名古屋外国語大学論集

第8号

2021年2月

Special Issue: Online Education Under the COVID-19 Pandemic: Its Challenges and Future Prospects

A Process of Development and Lessons Learned:
Transferring Core English From the Classroom to
OnlineNicholas BRADLEYThe COVID-19 pandemic affected all areas of society, including education.
Moving face-to-face classroom-based courses online is no small task; doing
so within an extremely short timeframe provides teachers with an exceptional
challenge. This article details the transition online of the Core English Programat Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. In addition to detailing a process of
converting a large-scale classroom-based course to an online course withinjust a few weeks, it will provide the results of student and teacher surveys on theeffectiveness of the transition. From reflecting on the process and the survey results
and lessons that can be learned, certain elements of best practice can be identified
for situations that require rapid and fundamental change in educational settings.

1. Moving Core English Online
1.1 The Core English ProgramCore English (CE) Program contains the following courses: Core English 1-4 &and Advanced Core English. Core English 3&4 are delivered to all sophomore
students within the Department of British and American Studies. Advanced Core
English is for sophomore students in the French, Japanese and Chinese Studies
77Departments. Core English 1&2 are delivered to freshmen students in the six
departments within the Schools of Foreign Languages and World Liberal Arts
by a team of 18 EFL lecturers. Core English 1&2 are by far the largest courses
and they set the tone for all other CE courses. It is the online transition of CE1
for freshmen students that will be the subject of this article.
The main goals of CE1 are as follows:A• ‌ ‌To foster an attitudinal shift in the way students view English and language
learning.
F• To develop fluent and confident speaking.
K• To develop knowledge and awareness of certain content areas.
R• To encourage students to reflect on their own language use.
V• To learn new vocabulary and conversation strategies.
These goals and the rationale for them are detailed elsewhere (see Bradley,2019). As this paper is concerned with the transition online rather than thefundamental elements of if the course, it is enough to say for now that, although
all goals reinforce one another “the primary goal is an attitudinal shift from a
passive, often can’t do, attitude towards English to one that is characterised by a
growing ownership of English” (Bradley, 2019, p.4). In this sense, repositioning
English in the minds of students from an academic subject, as it is often taught
as in high school, to a skill that they both see themselves as possessing and being
able to develop is central to the course.
1.2 Initial Considerations
The decision to transfer courses online was made only shortly before the planned
start of the semester and resulted in both a delayed start date and a shorter
semester; the usual 15-week semester was reduced to a 12-week semester. As
such, a wholesale transfer online was not possible, and a trimmed version was
required. The original 15-week course contained two introductory classes at the78

A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■start of the semester and two review classes: one before the mid-term test andone before the final test. To accommodate the reduced number of classes and tomaintain unit/course cohesion, the following decisions were made:     • There will be a single introductory class     •‌Course / Student introductory activities can be posted online as preparationin advance     •‌The review classes will be removed – teachers can post review work online     • Each unit will be reduced from 6 to 5 classes
Following the establishment of a tentative schedule, the following questions
were considered:     • Can the objectives of CE be achieved through an online medium?
     • Which platforms are best suited to achieving these ends?
The two questions must be considered simultaneously as you cannot consider
which goals are achievable online without considering platforms, just as you
cannot assess platforms without having certain goals in mind. Though the twoquestions are presented as separate above, the reality is that they represent
something of a gestalt in that every small development in the consideration of
one must be cross-referenced with and developed alongside the other.
Each unit of the course contains multiple components (Figure 1), each of which
contribute towards all or most of the previous mentioned goals. As the components of the unit were created to have a mutually supporting and reinforcing
relationship with one another, the removal of components was deemed undesirable. Additionally, a review of technology options (Webex, Teams, Meets,
Skype, Zoom, Google Suite, etc) by members of the lecturer team suggested thata transfer of all CE1 components was feasible and identified particular programs
that were well suited to the task. The key considerations were:79     √ Function – Do the programs allow us to do what we want to do?
     √ Integration – How smoothly do the different parts work together?
     √ ‌User friendliness – Can students/teachers with limited computer literacy
operate them quickly and easily?
Online classes hosted by Zoom and course work administered by Google
Classroom and other programs within the Google Suite (Docs, Forms) were
found to best satisfy the three criteria above. This is also represented in Figure 1.
1.3 Online Creation
Lecturers researching different technology options and regularly meeting to
exchange findings allowed for informed decisions to be made within such a shorttime frame. The success of this pooling of time, research and knowledge, and the
productive discussion that followed demonstrated that effectively achieving thetask was best done as a collective effort. While we had identified the programs
we wish to use, we were still not well-versed in their use, nor were any of theonline versions of course materials constructed.
Figure 1. Components of Core English 1
Components within each Unit of CE

