Assessing the quality of emergency remote teaching "ERT" in biology of secondary school during the coronavirus pandemic in the light of proposed standards

Document Type : Original Article

Author

curriculum and method of theaching, faculty of education, Minia University

Abstract

The study aimed at assessing the quality of emergency remote teaching "ERT" in biology of secondary school. The study used the analytical descriptive method. A list of proposed quality standards was prepared including (8) domains of quality, which were: preparation for remote teaching and course description, instructional content and activities, teacher, learner, interaction, system, technical and institutional factors, and assessment and feedback. They were achieved by (20) standards, and measured by (81) performance indicators. A questionnaire was conducted in the light of these proposed standards, consisted of (81) items. It was applied to (54) biology teachers in Riyadh city secondary school near the end of the first semester of the academic year 2020-2021, to determine the extent to which biology remote teaching is matched with the proposed quality standards from teachers' own perspective. The results indicated that most quality domains achieved high averages, the “system” domain ranked first, followed by the “technical and institutional factors” domain, while the "learner" ranked last. Also, (15) standards were highly available, and (5) standards with medium availability. The results revealed some strengths and weaknesses in biology remote teaching. Recommendations and suggestions were made in the light of the findings revealed by the study.

Keywords

Main Subjects


-    Anderson, J. (2020, March 30). The coronavirus pandemic is reshaping education. Quartz. https://qz.com/1826369/how-coronavirus-is-changing-education
-    Bao, W. (2020). COVID-19 and online teaching in higher education: A case study of Peking University. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 2(2), 113–115. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.191
-    Bates, T. (2020, April 7). What should we be doing about online learning when social distancing ends?.Online Learning and Distance Education Resources. https://www.tonybates.ca/2020/04/07/what-should-we-be-doing-about-online learning-when-social-distancing-ends
-    Blackboard. (2020). Blackboard exemplary course program rubric. https://webportalapp.com/sp/home/2020_blackboard_ecp
-    Bojović, Ž., Bojović, P., Vujošević, D., & Šuh, J. (2020). Education in times of crisis: Rapid transition to distance learning. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 28(6), 1467-1489. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22318
-    Brossera, L., & Vrabie, C. (2015). The quality initiative of e-learning in Germany (QEG) - management for quality and standards in e-learning. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 186, 1146 – 1151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.214
-    Chatterjee, C. (2016, January 22-23). Measurement of e-learning quality [Paper presentation]. 3rd International Conference on Advanced Computing and Communication Systems (ICACCS), Coimbatore, India. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICACCS.2016.7586393
-    Delgado, T., Bhark, S., & Donahue, J. (2021). Pandemic teaching: Creating and teaching cell biology labs online during covid-19. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 49(1), 32-37. https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.21482
-    Gacs, A., Goertler, S., & Spasova, S. (2020). Planned online language education versus crisis‐prompted online language teaching: Lessons for the future. Foreign Language Annals, 53(2), 380–392. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12460
-    Hadullo, K., Oboko, R., & Omwenga, E. (2018). Factors affecting asynchronous e-learning quality in developing countries. A qualitative pre-study of JKUAT University. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 14(1), 152-163.
-    Hai-Jew, S. (2019) Establishing and applying contemporaneous e-learning standards: Evolving stylebooks and planning work. In S. Hai-Jew (ed.), Designing Instruction for Open Sharing (pp. 229-267). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02713-1_6
-    Hodges, C., Moore, S., Lockee, B., Trust, T., & Bond, A. (2020, March 27). The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. Educause Review. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teaching-and-online-learning
-    Huang, R., Liu, D., Tlili, A., Yang, J., Wang, H., et al. (2020, March 24). Handbook on facilitating flexible learning during educational disruption: The Chinese experience in maintaining undisrupted learning in COVID-19 outbreak. Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University. https://iite.unesco.org/news/handbook-on-facilitating-flexible-learning-during-educational-disruption
-    Hughes, M., Bertram, S., Young, A., Merry, J., Kolluru, G., Dunlap, A., Danielson-Francois, A., & Weiss, S. (2021). Teaching animal behavior online: A primer for the pandemic and beyond. Ethology, 127(1), 14-31. https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13096
-    Johns Hopkins University & Medicine. (2020). COVID-19 case tracker: Follow global cases and trends. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu
-    Johnson, N., Veletsianos, G., & Seaman, J. (2020). U.S. faculty and administrators’ experiences and approaches in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Online Learning, 24(2), 6-21. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v24i2.2285
