Evaluating the university professor’s performance in distance education in light of the Corona pandemic

The study aims to identify the difficulties of teaching-learning performance facing teachers, whether in terms of performance or reception by students in light of the Corona pandemic and quarantine. The study relied on the descriptive approach to evaluate the teaching-learning performance with the application of a questionnaire for teachers and another for students. The results revealed several difficulties facing the professor and the student alike, whether in terms of controlling the skills and techniques of distance education and its technological means, or regarding the organization of lessons and pedagogical activities.

Distance education: the concept....Quality

The idea of distance learning is based on delivering the educational material to the learner through various means or methods of technical communication; the learner is separated from the teacher or the person conducting the process. In principle, distance education is based on not requiring the simultaneous presence of the learner with the teacher in the same location

A Method for Cheating Indication in Unproctored On-Line Exams

COVID-19 has disrupted every field of life and education is not immune to it. Student learning and examinations moved on-line on a few weeks notice, which has created a large workload for academics to grade the assessments and manually detect students’ dishonesty. In this paper, we propose a method to automatically indicate cheating in unproctored on-line exams, when somebody else other than the legitimate student takes the exam. The method is based on the analysis of the student’s on-line traces, which are logged by distance education systems. We work with customized IP geolocation and other data to derive the student’s cheating risk score. We apply the method to approx. 3600 students in 22 courses, where the partial or final on-line exams were unproctored. The found cheating risk scores are presented along with examples of indicated cheatings. The method can be used to select students for knowledge re-validation, or to compare student cheating across courses, age groups, countries, and universities. We compared student cheating risk scores between four academic terms, including two terms of university closure due to COVID-19.

THE INTERCULTURAL ASPECT OF DISTANCE EDUCATION IN GREECE: A CASE STUDY OF EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP’S REPRESENTATIONS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Intercultural education in Greece has recently been brought to the foreground, due to the worldwide migrant/refugee crisis. However, the COVID-19 pandemic outburst in 2020 forced distance education and, hence, technology utilization upon all stakeholders. In this regard, by adopting a qualitative approach and by exploring educational leaders’ representations, this paper aims to investigate whether intercultural and distance education principles can be combined in order for students with a different cultural background to continue attending their lessons, as most native students do. The findings of this study demonstrate that intercultural principles are hard or in some cases impossible to be applied in distance learning and consequently, refugee/migrant students end up falling behind or being entirely excluded from the educational process.

A Suggested Proposal to Develop Distance Learning Programs in Border Schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The aim of this research is to find a proposed vision for developing distance education programs in border schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and to explore the reality of the proposed educational programs for developing distance education programs. In order to achieve the research objectives, the descriptive and analytical approach was used for its suitability for this research, as the questionnaire was used as a research tool. The research sample consisted of (150) female teachers from border schools. The results of the research revealed that the reality of female teachers ’practice on distance learning programs in border schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is central. And that the use of technology is the most important requirement for developing distance education programs in border schools from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The results also showed the achievement of leadership in diversifying and developing teaching and learning methods through the distance education system based on employing modern information and communication technology, equipping schools with all technological equipment, and supporting students with modern equipment and teachers with modern training to achieve the goals of distance education. In light of the results, the research paper presented a proposal for developing distance education programs in border schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Design of Distance Education System for Ideological and Political Courses of Electronic Engineering Specialty Based on Big Data

According to the existing literature, the existing engineering ideological and political curriculum distance education system has the problems of long response time and few concurrent users, which cannot meet the development needs of the professional talents of electronic engineering. Therefore, the design and research of the long-distance education system of the ideological and political course of electronic engineering specialty dependent on big data is proposed. Based on the analysis of the demand of distance education system, the overall structure of the distance education system is designed. The design of the system business functions mainly includes login verification module design, instant communication module design, online classroom module design, video answer module design and video back-view module design, and design the server cluster load balancing strategy according to big data technology, so as to realize the operation of the remote education system of the ideological and political courses of electronic engineering. The design system is shorter than response time while compared with existing system. and the number of users is more. It is fully proved that the design system has better application performance.

“…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.