E-learning in the present-day context: from the experience of foreign languages department, PSACEA

Abstract

In the present context of COVID-19 lockdown, when pedagogies had to turn from in-person to virtual instructions, computer-mediated communication (CMC), including distance learning and e-learning, has come to the foreground to maintain the barrier-free educational environment. The three-dimensional model of the e-learning, which includes the principles of knowledge acquisition at 'any place', at 'any time', at 'any speed' is incomplete without the organisational culture component. To analyse what e-learning modes are used in a particular institution, to measure the efficiency of distance courses and, further, to suggest the most effective model and the ways of e-learning integration into a particular HEI according to its needs' analysis was set up as the aim of this article. To achieve this aim, a complex of qualitative and quantitative research methods was applied. Therefore, in the first phase of our inquiry, a literature review was conducted in which we analysed the definitions of 'distance learning' and 'e-learning', traced the history of the question, and collected the main characteristics, quality parameters, and models of the distance and e-learning. On the later phases, we introduced the form 'Analysis of the Distance Learning Tools Preferences', disseminated among the teachers; a questionnaire 'Distance Learning Mode of Work Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction', disseminated among students, and 'The Instructional Materials Motivation (IMMS)' online survey by J.M. Keller to measure the efficiency of the distance learning courses design, also disseminated among students. The empirical data was collected at Prydniprovska State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture (PSACEA), the Department of Foreign Languages during March-May, 2020. Thirty instructors from the Department of Foreign Languages and twenty-three students from the first-third years of Foreign Languages studies who regularly participated in online lessons took part in the experiment. Based on the theoretical and empirical data, we got a picture of the e-learning state (in its first approximation) in our HEI, proved that the forms and questionnaires used in the experiment may serve as informative tools of quantitative measurement, drafted the format for further improvement of the e-learning in our organisation.