New Updates in Online Learning

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a rapid transformation happened overnight in the teaching-learning strategy in primary, secondary and tertiary education. All educators started using web-conferencing tools as principal element of online learning. However, in spite of health concerns among the pandemic situation, strong student preferences towards returning back to face-to-face or hybrid mode brought challenges to the effectiveness of online learning. Students cite many reasons for dropping out of online courses. Increased workload and poor organization of remote learning have been found to be the principal reason for the students’ dissatisfaction. The orientation of online learning needs alignment towards the principle of course design along with the flexibility to attain the instructional goals, objectives, and outcomes. Sophisticated technology often makes online and even hybrid course design to change track from well-designed pedagogy leading to loss of functional relevance for the students. Instructors should be flexible and employ multiple strategies to improve online learning experiences in both asynchronous and synchronous learning environment. Studies have proved that using the best practice of the alignment of learning outcome, online learning activities and repeated online knowledge-checks foster student motivation towards the completion of online courses.