational system, this tool can be used to measure the quality of these instructions. In addition, this tool helps the administrators and policy makers of virtual learning to provide the required platforms for virtual education based on the intended curriculum.
Electronic learning- virtual
M. Maghsoudi; F. Safaee; A. Hashemi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Relying on e-learning in higher education is not a newly emerging phenomenon and has always been considered as a supplementary learning environment. But with the sudden outbreak of the Corona epidemic, the higher education system was shocked. Although the quality of this learning ...
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Background and Objectives: Relying on e-learning in higher education is not a newly emerging phenomenon and has always been considered as a supplementary learning environment. But with the sudden outbreak of the Corona epidemic, the higher education system was shocked. Although the quality of this learning environment has been continuously assessed before, the main question is whether what was said before the Corona epidemic about the quality of e-learning and its capabilities is true in this era in which it is the only teaching and learning environment. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the quality of virtual education provided at Farhangian University during the Corona epidemic by relying on measuring the attitudes of educators and students in different fields of study.Methods: In this research, the sequential mixed method was used. In order to collect quantitative data, two separate questionnaires were used for educators and students, which contained 15 and 19 questions, respectively, which measured their attitudes based on a Likert scale of five options. The original version of the educators' questionnaire was developed by Dillon and McLean [39] and the questionnaire developed by Patriot et al.,[40] was used for the students. In this study, the statistical population consisted of 713 students and 89 educators working in Farhangian University of Markazi Province. Participants in this study were selected through convinient sampling method. The questionnaires were distributed among 317 students and 36 educators from the departments of elementary education, counseling, special children education, physical training, English language and Persian literature, theology and information technology. After data collection, one-way analysis of variance was used to analyze the data. In addition, to collect qualitative data, interview questions were designed based on the results of quantitative data analysis, followed by interviews with 22 students (14 women and 8 men) and 12 students (6 men and 6 women). One of the volunteer educators participated in the interview from the above-mentioned training groups. After recording the interview sessions and implementing it, they were coded and categorized.Findings: It was shown that the educators of different educational disciplines had a positive attitude and high satisfaction with virtual education in this period and there was no difference between the educators of different educational departments in this regard. However, the results showed that students generally had a negative attitude and low satisfaction with virtual education and there was a significant difference between their attitudes according to their field of study. To find out the reasons for these findings, the researchers decided to conduct a semi-structured interview. After analyzing the content of qualitative data obtained from interviews with educators and students, relying on the method of guided qualitative content analysis, it was found that the factors related to the virtual and multimedia education environment as well as participatory learning in shaping educators' attitudes and students is important. Similarly, in addition to these factors, the third factor, which is related to independent learning, played a role in shaping their attitudes and their level of satisfaction with education.Conclusion: This research showed how much educators and students can have different opinions. Because, while the educators participating in this study had a positive attitude and satisfaction with virtual education at Farhangian University, students generally had a negative attitude towards it during the corona epidemic. Based on the findings of this study, qualitative data, multimedia education tools and insufficient use of group and participatory education have been the main weaknesses and the main causes of negative attitudes and relative dissatisfaction of students, as well as content design and curriculum. Lack of encouragement for students to learn independently was another reason for this dissatisfaction. According to the results of this study, it is suggested that in order to implement virtual education optimally, in addition to knowledge and skills, teachers should have a positive attitude and firmly convey this attitude to students. In addition, it is necessary to have adequate monitoring of the factors of school users (teachers), ICT, interface design (virtual education system), management, human-organizational resource support and evaluation during the course.
e-learning
N. Tari; S. Zarghami; A. Mahmoodnia; Y. Ghaedi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The aim of this research is study the nature of the relationship between teacher and learner in comprehensive e-learning process with an emphasis on ideas of Deleuze. With the expansion of e-learning, one of the important aspects of change in education is in the field of teaching ...
