Research Article
Muhammad S Bawa’aneh
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 3, Article No: ep304
ABSTRACT
In the current circumstances, the second wave of COVID-19 Pandemic is spreading and we seem to have to live longer with most of the urgent measures taken in early 2020 to fight the spread out of the pandemic; of which is school closure. The present study aims at investigating students’ satisfaction, attitudes and challenges in UAE public schools during the distance learning time of the third trimester of the academic year 2019-2020. The study also aims to measure differences of satisfaction level, attitudes, and challenges across gender and geographic places of residence within the UAE. Data collection started eight weeks after the commencement of the distance learning process and continued for two weeks. The first eight weeks that preceded data collection witnessed a continuous update of the, previously rich and well established, educational plans in line with continuous development plan for students and instructors that included intensive training for students and instructors on the use of up-to-date educational technologies. That has reflected on the results of the study, where the student satisfaction level, attitudes and challenges were found to lie within the “strong” category indicating high satisfaction level, positive attitude, and minimum faced challenges, with statistically significant differences in the mean across gender and residency for some cases. Such positive result is directly related to the fact that students of the UAE public schools were partially exposed to electronic learning even before the pandemic, the tremendous efforts of the ministry of education to guarantee smooth transfer to full distance learning after the outbreak of the pandemic, and the well established infrastructure of the country.
Keywords: student satisfaction, student attitudes, student challenges, distance learning, e-learning, virtual classes, COVID-19
Research Article
Leila Karimi, Tunku Badariah Tunku Ahmad
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 4, Issue 3, pp. 197-211
ABSTRACT
Blended learning, as a new approach to education, is rapidly being adopted by educational institutions for the purpose of teacher education or teacher training. This study reports the results of a survey exploring the relationships between perceived learning and satisfaction in a blended teacher education program among three different groups of specialization at the Institute of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). This study was mainly exploratory in nature, employing specifically the quantitative research method, utilizing cross-sectional survey as the method of data collection. The respondents consisted of 170 teacher trainees who were randomly selected through quota sampling. The instrument used to collect data was a modified questionnaire that measured the respondents’ perception of learning and satisfaction in the blended teacher education program. The respondents reported high levels of perceived learning and satisfaction toward the blended teacher education program. The results showed positive and moderate correlation between perceived learning and satisfaction, while there was no statistically significant difference among all groups of teacher trainees’ perception of learning and satisfaction.
Keywords: Teacher education program, Blended learning, Perceived learning, Student satisfaction
Research Article
Afzaal Ali, Israr Ahmad
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp. 118-134
ABSTRACT
Most of the people in Pakistan perceive distance learning as of poor quality. Therefore, the researchers conducted this study to find out whether it's only people’s perception or is there anything in reality, concerning the poor performance of the distance learning students compared to traditional students. Consistent with this rationale, the main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between student satisfaction and the following variables of the distance learning environment: Instructors' performance, course evaluation, and student-instructor interaction. The sample consisted of 245 students of Allama Iqbal Open University of Pakistan. Keeping in view the nature of relationships among the variables, correlation matrix and regression analysis in addition to frequency analysis were used to analyze the findings. The results showed that just like in traditional education, in distance learning at AIOU, enough interaction takes place between students and instructors; courses are up to date and well-designed; instructors are devoted, motivated, and equipped with the required competencies. Moreover, the faculty at AIOU is delivering distance courses that meet students' needs with regard to student-instructor interaction, instructor performance, and course evaluation.
Keywords: Distance learning, Student satisfaction, Instructor performance, Student-instructor interaction, Course evaluation