In developing countries some students lack gadgets such as smart phone or a laptop. Connectivity to internet is another problem especially in remote areas. I agree extended time to be provided for assessments.

The problems with E-learning is that not everyone has technology or reliable internet where they live. This creates a large disadvantage for those individuals. Many rural areas struggle with reliable phone and internet because of so many people using it at the same time in an area. The internet providers cannot stretch the internet far enough to cater to all of the individuals on the internet. I have found that the only time that I can submit work is around 3AM which is rather early to be up.

There is also the problem of having more responsibilities when doing schooling online. Many students will have to do extra chores or get a job while they are doing online work at home. This creates more pressure as they are already struggling with the online class load and unreliable internet. This means that many students may not be able to get the work done on time and may struggle to keep up.

To address the issue of cheating while doing classes online, there is not much that you can do. While being so far apart, and not being able to walk around the classroom, monitoring may become difficult. Changes in their grades may be from the change to online as some may do better online, or from being in an environment that they are more comfortable in such as their homes. The only way that I would suggest would be to do a video conference call with the students as they are taking the tests.@Samir Albadri

There are many difficulties face the online teaching. Internet speed in some geographical areas is low while in other areas is high. Also, not all students have the technology needed. At the same time, skills in dealing with technology differ from person to person.

Mahfuz Judeh Yes, I agree that internet access is a big problem and the experience.

Many thanks

Salesh Kumar Many thanks

Heather Sears Many thanks for your information

I have a question that is related to can we make an exam in the PowerPoint during the live lecturer and get the response from each student for every single question. Is this possible?

Boidurjo Rick Mukhopadhyay Thanks for sharing your published with us

To have the exam via PowerPoint would be rather difficult and I don't know if that is possible with that application. However, with that being said, there are many video conference applications that you can do that with. PowerPoint is more for recording and showing rather that communication both ways. Best wishes. Samir B.Salman Al-Badri

Yap,that will help.

Thanks a lot Heather Sears

Especially to maintain the students attention throughout an entire 40 min. webinar. Transmit knowledge person-to-person is not possible at distance e-learning. Motivate students to complete different tasks and to actively participate during a webinar or e-class.

Remote teaching does not allow learning in a patient-problem centered setting. Students need to examine the patient in vivo to really learn of the patient's problem and how to resolve it. The same true for learning surgical skills. That is nor possible by remote teaching.

Your question is related to our current emphasis. To come to the point, teachers are highly challenged by lack of skill in managing the new technology during e-learning.

Yes, it is so hard to find a way that can help teacher to control the exam remotely Alejandro Rodriguez-Garcia

Thanks for your discussion Solomon Mengistie

Dear Samir Albadri

There are many challenges. First of all is the absence of students motivation. Secondly some problems with the internet connections by students.

Best regards

Yes, the students don’t have the desire to learn. The second point which is related to the internet it just happens in theArabic country’s Nasser Said Gomaa Abdelrasheed Thanks a lot

I would argue that a critical challenge is balancing instructor presence in online learning environments with students' individual motivation to self-direct their learning, complete assignments, and monitor their individual progress.

While it is necessary that educators provide guidance, communication, and feedback to students; this presence is only beneficial if a student uses it.

Similarly, all of the resources within a course should be designed to promote ease in students' learning; however, even the best-designed curriculum and resources will fail if a student does not take the initiative to control their own learning.

Lack of motivation among students to independently follow through their learning material. Students taking time to complete tasks and or response. Many students seeking individualised attention of the same problem that has been explained online while they were not paying attention, not even dare to check what has been posted and or covered.

I still prefer e-learning because I can repeatedly re-post what I have covered and send it to all with ease. It's not easy to repeat things to students coming to your office one-by-one. Not to mention that, some students who don't have the desire to learn might not even show up in class, so the e-learning is more student-centred, as long as a teacher gives them more information and resources to work on their own.

