E-learning courses in teaching English: first-hand experience

• Пак Леонид Евгеньевич

  Vladivostok State University. Vladivostok. Russia

• Eva P. Dolgaya

  Eva P. Dolgaya. Vladivostok State University. Vladivostok. Russia

Abstract. This work is devoted to the study of the specifics of the use of e-learning courses in teaching English. The paper aims to present the findings of our experience-based research that involved e-learning courses design and application. In the course of the study, descriptive re-
search has been applied (analysis and description of the specifics revealed). In addition, the survey method has been employed. To collect, process and present the obtained data, quantitative method and methods of presentation of the material (diagrams, tables) have been used. The research involved the identification and description of the substantive and formal requirements for e-learning courses; the creation of our own e-courses for teaching English; and a detailed description of these courses (the platforms on which the courses are hosted, the structure of the courses, the sequence of courses, the tasks to complete). A survey to receive feedback from learners was carried out. The main requirements for e-courses are a short and concise descrip-tion of the course on the main page, well-structured topic-based material, relevance of the con-tent, and a transparent evaluation system. Considering these requirements, we have developed three online courses for English learn-
ers: ‘Our Nature’, ‘The Great DiCaprio’, ‘The Creativity of Billie Eilish’. The courses were made available on the following platforms: Stepik, Google-Class, Eduardo. The structure of a typical module includes introductory material, lexical mate-rial, lexical exercises and tasks to complete, and grammatical material and grammar exercises to complete. One of the developed courses, namely ‘Our Nature’, was tried and tested when teaching English to 10th grade students at a school with an advanced curriculum in English. The survey showed the overall satisfaction of the secondary school students with their online course experience, which proves that e-courses can help increase students'
motivation to learn a foreign language in the future.
Keywords: e-learning course, content requirements to e-learning courses, formal requirements to e-learning courses, criterion, didactic principle