Self-directed learning (SDL) requires students to take initiative to learn and control their own learning process. Literature highlights the importance of SDL for lifelong learning. Yet, little understanding is known regarding how to support SDL at the school level, specifically for out-of-class learning context. To fill up this gap, this research…

Developed to maximize learning performance, learning analytics dashboards (LAD) are becoming increasingly commonplace in education. An LAD's effectiveness depends on how it is used and varies according to users' academic levels. In this study, two LADs and a learning support system were used in a higher education course to support students'…

STACK is an online testing system that can automatically assess mathematical formulae. When working with STACK on a smartphone, inputting mathematical formulae is time-consuming; therefore, to solve this problem a mathematical formula input interface for smartphones has been developed based on the flick operation. However, since the time of…

In this qualitative study, we analyzed the processes of a collaborative online international learning (COIL) collaboration between two higher education institutions in Japan and the United States from the perspective of the technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework. The research question this study aimed to address was:…

The authors are developing and using a fill-in workbook system that allows faculty members to ascertain the attitude of all students to classes including students who are not active, and to improve lectures through well-timed and appropriate actions. In this paper, in order to help teachers improve lessons and teaching materials, and to help…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of utilizing 'Flipgrid,' a PC and mobile device video recording and social media application, as a means of practice in an English communication class. The present small-scale study was conducted at a Japanese national university in a first-year ESL classroom. The practical implications of this…

Module A of the OECD Higher Education Policy Survey (HEPS) 2022 elicited information on policies to promote digitalisation of higher education in OECD member and accession countries. In total, 30 jurisdictions responded, providing comparative information on various areas of digitalisation policy, from regulation and governance to financial and…

ELT materials tend to use prestige variety speakers as models, an underlying assumption being that this is needed in order to acquire the phonology necessary to parse English speech (Rose & Galloway, 2019). Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT) (Galloway & Rose, 2018) provides the potential for movement away from such 'native speaker'…

This one-group quasi-experimental study aimed to determine the effectiveness of using a gamified course management system with points, badges (and consequently competition) to facilitate the development of English phonology in a foreign language context in Japan. To implement this idea, we focused on the acquisition of English segments /r/ and /l/…

As online automatic speech recognition (ASR) engines become more accurate and more widely implemented with call software, it becomes important to evaluate the effectiveness and the accuracy of these recognition engines using authentic speech samples. This study investigates two of the most prominent cloud-based speech recognition engines--Apple's…

Computer literacy education is an integral part of early university education (it often starts at the high school level). A wide variety of university course structures and teaching styles exist and, at the same time, the knowledge levels of incoming students are varied. This issue is even more pressing in an international environment. This paper…

Assessing student presentations can be made more reliable with video-recording and post-performance rating. Further, self assessment and peer assessment can aid in the learning process by students when using specific, easy-to-understand rubrics. A ten-year action research study involved video-recorded performance assessment tasks using a free,…

This paper illustrates the general idea of an on-going project for the development of a new blended e-learning package for the English as a foreign language (EFL) reading instruction in Japanese universities. The authors want to draw the attention of the readers to the Learning Management System (LMS) of the package and focus on the role a new…

This study was undertaken to examine the influence that a set of Professional Development (PD) initiatives had on faculty use of Moodle, a well-known Course Management System. The context of the study was a private university in Japan that specializes in languages. Specifically, it aimed to identify the way in which the PD initiatives adhered to…

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) have become important tools in higher education language instruction, which can facilitate both student learning and the administration of courses. The decision regarding which LMS a particular university adopts is a complicated process where the needs and opinions of several stakeholders, including…