Some of the students copy the homwork that given to them on the online classes. Other were access to the others students accounts to help them due to slow internet or cheating. I give them a quiz which included write name, Email, and 10 questions. I got two answers with the same mistake and two others wrote his Emil and the name related to another girl in the class and vices versus. Then I got an email from the students he explained that he used here accounts to help her.

Thank for the discussion Jaime Mcqueen

Thanks for your discussion

Nox Mafu

Technical suppory

If you are teaching in an undergraduate degree, you need to make questions bank and they select different questions for each student .

If you are testing postgraduate then give them limited time And try to make different groups with at least half the questions different

Do you believe that E-learning is worth and make the students understand the concepts in som field such as chimsteey , agricultural, biology....,and engineering dud the undergraduate and graduate levels. Thats May work with the social sciences.

Thanks Sawsan Al-Shamaa

Thanks a lot Alzain Alzain

I am a lecturer for quantitative analysis for MBA students, I thought online and was successful, I use words, whiteboard and my power points plus recording the lecture so students can go back to it

MY GREATET CHALLENGE IS TO EDUCATE MY STUDENTS HOW TO USE GOOGLE CLASSROOM

MY GREATET CHALLENGE IS TO EDUCATE MY STUDENTS HOW TO USE GOOGLE CLASSROOM

Greeting Ihab

You can do that by using survey and register name in the same way of the quiz that may help them to learn@ Ihab A. Satam

Thanks

In my opinion, there are lots of limitations for the teachers to use e-learning in schools and college settings. Those limitation will be doubled the trouble of the teachers if students are at home. For instance, varieties of devices used by learners, limited accessibility and network connection, limited technical support got by teachers, lack of practice based training, limited time for preparation and lack of teachers' competency. Additionally, it creates additional problem if they have to teach for school level children's.

Internet coverage unstable the bias and cheat from students very high because they can close video.

Asking students questions during the session (Formative Assessment) will help Lecturers/Teachers to have an idea about their students' learning when it comes to assigning grades (Summative Assessment).

So, by using this approach we can monitor students' learning.

If we find there a correlation between the results of both assessments then we can consider it to validate our grades.

Technical problems like the slow internet connection or electricity shutdown.

In addition to the novicity of the e-learning for those who didn't practice it previously.

The general condition of the society during the past period from political to health issues could affect the students enthusiasm for e- learning.

It's the teacher role that is important to persuade students to keep studying, and still now we are doing well.

Students reading, comprehending, and following directions especially with the transition to online from on-ground!.

In Buea, Cameroon, Sub-Saharan Africa, our major problems are constant power cuts, weak internet or low bandwidth and limited finance to manage E.learning. Look forward to a paper i should be publishing soon in this area.

We know that' some indian teacher not intersted to teach online so main think is first try all teacher to teach online and i suggest to teacher make entertaining of all lesson because students required attention and also entertainment after 45 minut of classes

In Iraq, some of the students are not interested in e-learning and we are doing our best to convince them to study online@ Dhanendra Dhanuka

We have the same problems short power and slow Internet Etta Aki

Thanks for your discus.

Many thanks Doris Yates

Many thanks, Dr. @ Haider Majid Al-Zaidi We are doing our best

Thanks a lot, Dr.@ Ali Jwaid

Yes, this is the best strategy that we can do after each lecture or during it.

You can use this web https://www.polleverywhere.com/ which gives you free 25 participants during the lecture to answer the question and get the results directly.

Thanks a lot @ Chuthamar Suwanmani

Many thanks @ Kalpana Rimal

I think effective communication; it is different compared to face-to-face teaching. Also, interaction in a small group is not at the same standards. I feel more research is needed to enhance and understand these limitations.

Many thanks, Professor@Samy Azer. Yes, the E-learning needs a lot of work to achieve the goal.

