가상교실과 토론방을 활용한 영어교사교육을 위한 온라인 강좌 연구: 학습자 인식

A study on an online English teacher training course employing virtual classrooms and discussion boards: The case for learners’ perceptions

In a cyber university where teaching and learning occurs online, of main concern is how courses dealing with both theory and practice can incorporate real-world-like learning activities that occur offline. To investigate this matter, this study analyzed a large enrollment capacity course of 134 students, titled “English Teaching Methodology & Practice.” The instructor (also the researcher) implemented virtual English classrooms for the students to weekly observe how English teaching could occur in a classroom context. Based on these virtual classes, the students responded to the instructor’s questions on the asynchronous discussion boards, followed by her comments that either praised or suggested further reflection about the classes. A total of 13 observations were made and at the end of the course, the students were surveyed about their overall experience with the course. The results indicated that these online observations and reflection activities enabled the students to understand theories in context and engage in a self-directed learning process. However, these learning processes were not extended to active discussions with other online learners, and thus did not increase their awareness of each other’s social presence online. The implications of these findings and limitations will be discussed along with future research directions.