Reaching Higher
Navigating Virtual Learning Environments: Support for Undergraduate Students View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Tina Selvaggi
Online learning continues to be an integral part of higher education. Since COVID, students clamored for more online learning and institutions of higher education are answering the call. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2023), 61% of undergraduate students were enrolled in at least one online course in 2021. The study begins by detailing the structure of the online course and how that structure contributes to student success. Instructional design, student engagement, accessibility, and support services are some of the building blocks of effective online learning (Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2023). The second part describes the support provided to students throughout two semesters in the form of planning for success, organizing materials and assignments, and managing time by pacing asynchronous learning and due dates. With online learning comes a need for support to meet the needs of students in a variety of different situations with different learning styles. Student support is the lynchpin of student success. This support should come in the form of online tutoring sessions/advising, online resources, and guidelines for navigating virtual learning environments effectively. Even with a strong instructional structure, some students require additional assistance and support (Gullo, D., 2022). The study concludes with data about the success of the students enrolled in the course and a variety of support strategies that attendees can apply to their own online courses.
The Use of Technology to Support Connectivity, Innovation, and Accountability in Education View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Zartasha Shah
Technology should be able to support motivation, innovation, and sustainability in education. The inventiveness, spur, and motivation of learners is checked. The process supports a diverse community by supporting social involvement, engagement, and connectedness in the classroom. The evidence of the importance of customs, cultures, traditions, and values is reflected through sustainable developments in the community. Pedagogical sustainability, trustworthiness, and accountability supports cultural commodities, identities, and self-awareness issues in it. The research investigates the impacts of community-based involvement, social practice issues, and immersion to check the support for learning, interactions, and connections. Qualitative methods, ethnography, and critical race theory support the structural assessment of the instructional design for social communication, interaction, and accountability. Open-ended interview questions support the data collection, and transcribed interviews are coded. The chosen themes support the process. The themes are used to check the participants' responses. The entire analysis revolves around the chosen themes and the reactions of the participants in the research. The process informs learners about self-reliability, consistency, and persistence. The social involvement focuses more on the communication, connection, and consideration of learners. The learning impacts of the learnings should support the connections, innovations, and accountability in education. The results inform about the use and effectiveness of the technology for innovation, connections, and accountability to support social norms. The process also informs about sustainability, pedagogical strategies, and self-awareness in education.
Deepening Digital Divide: The Influence of AI on the Reinforcement of Social Hierarchies in Indian Higher Education View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Souvik Mondal
This study examines how artificial intelligence (AI) is getting informally incorporated into India’s higher education system, with a particular emphasis on the digital divide and social hierarchies among college students. To investigate how students from various socioeconomic, linguistic, and gendered backgrounds access, use, and interpret AI-driven instructional tools, the study recruited student participants from two colleges affiliated with the University of Calcutta: one situated in a semi-rural area and the other located in the city center. The study investigates the unequal effects of AI on marginalized groups, such as women, lower-caste communities, and rural migrants, who frequently encounter structural obstacles in obtaining technology and high-quality education, through interviews with 40 students (20 from each college). This research examines some significant concerns, including whether the use of AI in education supports or undermines established power structures, such as the predominance of elite institutions and English-medium instruction, how underprivileged students navigate AI-powered learning systems, and whether this digital divide reproduces the same gap in their relation to the socio-cultural capital. An attempt has also been made to assess whether these experiences mirror larger social injustices through the lens of gendered access, which investigates how gender norms affect women's involvement in AI-integrated learning. With AI-integrated learning yet to be formally included in the curriculum, and with skewed and informal access and application of this groundbreaking technology in the backdrop, this study provides an insight to encounter systemic obstacles like socio-economic disparities, linguistic exclusion, and gendered access, to ensure an inclusive AI-powered learning system.
