Abstract
The authors share their online teaching experiences in a private university in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic and offer recommendations for fostering dynamic learning in synchronous online classrooms and further research. Over 60% of the world’s student population has been affected by nationwide closure, and 1.2 million university students were displaced from the classroom in Canada (UNESCO, 2020). Educators who have embraced the transition to online teaching-learning try various teaching and assessment methodologies that suit their classes (Lage et al., 2000; Luthra & MacKenzie, 2020). Recent studies (Burgess & Sievertsen, 2020) have investigated the impact of the COVID-19 on educators and students’ performance. However, few have reviewed technology-based instruments that could facilitate online teaching and learning at the time of a pandemic or offered recommendations for online teaching and learning improvements. This chapter reviews digital tools utilized in online synchronous classes in the Bachelor of Business Administration program at a Canadian university of 8000 to 10,000 students to address this gap. It offers educators, researchers, and educational institutions recommendations to enhance the learning experiences and foster engagement in online classrooms. This chapter first reviews research on blended learning (BL), which refers to synchronous teaching/learning classes, as well as online asynchronous resources and assignments. Then, the faculty members’ online teaching experiences and challenges are presented. Finally, recommendations are considered to facilitate online teaching and advance research.
The emergency response of the education sector demonstrated that placing the needs of the teacher-student at the center of the instructional design should become a priority for any educational to remain competitive and relevant in the post-COVID-19 era.
Mazzucato, Babaee, Kazemi, Daeidzadeh, Kaur, and Sode
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Mazzucato, L., Babaee, N., Kazemi, A., Daeizadeh, Z., Kaur, N., Sode, O.(. (2021). Blended Learning for Teaching During the COVID-19 Pandemic. In: Fayed, I., Cummings, J. (eds) Teaching in the PostCOVID-19 Era. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74088-7_29
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