Area ofdevelopment

OnlineUnit Readings and Discussion

A/K/V/F

Zoom

Quizzes

K/V

Google Forms

Conversation Listening/Scripts

A/K/V

Google Classroom

Imaginary Dialogs

K/V/F/R

Google Docs / Google Classroom

Timed Conversation & Conversation
Reflection

A/K/V/F/R

Zoom
Google Docs / Google Classroom

Presentation

A/K/V/F/R

Zoom
Google Docs / Google Classroom

Pre-test Review Classes

K/V/F/R

N/A

Mid-term & Final Tests

K/V/R

Google Forms / Google Classroom

Other Course Components

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A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■Regular meetings involving all lecturers were held in which development tasks
were assigned. Each lecturer produced online elements of the course which were
kept in a shared location for teachers to add to their online classrooms. Again,
this pooling of time resulted in the creation of materials that would have been
beyond the scope of a single teacher. However, the pooling of time was perhaps
not the most significant and impressive outcome. The level of teachers teachingteachers was remarkable. No one teacher was familiar with all programs orapplications, so teachers not only produced online material, but they reported on
the process of its development too. This reporting gave greater familiarity withall programs and allowed for the learning of little tricks, short-cuts and featuresthat teachers by themselves would likely have never known. Additionally, themedium of discussion was Zoom, the program with which teachers would
be holding their classes. Every meeting held brought greater familiarity with
Zoom, such as what could and could not be done with breakout rooms, how to
enable audio, share screens, use the white board effectively and so on. Within
two weeks, the lecturer team had leaned how to use Zoom and all Google suite
programs, as well as having created online versions of all components of thecourse for the full semester. In addition, teachers had registered each other as
students in their classes so they could see how the online classroom looks fromthe students’ perspective. This mutual support did not end once the course wasmade. Weekly team meetings were held to discuss the progression of the courseand share information. Teacher chat groups were a hive of activity between thescheduled meeting times.

2. Views of CE Online
Though the lecturer team moved the whole course online and rapidly becamefamiliar with the technology, this was the first time it had been done, especially
under such extreme circumstances. To improve the course during the first semester and for the upcoming second online semester, it is imperative to have the81feedback of both students and teachers. This section will present the results ofthree surveys: a survey given to CE1 students after the completion of the firstunit online and again at the end of the semester, and a survey at the end of thesemester for lecturers who taught the course.
The two surveys given to students (one after completion of the first course unit,
and one after the completion of the semester) both resulted in an extremely large
number of responses. Posting the survey on Google Classroom undoubtedly
resulted in the high response rate, though slightly fewer students completed thesecond survey (591) than the first (692). The teachers’ survey was completed by
all but one (the author) of the teachers teaching the course.
The results of the surveys are presented below thematically. For ease of analysis,
the results of student surveys are presented in pairs with the top chart representing the first survey and the lower chart showing results of the second survey.
Where applicable, results of the teachers’ survey that focus on the same issue ortheme are presented along side those of the students. These results are presented
after those of students and in a different chart form for ease of distinction. Survey
questions/statements were given to students in both English and Japanese, as
shown in the charts. Survey questions / statements were given to teachers in
English only.
2.1 Online viability
Although a wide array of options were available and there remained someuncertainty among teachers about the adoption of Zoom and Google Classroom,
students were consistently satisfied with the programs throughout the semester.
Less than 5% of students in both surveys disagreed with the statement that the
choice of Zoom and Google Classroom was successful. Surveys used a Likert scalewith 1 representing “Strongly Disagree”, and 5 representing “Strongly Agree”.
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A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■As shown in the chart below, the views expressed by students above are also heldby teachers, who overwhelmingly agree that the online platforms are suitable foronline classes. It is likely that teacher endorsement of the platforms is greaterthan that of students due to testing of multiple platforms during the pre-semester
course development stage (Section 1.3).