Samir B.Salman Al-Badri Thank you for starting this very critical discussion. My responses are as follows:

1. Lack of purpose built infrastructure: Most institutions deploy a cumbersome, expensive global approach for all departments. But each discipline has its own requirements in terms of course content, deployment, testing, etc. A good example of this is Moodle. It WAS great, but technology has evolved in the market and needs to evolve within institutions.

2. Lack of awareness in instructors

3. Lack of training in instructors

4. Due to 1,2,3: Lack of willingness in instructors

5. Due to 1,2,3,4: Low institutional motivation to train instructors on newer technologies and platforms.

Therefore, and understandably, due to 1-5,: Lack of motivation and participation on behalf of students.

My research is actually about this. I would appreciate it if you would all take the time to read about it. In addition, we are trying to collect more information about E-learning readiness and deployment and would therefore appreciate if you took the time to respond to our questionnaire:

This survey is designed to collect feedback from instructors to develop a better understanding of how they view their institutions overall readiness to launch/deploy/implement an e-learning platform that caters to their teaching styles, methods, and allows them to deliver course content as per the standards set by their curricula.

Please take the time to respond to this survey to help us find better solutions to deliver effective online education and e-learning platforms.

English version: https://form.jotform.com/201183672653051

Turkish version: https://form.jotform.com/201184581533048

Greeting Dear Dr.@ Baber Zafar many thanks for sharing your information with us. You hit most of the points in a creative way in your survey. What are your experiences with online exams and prevent cheating?

Thanks

Many thanks, Professor@ Samy Azer. Yes, the E-learning needs a lot of work to achieve the goal.

Thanks a lot @ Somayah Achmat

Dear Samir B.Salman Al-Badri

Thank you for your response. I really do appreciate your feedback on the survey. If you have any further suggestions, please dont hesitate to contact me at [email protected]

In terms of my experiences with online exams and measures to prevent cheating....well, its not easy, especially given the many creative ways students come up with to cheat. So the solution is to think like a student that would try to cheat.

Cheating can be prevented, or even, dare I say, eliminated if the testing sytem is DESIGNED to be one step ahead of students. Since this is online AND remote testing, the measures to be taken are technical in nature and should be implemented by those designing the actual testing module:

1. Randomize the answer options present in multiple choice tests. Therefore, answer sequences cannot be passed on from one student to another since no one, not even the examiner knows in which sequence the system will generate answer choices.

2. Test should unlock at set date and time and lock at set date and time. This way no one can access it before or after the test.

3. Assign login credentials. My students dont need a username to login. Makes things easier. However, they do need to enter a code to take the test. But, there is not one global passcode that everyone can use. Each student gets an autogenerated dynamic key which uses a combination of their email address, IP address, and phone number. These keys are distributed via email automatically 5 minutes prior to the exam unlock time and expire immediately after they are used thus ensuring they can only be used ONCE and ONCE only. Combining the IP address factor ENSURES that even if they pass on the key within those 5 minutes to another student, the key cannot be used because it checks authentication with the IP address and so cannot be used with another IP

4. (a) Disable rightclick context menu

(b) Disable copy/paste

(c) disable translation through web browser

(d) Disable auto-complete

(e) Disable spell-check

(f) Disable printing

5. This is one of the best ways to prevent cheating especially if you are going to use the same test on a different day to test a different class section: Create a transparent layer over the exam display. It doesnt show any differently to the end user. BUT when they attempt to take a screenshot, they only can capture the top most "layer" in the image generated, which results in, Nothing. :)

Theres more ways that I have implemented in my testing system but I feel my post is too long now :)

You can take a look at our testing lab on our website at www.teache.org in the Practice section. Our testing platform was tested in the middle of the ocean to ensure connectivity and minimal data usage, and it works perfectly. It is also available on PC and mobile.

I would like to hear your feedback on this.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your question. I am trying to use online programs in small groups. However, there are several challenges compared to actual small group interactions. I think there are several ideas to help the technology make changes in their systems to enhance communications in small groups. I am sure that we will see better online-systems soon.