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Background and Objectives: The aim of this research is study the nature of the relationship between teacher and learner in comprehensive e-learning process with an emphasis on ideas of Deleuze. With the expansion of e-learning, one of the important aspects of change in education is in the field of teaching and learning, including the relation between the teacher and the learner. In the analysis and evaluation of the nature of the relation and its role in human cognition, one of the post structuralist emerging paradigms is Deleuze's rhizomatic epistemology. In the area of Deleuze's ideas and electronic learning based on connectivism theory, separate researches have been done. However, what distinguishes this study from other studies is the assessment of the important fact that whether the new area which Deleuze names rhizomatic and by which means challenges the traditional relationships between the teacher and the learner in the tree system and deterritorializes can support the new atmosphere of electronic learning. Do these two accompany each other? MethodS:The methodology of this study is philosophical analysis and deduction, which were used to answer the research question (What is the nature of the relation between the teacher and the learner in the process of e-learning?). The method of data collection is desk-documentation study. Based on concept analysis, valid understanding of the concept and a clear explanation of its relationship with other concepts was achieved. Moreover, based on deductive approach, the implications of the nature of the relation between the teacher and the learner according to Deleuze's ideas in the process of teaching - learning in e-learning was assessed. Then, these were analyzed philosophically. In other words, Deleuze's rhizomatic epistemological concepts and the related elements on the one hand and the concepts of electronic learning based on connectivism theory on the other hand were analyzed, interpreted and clarified. In the end, the proportion of relation in e-learning to Deleuze's rhizomatic relation was evaluated. Findings: First, basic factors in rhizomatic epistemology of Deleuze were investigated. Based on the findings of this study, the essentialistic of the relationship between the teacher and the learner, according to Deleuze’s opinions, is rhizomatic. This means that it has features such as Interconnection and heterogeneity, pluralism, immigration, mapping, and non-indicative dissociation of rhizome, suggesting nonlinear, horizontal and non-hierarchical, fluid and fragile, decentralizing, spontaneous and molecular, dense and multiplexed, flexible and permeable relationships. Second, the nature of relationship in virtual learning process was illuminated according to the principles of communication theory, which is the new theory of learning in the age of information and communication technology, communication in E-learning is a systemic and network communication that has nonlinear relationships among system components and network.According to this theory, E-learning is the process of network components communicating with each other. At the end, the nature of relationship virtual Learning in relation with, the nature of rhizomatic epistemology of Deleuze was examined Therefore, the orientation of communication in E-learning is in line with Deleuze's rhizomatic relationship. Conclusion: Based on connectivism theory, electronic education is the very process of network elements connecting with each other. Thus, the direction of e-learning is aligned with Deleuze's rhizomatic relation. Thus, Deleuze's rhizomatic relationships with regard to the capabilities it holds, promises the ideal relationship between the teacher and the learner in the E-learning era and can serve as a model to address some of the challenges of the traditional educational system.
E-Lerning
M. Esmaeilnia; H. Kouhestani; A. Maghul
Abstract
Background and Objective:Higher education administrators are looking for ways to increase the number of courses and disciplines. While university budgets are steadily declining, they are forced to increase their distance learning courses to meet the growing needs of learners during budget constraints ...
