Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper explores teachers’ feedback practices in an online language teaching course. We examine several variables that could have an impact on providing effective and meaningful feedback essential to account for students’ rate of... more
This paper explores teachers’ feedback practices in an online language teaching course. We examine several variables that could have an impact on providing effective and meaningful feedback essential to account for students’ rate of completion of a one-semester course. Classroom size, amount of teacher-student and student-student interactions, and teachers’ experience levels are considered when examining 43 upper-intermediate online English classrooms. These practices were checked against students’ completion rates over the semester to identify the variables that may account for student progress. The data analysis helped assess the effect of a small teacher professional development intervention and indicates that student engagement is crucial in online language learning.
Research Interests:
New Media in Language Education Book Section How to cite: Ernest, Pauline; Hopkins, Joseph; Emke, Martina; Germain-Rutherford, Aline; Heiser, Sarah; Robbins, Jackie and Stickler, Ursula (2019). New Media in Language Education. In: Newby,... more
New Media in Language Education Book Section How to cite: Ernest, Pauline; Hopkins, Joseph; Emke, Martina; Germain-Rutherford, Aline; Heiser, Sarah; Robbins, Jackie and Stickler, Ursula (2019). New Media in Language Education. In: Newby, David; Cavalli, Marisa and Heyworth, Frank eds. Changing contexts, evolving competences: 25 years of inspiring innovation in language education. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, pp. 89–99.
Student retention is a key concern for online educational institutions and course administrators because if students complete courses, they are more likely to go on and do more courses. While qualitative studies have been carried out to... more
Student retention is a key concern for online educational institutions and course administrators because if students complete courses, they are more likely to go on and do more courses. While qualitative studies have been carried out to examine how student satisfaction and perceived learning affect retention (Berge & Huang, 2004; Bolliger, 2004), this study took a quantitative approach and explored how the level of activity in the online classroom Forum affects student retention; that is, the likelihood that students complete and pass this particular course and also possibly continue working towards their degree in the same institution. More specifically, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between the amount of one-to-many written communication in online classrooms and the retention of students throughout one-semester courses in a fully online intermediate English as a foreign language course.The findings confirm the hypothesis that increased levels of student activity and a more dynamic online classroom are beneficial in terms of course completion. However, the increased presence of the teacher in the same communication spaces did not contribute to predicting either student retention or dropout rate.