English has been an obligatory subject for all degree students at the UOC (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) since the University was set up in 1995. At present there are approximately 3000 students enrolled in the 3 English courses: Anglès 1, Anglès 2 and Anglès 3, with a staff of 2 full-time co-ordinators and 40 part-time tutors. Many people believe that the key to success in on-line learning is, firstly, for both teachers and students to be experts in the use of Information Technology (IT) and secondly, to be able to transfer teaching/learning skills from the face-to-face classroom to the virtual environment. Effective Web-based instruction is far more complex than this, however. It involves qualities such as a willingness to be an innovator in educational practice, to acquire new competencies, accept critical thinking, and to share and learn from others. This paper will highlight some of the issues, relating to methodology, materials and management, which have emerged from the experience of the English courses at the UOC and which seem to be important in effective on-line learning. Most of the recommendations are not exclusive to on-line language courses but apply to any courses delivered in this way. All, hopefully, help to create an effective learning environment and a sound balance between the isolation implicit in virtual learning and a positive interaction among students and between students and teachers.
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| 1.
| The UOC |
The UOC (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) was set up in 1995, at the request of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, with the aim of establishing a new system of on-line distance education in Catalan. Initially offering only 2 degrees: Business Studies and Educational Psychology, for a group of 200 students, the University now has approximately 25,000 members including students, teaching and research, managerial and administrative staff. The following official degrees are available: Humanities, Catalan Philology, Educational Psychology, Psychology, Information Studies, Audiovisual Communication, Business Studies, Business Administration, Law, Political Science, Industrial Relations, Information Systems Engineering, Computer Systems Engineering, Information and Computer Engineering plus a Diploma in Tourism and (with the Polythecnical University of Catalonia) a graduate course in Multimedia. Postgraduate studies include Master's degrees and an interdisciplinary doctoral program on the Information and Knowledge Society. There are also university admission courses for over 25s, access courses and extension courses.
Approximately 97% of UOC students are professionals, 60% already have university degrees and 80% are between 25 and 45 years of age. The great majority of UOC students therefore combine their university studies with other professional and personal commitments and most choose the virtual option as a means either of updating or extending their professional qualifications or simply of extending their knowledge of an area of special interest to them.
The UOC model, based on its virtual campus and intensive use of the new technologies is asynchronous, with students having maximum flexibility to adapt their studies to their own rhythm and surroundings at any particular time. Teaching materials are in multimedia and print format and each student has the personalised service of a counsellor ("tutor" at the UOC), who advises and guides the student throughout her studies and a tutor ("consultor" at the UOC) in each subject, who guides and assesses the student's learning, preparing all the activities which form part of the process of continuous assessment, of central importance to all study plans. Full-time academic staff are employed by each faculty but the counsellors and tutors work part-time from home. Exams and Validation tests are not delivered on-line and students have to attend one of the exam centres to do these. Two face-to-face meetings ("trobades") are held each term, when students can meet UOC staff in person and discuss general issues related to their university studies.
Support centres throughout Spain (and also in Brussels and Alghero) ensure that the UOC is personally accessible to students. These centres provide information for the general public about the UOC and also organise social and educational activities linked to the information and knowledge society. In addition, they help to facilitate the integration of the student within the virtual model as they provide personal attention from staff, study and library resources and a communal meeting-place.
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| 2.
| English courses at the UOC |
English courses at the UOC began in 1995 with two part-time tutors and 100 students. There are now 2 full-time co-ordinators, 40 part-time tutors and 3000 students, with approximately 80 in each class. Three language courses: Anglès 1, Anglès 2 and Anglès 3, are obligatory for all degree students and Introducció a la literatura anglesa is an obligatory subject for most Humanities and Catalan Philology students. In addition, there are introductory English courses for beginners who do not have the necessary entrance level.
