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1. Exploring Free Digital Tools in Education

   Mucundanyi, G.; Woodley, X. (January 2021, International journal of education and development using information and communication technology)

   Technology can assist instructional designers and teachers in meeting the needs of learners in traditional classrooms and virtual course environments. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many teachers and instructional designers began looking for resources they could use for hybrid and online course delivery. Many found that the cost of some technology tools was well outside of their financial means to assist them in meeting student learning outcomes. However, some digital tools provide free access for educators and are beneficial to students. In this article, the authors shared five tools they have used in developing and teaching online and traditional technology courses at the college level. They share how they used a learning management system tool, a collaboration tool, a search engine tool, a content creation tool, and a content sharing tool to engage students in their courses. As teachers look for alternatives to use as they move content from classroom teaching to online instruction, this article can help them consider the recommended tools for instruction. Teachers, instructors, and instructional designers may explore the free digital tools in this article and do further research on other digital tools to support student learning in their disciplines. 

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2. The Ambivalence About Distance Learning in Higher Education

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11743-6_10-1  

   Xu, Di; Xu, Ying (April 2020, Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research)

   null (Ed.)

   In the past two decades, one of the most important trends in the US higher education system has been the steady increase in distance education through online courses. College administrators have expressed strong support for online education, signaling that the current online expansion will likely continue. While the supply and demand for online higher education is rapidly expanding, questions remain regarding its potential impact on increasing access, reducing costs, and improving student outcomes. Does online education enhance access to higher education among students who would not otherwise enroll in college? Can online courses create savings for students by reducing funding constraints on postsecondary institutions? Will technological innovations improve the quality of online education? This chapter provides a comprehensive review of existing research on online learning’s impact on access, cost, and student performance in higher education. Our review suggests that online education has the potential to expand access to college, especially among adult learners with multiple responsibilities. Yet, the online delivery format imposes additional challenges to effective instruction and learning. Indeed, existing studies on college courses typically find negative effects of online delivery on course outcomes and the online performance decrement is particularly large among academically less-prepared students. As a result, online courses without strong support to students may exacerbate educational inequities. We discuss a handful of practices that could better support students in online courses, including strategic course offering, student counseling, interpersonal interaction, warning and monitoring, and the professional development of faculty. Yet, college administrative data suggests that high-quality online courses with high degrees of instructor interaction and student support cost more to develop and administer than do face-to-face courses. 

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3. L oo p D e l t a : E m b e dd i n g L o c a li t y - a w a r e O pp o r t un i s t i c D e l t a C o m p r e ss i o n i n I n li n e D e dup li c a t i o n f o r Hi g h l y E ffic i e n t D a t a R e du c t i o n

   Zhang, Yucheng; Jiang, Hong; Feng, Dan; Jiang Nan; Qui, Taorong; Huang, Wei (July 2023, USENIX annual technical conference)

