Online tools, such as forums, wikis, and blogs lend themselves to learners negotiating meaning and co-constructing knowledge through interaction. However, not enough is known about how tasks need to be designed to make best use of the possibilities of complex virtual learning environments (VLEs) to motivate and support learners, foster interaction, and contribute to knowledge construction. This article reports on a twoyear study exploring the design and implementation cycle of online activities as an integral part of a distance language course. When the course was introduced in 2009, activities had been designed on the basis of second language acquisition principles as well as sociocultural theories, providing a basis for student interaction and taking into account the affordances of the environment, a Moodle-based VLE. After the end of the first year an evaluation was carried out that examined quantitative and qualitative data (Moodle user logs, learner survey and learner interviews). It was found that students preferred forums to other tools and that assessment-related activities attracted higher participation rates than other tasks. It also highlighted a number of issues, including low participation in on-task discussions, a large gap between viewings and contributions, very large differences in individual engagement, low priority given to the online activities by some students, and varying levels of e-literacy amongst learners. Consequently, activities were re-designed and a number of changes were implemented in 2010 that included more teacher involvement, fewer tasks, a simpler structure, and a reduced number of tools. A comparison of learner participation across the two years shows that these changes had a positive impact on learner engagement.
Online learning environments afford opportunities for participation and equally offer a new perspective on engaging vicariously. Drawing on the concept of vicarious learning and taking account of the roles of input and interaction for language development, this paper reports on an enquiry into students' retrospective use of recorded group tutorials. It is the first to investigate in what ways indirect participation in interactive online sessions may mediate second language learning. The study harnessed user data (N = 964) and explored learner perception through semi-structured interviews (n = 13) to increase our understanding of who uses tutorial recordings and to what perceived linguistic and motivational benefit. The article argues that recorded group tutorials may support language learning by encouraging deep engagement with interactional input. This is relevant to educational practice in online and blended contexts, as well as to our understanding of language learning as a cognitive and social activity.
<p>As the last ten years have seen the advent of the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, large numbers of digital content are now available for learners and teachers to use and reuse. Engaging with OER compels educators to address issues of sharing, quality, ownership, and changing professional practices. In this report, we describe the experience of setting up LORO, a repository of languages OER, especially in relation to teachers' perceptions of barriers and enablers to successful engagement with open content.</p>
Previous research into listening to recorded tutorial interaction highlights the potential of tutorial recordings as a scalable resource in online contexts. Dialogue between tutor and learner or between peers may mediate the understanding not just of direct participants, but also of listeners, and listening to interactive recordings may facilitate deep learning. In language learning, both direct and indirect interactions have been shown to contribute to language development. This is relevant for online learning design, especially so in contexts where no tutorials are provided, and students are confronted with a challenging language such as Chinese. This paper reports on a small-scale project which explored potential learning benefits of working with recordings of online tutorials in a non-accredited, self-directed course for beginner learners of Chinese through surveys and stimulated recall interviews. Our analysis of the data shows that viewers focused on different visual and auditory elements of the recordings; they participated vicariously in interactions between a teacher and students, and they reported benefits for language learning and motivation. Findings suggest that these perceived benefits and preferences are linked to linguistic competence in comparison with direct attenders. The study aims to feed into a larger research project including more languages and accredited courses at the next stage.
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