Introductory Survey on Challenges Encountered by University Teachers in Online Teaching of STEM Subjects During COVID-19 Lockdown

Hadzieva, Elena; Gunčaga, Ján; Bose, S.; Ivanoska, Kalina Sotiroska

doi:10.37441/cejer/2021/3/3/9601

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…[18], indicating that participants in their study experienced lower satisfaction with life and work and more stress in their daily lives during the pandemic. Other works (e.g., [10]) endorse this conclusion.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 69%

“…Hadzieva et al [10] performed a qualitative analysis of teachers' appreciation of the abrupt transition to distance education (specifically for STEM courses). Nine teachers from five European countries, India, and Brazil were interviewed and their opinions were analyzed in order to identify the main barriers (both technological and psychological) in implementing e-learning.…”

Section: Perception Of Online Teaching and Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lucas and Vicente [13] classify assessment as one of the major challenges in online learning. Cheating issues are also discussed in Hadzieva et al [10], suggesting that students are usually ahead of their teachers in inventing ways to conduct a fraud. This is consistent with Oliveira et al [17] who concluded that teachers had difficulties preventing unethical student behavior during online tests.…”

Section: Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) programs, i.e., programs that are focused on technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, verbal and nonverbal communication is particularly important, as the success of the students relies on their capacity to answer questions and solve problems with intelligence and creativity [10]. In addition, a substantial part of STEM education relies on simulations, experiments, and models, many times conducted with specific instruments and in laboratory environments [10,11]. These characteristics present an additional challenge to STEM online education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Teachers’ Appreciation of Benefits and Shortcomings of Online and Blended Higher STEM Education

et al. 2023

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This paper is devoted to identifying online teaching strategies appropriate for blended and face-to-face higher STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. The study is inspired by the experience gained during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, which forced many higher education institutions worldwide to shift abruptly to distance education and try many new tools, teaching methods, and strategies. Some of these tools and strategies were abandoned as soon as the lockdown had been lifted and the institutions returned to their regular functioning, but some of them are bound to stay. Certainly, it would be beneficial to include the most valuable of the gained skills and competences in traditional on-campus and blended courses. The study is based on an online questionnaire, addressed to the STEM faculty of the University of Aveiro, Portugal (which is an example of an institution that used to provide face-to-face instruction), whose analysis permits to derive a number of important recommendations. The results are compared with our previous work, where the students’ perspectives were analyzed, and similarities and discrepancies in appreciation of the involved parties are highlighted. This work extends the body of knowledge about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on STEM education by examining the challenges and opportunities faced by teachers. The recommendations derived contribute to improving the learning outcomes of online STEM education in many similar institutions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Section: Perception Of Online Teaching and Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Teachers’ Appreciation of Benefits and Shortcomings of Online and Blended Higher STEM Education

et al. 2023

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“…2020 will be remembered for COVID-19, a pandemic that forced the world to lock down and urged most educational providers to implement e-learning solutions promptly. This research discusses some challenges faced by university teachers who had almost no earlier practice in online teaching (Hadzieva et al, 2021). As it turns out, 2020 was not the year any of us anticipated, and it brought with it a trail of disruption.…”

Section: Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the gap between education and employability in electrical engineering

Mahase

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Electrical engineering undergraduate students have been deprived of opportunities to gain professional development, usually obtained through internships, outreach programs, collaborative education programs, and research initiatives resulting from the global pandemic in 2019. Such opportunities are often the means for students to transition to the workplace, where they exhibit their prowess in communication, teamwork, interpersonal, and other non-technical skills, which are generally not part of an academic engineering curriculum. The purpose of this Action Research study is to investigate and improve how implementing an online curriculum teaching employability in electrical engineering technology is advantageous to students' success in entering the workforce, particularly for underrepresented and disadvantaged groups, at the study site, an urban commuter campus with a majority of students who are underrepresented minorities and women. The study participants and data collected in Cycles 1 and 2 comprised STEM undergraduates at a four-year university in the Northeastern region from the point of entry-level to graduation-it is vital to identify factors that have been affecting the success of retention in STEM. Action steps include collecting data from collaborators or engineering managers to design the pilot study implemented and evaluated in Cycle 2 Phase 1 of the study. Phase 2 tested the online curriculum focused on professional skills, both technical and nontechnical. Findings included that learning outcomes positively impact students, which is needed for the transition into an electrical engineering workplace. In addition, the pilot study cohort acquired the ability to conduct a career self-assessment, set goals, gain global awareness, and understand personal branding. Implications for the institution included a professional development curriculum that engineering departments will adopt from an easily disseminated and tested online program.

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Enriching Traditional Higher STEM Education with Online Teaching and Learning Practices: Students’ Perspective

et al. 2022

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In this paper, we aim to identify online teaching and learning practices that would be beneficial for blended and traditional on-campus education within STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) courses. Our university, as well as the majority of higher education institutions worldwide, has had few to no experience in delivering full online courses before 2020. The teaching process was, however, severely affected and modified by the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing an abrupt and unprepared shift towards online education. In this work, we look at the pandemic as causing a very favorable side effect that forced the university to study, test, apply, and evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of online education and assessment methods. The study is a result of joint efforts from different departments at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, connected to STEM undergraduate and graduate programs and is based on a questionnaire targeted towards students. In total, 167 valid STEM students’ answers have been collected and analyzed, both quantitatively and qualitatively. As the result, the best teaching and learning practices are identified and the main difficulties and obstacles experienced by students are detected. Some of the problems are common to many higher education institutions, such as the lack of teacher preparation in delivering quality online synchronous and asynchronous classes, technical limitations (network bandwidth/weak equipment), ineffective communication during synchronous classes, gaps in student skills, and low activity of some students and even teachers. We believe that the presented results would allow for improving future on-campus, distance, and blended learning courses, particularly through avoiding less effective teaching and assessment methods and favoring those techniques that students consider more efficient. This ultimately would lead to a more rewarding teaching/learning experience.

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Introductory Survey on Challenges Encountered by University Teachers in Online Teaching of STEM Subjects During COVID-19 Lockdown

Cited by 4 publications

References 8 publications

Teachers’ Appreciation of Benefits and Shortcomings of Online and Blended Higher STEM Education

Teachers’ Appreciation of Benefits and Shortcomings of Online and Blended Higher STEM Education

Bridging the gap between education and employability in electrical engineering

Enriching Traditional Higher STEM Education with Online Teaching and Learning Practices: Students’ Perspective

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