Effectiveness of Online Learning Among Graduate Students: Comparison Between Cultures

Abstract

<p style="text-align: justify;">The research aimed to examine students' attitudes towards learning and teaching processes in an online course, investigating whether there was a difference between Jewish and Arab students' attitudes towards this course. The study combined mixed methods. Data were drawn from a questionnaire (including mostly closed-ended questions) completed by 195 graduate students and eight semi- structured interviews. Additionally, the students' grades for their course assignments were analyzed. Findings indicated that all course participants perceived the teaching and learning processes positively, but Jewish students held stronger positive attitudes concerning the learning processes' effectiveness than did Arab students. Jewish course participants' achievements were higher than those of Arab participants. The variable `sector` had a moderating effect on perceptions of the course structure's clarity and success in the course, strong clarity led to Arab students' success on the course but not for Jewish students. Arab students shared their difficulty adapting to a learning style necessitating autonomous learning processes. These findings are explained by Arab society's unique cultural dimensions, characterised by high-power distance and strong avoidance of uncertainty. The findings can inform designers of multicultural online courses that optimal teaching practices necessitate culture sensitivity, and this constitutes an issue for future studies.</p>

Technological self-efficacy and mindfulness ability: Key drivers for effective online learning in higher education beyond the COVID-19 era

“…Previous research has highlighted gender disparities in TS within online learning contexts (Masry-Herzallah, 2022a). Studies indicate male students generally display higher TS compared to females, attributed to historically constrained tech opportunities for women (Savitsky et al, 2020).…”

“…TS plays a crucial role in influencing students' perceptions of EOL (Jokisch et al, 2020;Masry-Herzallah, 2022a) and is also affected by factors like previous technological experience, age, and gender (Masry-Herzallah & Stavissky, 2021;Zeng et al, 2022). While gender differences in technology usage and online learning perceptions are acknowledged (Scherer et al, 2017;Zeng et al, 2022), their specific impact on EOL of Arab students during the pandemic era is not extensively studied.…”

Interplay between technology and society: Effects of remote emergency teaching on undergraduate students' performance

“…Second, asynchronous teaching methodology could be defined as distance learning without the presence of a lecturer or student but with the use of electronic communication between them [19]. Lastly, synchronous teaching methodology could be defined by the virtual presence of a lecturer or student while communicating electronically [20] [21]. As one of the tenets of the Law on Higher Education in Serbia states that teaching methodologies are at full liberty, and as there are no clear guidelines or standardized e-learning procedures for teachers to follow on how to conduct lectures in the case of emergency remote teaching, the three most popular methodologies were identified in this research.…”