Online learning issues in Russian universities

Abstract

There is considerable uncertainty as to the way we lead our lives. We face global changes concerning every single aspect of our lives: economy, digital technologies, cultures, languages, and even our health and today not mentioning all the catastrophic consequences of the pandemic and economic slowdown. Institutions are responding to the current circumstances with a shift to online learning. While most universities have urgently switched to online learning and benefit from using educational and videoconferencing platforms, the issues caused by online education under these circumstances are still to be studied and carefully analysed. This article problematizes the influence of online learning and reveals a range of pitfalls arising in the process of online education as well as a detailed analysis of these issues. It was found out that the online learning process is affected by a wider range of reasons than we expected. The interrogative method was used as the main measurement tool. The evaluation studies were carried out at the university on its use of an online education system as a forced response to the current worldwide pandemic. Among revealed issues, we established the following: students’ ability to learn self-directly, assessment tools used by teachers to evaluate the knowledge, timely teacher’s feedback, teachers’ core competencies and personal qualities, technical, health issues, and some others. The global events caused a situation when universities had to reconsider the way they deliver education to people. The goal is to make it more expedient, accessible, and personalized. The information in the paper can contribute to the quality improvement of online education and learning success.

The Sustainability of a Community of Inquiry in Online Course Satisfaction in Virtual Learning Environments in Higher Education

“…In addition, the main objective of this study was to determine the validity of three hypotheses. The results show that hypotheses H1, H2, and H3 were supported, since a significant relationship with course satisfaction was found between teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence, similar to what was found by Cole and Ilduganova [1,30], even though their analyses were different from those carried out in the current study. However, this evidence also confirms Garrison's [14] study, which showed that a higher level of engagement via teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence has a positive impact on the level of satisfaction with the course.…”

“…This scenario has puzzled many educators. Furthermore, many online courses are not sustainable and are not able to survive [1,8,11].…”

“…There are many studies about the connection between satisfaction and presence. Several researchers have noticed that the immediacy of teaching presence by an online instructor is very important in online learning [1]. Teaching presence and pedagogical skills are important for student success.…”

“…However, the information on the effectiveness of online learning remains sketchy, and there has been very limited information available in the literature. There have been a number of concerned issues; notably, self-directed learning, assessment tools, immediate teacher feedback, teacher expertise and personal traits, technical problems, poor engagement, and a lack of interaction, which trigger dissatisfaction among online students [1]. Apart from that, other issues, such as limited access to hardware and software, personal circumstances, lack of experience [2], limited feedback, unsupervised online learning [3], a lack of motivation, technology and Internet issues, and data privacy and security concerns [4], also affect satisfaction [2] and contribute to the failure of online courses, which leads to increasing dropout rates [5][6][7].…”

The influence of self- and co-regulation on the community of inquiry for collaborative online learning: an ODeL context

“…The framework has been widely established to enhance critical thinking, participation and engagement in online learning (Nasir and Ngah, 2022). However, students still experience challenges with online engagement, regulation, self-directed learning and a lack of interaction and motivation (Ilduganova et al, 2021;Nasir and Ngah, 2022), resulting in increased dropout rates (Figueroa-Canas and Sancho-Vinuesa, 2020;Khalid and Quick, 2016;Narayanasamy and Elçi, 2020). The goal of this study is to ascertain whether self-and co-regulation influence the community of inquiry presences.…”