The three main English courses require an upper-intermediate level of English and at present concentrate only on reading and writing skills. The objectives, as detailed in the Course Plans, are that at the end of Anglès 3, students should be able to "read academic/professional material in English and write notes, short reports, etc., in acceptable English, with little recourse to reference books".
The courses are based around reading texts downloaded by teachers from the Internet, with related tasks they create themselves and there is no formal textbook. The majority of the texts cover topics of general interest for adult university students, with a small selection based on topics related to specific degree subjects. These texts and tasks form the basis for a discussion in the virtual space "Activities" centred on students' written comments, which count towards their final mark. Emphasis is always placed on fluency and communication skills rather than on grammatical accuracy. It is assumed that students will already be familiar with basic grammar structures and there is no systematic progression through a series of graded grammatical exercises. Teachers highlight students' linguistic weaknesses as they arise and provide error-correction exercises based on these, in a second virtual class space: "Exercises". In addition, students are encouraged to consult the on-line grammar reference materials which form part of each course and the supplementary web and print materials prepared by UOC staff.
The tasks students are expected to complete vary. They may consist of reading one text sent as a Word attachment, completing related, obligatory pre/post reading tasks and sending the answers/comments to the appropriate virtual classroom space. Alternately, they may be asked to complete a number of self-correcting tasks prepared by the teacher with a hypertext program such as Hot Potatoes or Dreamweaver, linked to a series of optional and compulsory reading texts which include audio and visuals. All the materials produced by the teachers are shared with their colleagues in the staff room and past materials are filed by the co-ordinators and are available for all to use, via the staff room web page.
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| 3.
| On-line courses |
It has been estimated that the World Wide Web is the fastest growing medium in higher education today (Peterson's, 1999). Before setting up any on-line course however, the following basic questions need to be considered: What, exactly, do we hope to achieve by incorporating the new technologies into our courses? What is realistically possible, given the technology, finances and back-up resources provided by the institution? To what extent do student numbers and student profile determine what can be achieved? Are we sufficiently aware of the dangers of "technological utopianism" and of overlooking the student's perspective within the on-line environment? Finally, in our enthusiasm for the potential of the medium, do we give enough importance to the following words, written nearly 20 years ago?
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"Provided that we understand the limitations of each technology as well as its capabilities, and more importantly, provided that we understand the people we are trying to educate and the kinds of education we are trying to give them, we can use technology in ways that really help. There is no technological panacea; there are only technological solutions to some educational problems" (Simpson, 1985).
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Whatever our answers to the above questions, one factor should be inherent in the design of all good Web-based courses: they must be "humanised" as much as possible in order to create a sense of a "student community" and to help combat the intrinsic isolation of distance education. Strategies for "instructional immediacy" must be given a high priority. These will include teacher immediacy: "teaching behaviors that enhance closeness to and non-verbal interaction with another"; student immediacy: "interactions between learners"; and computer immediacy: "interactions between students and computers" (Andersen, 1979; Mehrabian, 1981). Many students will be studying on-line for the first time in their lives and in language courses in particular may be apprehensive about writing "publicly" in a foreign language. It is vital for teachers to acknowledge these points and for the design of the courses to reflect this.
As happens at the UOC, it is recommended that all email messages have the photograph of the sender incorporated into them and there should also be an on-line directory linked to the personal biographies of staff and students. In addition, introductory messages, individual greetings and appropriate warm-up tasks in the first days of the course are vital in order to create a positive, friendly atmosphere which hopefully builds confidence and stimulates further participation.
Furthermore, all Web-based courses should have a simple, attractive layout with clear guidelines for students on how to navigate their way through the materials. The screen should not be overcrowded and features such as dynamic moving graphics, audio or video, which take a long time to download, should be used sparingly. Teachers and course designers need to anticipate the problems of students with slower modems or different browsers when designing tasks. In general, the tasks should be broken down into manageable learning chunks with achievable goals, providing a controlled structure within the endless learning possibilities of the virtual world.
