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Historically, online instructors have primarily, if not solely, used asynchronous text-based communication to interact and communicate with students in online courses. However, despite this use, online instructors and students have expressed concerns and limitations with asynchronous communication. Research suggests that synchronous communication technology may address some of the limitations of asynchronous communication. Further, advances in synchronous video-based communication technology make it easier than ever to incorporate synchronous communication technology into online courses. However, comparatively, little is known about online instructors’ experiences and perceptions of using synchronous communication technologies in online courses and how they think they can help with community development. The purpose of this study was to explore instructors’ experiences and perceptions of synchronous communication technology. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 18 online instructors resulted in the following themes: (a) instructors use synchronous communication technology in multiple and various ways in online courses; (b) the perceived benefits of real-time visual communication outweigh the drawbacks identified; (c) the benefits of nonverbal communication depend on situational factors and how synchronous features are used; (d) productive and meaningful interaction requires intentional yet flexible facilitation during synchronous sessions; (e) synchronous sessions can provide a place for community to build and grow but they are not required for community development. Altogether, findings suggest that real-time visual communication may aid in community building in online courses but that its effectiveness depends on several situational factors, and that synchronous lecturing may be less conducive to developing classroom community in online courses. Results and future research directions are discussed.

Purpose: The incorporation of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been widely used in recent English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching and learning due to the rapid advancement of technology. Despite the prevalence of online CMC communications, previous research has yielded mixed results, and empirical evidence on how online communications affect student reading comprehension is limited. This study compares the effects of online asynchronous and synchronous communications on EFL reading comprehension in a Taiwanese collaborative learning context. Method: Ten reading comprehension tests and an online questionnaire survey were administered to 100 university students enrolled in two senior reading classes in Southern Taiwan. Independent-sample t-tests, descriptive statistics, and Pearson product-moment correlation analyses were computed to investigate the differences and relationships between perceived asynchronous and synchronous communication use on EFL reading comprehension performance. Results: The findings revealed that participants used the synchronous communication mode more frequently than the asynchronous mode. The reading score obtained through the synchronous group was slightly higher than that obtained through the asynchronous group; no statistically significant difference was found. As students practiced more in asynchronous and synchronous communication modes, their reading comprehension ability improved significantly. Conclusion: Although learners generally accept both online communication modes, the open-ended question results reveal several disadvantages and advantages of online communication environments. The study's limitations, as well as the implications for instructional pedagogy and future research, are presented and discussed.

The pairing of telecollaboration and focused instruction can lead to measurable gains in second language learners' pragmatic competence. This article examines speech act production in telecollaborative exchange, focusing on the requesting behavior of American learners of German for professional purposes as they interacted with German-speaking professionals in Germany via synchronous Web conferences. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative methods, the study investigated the effect of interaction with expert speakers and the implementation of focused instruction on learners' pragmatic development. Whereas quantitative analysis showed no change between experimental conditions, qualitative analysis of 4 learners' request production over the course of 4 online discussions revealed idiosyncratic developmental pathways and the emergence of a common strategy for managing participation in oral synchronous computer-mediated communication. The findings provide new insight regarding the nature of second language request production and confirm the utility of pragmatics instruction in telecollaboration. At the same time, the study calls for more refined analytical tools when investigating language development in extended telecollaborative discourse. (Verlag).

In technology enhanced language learning, many pedagogical activities involve students in online discussion such as synchronous chat, in order to help them practice their language skills. Besides developing the language competency of students, it is also crucial to nurture their teamwork competencies for today's global and complex environment. Language communication is an important glue of teamwork. In order to assess the language of chat for teamwork dimensions, several text mining methods are possible. However, difficulties arise such as pre-processing being a black box and classification approaches and algorithms being dependent on the context. To address these issues, the study will evaluate and explain preprocessing and classification methods used to analyze teamwork dialogue from a dataset of chat data. Analytics methods evaluated in this study provide a direction for assessing the language of chat for teamwork dialogue and can help extend the work of technology enhanced language learning to not only focus on academic competency, but on the communication aspect too.

As the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most face-to-face instructions and services in higher education, universities struggled to continue teaching and serving students. In particular, student services like academic advising were significantly impacted, as most advising is conducted in person. The use of synchronous communication technology was suddenly increased to continue advising students, employing Remote Academic Advising (RAA). Three researchers at a state university in the southeast USA conducted a case study to understand the experiences of using RAA by academic advisors. The study included 11 academic advisors from different academic colleges and areas who were engaged in RAA to provide advising service to students during the 2020–2021 academic year. Four themes emerged after a reiterative process of coding and analysing the interview responses. The four themes were a slow transition to using RAA, RAA can also be relational, RAA can promote more awareness of mental health and RAA should be part of regular advising practice. The discussion section includes recommendations for advancing RAA as regular practice through a concerted effort of promotion, leadership and effective use of RAA with synchronous communication technology among the advising community on campus.

