Online course “Academic English” under blended learning

Педагогика и психология образования. 2023. No. 3. P. 58–74.

D. V. Burimskaya, N. H. Frolova

In the abrupt lockdown of 2020, educational institutions had to arrange all forms of teaching remotely. Implementation of English language teaching was mostly chaotic and based on giving the students extra assignments. The given article puts forward a blended learning model which was successfully incorporated and proved to be effective. The development of this online course for blended learning was in huge demand as it offers flexibility, variability, differentiation and ease of access. The benefits and barriers the authors faced within the given case are featured in the article. Aim. This paper aims to share the expertise with the teaching community and provide a comprehensive analysis of the exam results before and after blended teaching. Research methodology. General scientific methods and comparative analysis of the students’ academic performance were used. The research was based on the English exam result statistics for the last three years (n = 400 students), and an experimental case of four months of blended ELT in NRU HSE (n = 600 students) was carried out. Results. The results of the experimental use of online courses in the university setting could be transferred to various fields of application while teaching other subjects and are of particular interest to EL teachers. Practical significance. The undertaken research materials have significant implications for the further development of the content of digital didactics and justification of the digitalization of vocational education.

Keywords: blended learning, Moodle, digitalization, online-course