Designing online assignments for Japanese language teaching

Griffith University, T.Imura@griffith.edu.au An increasing number of language educators are taking a blended approach to their teaching in order to enhance students’ learning experiences and outcomes. During recent years, online tools have become a valuable resource, aiding teachers in course delivery and assessment. Blended learning, which is campus-based learning supported by online components, has steadily grown in popularity in Australian tertiary education institutions (Ellis, Ginns, & Piggott, 2009). This paper reports on a trial program of delivery of online assignments in a first year Japanese language class, the rationale for the program, and the findings of a survey on students’ perceptions of the online assignment. Our language team created online tasks using the learning management system (lms), Blackboard Learn 9.1, to increasing online components throughout our program. The advantages and disadvantages of online language tasks from both teachers’ and learners’ points of view will be discussed. Issues specific to the learning of Japanese, and ways in which to incorporate online tasks in future courses will be explored. The findings of the study will provide language teachers with insight into designing online assignments and will explore effective teaching practices for students of the Japanese language.


taeko imura
Griffith University, T. Imura@griffith.edu.auAn increasing number of language educators are taking a blended approach to their teaching in order to enhance students' learning experiences and outcomes.During recent years, online tools have become a valuable resource, aiding teachers in course delivery and assessment.Blended learning, which is campus-based learning supported by online components, has steadily grown in popularity in Australian tertiary education institutions (Ellis, Ginns, & Piggott, 2009).This paper reports on a trial program of delivery of online assignments in a first year Japanese language class, the rationale for the program, and the findings of a survey on students' perceptions of the online assignment.Our language team created online tasks using the learning management system (lms), Blackboard Learn 9.1, to increasing online components throughout our program.The advantages and disadvantages of online language tasks from both teachers' and learners' points of view will be discussed.Issues specific to the learning of Japanese, and ways in which to incorporate online tasks in future courses will be explored.The findings of the study will provide language teachers with insight into designing online assignments and will explore effective teaching practices for students of the Japanese language.
Keywords: Online assignment, blended learning, first year Japanese, learners' perceptions, Blackboard introduction As the proliferation of technology in our everyday life becomes more noticeable, our teaching approaches in education are being shaped to cater to the demands and expectations society has for the advancement of technology.Allen and Seamen (2014) reported that 66% of 2,800 colleges and universities in the United States perceive that online education is a critical component of their long-term strategy.The report for Australian Tertiary Education (Johnson, Adams Becker, Cummins, & Estrada, 2014) illustrates the trends and challenges of emerging technologies in Australian universities.The report highlights that education paradigms are shifting to include online learning, hybrid learning and collaborative models which enable people to study flexibly.
It is inevitable that language courses include online tasks as integral parts of students' learning experiences.Language instructors have been constantly challenged to rethink and redesign their courses in order to explore what aspects of traditional face-to-face classroom teaching can be transferred to an online environment to deliver similar or better content (Cowie & Sakui, 2014).The approaches which teachers have been accustomed to using in the classroom have evolved into those used by emerging technologies.Glazer (2012) points out that the challenge of blended learning is to link, or blend, so that face-to-face and online activities are reinforced, creating a single, unified course.This study discusses the rationale behind the online tasks we created for a first year Japanese course in 2013, together with the preliminary findings of a survey on students' perceptions of the online assignments.The advantages and disadvantages of online language tasks from the points of view of teachers and learners will be presented in order to find a way to further improve online exercises.

