Online Learning and Its Crucial Qualifications
Online learning is an outstanding topic in today's world due to COVID-19. Teachers and future teachers should be aware of the requirements and needs of online learning in order to provide effective learning and teaching environment because online learning is now and future. As todays’ learners are digital natives, teachers should meet their needs by using different kinds of technological platforms and activities. In this paper, there are some issues that are discussed, including online teaching and learning, 'presence' in an online environment, fake engagement and students’ engagement in online learning, and flipped classrooms.
The first topic was online teaching and learning. We talked about autonomy, self-regulation, telecollaboration, important factors in online education, teachers’ efficiency in online education, and comparison of online education and face-to-face education. We began our discussion by talking about two important sentences. The first one was, “Distance language learners can be seen as course producers, who actively construct their version of the course from the sources available to them, and according to their own learning needs and agendas.” We mentioned and discussed autonomy, self-learning, and self-regulation. We said that students with online education found a chance to shape and control their learning process. Students who want to be successful should know what they need and create their ways. The second sentence was, “Telecollaborative exchanges which aim to bring together language learners in different countries in order to carry out collaborative projects or undertake intercultural exchanges” We talked about telecollaboration, we said that it is useful for language learners because they will have a chance to talk with foreign people via technology. We asked questions to each other related to the topic of the article. The first question was, “What factor do you think is the most important one in the online education process in terms of learning in terms of students?” We mentioned autonomy, self-regulation, engagement, and motivation. We concluded that as the environment and needs of online education and face-to-face education are different from each other, learners need to find their way to learn and find how to overcome a problem. Also, we mentioned that teachers should find ways to engage and motivate students by using technological platforms. The third question was, “Considering the chapter, to provide a really effective online education, what should teachers do for their own professional development?” We mentioned the importance of self-development and professional development. We touched upon that teachers should find new ways and materials to teach especially on the online education process in order to motivate students. Also, we discussed that professional development had a great effect on classroom management because the way to give feedback and motivate the students has changed during the online education process. The other question was that how to assess students in online education for language learning. As there was no well-developed method of assessment in online education that was mentioned in the article, we tried to share our own opinions. We mentioned that there should be a friendly environment in the class in order to know the needs of our students. After knowing and observing their characters and needs, we will be able to access each one of them that created a way to assess them. The other question was “We have a chance to observe the way teachers use technology, and in this article, it is emphasized that technology supports collaboration, communication. According to your observation, do you think that teachers provide such environments for the students? What should you do in order to provide it?” We agreed that the teachers that we are observing do not use technology to support collaboration and communication as they use PowerPoint slides that are equal to the blackboard in face-to-face education. Besides, we gave importance to game-based activities in order to support collaboration and communication, such as Second Life, Quizlet, Kahoot, and Voki. As the last question, we asked that if we observed any changes in teachers' use of technology compared to face-to-face education and online education. We concluded that younger teachers are using technology more effectively than older teachers because they are seeking new ways to teach students by using some technological platforms. Besides, we mentioned that lessons that are not interesting will be boring for students but teachers, as well. So, if teachers use attractive and fun materials, they will have fun and get motivated because motivation affects teaching and teaching affects motivation.
The second topic was the presence in the online environment. We generally talked about what presence is, the importance of social presence, teachers’ role in presence, and presence in the Turkish context. We started our discussion by asking a question in order to talk about what we understood from the presence. We started our discussion by asking to define presence with three words. I define presence as involvement, consciousness, and awareness. On the other hand, my friend defined it as cooperation, interaction, and reflection. After the question we talked about a sentence from the article that caught my attention; that was, ‘…presence is a result of the dynamic interplay of thought, emotion and behavior in the online environment…’ We talked about the perspective of thought, emotion, and behavior, separately. We concluded that creating a bond with the learning community that you are in is an important point because you will be able to find a purpose about what to do and how to do that a trigger point for being presence. From an emotional perspective, providing instructed motivation is a key point for feeling motivated to move on and learn. Behavior was about knowing what to do in the online learning process. Taking feedback from the teacher in the class is a key point to know what to do in online classes and leads to behavioral change. Taking feedback is a way to decide a purpose that can change behaviors in the classroom. After this discussion, we asked questions to each other based on the article. The first question was “what is important in terms of social presence to provide a successful course design for learners?” We mentioned social contexts, online communication, and interactivity. We concluded that creating a course design an environment in which students talk, express, and discuss ideas and opinions will provide a chance to be a presence in their learning process. As a second question, “how can teachers recognize the presence in virtual space?” We mentioned that virtual space was more challenging than the face-to-face environment in terms of connection. We agreed on creating a personal and emotional connection is important between teachers and students because it is a way to create a comfortable environment for presence. Also, teachers have more opportunities to give reflection and comments in face-to-face education because awareness is high in such an environment. On the other hand, it is hard in online education for teachers. So, we concluded that creating a personal and emotional connection for a comfortable environment and giving reflections and comments will help teachers to recognize presence. The third question that we asked each other was, “What are the meanings of and differences between being there and being together with others?” We said that being there is related to location and more physical whereas being together is more social and mental. We mentioned the online education process; that is, that there are connected because joining the class does not mean anything unless you mentally active and interact with others in the classroom. Another question was “According to you, what is the basic difference in terms of presence between online education and face-to-face education?” We mentioned connection, emotions, body language are basic differences when we compared online education and face-to-face education. Creating connections and reaching emotions can be challenging in online education. Besides, body language is about cameras in online education, it can be hard for both students and teachers to understand the actual message. As the last question, we wanted to share our experience about presence related to our teacher practicum; therefore, we asked “According to your observation, in teacher practicum, is there any presence of students?” We decided that there was not a presence of students because the teachers did not shape and design their online classes by making the students a center of the learning process, which was mentioned in the article, as well. Also, there was no awareness and reflection from the students even if their teachers teach effectively.
