CC BY
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Section 7. Pedagogy
Lyashenko Mariya Sergeyevna, The National Research University, Higher School of Economics- Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, PhD in Pedagogy, Foreign languages Department, E-mail: [email protected]
The use of Learning Management System (LMS) in teaching a foreign language in the university
Abstract: The paper describes the process of implementing learning management system (LMS) into language teaching practices in the university. The study presented in the paper is based on the practice of developing and implementing educational projects on LMS platform in the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia Special attention is paid to the description of three projects, the advantages and disadvantages of the system presented, students’ feedback and the approaches to teacher-student interaction in LMS.
Key words: learning management system (LMS), teacher- student interaction, web-based technologies.
Introduction
The era of information society raises new issues that both teachers and learners have to find an approach to: e-learning, e -books, online libraries, online testing etc. The choice must be made from the variety of forms when being in a new educational environment. E-learning is known to be the third learning system that makes use of various electronic technologies, forms and components as its primary means of learning and teaching [1, 2-3]. The process of successful implementation of new information communication technologies into teaching process requires digital skills, motivation, and technical availability. Various information communication technologies are used in the educational process in the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE). In this study the attention is focused on the LMS projects created as an institutional learning platform for teacher-student collaboration.
I. Learning Management System in the Higher School of Economics
The Learning management system (LMS) has been developed in the National Research University, the Higher School of Economics (HSE) Nizhny Novgorod since 2010. The purpose of the system is to increase the level and the quality of methodical, didactic, information support for educational process for all the participants: students, teachers, and managers of different faculties. LMS is aimed at achieving the following goals [2, 5-10]:
• improving digital skills of teachers and students
• enabling learning practices in the active environment of all the participants on — line and off- line
• enhancing students’ involvement into active educational process;
• creating conditions for active interaction between students and teachers.
Implementation and maintenance of LMS is supported by three main principles: consulting, help-desk both on-line and off-line and technical support. Consulting is important to be carried out at all levels of university structure through the system of short-term training sessions, forums, e-mails and other information channels within the system and outside it.
The main topics for consulting are closely connected with instructional design and methods and principles of content management. Help desk is mainly used for individual consultation both on-line and off-line. The main idea of help desk is to provide an opportunity for self-study of LMS through the variety of information tools such as videos, self-control tests, guidelines, case studies etc.
The students can make use of the following functions offered by the LMS:
• a personal/user account where the most important information is presented (photo, surname and name, group, faculty, course etc);
• e-timetable, links to programs, disciplines, extra materials
• deadlines for proj ects;
• assessment report.
The students have an access to all disciplines which are studied not only at present but those that were studied also in previous modules. The system of different tests helps to do self control. Besides, there is an opportunity to do home tasks, projects, write essays and research papers in e-format with teachers’ feedback. Students can socialize through the system of forums, chats, What’s new section.
The teachers also have personal accounts with the most important information, timetables, individual consultation hours, students’ lists (Fig.1). LMS allows
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The use of Learning Management System (LMS)in teaching a foreign language in the university
to download, upload and edit course related informa- groups. The flexibility of the system enables teachers to
tion, assess students’ performance, monitor students copy and paste the materials from one of his/her courses
progress, communicate and share information with the to another one (http://lms.hse.ru/userpage.php)
It is necessary to underline the fact that the priority is given not to technical and instructional consulting but better teacher-student (T-S) and teacher-teacher (T-T) interaction. The system offers a more individual approach to learning and teaching [3]. This system helps produce, manage and integrate knowledge in the higher school. Besides, the LMS can be used to develop a variety of educational products (for example, a virtual library of tests, interactive vocabulary practice programs, grammar activators, language laboratories, etc) to support the needs of particular groups.
The system provides obvious advantages and benefits but both teachers and students are reluctant to use the system. Implementation of the LMS in the university is associated not only with the merits that could be brought to the university but also with some criticism of the system itself. Scientists in this filed state that clear principles of implementation have not been developed yet [4].