832.2 Google Classroom: A Short Learning Curve
An initial concern when considering the move to online was the level ofcomputer literacy among students and their familiarity with Zoom and Google
Classroom. Both Zoom and Google Classroom are extremely intuitive platforms
and most students reported that they did not have issues accessing and submitting
work through Google Classroom. As one may reasonably expect, this number
increased over the course of the semester.

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A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■The intuitive nature of Zoom and Google Classroom, and increased exposure
to them are certainly factors in students’ growing comfort with the platforms,
as expressed in the charts above, but they are not the only reasons. Students
received a high level of tech support from the university’s Media Centre and fromthe Core English program and teacher. At the start of the course, when student
technical issues more frequently occurred, students expressed a high level ofsatisfaction with the availability of their teacher. This high level of satisfaction
was maintained throughout the semester.

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In addition to the availability of teachers in providing assistance to students,
the materials given to students to work on prior to the semester beginning werealso seen by teachers as preparing them to use Zoom and Google Classroom in
addition to their language learning value.

2.3 Ambivalence towards Zoom
The strong endorsement of Zoom as the host of online classes is also shown instudents’ feelings regarding the breakout rooms that are a feature of Zoom andare used by teachers to allow student pair or group work. Students overwhelmingly (over 80%) enjoy using breakout rooms to communicate with their peers,something which was also frequently mentioned in their comments on the survey
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A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■(Section 2.5).

The enjoyment of communicating in Zoom breakout rooms is not replicatedacross use of the platform in its entirety. Although students generally agree that
Zoom allows for active participation, endorsement is not as strong as it waswith breakout rooms and the number of students who disagree or, especially,
are undecided is much higher.

87This is also expressed in beliefs relating to class atmosphere. Although a sizable
majority of students believe the atmosphere is positive, there is a significant
number of students (25.2–22.9%) that have neither positive nor negative feelings regarding it. Despite the strong endorsement of its selection and extremely
positive assessment of breakout rooms and, to a lesser degree, the positive
atmosphere and potential for active participation, Zoom is still an online platformthat keeps people at a distance. Student comments (Section 2.5) show a desire
to have classes in the classroom and show some frustration with being online.
Teachers appear sensitive to this sentiment as 14 of 17 teachers agreed students
prefer to be in the classroom.

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A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■Given these results, Zoom, in the eyes of students, would appear be the best ofa bad bunch. While the program is positively reviewed by both students andteachers, it cannot escape the fact that it is online and keeps people at distance;
two things that are beyond control.

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2.4 Achieving Course Objectives
As mentioned in Section 1.1, Core English is a course that has fairly standard
goals concerning the development of fluency and acquisition of linguisticknowledge, but it is a course that also aims to alter attitudes to English use anddevelop a can-do attitude to English. Though students are likely unaware of theplanning of courses when it comes to specific goals, students expressed a highlevel of belief in the value of the course as only 4.5% of students disagreed withthe statement that their English will not develop with the course, 10.3% reported
that they were not enjoying the course, and 11.8% said they did not look forward
to their Core English classes.

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A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■91

When looking at student comments (Section 2.5), we can see that the greatest
issue for students was the level of homework and out of class time required forthe course. The level of homework may also explain the slight dip in positivity
shown between the survey at the start of the semester and the survey at the end.
Students at the start of the semester may not have fully known the requirementsof Core English and other courses and will still have had very high energy levels.
By the end of a semester that was reported by teachers and students as being
very demanding, these energy levels and positivity may be somewhat depleted.
Overall, however, the results above show a strong endorsement of the course
as negative views were consistently kept to about 10% of the approximately
590-650 students who responded.
2.5 Student Comments
In addition to the Likert scale questions presented above, students were also
invited to provide a response to three open questions. Student responses to thesequestions have been referenced in above sections where relevant. Due to this,the low number of comments received, and the lack of strong emergent themesin comments, little commentary of responses will be provided in this section.
The three open questions were:
12. Think about Core English this semester. What areas can be improved?
     これまでCore Englishの授業を受けてきて、何か改善されるべき点があれば、意見を聞かせて下さい。
13. What areas do you like / think are successful?
この授業のどの点が成功していると感じますか。
14. Do you have any other comments about Core English?
その他この授業に関する意見やコメントなどあれば自由に記述下さい。

