Virtual Exchange
Building Social Capital through Online Teaching in the Age of COVID-19 View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Roxana Toma, Sheila Aird
The COVID-19 disaster has come to college with astonishing speed. Within weeks of reopening, many universities in the U.S. had reported clusters of cases, forcing schools to frantically backtrack on their plans of reopening face-to-face and suspend in-person classes this fall. The shift online has also accelerated fundamental questions about the future of higher education in light of globalization and the emergence of a 'global education policy field'. While online courses have been increasingly gaining credibility, many argue that with online classes, learning outcomes often disappoint, and that online instruction runs counter to the most important asset at a major university: personal interaction with faculty and their peers. We bring social capital theory and Bourdieu’s work on the sociology of education in the often-misunderstood, one-sided narrative of online learning, which is seen as both an isolated and deeply isolating experience. Our contribution is threefold. First, we introduce the idea of building social capital in an online environment. Second, we look at praxis – informed, committed action, to address socially differentiated educational attainment, which is perceived to be more pronounced in online learning. Lastly, we draw on the online training course that we developed for internationally based instructors at our college, who are now teaching online for the first time. Based on their input this far and our combined twenty-five years of experience in online teaching, we will suggest strategies that can be implemented to build community in online courses, increase satisfaction, student success and retention.
Digital Competencies in Social Work Education: Friend or Foe
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Laura Racovita, Linda Reeser, Domingo Carbonero Munoz, Mioara Diaconu
Over the years, social workers have been utilizing technology to deliver services to communicate with and gather information about clients. However, published academic research highlights some resistance to the use of digital technologies within professional practice and supervision. Furthermore, a review of the current literature shows that there are clear differences in perceptions about the use of technologies and the use of eLearning in the higher education, academic contexts. When comparing perceptions in the USA and Spain, the literature shows that technology has been more widely adopted by social work programs in the US than by their Spanish counterparts. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the imperative need for the use of digital and technology skills in social work education to the forefront. This research study’s primary focus is to identify current perceptions of using digital technologies in social work education and practice through the lens of a digital competence framework. The research study has employed a quantitative, non-experimental design with convenient sampling. A comparative two-country case study (Spain and the US) provides an in-depth analysis of these perceptions. The research study was conducted with social work undergraduate and graduate students, their field instructors, and field liaisons, who were active in the social work field during the pandemic. The paper compares and contrasts the perceptions from the two countries regarding the use of technology and digital competencies; and provides recommendations for teaching, practice, and further research for social work and related disciplines.
Lessons in Literacy: Establishing Social Presence in a Socially-Distanced World View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mary Hoch, Michelle Fry
As a result of the global pandemic, teachers and students were forced to quickly adjust teaching and learning to fit in our new socially-distanced world. Alongside the challenge of establishing effective teaching tools, also came the need to create social spaces for connecting through teacher-student interactions. In this paper, we share our case study which followed the practices of in-service teachers who were also graduate students seeking an advanced endorsement in literacy as they grappled with problems and solutions of online learning during an intensive literacy tutoring program. We honed in on the work of one focal teacher as she carved out a new social space for connecting with her students. This work resulted in the establishment of three clear and necessary dimensions of social presence: relationship building, engagement, and social interactions. In addition, we share specific criteria that were identified for each dimension.
Collaborative Distance Learning International Project “Virtual Environmental Challenge”: A Turning Point or an Extension? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Christine Evain, Elsa Chusseau
New technologies and the health context have contributed to a massive shift from face-to-face to distance learning and to a renewal of practices (Villiot- Leclercq, 2020). Student mobility has also been impacted. The feedback that we wish to present responds to the dual requirement of distance training and international collaboration as part of the internationalisation at home; policy. In this paper, we describe the “Virtual Environmental Challenge” (VEC), placing it in the context of distance learning at the University of Rennes 2. We analyze the historical evolution of the university's distance learning service in its technological and pedagogical dimensions and then raise questions leading to the implementation of the VEC project. In collaboration with partners in a European project and other institutions, an international team of teacher-researchers, led by the University of Rennes 2, developed the VEC course, basing it on a MOOC and virtual classroom meetings, and an online competition for students from 5 different countries. Does this experience constitute a continuity or a break from previous practices within the university? The transformations at stake, through the organization of the VEC, touch on the roles of the different actors and their mutual contributions within a “community of learning” (Lemaire, Glikman, 2016 ; Audran, Daele 2009). They lead to social interactions and co-active learning (Romero et Laferrière, 2016) in “participatory online learning environments” (Conley, Lutz, Padgitt, 2017) that allow us to overcome distance-related issues and develop the targeted skills.
Teaching and Developing Fashion Design Major Courses in Pandemic: Fabrics Dyeing as an Example View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rehab Ragab Hassaan
Fashion Design Program students take some courses specified and directed to qualify students' skills of designing fashion, for instance Fashion Design Sketches. Others are indirect courses for learning some knowledge and skills which relate to designing the fashion, such as Fabrics Dyeing. Through observing and investigating, and within the experience of teaching Fabric Dyeing at University of Nizwa 2020 fall semester and 2021 fall semester/ through e-learning in pandemic time, the researcher found that the objectives concentrated on teaching the methods and the procedures of dyeing, theoretically and practically. The objective of employing and using dyed fabrics in the field of designing fashion is not included in the course, adding this objective and this lesson unleashes and liberates creativity thinking and opens the gate of producing unprecedented fashion. Distance learning opens a new opportunity for the students to enhance critical thinking through sharing their applications within MLS -management learning system, Moodle in the current study. A descriptive approach had been followed, through three scales to measure: students' satisfaction rating scale of the current course; opinion scale of the proposed designs using the dyed fabrics; and opinion scale of students' attitude toward the proposed lesson. The results indicate the actual need for advancing the course and adding the proposed lesson (fashion applications using dyed fabrics). The proposed lesson enhances the mental abilities of student and rising design sense of them as fashion designers. The lesson also has high potential for development through e-learning.
