e-learning
M. Ruhi; F. Mahmoodi; K. Taghpour
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The aim of this study was surevying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Corona virus outbreak in higher education from the perspective of students of the faculty of educational sciences and psychology.Methods: The present study was an applied one in ...
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Background and Objectives: The aim of this study was surevying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Corona virus outbreak in higher education from the perspective of students of the faculty of educational sciences and psychology.Methods: The present study was an applied one in terms of its purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of the nature of the research. The statistical population of the present study consisted of students of educational sciences and psychology of university of Tabriz; according to the statistics received from the university, therer were 882 students. The Krejcie and Morgan table was used to determine the statistical sample size, based on which 268 participants were included in the sample using the available sampling method. A 79-item researcher-made questionnaire was given to the participants to gather the required data. To this end, after studying the relevant sources and background and interviewing several professors and students, the questionnaire items were extracted and divided into four sections: strengths (S), weaknesses (W), and opportunities (O) and threats (T). The content and face validity of the questionnaire were confirmed drawing on the experts’ opinions, especially the supervisors and advisors. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. The reliability of each of the four components of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats was higher than 0.9, which was considered as an excellent level of reliability. To analyze the data, the proposed SWOT methods of Hossein, Adnan and Hossein (2014) were used.Findings: The results showed that considering the strengths, the item of informing higher education institutions of their virtual infrastructure deficiencies was ranked as the first with a percentage of normalized weight of 6.83; flexibility in training places with normalized weight percentage of 6.68 was put in the second place; the item related to facilitating access to the content with a percentage of normalized weight of 6.58 was in the third place. Considering the weaknesses, the impossibility of students’ access to the physical facilities of the university with a percentage of normalized weight of 5.35 was ranked as the first; the item of not being able to gain newer and different experiences that can only be acquired by attending universities was the second one with a normalized weight percentage of 5.29. third rank; moreover, lack of affective bonds among between the students and the instructirs was considered as the third item with a normalized weight percentage of 4.92. As regards the opportunities, the possibility of education for employees with a percentage of normalized weight of 5.71 was put in the first place; global learning opportunities for the new generation with a normalized weight percentage of 5.23 was ranked as the second item; the item related to creating integrated e-learning systems in the form of virtual learning environments with a percentage of normalized weight of 5.21 in was considered as the third item. With regard to the threats, the item of physical injuries (eye injury, backache, etc.) with a normalized weight percentage of 5.42 was ranked as the first one; The item related to the decrease of the relationship between the instructors and the students was the second one with a percentage of normalized weight of 5.26; and the item related to a decrease in the student-student interaction with a percentage of normalized weight of 5.21 was ranked as the third one. Finally, internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) factors were examined and strategies related to strengths-opportunities (SO), strengths-threats (ST), weaknesses-opportunities (WO) and weaknesses-threats (WT) were presented.Conclusion: According to the results, it is necessary to make the best use of the opportunities provided for e-learning and to develop e-learning infrastructure and expand the interactive learning environments to take advantage of the strengths and opportunities, in order to move education towards a growing and desired direction. In this regard, weaknesses and threats can be reduced by grouping students in accordance with the health protocols, utilizing project-based evaluations, as well as attracting financial resources to strengthen the required infrastructure.
Education technology - higher education
A.M. Ahmadvand; H. Nasiri; F. NasrollahiNia; A. Mahjoubian
Abstract
Background and Objective:Nowadays, information technology, has affected the production, distribution, and use of knowledge-based processes. Among other things, the Internet of Things as a network of objects connected to each other can bring new capacities in all fields. The aim of the present research ...