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A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■Though most students did not provide answers, the answers that were provided
were grouped according to theme/issue. All issues that received ten or more
responses will be shown.
In terms of areas that can be improved (Question 12), the top issues and thenumber of mentions were as follows:• No comment (464)• Amount of homework is too high / Short time to do the work (60)•‌Teacher issues in class, such as lack of explanations, teacher personality
or class/time management (21)

• Insufficient feedback from the teacher (12)•‌Communication in class is difficult due to differing student levels, being
online, insufficient time (12)Question 13 received the most responses with the most common themes being:     • No comment (226)     •‌Able to communicate with many people / Communication in breakout
rooms (175)     • Enjoyable assignments, particularly the presentations (49)     •‌Appreciation for teachers, such as visiting breakout rooms, quickly
responding to emails, positive personality, help with technology, being
encouraging and approachable (45)     • Good use of technology in class (40)     • Good class atmosphere (21)     • All English environment (17)Like question 12, Question 14 received few responses     • No comment (437)     • Student is enjoying Core English (46)93     • Passing on thanks to their teacher (30)     • Student is looking forward to having class on campus (20)     •‌Teacher issues in class, such as lack of explanations, teacher personality
or class/time management (19)     • Student feels that the online class is successful (18)     • Too much homework (16)     • Feeling of improving their English or confidence in using English (12)     • Appreciation of having many opportunities to communicate in English (12)
2.6 Teacher Course Assessment
The positivity of students towards the course is maintained by teachers also as,at the completion of the semester, only one of the 17 teachers disagreed that thegoals of Core English can be achieved online.

Although teachers expressed the positive view above, “can be” does not equate
with “are being” and so teachers were also invited to rank the success of course
elements.

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A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■The three charts above are consistent in showing the elements viewed as being
especially successful of problematic. The success of pair/group discussion is95

supported by students’ responses shown earlier regarding communication inbreakout rooms and their ability to actively participate in class. The success ofthe project/presentation and imaginary dialog, which are also a feature of teacher
comments, is a consequence of those activities being particularly suitable forthe online format. Indeed, teachers often commented on the increased quality ofstudents’ PowerPoint centred presentations in the online semester over those inprevious semesters where the support of technology was optional.
As course creator and coordinator, my focus is drawn more to what is seen as
being unsuccessful. In this, the two clear elements of the course that require
attention were the tests and the conversation reflection. The tests were the mostflagged element by teachers and the element that received negative commentsin the open questions shown below.

The negativity surrounding the tests centred on the perceived lack of fairness inthe testing environment. Doing tests at distance with teachers unable to assess
what students have access to while taking tests created a lack of faith in thefairness of results. This is compounded by the high level of work placed on
students, some of whom may have little time to prepare for tests and might try tocompensate for this by using textbooks and memos during tests. In a similar way,
the conversation reflection was seen by teachers as something that exceptionally96

A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■busy students did not spend sufficient time on to achieve value.
The third element to be flagged, the conversation listening, had previously beena class time element, but was placed on Google Classroom due to the shortened
semester. This loss of focus on this element was seen as being detrimental to theelement itself while also increasing the out of class burden on students.
2.7 Legacy Issues
While the level of technical expertise among the 17 Core English teachers differed, moving a course online was a new experience for all. Though teachers
experienced an increased workload because of this, it was viewed in a positive
light because it exposed them to many new options and possibilities regarding
teaching.

The shift to online classes has positively influenced teachers’ views to online
classes. This experience would appear to be profound for many, as 11 expresseda strong desire to continue using elements of the online course following thereturn to the classroom.
97Another positive outcome is the increased level of collaboration between
teachers. As mentioned in Sections 1.2 & 1.3, all teachers were involved in thetransfer of the course online. The level of investment and collaboration required
was viewed as being an extremely positive experience and something which, it
is hoped, will become a regular feature of professional life.

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A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■The positivity generated by the collaboration appears to have generated positive
momentum because, despite an extremely challenging and busy semester, teachers at the end of the semester expressed a high level of optimism concerning thesecond semester.