The problems that are likely to arise when implementing LMS as any other web-related technology can be categorized in the following groups:
1. technological (for example, inefficient capabilities of the platform (size, interface, dependence on good internet connection etc));
psychological (hindering real life socializing, distortions in interpersonal relationships, personality clashes, etc);
3. educational connected with the content control and power sharing (reluctance to share the personalized content because of cheating, plagiarism, bullying; reliability of information uploaded into a collaborative project; language style etc) [5], [6];
4. pedagogical (difficulty of assessment of individual contribution and establishing criteria for evaluation, time, creativity and originality, plagiarism etc);
5. socio-economic and cultural (the problem of “ digital divide" in terms of social structure and existence between haves and have-nots users or cultural clashes).
In order to implement the system effectively, the university in general [16] and lecturers and teachers in particular [7] must play an active part in LMS integration processes.
II. Research and the Results
To better know what problems LMS users face in the HSE the research was conducted to target the students and the teachers who learn and teach a foreign language (mainly English, German). We expected the users to share their positive or negative experience when working in the LMS to find out more about the advantages and
Fig.1. The screenshot of a teacher’s personal account in the LMS.
2.
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disadvantages of the LMS system. The research made it possible to identify the problems that discourage and the advantages that motivate the learners to work within the LMS system. Two sets of questionnaires were worked out to cover two target audiences: students and teachers. The questionnaires in the research ask about the problems and advantages of the system from the users’ point of view. To add to this, there was a question about teacher-student interaction to find out whether LMS helps to improve teacher-student interaction.
The analysis of the responses pointed to the fact that the majority of students does not enjoy working in the LMS (53% respondents) and 47% of the respondents approve the use of the LMS and are enthusiastic about it. The difference is not so great to give evidence that LMS is not attractive for students. As for the teachers, 60% of the respondents think positively and are motivated to incorporate the LMS into teaching. One quarter does not see the necessity to apply it unless it is imposed from above. 15% of the respondents think there is no point using the system at all as it distracts students’ attention from the essence of the subject. Such unwillingness can be explained, to some extent, by technological hurdles that make the usage time-consuming and effort taking.
According to the findings the main complaints about the system cover the following problems:
— problems with interface (small font, difficulty to find the necessary information, too many functions) — design and visual presentation;
— technical glitches (inability to get an access from home or a mobile phone, difficulty to attach or delete files, inconvenient message delivery system) — technol-
°gy;
— openness of knowledge that on the one hand simplifies cheating, plagiarism on the other hand, makes assessment and control system, teacher-student interaction more transparent — pedagogical aspect.
As far as advantages are concerned, both teachers and students find LMS convenient for material repository as a theoretical resource tool in one place available any time (lectures, glossaries, e-libraries, etc.). It is considered to be effective for material sharing and collaborative projects as a wiki-tool. Students admit that the interactive form of presenting the information is much more interesting and memorable. The material is structured and given in a chronological order. Special emphasis in students’ feedback is paid to the testing system in LMS which is transparent, easy to work and practice as many times as necessary. Some students think that it is very effective to adjust learning pace to individual needs, especially in the
process of learning a foreign language.
The findings show that in general, the LMS as a web-based technology is considered to be an effective platform for collaboration despite the difficulties and problems the users experience when working in the LMS. The teachers must play a critical role in successful implementation of the system. The positive attitude of the teachers to the system and awareness of its possibilities as a whole can be a critical factor to successful LMS integration into the university structure [3].
LMS products can be used to solve a variety of teaching problems and tasks. They are created to support a particular discipline. Such a technology provides the teacher and students with the opportunity to download and upload the information, to get an easy access to the materials and do projects. It could become a virtual platform for e-learning within the university structure. Besides this tool allows the teacher to combine different ICT: forums, blogs, media stores. For example, it could be used to store students’ papers or presentations. In case of teaching a foreign language, LMS products are used not as the main tool but a scaffolding platform for teacher- student collaboration at an informal level. As pointed out by McLoughlin [8] scaffolding is a form of learner support provided in a various ways, assigning a number of roles and responsibilities for students, lecturers, instructors, experts and other participants in the educational environment.
The paper focuses mainly on individual LMS products developed by the teacher and tailored to the needs of the target group. LMS projects worked out by the author in collaboration with the colleagues for teaching and learning purposes to interact effectively with the students and engage them into learning a foreign language.