-    Karalis, T. (2020). Planning and evaluation during educational disruption: Lessons learned from covid-19 pandemic for treatment of emergencies in education. European Journal of Education Studies, 7(4). 125-142. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3789022
-    Koh, J. (2017). Designing and integrating reusable learning objects for meaningful learning: Cases from a graduate programme. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 33(5), 136-151. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.3072
-    Koh, J. H., & Kan, R. Y. (2020). Perceptions of learning management system quality, satisfaction, and usage: Differences among students of the arts. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 36(3), 26-40. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.5187
-    Lengyel, P., Herdon, M., Pancsira, J., Ráthonyi, G., & Füzesi I. (2017). The effectiveness of the e-learning applications: Assessment of the service quality using binominal logistic regression. Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science, 10(2), 51-57. https://doi.org/10.7160/eriesj.2017.100203.
-    Lim, K. (2020). Emergency remote teaching and learning in the time of COVID-19. Chemistry in Australia, July/August, 38-39.
-    Lorusso, N., & Shumskaya, M. (2020). Online laboratory exercise on computational biology: Phylogenetic analyses and protein modeling based on SARS-CoV-2 data during COVID-19 remote instruction. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 48(5), 526–527. https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.21438
-    Mann, A., Schwabe, M., Fraser, P., Fülöp, G., & Ansah, G. (2020). How the covid-19 pandemic is changing education: A perspective from Saudi Arabia. OECD. http://www.oecd.org/education/How-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-changing-education-Saudi-Arabia.pdf
-    Martınez-Caro, E., Cegarra-Navarro, J., & Cepeda-Carrion, G. (2015). An application of the performance-evaluation model for e-learning quality in higher education. Total Quality Management, 26(6), 632–647. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2013.867607
-    Milman, N. (2020, March 30). This is emergency remote teaching, not just online teaching. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/03/30/this-is-Emergency-remote-teaching-not-just.html
-    Misut, M., & Pribilova, K. (2015). Measuring of quality in the context of e-learning. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 177, 312–319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.02.347
-    OLC "Online Learning Consortium". (2020a).  OLC Quality Scorecard Suite. https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/consult/olc-quality-scorecard-suite
-    OLC "Online Learning Consortium". (2020b). The State of Online Learning in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – K-12: A covid-19 impact study. https://nelc.gov.sa/sites/default/files/HE_Study_Rport_V232.pdf
-    OSCQR – SUNY. (2016). Online course quality review rubric. https://oscqr.suny.edu
-    Pérez-Pérez, M., Serrano-Bedia, A. M., & García-Piqueres, G. (2020). An analysis of factors affecting students´ perceptions of learning outcomes with Moodle. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 44(8), 1114-1129. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2019.1664730
-    Pham, L., Williamson, S., & Berry, R. (2018). Student perceptions of e-learning service quality, e-satisfaction, and e-loyalty. International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems, 14(3), 19-40. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJEIS.2018070102
-    Quality Matters "QM". (2019, August 1). K-12 Course Design Rubric Standards: Fifth Edition. https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/rubric-standards/k-12-secondary-rubric
-    Quality Matters "QM". (2020, March 13). QM Emergency Remote Instruction (ERI) Checklist. https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/resource-center/articles-resources/ERI-Checklist
-    Savic, S., Stankovic, M., & Janackovic, G. (2012). Hybrid model for e-learning quality evaluation. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 7(S1), 6-13. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.3991/ijet.v7iS1.1905
-    Theresiawati, T., Seta, H. B., Hidayanto, A. N., & Abidin. Z. (2020). Variables affecting e-learning services quality in Indonesian higher education: Students’ perspectives. Journal of Information Technology Education, 19, 259-286. https://doi.org/10.28945/4489
-    Trust, T., & Whalen, J. (2020). Should teachers be trained in emergency remote teaching? Lessons learned from the covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 28(2), 189-199.
-    Uppal, M., Ali, S., & Gulliver, S. (2018). Factors determining e-learning service quality. British Journal of Educational Technology, 49(3), 412–426. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12552
-    Verma, G., Campbell, T., Melville, W., & Park, B. (2020). Science teacher education in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 31(5), 483-490. https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2020.1771514
-    Vlachopoulos, D. (2016). Assuring quality in e-learning course design: The roadmap. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(6), 183-206.
-    Williamson, B., Eynon, R., & Potter, J. (2020). Pandemic politics, pedagogies and practices: Digital technologies and distance education during the coronavirus emergency. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(2), 107-114. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2020.1761641