   A s a c om pl e men t t o da ta d edupli cat ion , de lta c om p ress i on fu r- t he r r edu c es t h e dat a vo l u m e by c o m pr e ssi n g n o n - dup li c a t e d ata chunk s r e l a t iv e to t h e i r s i m il a r chunk s (bas e chunk s). H ow ever, ex is t i n g p o s t - d e dup li c a t i o n d e l t a c o m pr e ssi o n a p- p ro a ches fo r bac kup s t or ag e e i t h e r su ffe r f ro m t h e l ow s i m - il a r i t y b e twee n m any de te c ted c hun ks o r m i ss so me po t e n - t i a l s i m il a r c hunks , o r su ffer f r om l ow (ba ckup and r es t ore ) th r oug hpu t du e t o extr a I/ Os f or r e a d i n g b a se c hun ks o r a dd a dd i t i on a l s e r v i c e - d i s r up t ive op e r a t i on s to b a ck up s ys t em s. I n t h i s pa p e r, w e pr opo se L oop D e l t a t o a dd ress the above - m e n t i on e d prob l e m s by an e nha nced em b e ddi n g d e l t a c o m p - r e ss i on sc heme i n d e dup li c a t i on i n a non - i n t ru s ive way. T h e e nha nce d d elt a c o mpr ess ion s che m e co m b in e s f our key t e c h - ni qu e s : (1) du a l - l o c a li t y - b a s e d s i m il a r i t y t r a c k i n g to d e t ect po t e n t i a l si m il a r chun k s b y e x p l o i t i n g both l o g i c a l and ph y - s i c a l l o c a li t y, ( 2 ) l o c a li t y - a wa r e pr e f e t c h i n g to pr efe tc h ba se c hun ks to a vo i d ex t ra I/ Os fo r r e a d i n g ba s e chun ks on t h e w r i t e p at h , (3) c a che -aware fil t e r to avo i d ext r a I/Os f or b a se c hunk s on t he read p at h, a nd (4) i nver sed de l ta co mpressi on t o perf orm de lt a co mpress i o n fo r d at a chunk s t hat a re o th e r wi se f o r b i dd e n to s er ve as ba se c hunk s by r ew r i t i n g t e c hn i qu e s d e s i g n e d t o i m p r ove r es t o re pe rf o rma nc e. E x p e r i m e n t a l re su lts indi ca te t hat L oop D e l t a i ncr ea se s t he c o m pr e ss i o n r a t i o by 1 .2410 .97 t i m e s on t op of d e dup li c a - t i on , wi t hou t no t a b l y a ffe c t i n g th e ba ck up th rou ghpu t, a nd i t i m p r ove s t he res to re p er fo r m an ce b y 1.23.57 t i m e 

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4. Strategies to Address Changes in Social Supports during the COVID-19 Pandemic

   Johnston, A. C.; Douglas, K. A.; Martin, J. P.; Short, T. (June 2021, American Society for Engineering Education 2021 Annual Conference and Exposition)

   The pandemic of COVID-19 is disrupting engineering education globally, at all levels of education.While distance education is nothing new, the pandemic of COVID-19 forced instructors to rapidly move their courses online whether or not they had ever received prior training in online education. In particular, there is very little literature to guide instructors in supporting students in online engineering design or project-based courses. The purpose of this research is to examine engineering students’ report of social support in their project and design-based courses at a large research university during the move to online instruction due to COVID-19in the Spring 2020 semester and to provide recommendations for instructors teaching these types of courses online in the future.Our study is framed by social constructivism and social capital theory.We surveyed undergraduate engineering and engineering technology students(n=235) across undergraduate levels during the final week of the Spring 2019 semester.Survey questions included open-ended prompts about social supports and overall experience with the transition to online learning as well as name and resource generator questions focused on specific people and types of interactions that changed during the pandemic. We used qualitative content analysis of the open-ended responses along with comparisons of the name and resource generator to develop recommendations for instructors.Recommendations to increase students’ social supports include:facilitating informal conversations between students and between students and the instructional team, grouping students located in the same time zones in teams, facilitating co-working sessions for students, establishing weekly structure, and utilizing some synchronous components (e.g., virtual office hours). 

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5. Developing an observation protocol for online STEM courses

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0297359  

   Horvitz, Brian S.; DeCamp, Whitney; Mitchell, Regina Garza; Kowalske, Megan; Singleton, Cherrelle (January 2024, PLoS ONE)

   Sun, Daner (Ed.)

   The use of online instruction for undergraduate STEM courses is growing rapidly. While researchers and practitioners have access to validated instruments for studying the practice of teaching in face-to-face classrooms, analogous tools do not yet exist for online instruction. These tools are needed for quality design and control purposes. To meet this need, this project developed an observational protocol that can be used to collect non-evaluative data for the description, study, and improvement of online, undergraduate STEM courses. The development of this instrument used a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach to the research, design, pilot-testing, refinement and implementation of the protocol. Pairs of researchers tested the final version of this instrument, observing completed online undergraduate STEM courses. Across 2,394 pairs of observations, the observers recorded the same indication (yes or no to the presence of some course element) 1,853 times for an agreement rate of 77.4%, falling above the 75% threshold for an acceptable level of agreement. There was a wide range in the inter-rater reliability rates among items and further revisions were made to the instrument. This foundational work-in-progress instrument should be further developed and used by practitioners who are interested in learning about and reflecting on their online teaching practice. 

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