“…All of a sudden, I realized I was not well prepared for the transition”: A Qualitative Exploration of University Students’ Perspectives on the Emergency Distance Education amidst the COVID-19 Crisis in Jordan

Our current study aimed at exploring the university students’ perspectives on the emergency distance education strategy that was implemented during the COVID-19 crisis in Jordan, one of the countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Utilizing a qualitative design supported by Moore’s theory of transactional distance, a total of 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted with university students of various study levels and disciplines. Data were inductively analyzed using thematic analysis as suggested by Braun and Clarke. Seven themes have emerged, including, (i) psychological response, (ii) digital preparedness and equality, (iii) technical competencies and technostress, (iv) interpersonal communication, (v) learning materials, (vi) non-reliable evaluation methods, and (vii) opportunities. Our findings provide evidence that the sudden transition from traditional on-campus to the online distance education was significantly challenging in many aspects and was not a pleasant experience for many participants. Various factors under the jurisdiction of academic institutions and decision-makers are considered main contributing factors to the students’ educational experiences amid the pandemic crisis. Therefore, better planning and more sustainable utilization of educational resources have paramount importance in providing a high-quality education. Additionally, more dedicated efforts in terms of equitable, reliable, and credible evaluation systems should be considered in Jordan’s distance education strategy.

The Challenges Behind the Development of an E-Mentoring Model for Online Distance Education

Different higher education institutions (HEI) have broadly adopted peer mentoring as a strategy to provide initial and continuous support for new students, to promote their academic inclusion. In Distance Education HEI, peer e-mentoring assumes a crucial role in the promotion and maintenance of social and cognitive presence and in the creation of a sense of belonging to the academic community. Thus, it is assumed as a crucial support for the overcoming of online students' specific difficulties and as a factor for his success. After a theoretical framework, this chapter presents the case of a pilot e-mentoring project implemented in a European open university based on the paradigms of virtual learning communities and the model of the community of inquiry (CoI). To conclude, it presents a set of assumptions for the construction of an e-mentoring model adapted to online DE and further research to be conducted.

Music at BNCC and the possibilities of applying Computational Thinking using Scratch

Music is a very favorable field of knowledge for the development of creativity. With this in mind, this paper presents results of investigate the role of music in the school curriculum in the three stages of Brazilian Elementary Education. For this, a qualitative approach of descriptive nature was used, exploring the guidelines for the teaching of music at National Education Standards (BNCC) and, at the end, purpose an activity for the application of Computational Thinking (CT) using Scratch as potential tool for creative mediation in the field of song. The proposed activity is in line with both the BNCC guidelines and the pillars of the CT and can be adapted to all types of teaching: face-to-face, online, distance education and hybrid

Using Online Photovoice (OPV) to Understand Youths’ Perceptions of Distance Education during COVID-19

In this study we aimed to investigate young college students’ experienced problems and support resources regarding online or distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used an innovative technique, Online Photovoice (OPV) method to collect data. The research includes the theoretical framework created to understand the factors that facilitate and complicate online/distance education processes for prospective teachers in the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the framework consisted of Ecological Systems Theory (EST), Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), and OPV. In the analysis of the data, we used Online Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (OIPA). The study sample consisted of 153 young university students in three universities in the south and southeast of Turkey. The data collection tool was created as an online form consisting of four parts: introduction, general information, and consent form; questions on the most important facilitator and the most important barrier in your life for your online/distance education during the COVID-19 process using OPV; and demographic questions section. When the facilitating factors obtained from the study data were examined, 11 main themes emerged. These main themes were having online or distance education (37%), technology, computer, internet, and helpful course programs (30%), and private space (10%). On the other hand, 16 complicating main themes have emerged including insufficient technology (32%), problems with online education (15%), and financial issues (12%). The participants attributed facilitators and barriers to EST levels, respectively: individual/intrapsychic factors (47%, 43%), microsystem (19%, 48%), exosystem (36%, 37%), and macrosystem (26%, 34%).

Quality Distance Education for Early Childhood During the Corona Pandemic: The Perceptions of Female Teachers

The corona (Covid-19) pandemic caused the closure of kindergarten institutions and schools around the world which forced higher authorities to shift focus towards online distance education. The impact of the pandemic was so severe that it affected almost a quarter of the people lives, public health and above all the education sectors. The present study was designed according to the Servqual Model using sample perceptions of early childhood parameters in Saudi Arabia and Jordan utilizing online questionnaires to collect the responses from 157 teachers. The quality of the online education services provided for primary school children due to Covid-19 suffered greatly as the teachers were not accustomed to the technology of distance learning. The present study recommends the need to explore the research of the high level for primary school children’s study tool where teachers and parents will be able to deal with online platforms effectively. During the present unavoidable crisis, the article presents an easier and equitable platform for every child in the family.

Copyright Concerns for Educators: Online Learning Post Pandemic Effect

Online distance education was once a process that was not easily been accepted by students, even by the educators, but when the pandemic strikes, they had to adopt and adapt the process in order to gain knowledge. The COVID-19 has resulted in shutting down schools, including tertiary institutions, all across the world. Consequently, education changed dramatically, and the mode of teaching was done remotely and on a digital platform. One of the adoptions of online learning involves using numerous online platforms and inserting interactive programs, music, animated graphics, photos in the teaching material to attract the interest of students. These types of works are, more often than not, copyrighted works that belong to someone. Generally, a license or permission must be sought before these works can be used by anyone. The permission or license, once granted, would involve a licensing fee or royalty payments to the copyright owner. However, this article looks at the law relating to the copyright exploitation awareness in the context of the law of intellectual property and the exceptions to this law, in particular, the scope of the hybrid fair dealing defence for education. This paper employs a doctrinal analysis using secondary data from academic journals, books, and online databases. The findings will respond to the legal framework for the understanding of copyright exploitation and its exception in the post-pandemic era.

Jokering Bodies

This article brings forth the difficulties and possibilities of enacting the role of “Joker” from Boal’s (1979) Joker System—formerly called the poetics of the oppressed. The authors acknowledge jokering as an apprehensive performance of brokering, of bodies that matter and are matter, that can provoke anti-oppressive actions and reinscribe oppressions. As such, four backdrops are engaged to further the methodological, theoretical, and curricular/pedagogical force of jokering as a performance that unsettles the status quo: Latina/Chicana feminist theories used in mentoring, performance-based action research with middle-school students, professional leadership development for schools, and socio-technological analysis with theatre in online/distance education. Each example from our praxis illustrates how the roles of emerging researcher, mentor-researcher, and researcher-practitioner are performed and troubled (jokered) from different disciplinary and theoretical perspectives to foster social justice praxis and outcomes.