Group Work Using Active Learning: A Comparison of Students' Evaluations of Face-to-Face and Online Lessons

Group Work Using Active Learning: A Comparison of Students' Evaluations of Face-to-Face and Online Lessons

Ryo Sugawara, Shun Okuhara
Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 15
DOI: 10.4018/IJVPLE.313412
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Abstract

An active learning group work course at “A” university in Japan is characterized by two-way interactions between students as well as between teachers and students. The spread of COVID-19 prompted a shift from in-person lessons to online synchronous lessons in 2020 and 2021. This mixed methods study analyzes data from a combined structured and open-ended questionnaire completed by 5,268 students. The results showed that online lessons were significantly more highly evaluated than face-to-face lessons in terms of enhancing students' understanding of student life, sense of belonging, expressing one's opinions and listening to those of others, and self-regulation of attendance and gaining an in-depth understanding of the course material. However, face-to-face lessons were preferred for small class sizes, interactions with students who have different ideas, and group learning activities. Open-ended responses indicated that conducting online classes via Zoom improved students' perceptions of group learning and interaction in this setting.
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Background

Findings on the educational effectiveness of and student satisfaction with online classes since the pandemic have been mixed. On one hand, some research has emphasized students’ favorable perceptions of enhanced communication, convenience, and flexibility in online learning (e.g., Chandrasiri & Weerakoon, 2022; Elshami et al., 2021; Landrum et al., 2021). On the other hand, other studies have found neutral or negative effects of online classes. Challenges have included increased teacher workload (Nagai & Kaneko, 2021), reduced student motivation (Chandrasiri & Weerakoon, 2022), technical difficulties (Dinh & Nguyen, 2020; Jeong et al., 2021), and limited interaction (Almahasees et al., 2021; Giray, 2021; Landrum et al., 2021), among others.

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