COVID-19 Learning Losses

COVID-19 Learning Losses
Author: UNESCO
Publisher: UNESCO Publishing
Total Pages: 88
Release: 2021-12-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9231004948

Since the beginning of the pandemic, efforts have been made to monitor both school closures (and re-opening) and the measures put in place to ensure continuity of learning. These include the Survey of Ministries of Education on National Responses to COVID-19, jointly supported by UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank. However, to date, no systematic evidence has been available on how students' learning is being affected by the disruptions caused by the pandemic or on the impact of education response measures initiated by governments. This report contributes to filling this evidence gap and includes a series of simulations of potential learning losses due to COVID-19 and exploration of their longer-term implications. The analysis is based on the Enabling learning for all framework, which outlines access, engagement and enabling environment as the three crucial enablers for learning, while the simulation assumptions are informed by the evidence on school closures and governments' education-related responses, collected through the joint survey.

Mainstreaming Blended Learning in a Low-Income University

Mainstreaming Blended Learning in a Low-Income University
Author: Mildred Atieno Atieno Ayere
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Computers
ISBN:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maseno University (MU) began to consider institutional shift from traditional face-to-face (F2F) instructions to online and blended modes of teaching and learning. The university was able to draw from its experience with adapted flexible and blended learning (FBL) approaches for high enrollment common courses already offered to students on the Learning Management System (LMS). Several questions have been raised: How to preserve what most lecturers consider as most essential ,Äî the regular student interaction, the freewheeling give-and-take discussion sessions ,Äî if the class cannot be together in the same physical space at the same time? How to make a synchronous activity dependent course and make it work in a completely asynchronous environment? How to handle the practical based subjects on the online platform? And even if the university is able to find acceptable answers to these questions, where would it begin? However, MU did not try to reinvent the wheel. There were already examples of good practice in a number of common courses had been running on the LMS. The available courses already had a blend of both theory and practical base. The university sought assistance from schools and departments that already had parts of their programmes running on the LMS. They were able to tap into their expertise and get introduced to a valuable collection of resources about online distance teaching and learning (ODTL). That, in turn, assisted the university to develop online or blended versions of its regular F2F courses that far surpassed expectations, judging from how well their courses performed, and get ready for any other unexpected circumstance equal or similar to which the world has had to live through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Curriculum Development and Online Instruction for the 21st Century

Curriculum Development and Online Instruction for the 21st Century
Author: Fudge, Tamara Phillips
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2021-06-25
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1799876551

The world of education has undergone major changes within the last year that have pushed online instruction to the forefront of learning. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning has become paramount to the continued and uninterrupted teaching of students and has forced students and teachers alike to adjust to an online learning environment. Though some have already returned to the traditional classroom, or plan to very soon, others have begun to appreciate the value of online education – initiatives that had previously been discussed but never acted upon as they have been in the past year. With plenty of positive and negative aspects, online learning is a complex issue with numerous factors to consider. It is an issue that must be studied and examined in order to improve in the future. Curriculum Development and Online Instruction for the 21st Century examines the issues and difficulties of online teaching and learning, as well as potential solutions and best practices. This book includes an examination on the value of teaching fully via the internet as well as the challenges inherent in the training of teachers to teach in online environments. While addressing key elements of remote learning, such as keeping student data safe, as well as methods in which to engage students, this book covers topics that include assessment tools, teaching deaf students, web technology, and standardized curricula. Ideal for K-12 teachers, college faculty, curriculum developers, instructional designers, educational software developers, administrators, academicians, researchers, and students, this book provides a thorough overview of online education and the benefits and issues that accompany it.

