Appropriately assign online tasks

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Notwithstandingly, the participants suggested teachers to set up their teaching websites, they hoped that teachers tried not to receive their assignments or give them tests online. They complained that they preferred taking tests in written form rather than on the Internet. This point is illustrated with three participants’ unpleasant experiences of taking tests on the Internet below:

P1: Sometimes I am not really happy with using the digital learning website because my computer is frozen or shuts down all the time. The website where we take tests should be in a good condition.

P3: That is right. Last time I took an English writing test on the Internet. I ended up getting a big zero on this test because there was something wrong with the computer system.

P1/P2: I have this kind of experience, too.

P1: I think taking tests on the Internet remains user-unfriendly. (FG#9) As seen from the interview, on the account of problems from computer like sudden computer breakdown or freezing, the participants seemed to feel negative about dealing with assignments and tests through the Internet.

To sum up, the participants not only anticipated teachers to establish online

teaching platforms, but also hoped that teachers could well capitalize on their teaching websites in terms of opening the students’ door of communication with their peers to further bolster their learning, and that teachers would not require the students to take tests online.

Suggestion 4: Appropriately assign online tasks

The fourth suggestion for teachers integrating Internet use with their teaching is to appropriately assign online tasks. In the interviews, the participants hoped that the teachers can properly assign online homework by taking the following aspects into consideration: (1) graded levels of reading materials, (2) topics of interest, (3) online tasks with fun or interaction, and (4) tasks given along with a clear guidance.

Among twelve responses, four responses emphasize that the teachers have to

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give the students online assignments on the basis of their English proficiency levels;

otherwise, they can feel frustrated and discouraged from reading foreign websites.

Two participants accounted their personal experiences in this respect:

P1/P3: Graded materials [in terms of their English proficiency level] are also very important. Maybe the teacher should ask the students to read Reader’s Digest at first and then Times magazine.

P1: Right. I remember when I was a sophomore, my teacher asked me to read Times magazine, which was really difficult for me to read at that time. (SG#1) Seeing this, the participants expected the teacher to provide them with graded online reading materials; consequently, their confidence in reading in English can be progressively developed.

Furthermore, three responses were made to suggest the teachers to attend to their interests in reading topics ahead of assigning them online reading materials.

According to the participants, reading topics that are not dry or can be related to their daily lives are prone to arouse their interest in reading, as a participant illustrated below:

P3: I think before asking students to read long articles online, the teachers should boost students’ interests in reading in English by assigning them such

interesting topics as super stars [entertainment]. For instance, recently, there have been many pieces of news about Edison Chen’s apology for his sex photo scandals or about Chien-ming Wang’s baseball performance in Yankee . I think students seem to be more interested in discussing over topics like these.

So, the teacher can try to provide students with something related to their life experiences instead of something dry. By doing so, they [the teachers] can gradually add something more academic to their reading topic list. (SG#10) Another suggestion, interestingly enough, was made to remind the teachers to give the students online tasks with fun or interaction. It seems that the teachers always require the students to read something online, ignoring the fun and the interaction between online tasks and computer users, which are two vital elements of learning online. A participant delineated her own pleasant experience of learning English

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surgical terms by means of playing English online games. She said:

[I suggests the teachers to assign us online tasks with the interaction.] Recently, I have been playing online games in English. Because I like watching an American medical drama television series, called Grey’s Anatomy, one of my friends recommends I should play an online game related to surgery operation. I found it interesting. This website¹¹ is about virtual surgeries. During the game, there are many operation procedures offered for the computer users to follow. Therefore, I have to attentively listen to the instructions given and read the hints shown on the screen. It also shows a patient’s x-ray photo for me to diagnose. It is very

interesting and interactive. And then there is a patient lying on the operation table waiting for me to anatomize him, so I can learn the whole process of an

operation. So, I like this kind of interaction the Internet provides. The interaction here means that there are some procedures for me to follow to finish a task. And from the game, I’ve learned a lot of English surgical terms. (SG#12)

Judging from the participant’s thorough suggestion above, online assignments should not be restricted to reading per se. Instead, they should be engaged with more

interactive online tasks like online games to motivate their learning. This way, they can have a good time learning English on the Internet on their own.

The last suggestion under the category of appropriately assigning online tasks is for teachers to provide clear and specific guidance on what exactly the students are required to find, to read, and to do on the Internet. Simply providing the students keywords or broad topics to search for relevant information to complete an

assignment is quite perplexing and disorienting for the students to reach the teachers’

standard. This view is exemplified in an interview with three participants as follows:

P2: What’s more [another suggestion], I think merely giving us keywords is not enough, They [the teachers] should also give us a guidance to follow, such as what they want us to search for through the Internet, what parts of readings we should focus on, and what conclusion should be made. Without these specific guidelines, we are likely to aimlessly search for information on the Internet and thus finally hand in the paper that doesn’t live up to teachers’ requirement.

R: So, it manes that it is better for teachers to give you directions for you to follow

11 The online game the participant provided is Game Puma.com. The website is presented below:

http://www.gamepuma.com/miscellaneous/Virtual-Surgery.html

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while searching for information online, right?

P1: Yes, [teachers’ directions] like what they really want to read in our papers.

P3: Yes, and please don’t just give us a broad topic like ecology to search for. The teachers are supposed to narrow down this topic into “global warming” or “the endangerment of polar bears”. The topics should be specific like this, or we will undoubtedly spend a lot time searching for a plethora of information on the Internet. (SG#5)

As evidenced in the participants’ interview above, given that the Internet encompasses an overabundance of information, they obviously did not like to harbor ambiguous feelings about the teachers’ instructions on their assignments that require the use of the Internet. As a consequence, to facilitate the students’ learning performance through the Internet, the specification of assignment should be given in detail.

In summary, the participants expected that the teachers who are trying to

incorporate the Internet use into the course should appropriately assign online tasks by giving them graded level of online reading materials with the topics they are

interested in, with fun or interaction, and with a clear guidance.

Suggestion 5: Create opportunities for teacher-student interactions online It is generally believed that e-learning websites are places open to the students who can learn more outside schools in their free time, at their own learning pace, and on their own. In spite of this, the participants in the interviews revealed that they really want to invite the teachers’ interactions with them on the Internet. Accordingly, the fifth suggestion the students provided here is that the teachers can create

opportunities for teacher-student interaction online by (1) joining in discussions with them as well as (2) providing feedback to their assignments posted online.

To make sure that the teachers can care about their online learning process, four responses were made to encourage the teachers’ simultaneous engagement with their online discussions, which is vividly presented in the following interview with three participants:

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P3: I think teachers should sometimes care about our learning. Don’t just post or upload the reading materials on the e-learning platform for us to download to read. Rather, sometimes they can discuss over the reading contents with us through the Internet.

P1/P2: Right. I think they [the teachers] should also pay more attention to our learning process.

P3: That’s right. if they just ask us read online without any discussion with us, it seems that reading itself is not that important. (FG#17)

Seeing that the teachers hardly ever gave them feedback on their assignments required to post on the e-learning platforms, three participants expected the teachers’

remarks on their assignment on the Internet. One of the respondents recalled:

P2: I remember my teacher asked us to post what we have learned from reading on his website. But it seems that the teacher didn’t read what we wrote. So, I think the teacher should read our writing and then give us his feedback. (SG#3) Overall, for the students, the teachers’ engagement in their online learning is looked upon as stimuli that can rouse their motivation to learn since with the teachers’

feedback and communication, the students can feel that their learning process is valued by the teachers.