III. Case study of individual teachers’ projects in LMS: Vell, Words&Woerter, Brush up your grammar
The LMS offers a variety of ways how to arrange the materials and build teacher-students interaction. It could be done through a project technology when the teachers create tasks (project) for students to complete and sets the deadlines. The teacher is expected to provide feedback. In his turn, the teacher can get a feedback from his students through the system of questionnaires which can be anonymous and individual. Tests as one of the LMS tools to control and measure the knowledge can be used by students for self- assessment. Teachers can choose the type of the test, time limit, assessment criteria. LMS offers a range of tests from multiple choice to gap filling. Tests can be easily combined with multimedia such as video, audio materials etc. The answers are provided
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The use of Learning Management System (LMS)in teaching a foreign language in the university
with the explanation and commentary.
The projects under consideration in the paper are new innovative products in LMS such as VELL; virtual English language laboratory (http://foi.hse.ru/methodics_2011#fall), “Brush up your grammar" (grammar activator) (http://www.hse. ru/org/hse/iff/methodics_2013), bilingual vocabulary practice course “Words&Woerter” (http://www. hse.ru/org/hse/iff/methodics_2012). The quality of these projects has been highly evaluated by the university authorities and the authors were awarded grants for developing the best innovative products in LMS in 2011 (http://www.hse.ru/org/hse/iff/me-thodics_201l).
The first project created in LMS for learning English language (2011) Virtual English laboratory VELL is
aimed at providing a training course in the English language at pre-intermediate level. VELL is aimed at 1st year students at a re-intermediate level of the language for them to have more additional practice and to improve language skills. The materials are chosen according to the topics of the main course bookThe students are to do a variety of the tasks:
• revision questions for each unit to be prepared for class discussion
• videos to watch and comment on the problems raised in the video;
• articles for additional reading;
• tasks for group/individual essay writing and uploading into the system;
• flashcards to learn active vocabulary;
• grammar tests (unit and progress tests).
■f * TI«W
Fig. 2 Screenshot from the page with the students’ feedback about the LMS project
The course combines different forms of ICT (podcasts, websites, presentations, forums, online dictionaries, a glossary with basic grammar terms, interactive tests, flashcards, video etc) and due to this can become a part ofblended learning. Younger participants (students) can play the role of active participants in education through the system of forums and wiki sites.
Interactive bilingual German- English dictionary Wo-erter@Words (2012/ was developed to focus learners’ attention mainly on the vocabulary. It is designed for Russian students learning 2 languages at one time: German and English. The idea is to practice learning German through
English language. The aim of the project was to support teaching German language as the second foreign language for 1st year students at a “Starter” level. The course combines different forms of web-related technologies:
• a wiki-site to share the information at an informal level (group level) https://sites.google. com/site/deutschefortuna/blog-kursa/gutentag;
• LMS project to practice active vocabulary through a variety of tests and collaborative projects at a formal level (university level);
• flashcards created using the tool www.quizlet. com to learn active vocabulary.
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LMS library of grammar tests Brush up your grammar (2014) is designed to master basic grammar rules and can be tailored to any group of learners as the material covers as elementary grammar as well as complex grammar rules.
The aims of the projects are the following:
— to support the teaching of the foreign language in the university by tailoring the LMS products to the individual needs of a particular target audience of the course;
— to reduce time-consuming process of producing, processing and disseminating information for English classes;
— to create a shared learning environment to develop, store and share the learning material and exchange the ideas;
— to increase personal involvement of students in learning in the university. It is likely to create a personalized learning platform for the participants to take an equal share in learning process despite their individual space and learning cycles.
The coordinator (the teacher) monitors only the outcome of the performance. The forms of the cooperation can be the following: student-student, studentcomputer, student-teacher). Overall, the students who have taken part in the project show a positive feedback to the technology (Fig 2.) But the problems they mention have been discussed above and found out in the research conducted and presented in the paper.
Conclusion
New forms of asynchronous education require new approaches to teacher-student interaction. The role of the teacher becomes more complicated in the information society as teaching nowadays would require tutors to have the ability and pedagogical skills to combine new technologies with the traditional or elderly ones.