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Background and Objective:Nowadays, information technology, has affected the production, distribution, and use of knowledge-based processes. Among other things, the Internet of Things as a network of objects connected to each other can bring new capacities in all fields. The aim of the present research is to examine the opportunities and challenges that the Internet of Things can have in relation to the higher education system. The concept of connecting devices and objects to each other is a new development on the Internet; anything anywhere can connect to the Internet and be "smart". Connected devices can communicate with each other and share information, then this information can be processed and lead to making decisions. This concept is called the "Internet of Things (IOT)." The wide range of applications of IOT has enabled educational environments at all levels to benefit from it. In terms of the role of IoT in higher education, this domain includes energy storage, monitoring the health and safety of students, optimizing the physical envriornment of the campus and classrooms, as well as enabling students to attend remotely. The main point that seems to differentiate IOT from other past technologies is that older methods cover a limited range of areas of higher education. With the use of various IOT tools, all these tools and facilities can be made intelligent and use for educational, research and service providing purposes. The aim of this study is to investigate the role and function of the IOT in the processes of knowledge production, transmission and application in higher education system. Methods: For this purpose, the systematic approach and the Chelkland SSM method were used. By refer to several internal and external scientific information databases, 25 related articles were identified. Then, without any sampling, all of these articles were studied by the researchers and their contents are divided into four categories: the introduction of the internet of things, the role of the internet of things in educational functions, the opportunities of the internet of things for higher education and the challenges of the internet of things in higher education, and they were organized in the dimensions of the input, process and output of the higher education system. Findings: The findings of the research indicate that the internet of things, by providing advanced information services, provides a flexible and measurable system for academic community that can be used to personalize training and reinforcement of learning, better management of educational processes, and more effective logistic management etc. The use of the internet of things will also challenge higher education, which violation of privacy, security issues, and rising costs are some of these challenges. Conclusion: In the present study, an attempt was made to introduce IOT and its opportunities and challenges for higher education system by reviewing the related literature. IOT is a technology that covers a wide range of applications in the university, from classrooms to laboratories, colleges and parking lots, and more. Within the system, IOT can be used to support the higher education chain and facilitate communication between input, output, and the process, and facilitate monitoring, control, and management of the university's system. In other words, the IOT operates communication center for the university system. In the dimension of higher education and university process, the IOT can be effective in student interaction and participation, evaluation, mental and physical health, classroom management, satisfaction, attendance, time saving as well as faculty management, energy saving, information searching, improving security in the university environment, providing real learning, personal growth and development for both the university instructors and the students, and so on. Of course, as mentioned, the use of this technology has cetain challenges. These challenges include security and privacy risks, high costs, connection to the Internet, scalability, self-organization and acceptance, etce. But despite this, experts generally see the future of this technology as more practical and important than it is now.
e-learning
E. Jafari; K. Fathi Vajargah; M. Arefi; M. RezaeiZadeh
Abstract
Background and Objective:Although the fields of teaching and learning have changed very little compared to other categories more than two thousand years ago, today, with the help of information technology, it has undergone rapid changes. In recent years, virtual education has emerged as one of the most ...
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Background and Objective:Although the fields of teaching and learning have changed very little compared to other categories more than two thousand years ago, today, with the help of information technology, it has undergone rapid changes. In recent years, virtual education has emerged as one of the most important applications of new information and communication technologies in the world and extensive activities have begun in this direction. Virtual education has created a new paradigm and has enabled learning in any field, for any person, at any time and in any place. Among the various forms of e-learning, there has been a significant expansion of free online courses, MOOCs in recent years. The purpose of this study is to delineate the strengths, defects, opportunities and threats in MOOC-based curricula. This research is applied and used a qualitative method. Methods: The statistical population of the qualitative section includes experts who have been engaged in the process of providing educational services during MOOC-based educational courses. From among this population, 14 individuals have been chosen as the statistical sample through purposive sampling. The data have been gathered through semi-structured interviews. Findings: The findings show that the most significant strengths include: promotion of access to curricula, learner-orientation, the possibility of realization in learning society, enjoying high quality teaching and promotion of dynamism. Among the most important defects are the possibility of neglecting real situations in education, the possibility of lack of proper educational organization, the possibility of an increase in the financial burden of the curriculum, the possibility of exclusivity in curriculum development, the possibility of not being able to evaluate high order thinking skills, the possibility of taking teacher freedom away, the possibility of lack of organization in evaluation, the possibility of arising problems in precise verification of the evaluated person. The most significant opportunities are supporting the extension of educational justice, the possibility of investment, supporting up-to-date knowledge, extending international communication in higher education curriculum development, the possibility of revising university curricula, facilitating the promotion of evaluation methods efficiency and making the education more applicatory. The most prominent threats are disruption in university functions, making instructors’ professions questionable, lack of educational purposiveness, incompetency of curriculum objectives, opposition of values and superficiality of curriculum objectives, instrumental exploitation of MOOCs, incompatibility between content and the audience’s needs, evaluations becoming quantitative, disregarding the market requirements in the process of evaluation and doubtfulness and pessimism towards MOOCs. Conclusions: Based on the results of the present study, considering the contextual conditions and planning in the field of strengthening and its optimal preparation, as conditions affecting all the components and factors involved in the design of MOOCs in higher education; universities and higher education institutions should invest in the development of a culture that seeks to discover, invent, innovate, and create curricula based on MOOCs in order to establish a knowledge-based structure; expand the scope of MOOC-based curricula in academic settings through teamwork question and answer sessions between students and faculty, group discussions, and the formation of workshops and seminars in collaboration with other institutions and higher education centers.
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