Evaluation of online English listening and speaking skills courses
Alisa Vanijdee
Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University
Thailand
This research aims to study the assessment and evaluation of the online English courses with listening and speaking content in the Bachelor of English degree programme, and to propose guidelines for them.
The instruments included are (1) examination marks for five semesters; (2) a questionnaire for 137 students; and (3) an interview. The sample group consisted of students attending the English for Professional Experience course; a group of informants comprising two English subject experts, one evaluation expert, five evaluation technologists, and two chairpersons of five online courses. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used.
The results were as follows:
| 1 | The current assessment and evaluation of all courses were performed both straightforwardly and comparatively. In the formative evaluation for course 14422 Effective Presentations in English, students submitted their presentation skills via video clips. The courses 14320 English Pronunciation and 14215 Introduction to English Linguistics (Modules 3, 13 and 15) exploit online activities, while 10111 English for Communication and 10171 Interaction make the best use of written and tutorial activities. The final examinations are in paper and pen format. |
| 2 | The state-of-the-art assessment and evaluation in the formative activities should be compulsory, and be expanded in terms of content and productive skills. In due course, the final examination should be developed, with the aid of software technology, to measure accurately students' listening and speaking performance. However, the human resources for evaluation must be commensurate with the number of students. |