Deadlines and periodic assessments—whether through on-line group projects (tricky to set up!) or on-line/face-to-face tests—must be incorporated into any course and details of these made absolutely clear to students from the start. Tasks for varying levels of ability, including those which guide students how to learn on-line, should be provided, with clear instructions as to whether they are optional or obligatory. Students should also be given models of good practice and examples of appropriate written contributions. Teachers must be especially wary of expecting students to read long texts on screen and should not underestimate the benefits of students being able to download texts and read them off-line.
As regards the technology, inevitable technical malfunctions need to be anticipated and protocol established for dealing with mishaps such as mysteriously mislaid emails containing work assignments or test answers. Students and teachers need to know that while they are dependent on the technology for the delivery of the course, there also exists a reliable technical service available to them when they need assistance. They must know which institutional department they can phone or email when in difficulty and the help they receive should be prompt and effective.
In order to supplement the overworked general university department which deals with these problems at the UOC, a special virtual space: "Tips" has been installed in the English teachers' staffroom, which successfully deals with any technological problems English teachers may have. Requests for help or advice are sent here and answered by a teacher with special expertise in this area or by any others who can offer help. This type of service is to be recommended for all on-line courses.
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| 4.
| Students |
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"Preparing students to take on-line interactive courses involves more than teaching them technical skills. Abilities related to time management, self-discipline, independent learning, active-information seeking, and constructing must exist" (Stokes, 2000:161-169).
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Two factors are common to the great majority of adult students who study on-line nowadays: limited time for their studies and previous experience of traditional school/university face-to-face classroom learning where qualities such as those mentioned by Stokes were frequently not given a high priority. In order for on-line courses to succeed, and this is especially significant in the learning of a second/foreign language, it is vital however, that students already possess or are prepared to rapidly acquire the skills and competencies highlighted above. Most institutions do provide some formal orientation on these aspects of on-line students' work but in order to ensure the success of each course, we would recommend that this be supplemented by "scaffolding—steps towards success and confidence" (Salmon, 2000:113): special, purpose-built orientation offered by course co-ordinators and/or teachers.
In addition, just as professionals teaching on-line must be prepared to reconsider the premises on which they have hitherto based their work, students also need to approach their studies with an open mind and a willingness to rethink traditional educational "formulae" and to accept critical thinking as a major part of the learning process. Successful on-line students need to be patient, self-motivated, self-disciplined, willing to speak up when problems arise and ready to develop their IT skills. The on-line language learner, in particular, must be ready to be an active participant in the virtual classroom, prepared to take risks and to make and learn from errors. She must be prepared to challenge ideas and work constructively to improve her frequently fossilised and passive knowledge of the language being studied.
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| 5.
| On-line teachers as facilitators/moderators |
The majority of teachers who begin as novices in on-line courses these days, are already experienced, well-qualified practitioners in the face-to-face classroom. This symbiotic relation between expertise and novelty forms the basis for any attempt to define the type of personality required by teachers who aim to deliver on-line materials effectively.
Above all, the on-line teacher must be prepared to be flexible and to adapt and develop the premises on which she has hitherto based her work. She should be patient and, like her students, be willing to take risks, ask for help, accept criticism and admit mistakes. A sense of humour is also vital in order to keep sane while dealing with the inevitable technological hitches which occur with any course delivered on-line. Contrary to common belief, the on-line teacher does not need to be an expert in the new technology. Rather, she should be wary of "technological utopianism" (Kling, 1994) or of becoming one of the "ubiquitous technozealots who simply view computers as the panacea for everything, because they like to play with them" (Noble, 1998). She must never fall into the trap of thinking that her own possible fascination with the potential of the technological medium is necessarily shared by her students, most of whom probably view the computer simply as an innovative means of study in new and complex circumstances.
