ABSTRACT
The following paper addresses online learning in the Covid-19 pandemic and focuses on foreign language learning in the context of foreign language courses in higher education. The aim of the study is to investigate e-courses which the pandemic caused to become a substitute for face-to-face courses. Interviews were conducted with students from the University of Gdańsk and the Academy of Music in Gdańsk to find out their opinions. The research findings showed that organisation-related aspects, such as time saved, convenience or the ability to work professionally and study at the same time, were recognised as positives of online learning, while the actual educational goals, such as effectiveness, motivation and group collaboration, were seen rather as negatives of the situation. The work of teachers and their commitment were viewed positively. We did not recognise any major differences between online teaching and face-to-face interaction in this respect. © 2022 Maison du Medicine. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
In early 2020, COVID-19 appeared and widely spread worldwide. It affected all vital sectors, including commercial activities and education. Most governments decided to temporarily close educational institutions, including schools and universities. Developed countries with adequate learning-management systems moved to the online teaching mode. Hence, the sudden transition from the traditional to online teaching mode has impacted learning outcomes. The ultimate goal of this paper is to develop a method for evaluating the experience of teaching online during epidemics. More precisely, it assesses the teaching of programming language courses in the computer science and engineering college at the University of Hail. It statistically measures the courses' learning outcomes in the online mode compared to the traditional mode. Perhaps surprisingly, the difference was not significant, which shed light on the positive side of the crisis. According to the obtained results, the experience of teaching online during an epidemic has led us to investigate the opportunities of using online teaching, especially for programming language courses. This highlighted opportunities for using online platforms as supportive teaching tools or even merging them with traditional teaching approaches at times when attending classes on campus is impossible. Finally, to ensure best practices, the author recommended some guidelines to follow. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
In second/foreign language speaking practice, there is limited time for students to practice, getting feedback from an experienced teacher in class. In order to remove the time constraint, computer assisted language learning systems are the first candidate, but few systems estimate learner's state, which includes their mental states and learning environments. For estimating it, it is natural to use specific peripherals or applications, but this leads to another constraint in learning environment. In addition, it is challenging to develop such a system because speaking practice, other than practice for other skills, essentially requires non-textual data. The distant goal of this study is to propose a system that generates feedback based on learners' states, without any constraints on time and place. With this goal, the purpose of this paper is to identify the basic requirements of a system for speaking under uncontrolled learning environment by a long-term field test. In this field test, a prototype system we developed was used for 15 weeks (or 1 semester) as online assignments by 28 international students taking a Japanese language course at a university. Our prototype was a browser-based web application, and learners practiced speaking using their own devices, e.g., PCs and smartphones. This field test was conducted under uncontrolled learning environment of each learner participating in the long-term online course, without ever meeting face-to-face. These settings significantly differ from those of previous studies, which are well controlled under some specific environment. Our prototype has worked with many devices, and enabled students, including those who was not able to enter our country due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, to practice speaking. Through the field test, we identified some problems, which can be happened for similar systems of speaking, and summarized into three categories: operation devices, voice recording, and data transmission. We propose a set of methods to solve these problems, which are useful for developing similar systems in actual learning environments. © 2022 ACM.
ABSTRACT
This study investigates online exams of online language courses at a distance education center of a public university in Turkey. Causal comparative research design was followed to examine issues in online language courses with the aim to better develop online exams. Participants were 105 students from spring semester of 2019 and 116 students from spring semester of 2020 from six different programs at associate degree level at a public university. The overall findings indicated that there were varied results in unproctored online exams (UOE) of online Turkish (written and verbal expression) and English (grammar) language courses. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were observed in an unproctored online final exam for the English language course. However, tests showed that there was a high reliability when they were administered in different years to similar conditions and groups of students. As an online exam platform, Moodle LMS was used. Students of Computer Programming and Justice programs in online language courses had greater achievement results when compared to other educational programs whether online or paper-based and proctored or unprocotored exams were conducted. Although gender did not play a vital role in achievement results in general, it was highly influential in the unproctored online English final exam in favor of male students. © 2021 29th International Conference on Computers in Education Conference, ICCE 2021 - Proceedings. All rights reserved