Remote (e)Learning: Virtual Classrooms Have Stripped Teachers of Spontaneity

Very little time was available for faculties, polytechnics, colleges, and business schools to transition from traditional teaching methods to remote learning, as, in addition to technical conditions, it was necessary to educate both professors and students for online teaching. Moving to virtual classrooms was not simple, but participants in online classes adapted well, partly because some educational institutions already had experience in this area.

Crucial Adaptability

The Faculty of Organization and Informatics (FOI) at the University of Zagreb prepared its own IT infrastructure for online teaching – servers, e-learning systems, authentication and authorization systems, and a webinar system, while the Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZŠEM) was the first in Croatia to practice online teaching back in 2002 and, thanks to years of experience, held a remote exam and thesis defense in April.

– Keeping pace with technologies, we have absolutely adapted to the current situation and enabled high school graduates to take the entrance exam as planned. We are aware that the adaptability of the faculty is now crucial, which is why thirty professors from ZŠEM were available to candidates to ensure everything went smoothly – says Dr. Goran Oblaković, Vice Dean for Undergraduate Studies.

According to Dr. Mate Njavre, Vice Dean of ZŠEM, they have been building the complete e-learning system for years, which now allows them to conduct lectures, seminars, and all other teaching activities such as colloquia, exams, team projects, presentations, and defenses of final and graduate theses without interruption. Approximately half of the lectures are provided to students in pre-recorded format, which they can access via the Loom platform at any time, while the other half is conducted in real-time via the Zoom platform. According to a survey conducted at ZŠEM, students are satisfied with the speed of online class organization.

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Three Times More Teachers

The expert teams at Algebra University College increased the virtual capacities for conducting classes to 160 classrooms and 400 teachers in just one week. Students receive the content of presentations and a digital record of the board, as well as video with the lecturer. In addition to demanding technological changes, the majority of the work was done in additional training for teachers for this type of teaching and preparing additional learning materials. With the existing 100 teachers, assistants, and lecturers, they quickly reached 300 teachers additionally trained for appropriate online tools and presentation methodologies.
Predrag Šuka, head of the undergraduate multimedia computing program at Algebra, emphasizes that the previous experience of conducting online classes helped both him and the students in the rapid transition to this method of remote teaching.

– We have also felt some new levels of competitiveness because it is now clearer how groups consist of motivated and goal-oriented individuals. It is good that our students are very tech-savvy and want to master new knowledge as quickly as possible, which creates a positive learning atmosphere. We are working more on research and measuring our own results. Now we must be ready to learn and build upon existing knowledge, think about micro-learning, and master new units – says Šuka.

Licenses for Rooms

The Faculty of Economics at the University of Zagreb has been conducting online classes in domestic and international environments for about ten years. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the inability to hold classes at the faculty, additional training for professors regarding online teaching was organized, as well as the preparation of a series of additional materials to facilitate the use of e-learning platforms for both students and lecturers.

The faculty conducted two surveys from April 20 to 24, 2020, regarding online teaching. According to the survey results, as many as 82 percent of surveyed professors stated that the transition to online teaching requires significantly more effort. A survey of students’ experiences with online teaching, focused on the most numerous program of integrated university studies and students who regularly have the opportunity to participate in classes, showed that they believe the faculty did a good job setting up online teaching and adapting all necessary administrative processes. The Faculty of Economics is using ten licenses for virtual rooms this academic year, while the entire Croatian educational system has only 52 licenses available for Adobe Connect.

A Natural Step

The Faculty of Organization and Informatics has prepared a unique online learning portal – FOI Online, which integrates all concise yet essential information for teachers and students and is available to everyone in Croatia. Students have access to all online learning resources: digital materials, video presentations, online tests, webinars, and online consultations. All practical classes conducted at FOI through laboratory exercises and research are carried out online using various tools for conducting online classes in real-time, such as Zoom, BigBlueButton, Adobe Connect, and similar. FOI professors also emphasize that they need more time and energy to prepare content for online teaching, but they believe that this experience is excellent preparation for online conducting part of the classes even after the extraordinary situation, as well as for future scientific-research work at FOI. On the other hand, students claim that the effort teachers put into preparing materials is evident, and it is also good that they have enough time to study the digital content available to them offline.

Doc. Boris Tomaš, from the Department of Information Systems Development, emphasizes that they have always had a high level of online teaching in that course, and this was just a natural step forward.

– Suddenly, I became a screenwriter, actor, editor, and director, which takes quite a bit of time. In contact classes, I can be much more spontaneous, while in video materials, I have to pay more attention to fillers than usual – says Tomaš.

Prof. Katarina Tomičić-Pupek, from the Department of Information Systems Development at FOI, emphasizes that they prepare digital content in advance every week to enable students to process selected topics at their own learning pace.

– To disperse the load on computer resources during the day, students also have access to traditional digital content that they can use offline – says Tomičić-Pupek.

According to a survey, FOI students are satisfied with the quality of online teaching, especially with the ability to review recordings after lectures.

More than 300 subjects have been hybrid (combined contact teaching and online) at FOI since 2008, and they have now also reported a scientific project related to the possibility of introducing online teaching, so they expect pilot implementation of a larger number of subjects online and under regular conditions starting next academic year.

Advantages of Distance

RIT Croatia quickly adapted to conducting classes remotely. Dr. Milivoj Marković, head of the study programs at RIT Croatia, believes that the change in the social environment that existed during on-campus teaching was a particularly significant challenge for students.

– We do not view the educational process in a narrow sense as a process of knowledge transfer, but in a holistic sense as the development of a person who is ready to take responsibility and successfully face the challenges of tomorrow. Although nothing can replace the interaction between professors and students in a traditional classroom, the transition to an online environment was an inevitable adaptation to the situation the whole world is in. However, despite working under new conditions, both professors and students see the advantages that distance teaching offers compared to other forms of teaching – says Marković.

RIT Croatia, like other global campuses of RIT, has been using a so-called learning management system, or the myCourses platform and learning system, for many years, whose functionality in the context of remote teaching comes to full expression from sharing materials and discussion spaces to conducting exams. Marković believes that there will be no return to the past and that the existing external shock has only accelerated the processes of transforming the educational process into an online environment, which will now continue to develop with a special emphasis on raising the quality of the teaching process and consequently the learning outcomes.

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