This study explored the perceived challenges of online learning encounter by rural educators in response to COVID-19 pandemic at a selected rural school in South Africa. Within the qualitative ...approach, a multiple case study was used as a research design. A sample size of six participants (N=6, two males and four females) was drawn from a rural school in a Thabo Mofutsanyana District in the Free State Province. Purposive and convenience sampling techniques were used to select participants in this study. The participants had teaching experience ranging from 2 to 7 years. Data were collected through telephone interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. The finding suggested that the Protection Motivation Theory was an insightful framework in responding to the challenges emanating from COVID-19 induced online teaching and learning. Thus, the study revealed that there are various challenges to online learning. These include poor parental involvement in children’s homework, incomplete work and poor performance, insufficient personal protective equipment, poor access to network access, and lack of learning devices. Subsequently, we recommend that stakeholders such as the Department of Education, Department of Basic Education, and School Governing Bodies, among others, should ensure that parents are sensitized about the need for learners to manage the resources at their disposal. Furthermore, the provision of adequate resources such as; Internet connectivity and Information and Communication Technologies learning devices is imperative.
This paper reports on the comparison of the accuracy and quality of the responses produced by the three artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, ChatGPT, YouChat, and Chatsonic, based on the prompts ...(use cases) related to selected areas of applied English language studies (AELS). An exploratory research design was employed and we utilised purposive sampling. The three aforementioned AI chatbots were used to collect data sets. Of the three chatbots, YouChat was technically unstable and unreliable, and had some inconsistency in generating responses. The other two chatbots, ChatGPT and Chatsonic, consistently exhibited a tendency to plagiarise responses from internet information without acknowledging the sources. In certain cases, the three chatbots all generated almost similar responses for different and unrelated prompts. This made their responses look like run-of-the-mill responses that lacked credibility, accuracy, and quality. One chatbot (ChatGPT) could not recognise a scholar mentioned in one of the prompts, while the other one (Chatsonic) misrecognised this scholar, and ended up rambling parts of its response. Additionally, the three chatbots all mechanically and superficially generated phrases and ideas in their responses without detecting the related critical nuances in the original sources in which they were used. This made the knowledge communicated by those responses appearing too fluffy. In this paper the educational and knowledge implications of the generated responses for AELS were educed. Based on the shortcomings the three AI chatbots displayed, I concluded that these three chatbots are not yet credible and reliable generators of knowledge for the aspects of AELS discussed.
The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has brought another dimension to teaching and learning across the levels of education. The lockdown imposed in many countries to curtail the pandemic forced many ...institutions of learning to shift to the online mode of teaching and learning. Using a descriptive survey research design, this study explored the online learning experiences of pre-service teachers at a Ghanaian university during the COVID-19 lockdown. The study focused on the pre-service teachers’ preparedness for online learning in terms of their digital literacy and technological devices used for online learning, their positive online learning experiences, and the challenges they encountered learning online. The findings suggested that the pre-service teachers were digitally literate and mostly accessed online learning using smartphones. Besides, online learning enabled them to communicate and collaborate actively with their course mates and lecturers. It was found that the flexibility of online learning increased the students’ motivation to learn. However, poor internet connectivity, the high cost of data, erratic power supply, lack of appropriate devices, inability to effectively manage their time, and family interruptions were some of the challenges experienced by the pre-service teachers.
The emergence of variants of Covid-19, the persistence of lockdowns in many countries, and the necessity to maintain sustainable education have resulted in a shift from the traditional classroom to ...virtual space. As such, there is a strong need to leverage technological advances while mitigating the challenges faced by primary teachers. Through the incorporation of eight elements, the authors sought to better understand factors that influence teacher readiness to deliver sex education in primary schools. Structural Equation Modeling was employed to assess the proposed conceptual model. The online survey was designed and distributed by Google Forms. Based on the results from 383 individuals, the findings revealed that facilitating conditions, educational policy, and parental involvement all had a relationship with teacher readiness. Digital content positively influenced performance expectancy and effort expectancy. Sexual knowledge had a statistically significant and positive influence on effort expectancy. Finally, openness had a statistically significant and positive influence on performance expectancy. The significant exceptions were that effort expectancy was not found to predict teacher readiness, and performance expectancy was not found to influence teacher readiness. The reasons for these non-significant correlations were briefly discussed and more studies on this topic are called to investigate these unexpected outcomes in more detail. The level of readiness, as well as theoretical and practical implications for scholars and practitioners, were discussed.
The current study has aimed to identify the status of teaching mathematics in simultaneous virtual classes, in the light of the Covid 19 pandemic, by uncovering the teaching practices in the fields ...of lesson planning, teaching the new mathematical knowledge, classroom management, and raising the level of interaction, and that of evaluation. The descriptive approach was used in this study, and a random sample, which consisted of 385 mathematics teachers in the Qassim Education Department, was chosen during the first semester of the academic year 2020/21. The questionnaire was the tool used to collect the data after confirming the validity and the reliability thereof. The results of the study showed that the status of teaching mathematics in simultaneous virtual classes in the light of the Covid 19 pandemic was at a high level (3.80/5), according to the respondents' point of view. The results were respectively as follows: planning "high" 3.87; teaching new mathematical knowledge high "3.81"; the evaluation at a high degree of 3.80; and class management, as well as raising the level of interaction at a high degree of 3.67. The results of the study have revealed that there is a discrepancy in some practices, a matter which requires the identification of the training needs of mathematics male and female teachers in the field of e-learning in virtual classes, such as diversifying the methods of receiving students' responses to activities (chatting - WhatsApp --... etc.); the use of electronic participatory learning strategies in building and organizing the work of cooperative learning groups, employing electronic communication applications in providing reinforcement and feedback to students, employing electronic sports activities in presenting the lesson, and by using virtual engineering tools, while solving mathematical problems.
The incorporation of local knowledge into pocket book learning media provides for a multidimensional strategy for enhancing academic integrity. To create a learning atmosphere that prioritizes both ...academic excellence and ethical conduct, this incorporation mixes contemporary educational techniques with traditional cultural views. This paper aims to systematically review and synthesize literature on the creation of pocket book learning media based on local knowledge, with a focus on its potential to enhance academic integrity. To investigate the research topic, a systematic literature review was conducted using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) methodology to address three main research objectives. The quality of studies reviewed between 2013 and 2023 was analyzed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Three (3) articles were rated as average, eleven (11) articles as above-average quality, and the remaining six (6) were rated high quality. The central discovery of the research highlights a shared foundation between local wisdom and academic integrity, which are moral and social ethics, honesty, trust, and respect, forming a basis upon which pocket book learning media can be crafted. By infusing the principles of local wisdom into pocket book learning resources, the potential to enhance academic integrity arises due to this common ground. The study has further established a versatile framework that, in conjunction with various research models, can guide the creation of learning materials rooted in local wisdom, thereby fostering and promoting academic integrity.
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