The Routledge Companion to Gender and COVID-19

The Routledge Companion to Gender and COVID-19
Author: Linda C. McClain
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 477
Release: 2024-04-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1003861318

The Routledge Companion to Gender and COVID-19 is the first comprehensive research guide for researchers and students who seek to study and evaluate the complex relationship between gender and COVID-19. This interdisciplinary collection touches on two major themes: first, how gender played a central role in shaping access to testing, treatment, and vaccines. Second, how the pandemic not only deepened existing gender inequalities, but also those along the lines of race, class, sexuality, disability, and immigration status. Bringing together a diverse range of international scholars across a number of disciplinary perspectives, this intersectional and comparative focus on COVID explores topics including the pandemic’s impact on families, employment, childcare and elder care, human rights, as well as gender and political economy and leadership, public health law, disability rights, and abortion access. The Routledge Companion to Gender and COVID-19 is an essential volume for scholars and students of Law, Gender Studies, Sociology, Health, Economics, and Politics.

Handbook of Quality of Life in African Societies

Handbook of Quality of Life in African Societies
Author: Irma Eloff
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2019-08-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030153673

This handbook reflects on quality-of-life in societies on the continent of Africa. It provides a widely interdisciplinary text with insights on quality-of-life from a variety of scientific perspectives. The handbook is structured into sections covering themes of social context, culture and community; the environment and technology; health; education; and family. It is aimed at scholars who are working towards sustainable development at the intersections of multiple scientific fields and it provides measures of both objective and subjective quality-of-life. The scholarly contributions in the text are based on original research and it spans fields of research such as cultures of positivity, wellbeing, literacy and multilinguism, digital and mobile technologies, economic growth, food and nutrition, health promotion, community development, teacher education and family life. Some chapters take a broad approach and report on research findings involving thousands, and in one case millions, of participants. Other chapters zoom in and illustrate the importance of specificity in quality-of-life studies. Collectively, the handbook illuminates the particularity of quality-of-life in Africa, the unique contextual challenges and the resourcefulness with which challenges are being mediated. This handbook provides empirically grounded conceptualizations about life in Africa that also encapsulate the dynamic, ingenious ways in which we, as Africans, enhance our quality-of-life.

AI and education

AI and education
Author: Miao, Fengchun
Publisher: UNESCO Publishing
Total Pages: 50
Release: 2021-04-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9231004476

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to address some of the biggest challenges in education today, innovate teaching and learning practices, and ultimately accelerate the progress towards SDG 4. However, these rapid technological developments inevitably bring multiple risks and challenges, which have so far outpaced policy debates and regulatory frameworks. This publication offers guidance for policy-makers on how best to leverage the opportunities and address the risks, presented by the growing connection between AI and education. It starts with the essentials of AI: definitions, techniques and technologies. It continues with a detailed analysis of the emerging trends and implications of AI for teaching and learning, including how we can ensure the ethical, inclusive and equitable use of AI in education, how education can prepare humans to live and work with AI, and how AI can be applied to enhance education. It finally introduces the challenges of harnessing AI to achieve SDG 4 and offers concrete actionable recommendations for policy-makers to plan policies and programmes for local contexts. [Publisher summary, ed]

Mainstreaming agro-ecology in Southeast Asian higher education for the Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges, opportunities and policy options

Mainstreaming agro-ecology in Southeast Asian higher education for the Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges, opportunities and policy options
Author: Nelles, W., Ferrand, P. (eds.)
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Total Pages: 18
Release: 2021-12-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9251355266

This policy brief is one in a series led by Chulalongkorn University with support from the Office of the Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Education, Thailand, in partnership with FAO. The series was initiated to support the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Work Plan on Education, 2016–2020 implementation while Thailand was Chair of ASEAN in 2019 under the theme: “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability.” The Briefs offer critical interdisciplinary perspectives on agri-food systems from social and sustainability sciences. They are fully aligned with the regional initiative on Food System Transformation and are meant to support the work engaged with ASEAN. This brief focuses on the recent efforts that have aimed at documenting, analysing and supporting sustainable agri-food systems among Southeast Asian universities and colleges while achieving the SDGs through regional cooperation. It advocates that with greater support for institutional reforms based on five pillars – curricula, research, extension, policies, and sustainability assessments/reporting – more HEIs could collaborate with FAO and other agencies, regional organizations, governments and donors to scale-up AE innovations and alternatives.