As regards a teacher's tasks, she must be willing to guide, motivate, diagnose problem areas and assess progress. Whichever type of on-line courses is offered: fully virtual, as at the UOC, or complementing traditional courses, as at many universities throughout the world, a major role of the on-line teacher is to be a moderator or facilitator, helping students negotiate their way through the materials, advising and suggesting learning strategies rather than simply imparting course content. In this environment, more than ever, the teacher's role should be that of "the guide by the side rather than the sage on the stage".
Just like students, on-line teachers also need to be provided with firm "scaffolding" when they begin. Apart from accessing the virtual campus and the UOC Guide for English Teachers in the weeks preceding the start of the course, new teachers have access to the classrooms of 2 experienced colleagues (oldies), in order to see how they run their classes. In addition, in the early days of the course, oldies provide newies with texts and activities which they have used successfully with their students, so that the new teachers can concentrate on the day to day classroom routine before actually having to create any new materials of their own.
Working as teams, with members willing to share and criticise ideas, and suggest improvements, is undoubtedly one of the best ways to guarantee success in any professional environment. In the virtual world, where individuals rarely meet face to face, if at all, team work is even more important. English teachers at the UOC work in teams, either preparing tests and exams or developing a specific area of the curriculum. We would strongly recommend this for all on-line courses.
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| 6.
| Co-ordination of courses |
Co-ordinators of Web-based courses have a major role to play in the success of on-line courses and need to possess many of the same qualities as teachers. Most importantly, they should be willing to be flexible, welcome challenges and accept criticism. They should always have "hands-on" experience in delivering the courses they have to co-ordinate and, the "sage on the stage" mentality should be as unwelcome in on-line course co-ordination as it is in on-line teaching! Since a major challenge facing educators delivering on-line courses is to "learn from the experience of others and to encourage and evaluate educational innovation" (Gooley & Lockwood, 2001), quantitative and qualitative feedback from both teachers and students should be encouraged at all times.
Co-ordinators need to offer training and support for teachers, both prior to and during the course if courses are to be delivered successfully. A user-friendly document for teachers such as the UOC Guide for English Teachers can be the basis for this support. On-line courses or hands-on sessions at face-to-face meetings must be available, covering general teaching issues or specific programs such as Word, Excel, Front Page, Hot Potatoes etc. In order to be time economical and effective, we would recommend that teachers are set pre-course tasks, which they carry out at home. The face-to-face session then draws on this experience and is largely directed towards solving problems that have arisen.
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| 7.
| Clear, concise instructions and guidelines |
An apparent contradiction inherent to on-line learning is the relationship between the total freedom of both students and teachers to study/work "at a time, place, and pace convenient to them" (Knowles, 1990) and the need for extremely restricted freedom as regards the structure and organisation of virtually delivered courses. One of the major attractions of this type of study is that both students and teacher are free to choose when, where, how frequently, how much, and how they work, thereby combining their academic obligations with other professional and family commitments. By contrast, however, in order for on-line courses to succeed, they need to be extremely tightly controlled and any "freedoms" therein must be negotiated well before the course begins in order to avoid confusion. Instructions to both teachers and students need to be absolutely clear regarding methodology and assessment, production of work, deadlines, frequency and type of participation in forums and debates, etc. Several researchers have highlighted this point as being of central importance to the success of on-line courses (Hricko, 1999; Hara & Kling, 1999). In their study of on-line courses Youngblood et al (2001), state that:
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"More than 80% of the students who responded to our survey rated two similar questionnaire items—Made it clear how the online part would be assessed and Made it clear what type(s) of contributions were expected of you—as the most important tasks for the facilitator. The findings from student interviews supported this perspective, suggesting that negative experiences were often related to unclear instructions from the facilitator. These findings emphasise the importance of the role of the facilitator in online learning. We believe this role can 'make or break' the success of the course".