The aims that were achieved by means of the LMS projects implementation:
• testing of the effectiveness and viability of a new project in LMS. This training system proves to be flexible to individual needs and overall needs of the project as it
opens more opportunities for formal and informal communication through off line, on line training sessions, web-based interaction.
• promoting ICT to the education community. The digital competence could be acquired and updated by everyone. In this connection much attention in implementing LMS must be paid to raising the level of basic ICT skills.
• psychological development of learners connected with the improving divergent thinking, creativity.
• achieving the strategic goal of equity and inclusiveness in education at any level. The autonomy of each learner, the choice of tempo and time of assignments accomplishment can be varied. The program enables everyone irrespectively of personal, physical, social or economic circumstances update and develop skills and key competences of e- learning.
• LMS products as individual educational projects of teachers and tutors serve as the basis for cooperation and collaboration within the university structure. It can create a visible outcome which is presented, exploited and reproduced on the regular basis
One of the possible ways how to overcome the problems while incorporating web-related technologies into the traditional system of education in general and teaching a foreign language in particular is the balanced combination of e-learning components and technologies with a collaborative approach to teacher-student interaction. The learning environment has changed and teaching community has to find new pedagogical approaches to face new challenges. Web-based technologies can be categorized as motivational tool technologies appealing to students’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement [9] which are characterized by such attributes as: innovation, easy usage and sharing, content control, motivational appeal etc. The future investigations can be directed towards psycho-pedagogical and educational potential that these technologies possess and offer for teacher- student interaction.
Reference:
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2. Korovko A.V, bykhovsky Y. S., Judkevich M. M., Bilevsky S.G the concept of LMS development in HSE, http://www.hse.ru/studyspravka/lms [Accessed 29 December 2014.]
3. Whelan R., and Bhartu D. (May 11), “Factors in the development of a learning management system at a large university”, Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007. Available from: http://www.ascilite.org. au/conferences/singapore07/procs/whelan.pdf.
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4. Pratt J., The fashionable adoption of on-line learning technologies in Australian universities // Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, 11 (1), 57, 2005
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Nemchenko Sergey Gennadievich, associate professor of pedagogy Berdyansk State Pedagogical University E-mail: [email protected]
Traditional and reflexive management of an educational institution: peculiarities and differences
Abstract: Nemchenko S. G. «Traditional and reflexive management of an educational institution: peculiarities and differences». The article deals with the formation of the traditional and the reflexive management of educational institutions. It focuses on the objective reasons that are related to the influence of social and economic factors on the process of formation of these two types of management. The characteristics of each type of management are given, their peculiarities, differences in the value system and the evaluation of effectiveness are analyzed.
Keywords: traditional management paradigm, synergetic paradigm of management, standard management, reflexive management.
Actuality. Effective solution of problems of humanization and democratization of the Ukrainian society certainly contributes to the modernization of the education system in the context of European requirements.
According to the Law “On Higher Education" from July 1, 2014, purposeful work is carried out to create a new legal and regulatory framework ofhigher education, the content, structure and teaching methods are updated and introduced into the educational process of higher educational institutions of international, industry’s standards of specialists’ training.
An important role in this process is taken by the training of masters -future managers of educational institutions, which crucially affects the effectiveness of transformation ofUkrainian educational space, as only competent leaders can lead an institution to the next level with highly managerial reflection, they are able to perceive the new knowledge, being in the constant teachers’ searching, showing personal activity in the theoretical and methodical implementation of innovations in educational practice.
Based on the assigned tasks, it can be concluded that the existing system of management of educational institutions does not meet the modern requirements of the society. This discrepancy arises from the fact that in the process of transformation of the society there’s the change of traditional, cognitive, and reflexive paradigm of education. The phenomenon of a paradigm shift and the inevitable changes caused by the process, in the management of educational institutions deserve a special consideration.
Analysis of recent researches and publications. In
scientific studies by V. Bondar, V. Grigorash, G. Elnikova,
O. Kasyanov, B. Kobzar, Yu. Konarzhevskyy, M. Kondakov, O. Marmaz, V. Maslov, E. Pavlyutenkov, M. Portnov, N. Suntsov, V. Frolov, P. Hudominskyy and other scientists the problem of managing of educational institutions is updated.
The purpose of the article: comparison of the common features and differences of traditional and reflexive institutional management.
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