The question of how to best design an online course that promotes student-centred learning is an area of on-going research. This mixed-methods study focused on a section of advanced high school students, in college-level mathematics courses, that used a synchronous online environment mediated over web-conferencing software, and whether the affordance of multiple communication channels and student-centred activities affected involvement, cohesion, and satisfaction. Study participants reported that anonymous input and group work activities encouraged their involvement in learning activities, increased their satisfaction, and fostered social cohesion. Although the on-going management of technical issues limited student involvement and satisfaction, there were no differences in final grades obtained by students participating in this delivery format and their peers participating in an alternate learning environment facilitated by video-teleconferencing. This study offers supporting evidence that a student-centred learning environment mediated over web conferencing software can foster social cohesion, student involvement, and student satisfaction.

More and more higher educational institutions invest in technology-enhanced learning spaces, which raises the question of how these environments can be shaped to be as effective as possible. A specific new learning space is the synchronous hybrid or blended learning environment in which both on-site and remote students can simultaneously attend learning activities. Given that synchronous hybrid learning is relatively new, there are few studies that have investigated its use and effectiveness. This study synthesised the best available evidence worldwide to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art of the current research regarding the benefits, challenges and current design principles to set up synchronous hybrid learning. In line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, we included 47 studies which were analysed to respond to our research questions. One of the main findings is that existing research suggests cautious optimism about synchronous hybrid learning which creates a more flexible, engaging learning environment compared to fully online or fully on-site instruction. Yet, this new learning space has several challenges which are both pedagogical and technological in nature. To meet these challenges, several design guidelines are formulated. A final conclusion is that most of the existing literature is exploratory and qualitative in nature and has focused mostly on descriptions of students’ experiences, the organisational implementation and the technological design. Empirical studies have only begun to emerge and more research is needed into different pedagogical scenarios and their impact on student outcomes.

The number of publications on live online teaching and distance learning has significantly increased over the past two years since the outbreak and worldwide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, but more research is needed on effective methodologies and their impact on the learning process. This research aimed to analyze student interaction and multimodal communication through Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) in a Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (SCMC) environment. For this purpose, 90 teacher candidates enrolled in the subject Applied Linguistics at a university were randomly assigned in different teams to create collaboratively digital infographics based on different language teaching methods. Then, all the teams explained their projects online and the classmates completed two multimedia activities based on each method. Finally, the participants discussed the self-perceived benefits (relevance, enjoyment, interest) and limitations (connectivity, distraction) of SCMC in language learning. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through pre- and post-tests, class observation and online discussion. The statistical data and research findings revealed a positive attitude towards the integration of TBLT in an SCMC environment and a high level of satisfaction with multimodal communication (written, verbal, visual) and student interaction. However, the language teacher candidates complained about the low quality of the digital materials, the use of technology just for substitution, and the lack of peer-to-peer interaction in their live online classes during the pandemic.

The pervasive use of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) in second language (L2) learning has generated increasing interest among researchers in integrating SCMC with task-based language teaching (TBLT). This study examined the effects of task complexity on Chinese EFL learners’ language production in SCMC modality to develop optimal tasks that facilitate the learning of English in SCMC environments. Eighty-four intermediate Chinese EFL learners completed two interactive tasks (simple and complex) in dyads via text-based or video-based SCMC. Their English productions were transcribed and coded in terms of syntactic complexity, lexical complexity and accuracy for statistical analyses. The results indicated that increasing task complexity elicited significantly lower syntactic complexity in text-based SCMC, but without significant effects on syntactic complexity in video-based SCMC. Significantly higher lexical complexity and unaffected accuracy were observed in both SCMC modes as a result of an increase in task complexity. Regarding SCMC modality, text-based SCMC resulted in significantly lower syntactic complexity, but significantly higher lexical complexity and accuracy than video-based SCMC. Plain language summary Effects of Simple and Complex Tasks on Chinese Students’ English Language Production when conducted using Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication Platform The purpose of this study is to find out the effects that simple and complex tasks have on Chinese students’ English language production when conducted using synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) platform that enables text-based and video-based interaction. Eighty-four intermediate Chinese EFL learners completed the simple and complex tasks in pairs via text-based or video-based SCMC. The students’ interactions were transcribed and analyzed for their complexity in terms of sentence structure and choice of words, and grammatical accuracy. The results revealed that increasing the complexity of tasks led to a significantly lower complexity of the students’ sentence structure in text-based SCMC but no significant effect in video-based SCMC. Furthermore, it also led to a significantly higher complexity of choice of words and no change in terms of grammatical accuracy for both the text-based and video-based SCMC. When comparing between text-based with video-based SCMC, it was found that text-based SCMC resulted in significantly lower complexity of sentence structure but significantly higher complexity on their choice of words and grammatical accuracy.

Lockdowns, social distancing, and COVID safe hygiene practices have rendered the usual face-to-face course delivery options all but impossible for many higher education institutions worldwide. A forced transition to online learning has been the only viable option for preventing a wholesale closure of many institutions. The aim of this study is to identify the role of educational technologies in the transition from face-to-face to online teaching and learning activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper identified five challenges to transitioning to online education experienced by higher education institutions: synchronous/asynchronous learning tool integration, access to technology, faculty and student online competence, academic dishonesty, and privacy and confidentiality. From the studies examined in this literature review, strategies for successful online implementation were also noted. These included: providing e-learning training support for faculty and students, fostering online learning communities, and expanding traditional face-to-face course delivery to incorporate more elements of blended learning. A Technology Enhanced Learning Hub that encapsulates the learning process within a modality-neutral learning space is presented as a suggested framework for delivering higher education programs in this challenging environment.