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Problem areas and instructions which may lead to confusion need to be anticipated when writing course plans and sending information, as the virtual equivalent of the face-to-face comment: "...oops, sorry everybody...just ignore what I said about the homework/exam dates in our last lesson. I got things muddled up..." can lead to enormous practical problems and the rapid de-motivation of students. As one of the English teachers (Babic, 2001) has said: "This system has taught me to express myself more clearly. In a face-to-face situation it is easy to repeat something if the students don't understand it but at the UOC I need to be especially clear about what I mean and what my objectives are".
In the UOC English courses, problems here are hopefully avoided by having clearly written course plans posted in each classroom at the start of each term and repeatedly referred to by both co-ordinators and teachers throughout the term. These plans include information on course content and objectives, tips on effective study strategies, dates and outlines of virtual tests and assessment criteria. At the face-to-face meeting with students at the start of each term, teachers emphasise the importance of the course plan and clarify any doubts that may arise. A virtual space in each classroom is also used for regular postings about important information and many teachers provide their students with on-line tasks based on this.
A major factor ensuring the efficient running of the English courses is the on-line UOC Guide for English Teachers, created and regularly updated by the co-ordinators. The guide contains detailed information relating to the delivery of the courses and the day-to-day management of classrooms and is available to teachers on the campus in the virtual staffroom, which also serves as the centre of the virtual community of teachers. Teaching materials are shared and stored here as well as policy documents such as past exams, sample essays, minutes of staff meetings, etc. In addition, teachers regularly participate here in debates on pedagogical issues related to the English courses, prior to policy decisions being taken.
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| 8.
| Prompt, regular feedback from teachers |
The prompt, regular feedback received by students from their English teachers at the UOC is consistently highlighted as being one of the most positive aspects of the learning process. Many student questionnaires quoted in research into successful on-line courses also highlight this point (Kember, 1987; Hara & Kling, 2000; Charles, 2001). Professionals who consider feedback of this sort to be of prime importance in the face-to-face environment acknowledge that it is even more vital in the virtual classroom, where the student can easily feel isolated and unmotivated and where physical cues are absent: no eye contact indicating that a teacher has heard and registered a student's doubts/comments; no reassuring smile to accompany a critical appraisal of a piece of work or a harsh tone of voice.
Feedback in the on-line learning environment serves various purposes. It is a means of monitoring participation, motivating students and focussing and redirecting discussion. It helps to foster a sense of community and learning collaboration which in turn helps combat feelings of isolation, offering encouragement to the different types of students: "the swimmers, wavers and drowners" (Salmon, 2000:112). In addition, it is a way of publicly praising exemplary work and of stimulating learning by indicating problem areas and strategies for improvement. As stated in the UOC Guide for English Teachers:
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"Check your classroom, preferably once a day, but normally at least once every two days. Whenever you visit your classroom, send a message—usually to Activities—to show that you have been there. (This is the virtual equivalent of the teacher walking round the groups and helping as she goes.) Your message does not need to be more than: 'I have enjoyed your contributions to our discussion about tortoise breeding, and I particularly liked Maria's report from the Galapagos Islands.' Of course, some of your contributions should be considerably longer, but even a short message reassures the students that their teacher shares and cares".
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UOC English teachers are expected to participate in the virtual classroom every 48 hours. In addition, UOC policy is that all individual messages sent to a teacher's personal mailbox should be replied to within 48 hours. We would recommend similar instructions for any on-line course.
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| 9.
| Conclusion |
Both teachers and students generally consider the UOC English courses to be a successful example of on-line language learning. While highlighting the present lack of listening and speaking skills and the difficulty of teachers providing adequate individual feedback with such large class numbers, students' comments on the courses are invariably very positive. They particularly appreciate the topicality and variety of the reading texts chosen and the stimulating discussions these lead to; the obligatory weekly writing task and the error correction tasks prepared by each teacher, based on students' errors; the regular "appearance" of the teacher in the virtual classroom and the prompt responses to any problems which may arise. Many claim that they learn more and feel more personally involved in the UOC system than in the traditional face-to-face university environment, where there may be little, if any, contact with the teacher. In addition, they appreciate the "hands-on" approach in the English courses, where they are obliged to read and communicate in English from the moment they start the course and where the emphasis is on their active role in using and extending their English rather than passively acquiring yet more grammatical rules.
