In terms of cognitive presence, lecture recordings and the availability of message histories during question-and-answer sessions enabled the students to review the content after the classes, and allowed students of different learning levels to cope with the course knowledge better.
However, to ensure the quality of the learning, students recognised that they needed more efforts themselves, including a higher sense of independence in finding answers, doing homework, and aggregating their knowledge.
Another noteworthy observation is that although the teaching has moved online, most assessments remain the same as in the face-to-face mode. According to the research team, this calls for comprehensive review of how university assessments should be adapted with respect to changing learning and teaching platforms, and the newly acquired skills of both students and instructors.
At the same time, the study recorded mixed responses towards social presence in online learning. Big class sizes and lack of prior personal contacts were found as the main reasons for lack of socialising.
“In our study, students who did not know each other struggled more in group work. We also found that certain assessments are not designed to require close collaboration between the students, lowering the need to develop social presence in online learning. This is a gap that instructors should seriously look at,” Dr Thuan said.
Dr Hiep remarked that “understanding students’ needs and assessing the effectiveness of provided resources are always important to maintain high-quality teaching, whether we are teaching online or offline.”
“Our study calls for further research on the tools, techniques, and best practices that can enhance online presence in digital learning, while not forcing excessive workload on educational instructors. As such, future studies should focus on the effective, customised implementation of online learning while taking into account resource constraints,” Dr Hiep concluded.
Story: Ngoc Hoang