Interactivity in the language online classroom: from the index of system intelligence to the systemic changes in education

• Main Author: Larisa M. Galchuk
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) 2020-12-01
• Series: RUDN Journal of Informatization in Education
• Subjects: interactivity; e-learning; virtual educational environment; digital technologies; electronic educational resource; instructional design; vocationally oriented foreign language teaching; higher order thinking skills
• Online Access: http://journals.rudn.ru/informatization-education/article/viewFile/25388/18974

Problem and goal. The article examines the changing nature and intensity of the teaching-learning interaction with the digital technologies becoming commonplace in higher education, whether in support of its traditional, blended, or fully online formats. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to identify the nature of interactivity, its types, didactic functions, methods and means of implementation in these new digitally enhanced learning spaces as one of their effectiveness parameters and indicators. Methodology. The study contextualizes its findings within the larger body of theoretical and applied research in the field of psychology, pedagogy and methodology, the formation and development of information educational media, vocational and electronic foreign language pedagogy in Russia and abroad. To verify the preliminary conclusions, the experience of designing a Moodle-based electronic training course was used. The quality of its interactive content was assessed on the basis of data from a questionnaire survey of students as a tool for their retrospective reflection upon completion of work on the thematic modules of the online course. Results. The principles, stages and technologies for designing interactive electronic educational resources have been developed and described, based on the pedagogical scenario, which forms the basis of a vocationally oriented foreign language course for master's students of a non-linguistic university. Instructional design is recognized as effective if it provides for complex types of learning and teaching interactions, the nature and intensity of which change as educational tasks become more complex, aimed at improving students' thinking skills of a higher order within the collaborative work and growing engagement into the online course. The functions of ICT as an element of an interactive educational ecosystem also vary, allowing the teacher and/or student at each stage of training to orchestrate the set of resources according to the teaching-learning goals. Conclusion. The results obtained revealed the diversity of forms and didactic functions of interactivity, stimulating the cognitive activity of students that results in the construction of new knowledge in the form of an intellectual artifact with its subsequent verification in a social context. The methodological value of the approach used in the study lies in shifting its research focus away from the comparative assessments of in-class and e-learning formats when discussing the quality teaching and learning issue towards an approach that delves more closely into choosing the appropriate methods and mechanisms for enhancing learning spaces with digital technologies and maximizing their effect.