This research aims to prove the effectiveness of the distant course "Engineering. General introduction" developed for the first-year engineering students of the Institute of Aerospace Technologies on the Moodle platform and used as the main online learning tool during the quarantine, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The course comprises the following topics: Engineering, Robotics, Smart Materials, Technology, History of Flight, Igor Sikorsky. The students' activity in the course has been analyzed and compared with the survey results. To evaluate the students' (N=34) perceptions towards the course, its benefits and drawbacks, as well as the possibility of using additional educational technologies, we have designed the questionnaire which includes 12 closed and open questions. The results show that 73,5% students think that Moodle platform is a good decision to provide e-learning education, which is consistent with the students grading history: 46,1% of students had 60-80% progress; 53,9% coped at 80-100%. The interactive modules "Forum" and "Glossary" promote developing students' collaborative skills. The drawbacks mentioned by respondents are the problems with the Internet connection and lack of face-to-face communication. The conclusion is made to implement video conferencing tools in the learning process. Based on the research findings, the recommendations for educators regarding remote learning process optimization have been proposed.
The teaching profession is always evolving. Teachers have to upgrade their knowledge and skills to be in line with students' and employers' needs. The challenges teachers are facing are the continuously changing conditions of the teaching process and technological innovations. Unsuccessful and numerous attempts to overcome these challenges negatively affect teachers' self-efficacy. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of educational technologies on university teachers' self-efficacy level changes using quantitative (pre and post-self-efficacy test) and qualitative (peerobservation, interviews) research methods. The study involved 60 inservice ESP teachers with different length of teaching experience. Teachers were exposed to a short practical course on technologies integration into the teaching process, and after that, they had to demonstrate the practical application of the knowledge obtained. The findings showed that educational technologies integration had positive influence on four components of teachers' self-efficacy: classroom management, instruction strategies design, students' engagement and technologies integration. During the course delivery, we dealt with two problems: computer anxiety (senior teachers), as well as technology and pedagogical content knowledge framework (novice teachers).
The article is devoted to comparison of the effectiveness of grammar acquisition by adult learners in two types of instruction -based on the traditional PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production) approach and TBL (Task-Based Learning) approach -in ESP university classes. We conducted a qualitative research in which we tried to incorporate grammar instruction in communicative language teaching and for that purpose selected two groups of students (the PPP group and the TBL group). They were taught five topics, each with a focus on particular grammar items. The comparison of the results we obtained showed that students' achievement in the TBL group increased more substantially than in the PPP group. Also, the majority of students in the TBL group liked learning grammar at the point of need, which we consider particularly important, since it stimulated their motivation and contributed to the acquisition of grammatical structures. When considering the positive aspects of our experience of using TBL and task-based grammar learning in particular, we should first of all point out its learner-centeredness which provides a number of advantages in teaching adult students: the focus on real communication, addressing the students' needs by putting them into authentic communicative situations, encouragement of students' responsibility for their own learning, exposure of students to a wide variety of language, including grammar, ability to motivate students.
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