Teaching and learning through Moodle, Google Doc and Zoom: Fostering student engagement in (a)synchronous learning environments

Abstract

Collaborative online learning depends on the teacher's ability to create conditions for student interaction and engagement. The paper presents the type of activities that can foster them, as well as the results of the investigation into the levels of student engagement in online learning environment which was created by a combination of Moodle, Zoom and Google Documents. The focus is on the level of student engagement in relation to the type of interaction in the online learning environment, their previous experience with blended learning and their overall attitudes toward online classes. Toward this end, a convergent parallel mixed methods study was conducted by means of a 30-item questionnaire constructed for the purpose of this study. The questionnaire included both Likert-scale questions, aimed at collecting quantitative data, and open-ended questions, aimed at collecting qualitative data. Qualitative analysis of the respondents' comments reveals that online tools are most valued for their interactive and collaborative potential (the availability of emoticons, chatting and screen sharing in Zoom, the possibility of small group collaboration in Zoom Rooms and whole class collaboration in Google Docs). The most important quantitative results reveal that all students report medium to high levels of online classroom engagement in the presented scenarios. However, while the students who had previous experience with blended learning constructed their engagement on the basis of both online peer collaboration (in Zoom Rooms) and teacher-fronted instruction (Zoom), those with no previous experience with blended learning formed their engagement only on the basis of small group work (Zoom Rooms).

Teachers’ Perceptions of ICT in Post-pandemic Foreign Language Teaching at the Tertiary Level in Serbia

“…Although nowadays it seems that ICT (Information and Communication Technology 1 ) is almost a necessary asset in (foreign language) teaching [4], it is argued whether it has the supposed role and impacts on learning due to the lack of strong empirical evidence [1] [5]. On the other hand, it is not the same to have a choice to use digital tools to enhance performance in the classroom and to be forced to (learn how to) use them [3] [6]. Moreover, it is necessary to use them purposely and intentionally, as an integral part of the teaching method applied [5] [7].…”

“…The possible issues for both (online) classroom participants, meaning teachers and students, was the lack of pre-preparation [1] [2] [6] and, on some occasions, not sufficient level of digital literacy [9] and with it, less motivation and, thus, willingness to motivate students, considering, of course, the (lack of) technical equipment available to them [1] [2]. These shortcomings can reflect in the moment of the necessary change, considering the rather specific circumstances, and because of it, the teachers didn't receive any previous training [8] [10].…”

“…In the digital era, the idea of a teacher as a leader and a central figure in the (online) classroom has shifted its direction to the student, while the teacher becomes the moderator, facilitator, and instructor [13]. As a result, the teacher assumes the responsibility of meeting the students' requirements [6] so as to favor language learning. Based on quite the amount of conducted empirical research so far in Serbia, [2] [14], students do mostly welcome the usage of ICT before and during the pandemic at different university contexts, confirming the previous idea of teachers having the different role than before, i.e.…”