Yes, you are right professor Samy A. Azer

Many thanks

In Nigeria, one of the major challenges facing teachers during e-learning is the difficulty or lack of appropriate skills to operate the internet. Most of our teachers are used to the analogue method of teaching, thereby finding digital knowledge complex to comprehend.

Secondly, accessing the internet requires subscription which is expensive for most teachers as they are not well paid.

Thirdly, e-learning requires stable power supply to power the gadgets (phones, laptops, etc.) that will be used.

In conclusion, despite the importance of e-learning to the attainment of education for sustainable development, these challenges mentioned above are just a few of so many other hindrances to e-learning.

Thanks a lot @ Tope Gloria Aiyedun

Absent of students and most of them are not aware

Best regards

Many thanks Dr@ Nasser Said Gomaa Abdelrasheed

In Puerto Rico all the above apply, Teachers are doing their best but with very little knowledge about the e-learning and not having by now what they need. Parents are not prepared to supervise school work at home.

Thanks a lot @Carmen Enid Torres

As. Lecturer in quantitative methods for postgraduate students, and also teaching research methods for the MBA program, I face a challenge in the quantitative course ( but manage to teach on line using different tools and software to get the learner understand )

Research methods learners enjoyed teaching online, I do not do quizzes, but assessments which so far all good ( cheating can be recognized. Through Turnitin )

That is interesting thanks a lot Sawsan Al-Shamaa

My biggest challenge is to teach the students how to use online platforms

Thanks Samir Albadri for nice question: Teachers are facing some difficulties (but every one is trying by best level) which are challenging such as:

1. Lack of practice of using internet and technology.

2. Many teachers are using online platform first time (Not able to handle all technical problems).

3. Effective ways to conduct online lectures, presentations.

4. To handle all problems related with audio, video, connectivity.

5. To handle students problems related with internet and lack of knowledge of technology.

6. Make effective PPTs.

7. Taking exams online.

Getting used to new teaching tools (platforms, internet, etc.)

The challenges include:

1. Readiness of teachers technologically and psychologically. ( Most teachers are technologically impaired. Mentally, both teachers and learners do not have a ready mind set on this immediate transition)

2. The query of what E- learning platforms to use. ( Whatever is available at this time?)

Major challenges are 1. Lack of honesty and commitment from the government in ensuring adequate ICT facilities to the teachers and the students, and 2. High expensive data which may not be available for wholistic engagement and interaction BTW teachers and learners.

Many thanks for your discus@ Anil Hiwarekar

Yes, the online exam and prevent cheating are the big problem

Regards

Thanks a lot @ Carine Temegne Nono

Thanks a lot @ Sofia Afidchao

You are right most of the students reject the E-learning

https://elearningindustry.com/online-teaching-challenges-a-z

Many thanks, Dr.@ Abdelkader Mohamed Elsayed

Article Challenges for Teachers in the Era of E-learning in India

https://elearningindustry.com/5-common-challenges-facing-educators-at-school-beginning-and-tools-to-address-them

https://elearningindustry.com/5-common-challenges-facing-educators-at-school-beginning-and-tools-to-address-them

Many thanks @ Nasser Said Gomaa Abdelrasheed that will help

The problem teachers face with the e learning is that most of the teachers does not have a mastery of the e-learning stuff, some teachers can not download the various apps talkless of manipulate them.

Thanks Sahngwain Yolande Lisseh

In Fiji w efaced difficulties as students do not have the right gadget to do online learning, also the network issues due to various locations in remote areas, funds to purchase data to do research assignments.

For quizzes online to avoid cheating can only be minimized with huge question bank and random selection of questions posed to students for attempting, otherwise it can be easily cheated. Vinaka

Amongst other factors, I think the Teachers' poor attitude or resistance to change is also an impediment.

Despite the shift in paradigm imposed by technological advancements, some teachers still hang on the conservative/traditional teaching methods. They have just refused to embrace the new paradigm coz of their conservative attitudes. Lack of operational knowledge, inadequate gadgets, poor internet connection, not withstanding have had resounding negative impact too.

