The use of media within online university courses has been shown to aid the learning process with the delivery of information through various formats. However, issues that inhibit learning have been found when media are used inappropriately. Based on an examination of extant media research, this study arranges common media delivery problems into five main categories: pace, intelligibility, quality, media diversity, and congruence. Students taking online courses were asked to comment on the media used in their classes. Each of their comments was paired with one of the five categories with justification provided for the categorizations. Through analysis of these learner comments, this study examines the extent to which media delivery problems occur among a specific sample of online university learners in South Korea. The underlying pedagogy that explains the issues caused by inadequate delivery of media is also discussed, followed by recommended solutions that can address such pedagogical concerns. The results not only highlight existing solutions to these types of media problems but also build on them by suggesting other techniques in which media can be delivered so that the overall online learning experience may be enhanced.

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Purpose This study aims to increase language learning (L2) output by incorporating a digital storytelling chatbot system (known as a “storybot”) that focused interactions on a narrative. This study also sought to investigate student perceptions of these storybot interactions and improve on poor perception rates from previous studies. Design/methodology/approach This one-sample exploratory study was of student-storybot participation rates and student perceptions towards a storybot activity designed to increase L2 output. A combination of storybot participation analytics and survey analysis of student perception was carried out. Findings The use of storybots in the L2 class resulted in mixed participation rates. Students read nine times more than they wrote, indicating a high degree of reading comprehension necessary for storybot interaction. Survey results revealed that students believed storybots helped them meet their L2 goals, were relevant to their L2 and were easy to navigate. Research limitations/implications Interactions were through text messaging so no impact on speech or pronunciation could be observed. Further, the context was within a single university class in South Korea, restricting the generalization of findings to outside regions or with younger learners. Finally, while storybots proved to be valuable reading comprehension activities, the next step in this line of chatbot research should incorporate more writing prompts. Practical implications Storybots revealed explicit benefits to reading comprehension, as measured by cohesion between storybot delivered comprehension questions and student responses. Moreover, storybots can be used as examples for students in their own story creation, classroom forms to collect relevant student information regarding learning objectives and platforms for class quizzes. Social implications Storybots scaffold students through conversations, which abide by socio-pragmatic norms, providing models for L2 learners to incorporate in real-world text-based communication. Additionally, a wide range of idiomatic expressions is contextualized in comprehensible interactions that students can learn from the storybot then practice with friends. Originality/value This study contributes to the growing research on the use of chatbots for second L2 and offers specific insight into the use of narrative storybots as a means to increase L2 output and potentially benefit L2 reading comprehension.

Aim/Purpose: The number of students enrolled in online courses that use video lectures is on the rise. However, research shows that the number of students watching video lectures is low, and the number watching videos to completion is even lower. Background: This paper seeks to understand this problem by looking for correlations between instructional design and student engagement with video lectures. Methodology: Students at a cyber-university in South Korea (n=1801) were surveyed on their perception of the instructional design used in the courses they took and their engagement with online video lectures. Contribution: This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by demonstrating positive correlations between instructional design, watching, and finishing video lectures. Findings: While most other research has found low levels of online lecture viewership, this paper found significantly higher numbers watching and finishing videos. Other major findings of the paper are that five key elements of instructional design for online learning environments (designing methods, setting the curriculum, establishing time parameters, establishing netiquette, and utilizing the medium effectively) all correlated positively with students watching and finishing video lectures. Recommendations for Practitioners : Based on findings in this paper, it is recommended that practitioners consider taking actions when designing their instruction for online courses. These include batching their video lectures together by topic, devoting greater resources to helping students utilize the medium, and communicate time parameters in a way that encourages students to view video lectures in a timely manner. Recommendation for Researchers: As the watching of video lectures in this study was mandatory for learners, an interesting area of further research would be to examine whether that decision led to higher numbers of students watching them. Future Research: It is important for researchers to conduct further research into the interplay between ways instructors can design their instruction in order to encourage learners to better experience online learning.

An important aspect of MOOCs is the way students interact with video lectures. Instruction provided through video lectures should focus on ways to increase germane cognitive load, which directly contributes to learning. One approach that may lead to an increase of germane load may be to use video lectures with diverse forms of media, including both auditory and visual aspects of multimedia.This study surveyed a group of students (n = 1602) who participated in MOOC-like courses in South Korea to investigate the relationship between delivery diversity and germane cognitive load.Additionally, the relationships between individual indicators of both audio and visual aspects of multimedia and germane load were examined. Results show a positive relationship between diverse media delivery (auditory, visual, and total media) and germane cognitive load. The implication of these results are important for instructors who wish to promote a better understanding of e-learning materials through the delivery of content by using diverse forms of media.