The following comments on the English courses are taken from questionnaires sent out to UOC students in December 2002:
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"I like the way we talk about different subjects in the forum, using the words we just learned (sometimes) in the interactive materials, trying to put our feelings or thoughts about the matter in words, I think this is a very good way to learn a language: USING IT!"
"I think that this interaction, write a message, send a message, read an answer...is the best way to take some fluency in your writing and grammar."
"I'm satisfied with my work and the course because after some years without use English language I´ve been capacious of doing every compositions and the exercices, and I've observed that every week it seems easier."
"I believe is useful you can read all the classmates's activities because it let you to debate and communicate different points of view. Adolfo have done a good work stimulating us to participate and share our knowledge."
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On-line courses of all types have proliferated over the last ten years and as a result, a growing numbers of students and teachers are having to rapidly adapt to the requirements of the new, technological environment. The issues relating to methodology, materials and management which are covered in this paper are some of the considerations which need to be taken into account if we want to offer effective on-line courses and stimulate effective on-line learning.
Many questions still need to be answered however: How do we steer students away from the dangers of plagiarism, when they have unlimited access to the Web? Are the new technologies really able to deal effectively with on-line summative and formative assessment? Will the growing "digital divide" in education become even more acute as on-line courses become more common throughout the richest part of the world? To what extent is it really possible to deal successfully with the affective elements of the learning process in an on-line environment? As regards language learning, and particularly in an asynchronous environment with large classes, is it realistic to believe that the computer can ever be a truly effective means of teaching oral skills or providing effective, individualized error correction?
Successful learning, virtual or otherwise, can only take place if both the professionals and students involved are prepared to ask the right questions and carefully consider all the possible answers. Hopefully, some of the questions and answers which have emerged from the experience of the UOC will be of use to others teaching and learning in the field.
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| ANDERSEN, J. F. (1979). "Teacher immediacy as a predictor of teaching effectiveness". Communication yearbook. 3: 543-559. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.
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| ARENS, K.; MONKLEY, P; ROMANO, S.; SWAFFAR, J. (eds.) (1998). Language learning on-line. Theory and practice in the ESL and L2 computer classroom. Texas: Labyrinth Publications.
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| BABIC, J. (2002)."L'anglès, una matèria amb pes específic a la UOC". Campus Virtual. 16:8-9. UOC.
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| CHARLES, Graham (2001). "Seven principles of effective teaching: a practical lens for evaluating online courses". The Technology Source. Michigan Virtual University. <http://ts.mivu.org>.
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| DI CORPO, Sophie; TREDE, Franziska; YOUNGBLOOD, Patricia (2001). "Facilitating online learning: a descriptive study". Distance Education. Vol. 22, 2: 264-284. ODLAA Inc.
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| GOOLEY, A.; LOCKWOOD, F. (eds.) (2001). Innovation in open and distance learning: successful development of online and Web-based learning. London: Kogan Page.
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| HARA, Noriko; KLING, Rob (1999). "Student's frustrations with a Web-based distance education course". First Monday [online article]. Vol 4, 12:1-33. <http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_12/hara/index.html>.
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| PETERSON'S (1999). Lifelonglearning.com: The online database of distance learning courses. <http://www.lifelonglearning.com>.
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| SALMON, Gilly (2000). E-moderating. The key to teaching and learning online. London: Kogan Page.
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| SIMPSON, B. (1985). "Heading for the ha-ha". In: SLOAN, Douglas (ed.). The computers in education. A critical perspective. New York: Teachers College Press.
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| STOKES, S. (2000). "Preparing students to take online interactive courses". The Internet and Higher Education. Vol. 2, 2-3:161-169.
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[Published on: April 2003]
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