Thirdly, we talked about two different articles, including fake engagement and engagement in online learning. Firstly, we started to discuss the topic, fake engagement. We basically talked about what engagement is, what fake engagement is, the reasons for fake engagement, and why some students do not prefer to have fake engagement. We discussed how we can get students’ attention and keep them focused. We mentioned creating an interactive environment with various materials that lead to critical thinking among the students, using technological platforms, such as Kahoot and Quizlet that are also a way to create a competitive environment that catches student’s attention and using flexible tasks to reach every student. Afterward, we talked about what engagement is and we mentioned that without motivation, engagement cannot happen as they have an interrelated relationship. To be more precise, motivation is the intention, and more internal yet engagement is the action part of the learning process and it is a reflection. Besides, we mentioned that active participation is a crucial part of the engagement. The other point that we discussed was authentic engagement, we mentioned that teachers should find content that students will find interesting points that will keep them focused on the learning and they will be willing to get input. Another topic that we discussed was fake engagement and the reasons for fake engagement. We mentioned that the reasons can be related to the mental and biological condition of the students, such as starvation, tiredness, and boringness, the content, giving priority to other areas, and teaching style. We gave examples about our previous educational life. To be more precise, the condition of our previous classroom was too dark and gloomy; therefore, we did lots of fake engagement by pretending like we were taking notes and nodding our heads. The teaching style of teachers was another factor for fake engagement. We mentioned that if a teacher talks too much in online education, the students will do fake engagement as they are being forced to be passive students; however, if a teacher creates an environment where interactivity and communication are used effectively, the students who do not open their cameras will be engaged at the end in online education. For the content factor, we mentioned that an effective teacher can create ways to engage students with a boring topic by using effective materials, such as short stories or technological platforms. The last one was giving priorities to other areas rather than the lesson; to exemplify, having problems in life will create problems in engagement and lead to a fake engagement. As a key point, we mentioned learning-by-doing and discussed it. We talked about interactive and engaging learning can be happened by allowing students to explore, investigate, and get experienced. We said that role-playing and technological platforms, such as VOKI can provide an environment where learners learn by doing and engage at the same time. Besides, we discussed engagement style; that was, it can be different for every grade. Apart from that, we asked each other if we pretended like we are concentrating in the class or not. We discussed that we do not need to pretend like we are listening in online classes compared to face-to-face education as online education is about cameras and microphones. In other words, if you do not open them, you do not need to pretend. Another point that we discussed was the reason for pretending like listening. The reasons for pretending were unrelated topics, excessive talk of teacher, and physical conditions of the students. We gave specific examples for each point. After that, we discussed why to bother or not to a fake engagement. We mentioned that we did not want to be disrespectful towards the teacher and social expectations; therefore, it bothers when we do fake engagement. Another key point for this discussion was what fake engagement looks like in online education. As online education is related to only cameras and microphones, we do not need to fake engagement because if we listen, we answer. However, if we do not listen, we do not answer questions of the teacher. The second topic was an engagement in online learning. Firstly, we discussed interaction in online learning. We said that interaction is more challenging as learning is based on cameras and microphones. After that, we discussed the ways to enhance interaction among the students in online education. We mentioned that teachers should create a discussion-based environment for the students to interact and collaborate with each other. Secondly, we discussed the importance of types of interaction, including learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content interaction. We concluded that learner-instructor interaction is important because students can get feedback and reflection, learner-learner interaction is also important because sometimes we learn better with the help of our peers, and learning by doing can be applied these kinds of interaction that increase engagement, and it is important to choose attractive and authentic materials for content for content-learner interaction. Also, we mentioned some technological tools for learner-learner interaction, such as Kahoot, Quizzes, Second Life, Sims, and Flipgrid. The other topic we discussed was behavioral engagement and cognitive engagement. We said that without cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement is meaningless. After that, we continued with discussing online learning to activate cognitive engagement. We said that we need to create an authentic and creative environment. For providing such an environment, we can use authentic materials, peer-based learning, group works that enhance interaction and collaboration. The other topic that we discussed was the constructive approach. We said that interaction and collaboration are important for this approach. As the last topic, we discussed learning design perspectives, including inquiry-based learning models, simulation-based learning models, peer-based learning models. For the inquiry-based learning model, we said that thanks to problem-based learning, students can develop some skills, like critical thinking and problem-solving. Also, we said that if our teacher had used the inquiry-based learning model in primary school, we would have learned better. For the simulation-based learning model, we said that role-playing is a key factor in this model because it creates an environment for interaction, engagement, and collaboration. Besides, we said that Pixtoon and online Sims can be a great source for this model because there will be real-life problems that students should resolve. For the peer-based learning model, we said that this model provides an environment for learning by doing. We said that Jigsaw Method can be a great example for this model. Lastly, we discussed that how we can understand our students are engaged. We said that if they are active in the classes or give emotes to the speech or writing, we can understand that they are engaged.
