Teacher Perceptions of Learner Engagement with a New Online Learning Environment

Zhang, Lulu, O'Sullivan, Barry and Stanley, Graham (2023) Teacher Perceptions of Learner Engagement with a New Online Learning Environment. In, Işıl Işık, Hande, Kantarcıoğlu, Elif, Üner, Ayça and Thomas, Carole (eds.) Re-Vision and Re-Form in English for Academic Purposes Contexts after the Pandemic. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 124-134.

Abstract

In January 2020, approximately 70,000 learners were participating in English language courses at British Council teaching centres in 47 countries. At that time, there were approximately 1,000 additional learners participating in the organisation’s online courses. Just a few months later, the situation had changed due to the COVID pandemic, with over 70,000 learners now engaged in online learning. The switch was rapid and, in many ways both exciting and daunting for the teachers and learners involved. In order to understand more about the transition, the British Council undertook a series of research studies using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups. In this chapter, we will focus on one of these studies, in which teachers in four global regions were surveyed shortly after the introduction of online teaching and again two months later, when they had begun to come to terms with the challenges. The relatively short period between the two surveys was to allow us to explore teacher perceptions of the transition as opposed to a broader focus on online teaching itself. The results suggest that perceptions changed relatively little over the transition period though there were some interesting regional differences.

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Contributors

Author: Lulu Zhang

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