AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
The ideas of connectivism can be applied in any field of
education. Veselá (2013) stresses that the very nature of a
language enables us to follow the principles of chaos, networks,
complexity, and self-organization in foreign language education.
However, the most important connectivist idea, which should not
be forgotten by teachers is that the ability to learn (create and
understand connections) is more important than the current state
of knowledge (Siemens, 2006).
In the LMS Moodle used in our research, the connectivist ideas
were reflected by teaching the students how to find the order in
the seemingly chaotic world of a foreign language, how to find
and manage information from the Internet, how to cooperate to
find solutions of the Assignments, how to find connections
among the nodes of their knowledge in Lectures, Forums, Chats
and Blogs, and how to coordinate their efforts to create a
meaningful piece of information in the Glossary, or a video
published as a solution of an Assignment task.
2.7 Conclusion of the Theoretical Background
To satisfy the needs of the Generation Z learner, the teachers
should find the way to exploit the characteristics of those
learners, born as “digital natives” to help them learn in the
digital environment. The Web 2.0 tools, which are used by these
learners naturally, should enable the teachers to update not only
the content of education, but also the ways and manners it is
created, developed, delivered and shared. LMSs are the
platforms, where the use of technologies is enabled and
simplified. The educational theories of constructivism and
connectivism create a firm theoretical base for the education of
the Generation Z learners.
3 Research
Our research is based on the theories introduced above
(Generation Z characteristics, Web2.0 tools, blended learning,
LMS Moodle, constructivism, connectivism). The research
involved a case study conducted at the Department of Language
Pedagogy and Intercultural Studies, Faculty of Education,
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia. The
course was led as a blended learning course with a face-to-face
part and a computer-assisted part.
For this article, just a part of this research is chosen, since the
whole research was too complex to be covered in one paper.
3.1 Aims and Research Questions
The main aim of this part of the research was to find out whether
the original course, based on the Web 1.0 philosophy - the first
stage of WWW made of static websites connected by hyperlinks,
without interactive content (Web 1.0., n.d.) - satisfies the needs
of the Generation Z learners; if not, how it could be improved
and whether these improvements would be appreciated by the
learners. New solutions based on the research results were
expected.
Consequently, the research questions were formulated as:
RQ 1: Are the students satisfied with the course, which
potentials do they see?
RQ 2: Were the potentials exploited?
RQ 3: Are there any other potentials to be incorporated in future
improvements of the course?
3.2 Material and Methods
The first, original course on English lexicology was used before
the intervention was made. The course was in its original form
available at eldum.phil.muni.cz. Unfortunately, the platform El-
dům was closed on 10. 07. 2019, so the version that was used in
the research is not available now. That old version was created in
the LMS Moodle at the beginnings of its use at the Slovak
universities. In those days, it was considered a modern and
innovative way of teaching. It offered texts with hyperlinks,
links to online dictionaries, moreover, online assignments. It was
designed “to read”, with the main idea to be available anytime
and anywhere, as the theory of e-learning of those days
proclaimed. In the year 2008, the course won the Award of the
National Centre of Distance Education in the eLearning
competition in Hradec Králové, in the Czech Republic.
However, almost a whole decade had caused the course, during
the time of the research, to be already outdated. The learners of
the new generation entering tertiary education demanded a
learning environment that would meet their needs. Thus, the
intervention was made (see the subchapter Intervention below)
and the Web 2.0 tools provided by the LMS were utilized
(Lexikológia a frazeológia anglického jazyka, n.d.).
Design-based research served as the main method, since it suits
best the philosophy of this research. In design-based research the
progress can be tracked and used for new solutions, as it is
characterized by an iterative cycle of design, enactment,
analysis, and redesign (The Design-Based Research Collective,
2003), conducted in real-word contexts with social interaction
(Wang & Hannafin, 2005). It is highly recommended in
technology-enhanced learning environments (Amiel & Reeves,
2008) where the design and research can be integrated;
moreover, the refined design can be instantly applied. In case of
the LMS Moodle, the system in which all statistical data are
stored, and the progress tracked, the research can be conducted
with the help of these tools. The part of research, in which the
data from the LMS are used, is not included in this paper and the
results are yet to be published.
The design-based research should take place under real-life
conditions; in case of our research, it was the course of English
Lexicology, which was an obligatory subject for the second-year
bachelor students of English language, the teacher-trainees. The
researcher created a case study, limited by the available sample
of the students enrolled in the course. The form of case study
best reflects the philosophy of design-based research, as it
provides an example of real learners in real situations (Cohen,
Manion, & Morrison, 2011); furthermore, it shows effects in
real, dynamic contexts. In the research, 28 students participated
as the research subjects.
To answer the RQ 1, the questionnaire survey was distributed
(Appendix A); subsequently, the answers were qualitatively
analysed, using a coding system.
After the analysis of the answers, an analysis of the course
followed. The researcher compared the results with the theory
about the Generation Z learners and Web 2.0 tools (see above),
to be able to make interventions that would improve the course
with the aim to reach higher satisfaction and better outcomes.
After the intervention, RQ 2 and RQ 3 were asked. The answers
obtained by the focus group research tool were analysed and
interpreted (see the subchapter Answer to RQ 2 below). The
same research objects participated in both forms of research –
before and after the intervention. The whole process took place
within one semester during a course on English Lexicology.
3.3 Results
Answer to RQ 1
For the purposes of the analyses of the data obtained from
questionnaires, four categories were created:
1.
Overall opinions of the students towards the course
2.
Students’ personal evaluation of the course (kinds of
activities and material that should be added to contemporary
version)
3.
Disadvantages of the course
4.
Advantages of the course
Qualitative approach to the research influenced the procedure of
creating, distributing, and analysing the questionnaire. As the
aim of it was to find out the opinions not influenced by the
questions, the questions were formulated very generally, and
- 338 -