Lastly, we discussed the topic called the flipped classroom. We agreed about flipped learning and classrooms are an effective way to teach and learn as both teachers and students have to find a chance to reflect on their role in the classroom. Besides, we mentioned PPP formats and their similarity to flipped learning in terms of stages. Afterward, we discussed the benefits of flipped classes, we concluded that students can acquire some skills, such as critical thinking, autonomous learning, metacognition, time management, collaboration, communication, interaction, self-learning, and self-regulation thanks to flipped learning. To be clear, as students have control of their learning process, they will be more autonomous that will engage and motivate them and as they can find more resources apart from their teachers, they will find a chance to learn various ways. On the other hand, we discussed the challenges of flipped learning, such as accessing the technology in village parts, electricity problems, time-consuming, and characteristics of the students. As flipped learning is about technology, there will be no learning process without it. After that, we discussed the effectiveness of flipped classrooms for every student. We talked about as every student is different from each other, there will not be an effective learning process for every student, such as shy students and irresponsible students. The during stage can be challenging for shy students as they need to collaborate with their peers. Also, the students who are not responsible learners will not have an effective learning process in flipped classes even if the teacher provides qualified and efficient materials to the students. We concluded that responsibility is a keyword for flipped learning. Also, we discussed that it is not only students’ responsibility but also teachers’ responsibility to develop themselves consistently in order to engage and motivate students during their learning process. As another topic, we discussed how to apply flipped learning environment for language classes. We mentioned that as learning by doing is an important factor for learning a language, flipped classes can provide it effectively. During online education, we can arrange the flipped classroom in our teaching and learning process. To be more precise, pre-stage will be provided by the teacher, during activity will be applied with rooms in Microsoft Teams or Zoom, and post-stage will be the lecture time with the teachers. Also, we mentioned that students will have more things to say during-stage because they will not learn directly from the teachers’ materials but they can have a search that helps to create different perspectives before working with their classmates. The other topic was pronunciation with the flipped classroom. In the article, it was said that there were no studies about pronunciation; therefore, we discussed how to assist pronunciation of the students via flipped learning. We mentioned some technological solutions, such as video recordings, audio recordings, and VOKI. To be clear, students can compare their own recordings with teachers’ recordings and students can create role-play by using VOKI in order to improve their pronunciation. The other topic that we discussed was why there were more studies related to university students but not primary students. We concluded that younger students can be more irresponsible than mature learners.
In conclusion, as a future teacher, I learned several points during the process, including online teaching and learning, presence in the online environment, fake engagement and students’ engagement in online learning, and flipped classroom. While discussing these crucial topics, Melike and I gained different points of view about online education. During the process of discussion, we learned better, get motivated, and engaged.
Social Media Link: https://twitter.com/ahseenx/status/1380927417691336710
REFERENCE
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Mercer S., Talbot K.R, Wang I. K. (2020) Fake or Real Engagement- Looks can be Deceiving. Student Engagement in the Language Classroom (v.11, p. 122-136, 11) https://doi.org/10.21832/9781788923613
Kennedy, G. (2020). What is student engagement in online learning … and how do I know when it is there? The University of Melbourne https://melbournecshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/3362125/student-engagement-online-learning_final.pdf
Zou, D., Luo, S., Xie, H., & Hwang, G. J. (2020). A systematic review of research on flipped language classrooms: theoretical foundations, learning activities, tools, research topics and findings. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 1–27. Routledge https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2020.1839502
Russell Stannard (Teacher Training Videos). (2020, May 4). Using Flipped Classroom When Teaching online [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hLOUlbAgs0
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