A bio-environmental perspective on Emirati female college students’ experiences in virtual learning communities of inquiry

Abstract

During the coronavirus pandemic, educational institutions were forced to shift to virtual learning. Drawing on the Community of Inquiry framework and bioecological perspective, this research explores the virtual learning experiences of female college students at one higher education institution in the United Arab Emirates using an interpretive phenomenological paradigm. A convergent parallel mixed method design was implemented with participants (N = 350) who completed a questionnaire about the challenges of virtual learning followed by semi-structured interviews (N = 10). Observations, journals, and peer-reviewed literature was also used to explore the influence of cognitive, social, and teaching presence on students’ perceptions. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. The researcher found students had a high perception of the three influences of Community of Inquiry framework and were aware of its importance. Furthermore, there were clear relationships between cognitive and teaching presence and cognitive and social presence. The importance of online teaching and learning strategies supports the interactivity of these presences.

Perspective Chapter: Peer Observation of Teaching in Phygital Communities of Inquiry

“…Isolation and social distancing became mandated, which disrupted physical classrooms and forced a shift to hybrid teaching and learning for faculty and students in all UAE HEIs [1]. This shift was intended to enable flexibility in teaching and learning while maintaining the institutional expectations [2]. These flexible and novel approaches to educational practice still require good learning outcomes and the meeting of expectations.…”

“…Various solutions are documented and discussed in the recent literature to support preservice teachers' practices [4]. Students and educators are encouraged to implement new approaches to teaching and learning to ensure social and cognitive interaction [2], for example FlipGrid which is a tool that is used primarily for hosting video discussions and peer-to-peer communication especially when tasks are assigned by educators [5]. It has been proven that FlipGrid is a useful tool for practicing oral communication and discussion [5].…”

“…As with traditional learning environments, the success of the new phygital learning environment and the transition to the new normal began with classroom implementation and authentic learning. At the same time as innovative approaches were being implemented by student teachers and their instructors, they still needed to face and solve specific challenges related to the issues created by the pandemic, such as the shortage of faculty [2,3] and the appearance of COVID-19 cases among children, student teachers, and their mentor teachers, while completing their TP in the schools. Therefore, reflecting on the TP at the HEI involved in this reflective practice and the phygital model, integrating both physical and digital spaces, was pivotal to understanding the procedures and responsibilities of all parties when applying this new approach to students' authentic and innovative approaches to learning.…”

“…The CoI model was proposed to examine the quality of virtual learning experiences (VLE) [15,16]. The contextualized practice of this framework integrates the student as a cognitive presence and the instructor as designer, facilitator, and instructional presence, together with a social presence as the construct of meaning by means of the maintenance of sustained communication that concretizes the community [2,17].…”

The 5I’s of Virtual Technologies in Laboratory Teaching for Faculties of Higher Education in Kerala

“…Teachers needed to assure students' capacity and motivation to work efficiently in their new learning online environments during the COVID-19 crisis (Hew & Cheung, 2010). Students can be motivated to better collaborate with multiple dimensions of the new virtual learning systems for better learning experiences (AlShamsi, 2021). Understanding visible and unseen heuristic techniques to identify underlying concepts is regarded difficult in the case of laboratory learning, particularly in science during pandemic times.…”