The UK government invested heavily in the development of e-learning between 1998 and 2010. See “E-Learning policy and the “transformation” of schooling: a UK case study” - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279927229_E-Learning_policy_and_the_transformation_of_schooling_a_UK_case_study

Whilst much attention is given to the availability of equipment and internet access a far more challenging barrier to developing e-learning is teachers' perceptions of how technology remediates the relationship between teacher and learner and how it may undermine their “authority” as the “holders of knowledge”. See “Trainee teachers attitudes to ICT” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330754297_Trainee_teachers_attitudes_to_ICT

The challenges will be different between university based and school based education and between different countries but the core challenges as I see them remain as follows:

1. Challenges in relation to the underpinning dominant narrative of pedagogy. Where this is largely “instructivist” and education is seen by teacher and learner as the “transmission of knowledge” from the teacher to the learner then the challenges are largely technical and infrastructure related. Where the challenge is to transmit “lectures”, “notes” or PowerPoint slides to students then the teacher needs the skills or support to make them and the infrastructure to distribute the resources. Whilst this is an infrastructure challenge in some countries the methods are established and skills relatively easy to acquire.

2. I would offer that far more challenging is the development of an e-learning constructivist pedagogy in which guided collaboration between teachers and learners is deployed effectively. Whilst the technology related to the “transmission” approach above is well developed, teachers are less comfortable with on-line constructivist pedagogy and the tools to support it.

As such I think the challenge is twofold. Firstly to develop an understanding of constructivist pedagogies themselves in relation to the strengths, weaknesses and appropriateness for particular learning contexts. Secondly to develop an understanding of the affordances of the collaborative e-learning tools themselves. At this point I might offer a clarification of the above relationship between “instructivist” and “constructivist” pedagogies. In some cases these are seen as two apposing approaches to teaching. I would offer that they are not. Like “knives and forks” they are best viewed and two different tools which, if combined appropriately, will “get the job done”. The key issue is that teachers need to be aware of where one or the other is most appropriate.

Finally, if we look at the question again we could rephrase it to offer a new and complementary question. “'What’s are the difficulties and challenges facing the LEARNER during E-learning'? Where we are seeking to develop effective constructivist e-pedagogy the challenge will be as much to change the mindset of the learner as the teacher. This may be even more challenging!

Bake:

I agree with you regarding the resistance of making the shift from face-to-face to online teaching and learning. Ten plus years ago I too was resistant, but once I got the hang of things and worked with my tech support team and added some personality to the online discussion and weekly units the experience has become okay.

I enjoy the option online courses offer, i.e. adjusting the length of the course to not only reduce the stress on the students but on myself as well, the same content just in an abbreviated format. Adding personality to the online experience means finding germane graphics and/or quotes for the various topics, inserting appropriate videos that either are topic related or inspirational these are ways to get and keep the students engaged.

The option of ZOOM or Collaborate (Blackboard) adds yet another dimension to online teaching and learning provided the technology works! :)

Online teaching and learning are not the be all end all, but offer an option as we face the challenges of COVID 19!

e-learning is good for higher classes but not for pre-primary and primary levels. Some time in developing countries the learner has not appropriate technological equipment (smartphones, Internet facility) and they may face difficulty. It was also observed that some times teachers are not very techno-friendly and they do not want to put their extra effort towards e-learning.

Thanks Jyoti Verma

Yes, hope that will end soon Doris Yates

I believe that the great challenge has been the learning of the teachers, as far as the handling of certain platforms and online applications, since with the presential system its use was very limited.

I think the main challenges is to try to increase student engagement. Many students over the years have informed me that find it hard to keep interest in online lectures and tutorial content. One way to overcome this is to create peer engagement using apps like Slack. That way students can interact with each other and you can view and respond to any of their issues or concerns. Hope this helps!