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Background and Objective:Higher education administrators are looking for ways to increase the number of courses and disciplines. While university budgets are steadily declining, they are forced to increase their distance learning courses to meet the growing needs of learners during budget constraints and recessions. Because this type of training does not require a classroom and the nees less full-time instructors. Over the past two decades, the issue of quality and excellence in universities and higher education institutions has become one of the most important issues in the field of higher education, and especially in the newly-establisehd Farhangian University. National evaluation systems are designed to evaluate teaching and learning programs in universities; and they have attracted atttention at the international level in higher education research, and interest in improving education, both nationally and internationally has increased. An increasing number of universities in Iran have started virtual education courses. Farhangian University has also provided a good platform for these trainings, but so far it has not been able to institutionalize a proper and comprehensive quality education. Therefore, due to the fact that the quantitative growth of virtual education is progressing, yet no improvement has been made in the quality of education, the researchers have taken a step towards responding to these challenges and filling the gap in research literature of the field. The purpose of this study is to design and validate a quality improvement virtual learning model using a mixed method. Methods: In the quantitative section, 608 students and professors were using stratified random sampling method. In the qualitative section, 18 professors were interviewed. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive methods and the grounded theory was used for the analysis of the qualitative data. The data analysis was based on open and pivoted coding. Finally, 14 main categories including quality improvement of virtual education at the University of Farhangian were investigated as strategies, background conditions, intervening conditions and outcomes. Findings: Results suggested that learning-educating activities and human actors had a positive and significant effect on improving quality and deployment strategies. Moreover, deployment strategies exerted a positive and significant impact on quality improvement. Background features also affected deployment strategies and quality improvement in a positive and significant way. The effect of deployment strategies and quality improvement on individual, organizational and transactional outcomes was also significant. Conclusion: Considering the position of Farhangian University in the present models, the fair distribution of knowledge and ignorance of instructors’ character and the positive effect of recruiting distinguished instructors are emphasized in the results section. In causes section, in discussing strategies centralized decision making is referred to; and in strategy section, development of trust making and culture building for virtual learning is referred to that includes using the experiences of other countries. In intervening conditions section, using Web 2 and Web 3, prior knowledge of learners and the combination of face-to-face and virtual education at Farhangian University are mentioned.
competency of teachers
Z. Jafari far; A. Khorasani; M. Rezaei Zadeh
Abstract
Distance education is one of the most important criteria of education; organizations believe that it has important role in human resource (HR) education. However, there are some challenges in implementing distance learning in the organisations' HRD (Human Resource development) departments. The current ...
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Distance education is one of the most important criteria of education; organizations believe that it has important role in human resource (HR) education. However, there are some challenges in implementing distance learning in the organisations' HRD (Human Resource development) departments. The current study seek to identify and rank the challenges that confront distant learners in organizations. In order to do so, a sample of 115 employees of Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran who attended virtual training through the last year were selected and engaged in the study. Reviewing the literature on e-learning challenges and critical factors, the main questions of a questionnaire were extracted and written. Analyzing the data has been gathered by those questionnaires, the final list of the intended challenges was identified, categorized, and ranked as following: Educational, Infrastructural, and Cultural challenges. The implications of the current study on how distance education can be properly used in HRD is also discussed and outlined in the paper.
Technology-based learning environments
M.R. Saghafi
Abstract
There is increasing support for the constructive approach in learning and teaching to respond the changes and challenges facing higher education; an approach that is particularly suitable for architectural education and design studio pedagogy. While the studio environment has been promoted as an ideal ...
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There is increasing support for the constructive approach in learning and teaching to respond the changes and challenges facing higher education; an approach that is particularly suitable for architectural education and design studio pedagogy. While the studio environment has been promoted as an ideal educational setting for project-based disciplines, few qualitative studies have been undertaken in a comprehensive way. This study responds to this need by adopting Grounded Theory methodology in a qualitative comparative approach. The research aim is to explore the limitations and benefits of a face-to-face design studio as well as a virtual design studio to achieve a suitable platform to establish the best and maximum learning situation. The main outcome is a holistic multidimensional blended model being sufficiently flexible to adapt to various settings, in the process, facilitating constructive learning through self-determination, self-management and personalization of the learning environment.The model was tested in 2013 in the third year architecture course at Art University of Isfahan. The author’s role in the study was to teach the students and attend all the sessions as an active researcher observer. Volunteer students participated in a discussion group discussing their experiences at the end of the semester. Full access to the web-based design studio and archives of the design process was the most important benefit and technical internet problem and limited virtual partnership is the most important limitation of this experience.