Category Archives: Academic

Making Meaning in Online Environments


Written by - Patricia Patel

Let’s face it, teaching in an online learning environment can be difficult when it comes to engaging and motivating learners. This non-traditional learning environment  poses an additional challenge to ensure learners are constructing meaning from the content and deepening their learning and understanding.  

Educators often struggle to help learners make meaningful connections to the content while deepening their understanding within an online learning environment. For this reason, I want to emphasize  the benefits  of discussion boards  in online learning. Discussion boards can be defined as virtual platforms where learners can interact with their instructor and  peers by posting and responding to  discussion posts. This type of interaction and knowledge building foster a sense of community among students while promoting active learning within an online learning environment. 

Discussion boards offer a range of benefits for learners:  

  • opportunity to explore, analyze, and discover the essence of  topics 
  • build new meaning 
  • improve critical thinking skills  
  • deepening the understanding of course content 
  • increase learner engagement 
  • increase learner motivation 
  • foster a sense of community 
  • cultivate a social presence among learners 

Some learners may experience feelings of isolation from the course content, their peers, and their instructor within the online learning environment. These feelings of isolation and disconnect can further hinder their motivation and potential academic success. However, discussion boards within an online learning environment can cultivate a social presence among learners by offering additional opportunities to interact with peers and the instructor. Fostering this sense of community and social presence increases feelings of support and engagement which can further contribute to academic success and motivate learners to continue their education.  

Overall, discussion board is a constructivist tool which helps learners construct meaning and make a deeper connection to class content. I find that discussion boards are largely beneficial for the online learning environment as they help learners build on each other’s knowledge while reducing feelings of isolation, deepening their understanding, and broadening their own perspectives. Discussion boards are  essential   to contribute to learners’ academic success within an online learning environment.  

References 

Li C. (2022). English Research Learning and Functional Research Based on Constructivism Theory and Few-Shot Learning. Computational intelligence and neuroscience, 2022, 3698802. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/3698802 

Mazlan, A. F., Mohammad, M., Kassim, R., & Erni. (2022). Online Teaching and Learning During Covid-19 Pandemic: Challenges Faced by English Teachers in Islamic Tertiary Institutions in Malaysia and Indonesia. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 12(10), 2005–2013. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1210.07  

Wang, Y., Chen, Y., & Anderson, T. (2020). Exploring the effectiveness of online discussion boards in higher education: A systematic review. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 58(4), 419-433. 

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Strategies for Online Learning to Promote Student Engagement and Satisfaction 


Written by - Patricia Patel

From my experience, and the experiences of my colleagues and students, online learning and teaching have gained significant popularity on a global scale in recent years. Hui & Yunus (2023) suggest that teachers could benefit from a revision in curriculum to support modernized online teaching approaches that help foster a motivating, authentic, and satisfying online learning environment with the goal of promoting a sense of student autonomy. Implementing proper strategies could result in better learning.   Continue reading →

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Raising students’ awareness of the effectiveness of note-taking for vocabulary learning through testing rather than teaching 


Written by - Setareh Dabbagh

Learning new words is a challenging aspect of language learning and the fact that there are numerous methods for vocabulary learning is itself a testimony to its difficulty.

Of all the methods and techniques that exist, I have always found it useful to keep records or take note of new vocabulary words with their English definition and then use them in one single paragraph. Some popular vocabulary books, such as 504 Essential Words and 1100 Words You Need to Know, have endorsed this method of learning vocabulary.

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Student Success in the Online Classroom 


Written by - Patricia Patel

I work remotely as an ESL teacher for a Chinese company teaching English as a Second Language to students aged six to thirteen in China. From my observations, the cultural expectations in China are highly focused on academics.  

I’ve witnessed students attend class through a mobile device while eating dinner, in bed sick, or completing other homework while waiting for class to begin. It’s not unusual for students in China to have 12-hour school days, then come home to learn English.

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Navigating the Labyrinth: Understanding Cognitive Load in the Language Classroom 


Written by - Samina Nazar

 

In the dynamic realm of language learning, teachers continually seek ways to optimize the learning experience for their students. One crucial factor often overlooked is cognitive load, the mental effort required to grasp new concepts in language learning. Recognizing and managing cognitive load in the language classroom can significantly impact student engagement, comprehension, and overall language acquisition. This blog post explores the concept of cognitive load, its implications in the language learning context, and practical strategies for teachers to enhance the learning experience. 

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How admitting my mistake helped me land my dream job! 


Written by - Setareh Dabbagh

Teaching is a lifelong process. Ask any teachers and they will vouch for it. As a teacher, you have committed yourself to being a lifelong learner. Teachers know this and have no hesitation attesting to it, yet it’s hard for some of us to admit our mistakes to our students. That exact moment of saying “Well, I was wrong guys about this, and you were right” could be one of the least favourable moments in our professional life. The reason for this is not hidden from us. Students trust teachers and we don’t want to let them down. What’s more, what happens to our credibility? Does that mistake indicate an irresponsibility to keep ourselves updated and in check?  

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The Silent Barrier of Language Learning


Written by - Bei Zhang
Image taken from: Big Stock Photo

Language learning is always challenging, with the fear of making mistakes standing out as one of the barriers. The fear is often rooted in shame, signaling to language learners that they will face rejection in the form of judgment, invalidation, punishment, scolding, etc. This fear leads to students’ reluctance to embrace errors as stepping stones to fluency.  

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The Case for Supplemental Instruction (SI) in EAP Programs


Written by - Heather Donnelly
Image source: www.bigstockphoto.com 

The EAP programs in Ontario vary considerably in many regards (e.g., curriculum), but what connects them is a shared interest in student retention and seeing EAP learners progress to becoming students enrolled in diploma, certificate, and degree programs. 

One method that has been shown to increase student performance and retention is Supplemental Instruction (SI). Though SI has been used for decades in a variety of post-secondary programs, it is very rarely used in EAP contexts. So, in this post, I will present the case for implementing SI in Ontario EAP programs.

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Suffering from Recycling Prompts? “SQT Prompt” to the Rescue


Written by - Cecilia Aponte-de-Hanna
Image source: www.bigstockphoto.com 

I have been hearing the word “prompt” a lot more lately. “Prompt engineering” to be exact. This recent IT term is all the buzz, and it is paired with terms like artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLM). This blog post, however, is about another type of prompt: the one that language and communications teachers at the college level have been engineering since time immemorial and students write in response. And there lies the problem! The prompts are being recycled and passed on from the classroom to students’ sharing sites such as Studocu and Course Hero, and then making their way back to the classroom. It is not the type of recycling teachers want to see. Going viral is not always a good thing; it kills originality for everyone, so I have started to retreat my prompts and generate new ones. This time with a different twist.

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