3. Changes to CE
Having reviewed the course over the semester and considered student andteacher feedback, the following major changes were made for CE2 in the second
semester:-   Removed tests and review classes for tests-  ‌Due to the longer second semester and removal of the tests, all units areextended from 5 to 6 classes-   The conversation listening is incorporated into class time99

-  ‌The conversation reflection is simplified and reformatted for smoother
online completion-  ‌The value of presentations is increased to reflect student effort and tocompensate for the removal of tests
The above changes address all the main issues raised by students and teachers.
Greater time assigned to each unit and the removal of tests reduces the demands
on students and teachers as well as allowing the conversation listening to return
to being an in-class element. Additionally, the removal of tests allows for agreater focus on the presentations, which were an exceptionally popular andproductive element of the course in the first semester.
At the time of writing (two weeks into the second semester), it is too early toaccurately assess the full impact of the changes. However, to offer some indication of the likely outcome of the changes, teachers responded to two simple
questions:100A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■As can be seen, teachers appear satisfied with the changes and believe that theirstudents share their satisfaction. Although teachers mention that it is too early
to respond with any certainty, this snapshot of early opinion seems to offer apositive prediction for the new semester.

4. Final Word
This paper has attempted to chart the actions and reasoning behind the transfer ofa classroom content based English language course to that of an online content
based English language course. Though the course has been positively received
and appraised by both students and teachers, there are certain aspects of theprocess that stand out as particular learning moments. Although it is (hopefully)
unlikely that the circumstances and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic will
be replicated in the future, these learning moments are applicable to more thanthese extreme circumstances.
Communication is vital
Providing communications and directions for students and teachers in a timely
manner is vital in ensuring all are prepared and know the direction of future
actions. The move online has the potential for often contradictory information toarrive from different sources at the same time. Maintaining one official channelof communication that keeps a clear timeline and presents steps and directions101

in clear and concise terms allows for team focus and a shared direction in challenging times.
Manage assumptions and build upwards as needed
Transferring a regular class into an online class in circumstances that were far
from proved to be too demanding for students. Hindsight shows that transferring
key elements and possibly adding additional elements at a later date would havebeen preferable to transferring an entire course and then removing elements.
Collaboration exposes ideas and expertise
Many of the positives experienced during this process stem from collaboration.
One key benefit of collaboration was the exposure to the creativity and previously unknown abilities of colleagues. It is a well-known maxim that challenge
brings out the true nature of a person. However, without regular communicationand means of collaboration, the knowledge, skills, and abilities of teachers would
likely have gone unknown or unnoticed.
Collaboration improves the air
The increased exposure to the abilities and knowledge of colleagues creates
greater respect among teacher. This increases group cohesion, which in turnincreases collaboration and generates a positive cycle. The positive effects ofthis spread beyond task development and completion and influence many otheraspects such as job satisfaction.
Investment improves and enables
By collaborating and building together, teachers feel invested in the courseand strive to see it in being successfully implemented. Just as the Core English
Program tries to develop a can-do attitude in students, the process of collaboration and the investment it brings developed a can-do attitude among teachers during a time that had the potential to cause great anxiety and withdrawal. Involved
and invested teachers bring out the best of their course and their students.
Where there’s muck there’s brass
The final point not only allows me, as a Yorkshireman, to use a Yorkshire102

A Process of Development and Lessons Learned: Transferring Core English From the Classroom to Online ■proverb, it also reveals an important lesson. Although suggesting that there ismoney to be made in doing the unpleasant jobs in life, the proverb can also be
broadly interpreted to mean that there is often something valuable (brass) inmessy things (muck). This is exactly the point here. COVID-19 presented a challenge never seen before, especially in the timeframes involved and the overalllevel of uncertainty regarding almost every aspect, from student computer accessand computer literacy levels, to online platform support, testing environments
and even whether or not the later half of the semester will be online or in theclassroom. Just as there is brass in the muck, there are benefits in the challenges.
These have been documented here so they are not overlooked. By reflecting onthem in this paper, I hope to never forget them.

References
Bradley, N. (2019). The Core English Programme in the Schools of Foreign Studies and World Liberal
Arts. Bulletin of Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. 5, 1–20.

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