Strategies for Effective Virtual Education during COVID-19, Thesis of Advanced Accounting

Download Strategies for Effective Virtual Education during COVID-19 and more Thesis Advanced Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! EDUC/6125 Solutions to Challenges in Virtual Learning Walden University EDUC/6125 Introduction The COVID 19 pandemic has affected the education system globally. Developed and developing nations have been forced to adjust to the impacts of the health crisis using available resources. The traditional forms of learning were brought to a halt and virtual forms were adopted to replace them. The adoption of virtual learning was chosen because it prevents a person-to-person contact and limits the further spread of the virus. Virtual learning has however posed challenges for parents, teachers, and the government in efforts to ensure the continuation of the learning process. In light of these challenges, scholars and organizations that can be adopted by institutions have proposed solutions. These solutions may guide virtual learning and policies to fully integrate virtual tools into learning. Solutions to Challenges in Virtual Learning Research in the challenges facing virtual learning systems has suggested institutions and countries must put in place contingency plans to prepare for a health crisis such as the COVID 19 pandemic. Institutions can effectively respond to challenges in virtual learning by allocating facilities and equipment to virtual learning. Agu et al. (2021) have highlighted that some developing countries have inadequate resources to implement this. In these circumstances, they should work with minimal resources to achieve impact. Developing nations may use mobile phone technology, which is accessible to a large part of the population. Conversely, developed nations can acquire sophisticated forms of technology for virtual learning. Early preparation gives institutions a better chance to prevent challenges arising from virtual learning. Student and instructor engagement through virtual learning can become strained due to a lack of physical connection. Students are constantly exhausted from a load of work assigned to them by their instructors. To improve engagement, instructors need to break down course work into units to give the students ample time to study and rest. Bao (2020) recommends that institutional faculty should be reasonable in their allocation strategies to prevent burnout among students and instructors. Online learning modules should take 20-25 minutes. This time is enough for an instructor to introduce and expound on a topic or subtopic and give assignments. Kaup et al. (2020) recommend that instructors guide their students on selecting appropriate online material to download for assignment completion. The adoption of virtual learning in institutions has revealed that many instructors are not familiar with virtual tools and online training is nonexistent. Virtual learning requires demands that teachers have technical skills to operate virtual frameworks. To address this problem, institutions can recruit teaching assistants with IT expertise to help instructors in operating the tools. According to Bao (2020), teaching assistants are important to operate online learning platforms because they can cater to students' needs by answering questions and helping them navigate online material. Communication between the instructor and the teaching assistant is vital to the fulfillment of virtual learning. Virtual tools require the incorporation of strategies and online etiquette for students to make the most out of the learning experience. Students in a medical institution while trying to make the tools available for every participant (Almarzooq, Lopes & Kochal, 2020) learned these lessons. Students and instructors have to remember that the tools can only be successfully implemented when all the participants have taken part in orientation. Orientation gives people a general overview of how to use the tool and the outcomes to expect from the virtual learning