online courses and student engagement: exploring the possible impact of task modality and type

The fast spread of a worldwide pandemic in the past year forced educational institutions across the world to shift to online platforms for delivering instruction. this sudden and unexpected shift has brought about different challenges and problems ranging from the availability of effective technological infrastructure and internet connection to quality teaching and learning experiences. one such problem relates to what is argued to be limited learner engagement in online classes and tasks. this is particularly important in the context of general english (ge) and english for specific purposes (esp) courses that are considered to be the only exposure many students would receive to the english language during their bachelor’s studies. the present study aimed at exploring the possible contribution of the modality and type of the tasks on enhancing non-english major students’ engagement in three online ge courses at one of the universities of tehran during the covid-19 pandemic. students in one class had access to interactive tasks. the second group was provided with online competitive game-based tasks, and the third group had access to online quizzes. while the instructional content presented in the classes and the tasks were exactly the same for the three groups, it was observed that the type of and modality of the tasks (i.e., multimedia-enhanced, game-oriented, and interactive-based) played a determining role in the amount of time the students spent on each task and their engagement with it. contrary to the expectations, students were not as engaged with the interactive tasks as they were with the quizzes and game-oriented ones. it was concluded that ease-of-use of the task-hosting platform along with the learning culture of the students were two important factors that implicitly guided their engagement with online language tasks.

Online Courses and Student Engagement: Exploring the Possible Impact of Task Modality and Type

The fast spread of a worldwide pandemic in the past year forced educational institutions across the world to shift to online platforms for delivering instruction. This sudden and unexpected shift has brought about different challenges and problems ranging from the availability of effective technological infrastructure and Internet connection to quality teaching and learning experiences. One such problem relates to what is argued to be limited learner engagement in online classes and tasks. This is particularly important in the context of General English (GE) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses that are considered to be the only exposure many students would receive to the English language during their Bachelor’s studies. The present study aimed at exploring the possible contribution of the modality and type of the tasks on enhancing non-English major students’ engagement in three online GE courses at one of the universities of Tehran during the Covid-19 pandemic. Students in one class had access to interactive tasks. The second group was provided with online competitive game-based tasks, and the third group had access to online quizzes. While the instructional content presented in the classes and the tasks were exactly the same for the three groups, it was observed that the type of and modality of the tasks (i.e., multimedia-enhanced, game-oriented, and interactive-based) played a determining role in the amount of time the students spent on each task and their engagement with it. Contrary to the expectations, students were not as engaged with the interactive tasks as they were with the quizzes and game-oriented ones. It was concluded that ease-of-use of the task-hosting platform along with the learning culture of the students were two important factors that implicitly guided their engagement with online language tasks.