TY - JOUR
T1 - From blended to virtual learning
T2 - Insights from a language enhancement workshop programme
AU - Pan, Jun
AU - Yan, Jackie Xiu
AU - Zhang, Jing
N1 - Funding Information:
The workshop series aimed to serve as an extra-curricular programme to cater for the needs of students and staff in higher education institutions in Hong Kong, regardless of their subject of study. The activity was part of a large project for the enhancement of linguistic competence and performance in English and Chinese, under the support of the University Grants Committee’s Funding Scheme for Teaching and Learning Related Proposals. One of the deliverables of the large project was to develop an online platform with various learning resources and activities designed for learners with different needs of Chinese language enhancement (Appendix 1), which also served as an information hub for relevant activities organised by the two collaborating institutions.
Funding Information:
This research is supported by UGC’s Funding Scheme for Teaching and Learning Related Proposals (2016–19 Triennium; Project No.: 6390212). We also appreciate the help of Mr. Dongpeng Pan, research assistant of the project, who aided with the workshop arrangement and data collection.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
PY - 2022/6/9
Y1 - 2022/6/9
N2 - The past decades have witnessed great advances in the development of tools and resources for blended and virtual learning designs: the latter, in particular, have become a daily reality for many educational institutions during COVID-19. This study reports findings obtained from action research on a language enhancement workshop programme, a Chinese writing and translation workshop, which was carried out under the environment of blended and then virtual learning in AY2018/19 and AY2019/20, respectively. Through results obtained from the analysis of feedback gathered from participants of each workshop session, the study identified the challenges and merits associated with the two types of learning, as well as those of skill- and topic-based training. The study also addresses issues relating to the extracurricular training of learners from different backgrounds and discusses ways to better cope with a mixed-background educational setting in the future. Teachers need to be more creative and develop adaptable pedagogies. Institutional and technology support are equally important to better facilitate learners of different needs.
AB - The past decades have witnessed great advances in the development of tools and resources for blended and virtual learning designs: the latter, in particular, have become a daily reality for many educational institutions during COVID-19. This study reports findings obtained from action research on a language enhancement workshop programme, a Chinese writing and translation workshop, which was carried out under the environment of blended and then virtual learning in AY2018/19 and AY2019/20, respectively. Through results obtained from the analysis of feedback gathered from participants of each workshop session, the study identified the challenges and merits associated with the two types of learning, as well as those of skill- and topic-based training. The study also addresses issues relating to the extracurricular training of learners from different backgrounds and discusses ways to better cope with a mixed-background educational setting in the future. Teachers need to be more creative and develop adaptable pedagogies. Institutional and technology support are equally important to better facilitate learners of different needs.
KW - blended learning
KW - skill-based training
KW - topic-based training
KW - virtual learning
KW - workshop series
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135004101&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1504/IJMLO.2022.124179
DO - 10.1504/IJMLO.2022.124179
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1746-725X
VL - 16
SP - 349
EP - 376
JO - International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation
JF - International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation
IS - 3
ER -