Evaluating the Effectiveness of Distance Learning in Higher Education during COVID-19 Global Crisis: UAE Educators’ Perspectives

Abstract

The COVID-19 Pandemic affected all sectors worldwide including education sector changing the students learning environment at a large scale. In the education sector, governments had to close schools and universities around the world and turn into online mode of delivery. The sudden transformation to online learning demands educators and institutions to develop more innovative teaching methods in supporting students during this growing crisis. It is pertinent that this is the era of large-scale online learning, where education is delivered remotely utilizing various digital platforms. To this end, this move presented many challenges to students, educators, families, administrators, and government regulations. In this paper, we conduct an oriented and well-rounded survey that captures all aspects of distance learning verticals as perceived by educators in order to study online delivery aspects, including teaching models, communication media, and teaching best practices in distance learning. The paper will answer subtle and comprehensive questions related to student satisfaction and success, technical needs and challenges, teaching models, educator mobility, etc. across different universities in the UAE. In particular, the paper tries to identify best model to use given many key issues related to the adoption of e-learning during COVID-19. Overall, the survey results showed almost all participants agreed that online learning during the COVID-19 is a very good alternative solution to Face-to-Face approach. However, teaching models do vary in promoting students' participation and students' engagement. All participants agree that absence of the proper infrastructure at home will hinder the operation especially in courses with hands-on components. Finally, the educators questioned the credibility of online assessments despite the enforced exam integrity tools and methods. The paper concluded with many recommendations for continuous development of the distance learning systems during and after COVID -19.

Comparison of students’ perceptions of online and hybrid learning modalities during the covid-19 pandemic: The case of the University of Sharjah

“…Concerning student-instructor interaction, most of the students found it easy to communicate (62.7%), ask questions (64.4%), and engage with the instructor during online classes (56.4%) and that the instructor was available during office hours (76.9%). This was a favorable result, as in an exploratory study among educators in the UAE, only one in five educators believed that online classes can promote student engagement [ 31 ].…”

How successful the online assessment techniques in distance learning have been, in contributing to academic achievements of management undergraduates?

“…In this study, assessing students' levels of attention was impossible due to a lack of real "face-to-face" eye contact. During the COVID-19, the results showed that distance learning is a great alternative to face-to-face instruction and that different teaching methods promote student participation and engagement in unique ways (Al-Karaki et al, 2021 ). Even though the findings of this study revealed that typing skills, creative skills, thinking skills, and listening skills impacted undergraduates’ academic performance and also found technical issues as impediments, all students did not have equal access to resources.…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic is the key challenge to expanding academic performance, and this pandemic raised conversations about taking online teaching to a new level. Instead of offering a few selected, often online courses, universities had to turn full virtual programmes (Al-Karaki et al, 2021 ). In recent years, distance education has expanded quickly at all levels around the world.…”

Evaluation of undergraduate remote learning in STEM fields: The COVID-19 prognosis

“…These media had been in existence for some time, but it became prominent because of the pandemic. Studies have posited on its effectiveness, the technical competence, teaching models, as well as the rationale, especially during Covid-19 (Al-karaki, et al, 2021;Caputo et al, 2021;Viegas et al, 2018). These studies have considered remote learning as a credible alternative to face-to-face learning with better options in autonomy of learning, flexible pedagogy (synchronous and asynchronous) and virtual laboratory in instances of absent physical laboratory equipment in teaching STEM courses.…”