Remote Knowledge Acquisition and Assessment During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

On 16 March 2020, as a result of the unprecedented global health crisis linked to the emergence of a new form of coronavirus (COVID-19), the 74 universities of France closed their doors, forcing nearly 1.6 million students, as well as their teachers, to find solutions and initiatives that could ensure continuity in teaching. In the reliance on videoconferencing tools, chat, the sharing of documents/tutorials/videos/podcasts, and the use of social networks, many ideas have emerged, but no consensus has developed nor has a common way of doing things been adopted by a majority of teachers. Some software tools, such as Zoom, have also been questioned over data security issues or excessive intrusion into the student learning process. Nevertheless, in these uncertain times, much had to be done so that students can acquire the requisite knowledge, develop skills, and build on what they have learned. How can we ensure that the learning process is as smooth as possible for everyone involved? How can we evaluate knowledge and skills learned at a distance, and their relevance? Four groups of electronic and electrical engineering students in France were monitored during the containment period in order to provide answers to these questions. Lectures, tutorials, practical work, and projects were carried out using the Microsoft Teams and Zoom video conferencing and chat tools to complement activities made available through the digital work environment. In order to ensure equity among all students, especially in view of the digital divide, open access tools/software/applications have been promoted. In the various surveys completed, the engineering students asserted their complete satisfaction with the learning process, the use of distance tools, and the level of mastery of these tools by their teachers. The results of the various knowledge tests show that, for the same course, distance learning does not reduce the performance of the engineering students. Indeed, they obtained local grades similar to those expected in face-to-face teaching. The results presented in this article are not intended to highlight the virtues of distance education, but rather to open up a debate and reflect more widely on the sustainability of this transformation of education in universities.

Devices and Platforms Used in Emergency Remote Learning and Teaching During Covid19: A Case of English Major Students in Saudi Arabia

“…Blackboard is a complete learning management system, while Zoom is mainly a videoconferencing platform with some learning tools such as whiteboards, screen sharing, polling, and chatting. There are reasons for favoring Zoom, as Jacques et al (2020) listed: ease of use and easy accessibility. Further investigations are needed, mainly qualitative studies, to probe more possible causes behind student preferences.…”

EU27 Higher Education Institutions and COVID-19, Year 2020

“…The focus of most articles is distance learning or the change from face-to-face to distance learning. There are several perspectives, like mobile learning methodology [34] and gamification [35], for a specific subject [36,37]; for a specific group of students, such as international mobility students [38] or first-year students [39]; concerned with the quality of educational process on online platforms [40], the level of communication of social responsibility by higher education institutions [41] or technical conditions of distance learning [42]; adaptation of the learning process [43], concern about connecting to the digital world [44][45][46]; the influence of some factors on students' acceptance of shifting education to distance learning [47], Evaluation of the Emotional and Cognitive Regulation [48], comparison of face-to-face classes with distance learning [49] by the student's perspective [50,51], teacher's perspective [43,52], organization [53], or various actors [54].…”

“…Most studies included surveys answered by students. the sample size varies widely: from 100 or less [38,39,51], 250 or less [37,40,45,46,49,50,55], less than 1000 students [42,44,54], or more than 1000 [47,48]. Two studies use the General Extended Technology Acceptance Model for E-Learning (GETAMEL) [39,47], one study uses the Digital Citizenship Behavior Scale (DCB) [45] and another uses the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) [48].…”

“…One of the studies uses three surveys: at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the semester [35], while another compares student surveys in the semester prior to the pandemic with the surveys of students who participated in the course during the pandemic [49]. Only two papers do not have surveys: one acquires information through the content of the websites of public institutions of higher education [41], while the other monitors students and their digital footprint [51].…”

Evaluation of the Analysis of Classroom Practices of Future Moroccan Teachers

“…It has a certain attractiveness which could involve the future teacher in his learning, making him less passive [18]. • Find solutions and initiatives that could ensure the continuity of teaching and learning, especially in the context of the current health crisis linked to the emergence of a new form of coronavirus (COVID- 19), in which distance education has played a very important role [19].…”