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Online learning is currently adopted by educational institutions worldwide to provide students with ongoing education during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Even though online learning research has been advancing in uncovering student experiences in various settings (i.e., tertiary, adult, and professional education), very little progress has been achieved in understanding the experience of the K‐12 student population, especially when narrowed down to different school‐year segments (i.e., primary and secondary school students). This study explores how students at different stages of their K‐12 education reacted to the mandatory full‐time online learning during the COVID‐19 pandemic. For this purpose, we conducted a province‐wide survey study in which the online learning experience of 1,170,769 Chinese students was collected from the Guangdong Province of China. We performed cross‐tabulation and Chi‐square analysis to compare students' online learning conditions, experiences, and expectations. Results from this survey study provide evidence that students' online learning experiences are significantly different across school years. Foremost, policy implications were made to advise government authorises and schools on improving the delivery of online learning, and potential directions were identified for future research into K‐12 online learning. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Online learning has been widely adopted during the COVID‐19 pandemic to ensure the continuation of K‐12 education.Student success in K‐12 online education is substantially lower than in conventional schools.Students experienced various difficulties related to the delivery of online learning.What this paper adds Provide empirical evidence for the online learning experience of students in different school years.Identify the different needs of students in primary, middle, and high school.Identify the challenges of delivering online learning to students of different age.Implications for practice and/or policy Authority and schools need to provide sufficient technical support to students in online learning.The delivery of online learning needs to be customised for students in different school years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To support young children's learning during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, preschool educators in Hong Kong were required to teach with digital technologies. In this study, 1035 educators from 169 preschools reported their views and practices in an online survey, which we examined via multilevel mixed‐response analysis and thematic analysis. More than half of the respondents (53%) expected future online teaching to continue, and only 11% of educators believed that parents would reject this form of delivery. Administrators and teaching assistants were more likely than teachers to expect online preschool teaching to continue in the future. In addition, respondents with existing online platform experience, who taught the upper levels of preschool, or incorporated specific teaching practices (eg, after the online lesson, they assessed children and assigned homework tasks), were more likely than others to expect online teaching in the future. Many of these respondents also reported (a) difficulty with engaging their children when online and (b) inadequate support from parents for learning activities, which reduced the respondents' perceived likelihood of future online teaching. Administrators and teaching assistants were more likely than teachers to believe that parents would accept online teaching in the future. Respondents who felt they had inadequate training to teach online, children in families with inadequate technical skills and parents who believed that online lessons harmed children's well‐being, were less likely than others to believe that parents would accept online teaching in the future. These educators believed that online learning communities could connect parents and schools and foster interaction that could help align with educator's support for children's learning needs. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about technology integration for young children during COVID‐19COVID‐19 led to the closure of many schools, requiring teachers to teach online.Barriers to integrating technologies in preschool settings existed before the pandemic.Online teaching can support students' learning, but few studies have examined technology integration for preschoolers at home during a pandemic.What this paper addsThis paper adds new data on schooling during a pandemic. During the closures, preschool teachers applied two major online teaching approaches: (a) digital content interaction and (b) online human interaction.Technology integration was added to provide evidence of how teachers applied online learning resources for young children during COVID‐19.During closures, teachers often delivered learning resources via digital‐mediated learning platforms, but they were less likely than other educators to expect online teaching in the future.Educators who perceived greater engagement of children or support from parents were more likely to expect online teaching in the future.Implications for practice and/or policyThis study showed that some preschool teachers integrated technology into their teaching during a pandemic, and future studies can explore how to facilitate or extend this integration after the pandemic.This study showed the need for more interactive online teaching preparation to address young children's learning needs.Some teachers were responsive to feedback from children and monitored their learning during the online teaching process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research consisted of two studies to investigate how the Chinese rural educational system supported students' online learning and to determine the factors that influenced students' online learning quality (satisfaction and cognitive and social presence) during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Study 1, based on interviews with three curriculum officers, seven principals and 30 course teachers, found that great efforts were made to realize digital equity and education for all students. The necessity of providing resources and support to teachers and students (facilitating conditions) was recognized, along with the importance of teachers' online course design and organization and the facilitation of discourse (teaching presence and social presence). Based on the findings of Study 1 and the literature review, a conceptual model of facilitating conditions and teaching presence reported to influence students' online learning quality was generated. In Study 2, 1,409 students from three rural primary schools were surveyed to test the conceptual model. The results indicated that facilitating conditions influenced students' online learning quality through enhanced technology self‐efficacy and perceived usefulness. Teaching presence directly and positively predicted students' online learning quality. This research highlights the importance of creating a learning community and providing technology access and support to ensure online learning opportunities and quality for rural students. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Chinese students from rural or migrant schools have fewer opportunities to access computers and the Internet, lower frequencies of online activity and technology self‐efficacy and less training and parental and teacher support.Providing support and resources to encourage and facilitate technology use among teachers and students in rural and underdeveloped schools is of great importance.Identifying the factors that contribute to online learning quality among rural school students to tackle the transition to online learning is necessary.What this paper adds The rural government and schools have made great efforts to ensure digital equity and education for all students, despite family conditions.Facilitating purposeful interactions and providing timely feedback is critical for effective learning in online teaching.Facilitating conditions represented by available support and resources and teaching presence influence students' online learning quality in rural areas.Implications for practice and/or policy Providing digital equipment and resources to all students is the first step towards distance learning.Providing opportunities to improve teachers' digital competency is critical for providing quality online instruction.Providing students timely assistance and useful and learner‐friendly technologies to enhance their satisfaction and social and cognitive presence is necessary.Online instructors should create a friendly online learning environment, facilitate active discussion and purposeful reflection and create opportunities to promote students' open communication, group cohesion and meaning construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]