Blended learning and language teaching
According to the amount of time spent on online activities during a course, its delivery can be classified into three modes: fully online, blended and face-to-face.educause (Education Center for Analysis and Research) in the United States, which investigates the use of it in higher education, defines fully online courses as having more than 80% of content delivered online; blended (or hybrid) courses having between 30% and 79% of online content; and face-to-face courses including up to 29% of web facilitated online activities (Allen & Seaman, 2014;Allen, Seaman, & Garrett, 2007).According to the educause report, more students than ever have experienced a digital learning environment and 72% agree that they learn best with a blended learning mode.
Views about the efficacy of online courses have been mixed and, to date, are far from conclusive.Allen and Seaman (2014) revealed that 74% of academics in the us rated the learning outcomes in online education as "the same" or "better" than face-to-face instruction.One noted study was conducted by the us Department of Education ( 2009).Based on their meta-analysis of university courses, researchers found that students attending blended courses performed better than those attending fully online courses or face-to-face classroom courses, due to the additional time spent on task/course materials.Comparisons between online and traditional classroom delivery are not straightforward, because we have to take into consideration the fact that online courses differ significantly in terms of their format, delivery, technological tools and pedagogies.
Elements which appear to support learning in online environments are engagement with peers, academics, institution and subject content through technology (Glazer, 2012).Glazer (2012) points out that blended learning enables students to engage more actively and encourages self-directed learning, which provides opportunities to reflect, organize knowledge and interact with peers in a way that a conventional course cannot.On the other hand, it is not always the case that all students enjoy and learn effectively in a blended learning environment.Stracke (2007) found that language learners dropped out when they felt a lack of support, connection and coordination between the classroom and the online component.This was particularly the case when they had fewer reading and writing materials in print and disliked the computer as a medium for learning language.While courses in non-language disciplines which do not require face-to-face speaking exercises find ways to incorporate a blended learning approach, foreign language courses require further consideration of students' interaction and communication in the target language to develop certain skills.Those who have experienced and benefited from interactive task-based activities in a communicative approach may not find online learning helpful or efficient.
Experienced language instructors stress the importance of face-to-face interaction in developing communication skills and in building a strong community of learning, which leads to continual study.In our university, two fully online language courses are offered to external students.They are Chinese (via Open Universities Australia) and English courses especially designed for students who are unable to come to classes due to their geographical location or because of other issues.In order to complete the course, students must have strong self-discipline, motivation and commitment.Despite the advantages that online courses can offer, the course completion rates are disturbing.In the fully online Chinese course, the percentage of students who completed the course was around 20%, and this low rate (5% in Koller, Ng, Do, &Chen, 2014 and7% in Parr, 2013) is shared by the Massive Open Online Courses (moocs).
Other language instructors have indicated reluctance to incorporate an online component into their conventional classes.It appears that this reluctance stems from concerns about students' maturity to take responsibility for their learning and the low rate of course completion.Online courses rely on carefully designed instruction to guide users and users' strong self-discipline, motivation and commitment to study.In particular, self-monitoring may be beyond the capability of undergraduates who are new to the academic environment, while attempting to learn a new language.
Introduction to online learning was initiated by the adoption of a web-based application -Learning Management System (lms) -under institutional management at our university, as is the case in most technologically advanced educational sectors.This inherited system has been molded into our curriculum and design of courses during the past several years.lms has been used to enhance students' learning experiences outside the classroom via the Internet, including delivery of study materials, administration of exams and feedback, and communication between students and instructors.Currently, the development and growth of online components in Australian Japanese language education varies depending on the institution.Universities which have a long-standing involvement in distance education have no hesitation in launching fully online courses for students learning Japanese at the beginner level.Other universities are aware of the need to shift to online teaching; however, the proportion of the online component in a language course seems to reflect the willingness of the individual instructor to develop the curriculum.When we asked Japanese language teachers from several Australian universities about the current implementation of online components, the following comments were obtained through a survey distributed at the International Conference on Japanese Language Education held in Sydney in July 2014.(See Appendix) As the number was small, we did not collate the results, and summarized their comments instead.
Ȼ All courses use some tools available in the institutional lms such as uploading lecture slides, notes and course assignments, entering student marks and feedback on assessment items, posting of announcements and communicating through email and chat.Ȼ Many courses have been exploring ways to incorporate online activities/ assignments in a range of weighting between 10 and 40% of the course.Ȼ Oral interaction involving speaking activities in pairs and small groups without the presence of an instructor are difficult to implement.
We foresee that the demand for online language courses and the issues surrounding online delivery will rise.It is beneficial to discuss the requirements of online tools for language courses which will differ from non-language courses.

Designing online assignments
The assignment component of online delivery was developed to deal with three issues involved in teaching a large size first year beginner course across two campuses: 1) increase students' time to undertake tasks and to check answers, 2) provision of instant feedback to students' responses, and 3) reducing instructors' assignment marking time.These are wellknown advantages of online assignments for both instructors and learners (Fageeh, 2015).
From 2013, two paper-based assignments, weighted at 10% (5% each) of the beginners' course were replaced by digitalised online versions using lms, Blackboard 9.1.lms takes the form of the written asynchronous mode of instruction which allows users to take time to complete the task (Meskill & Anthony, 2010).Blackboard is known to be a powerful tool used for online quizzes, submission of assignments electronically, and comprehensive and systematic record keeping and management of grades (Levy & Stockwell, 2013).
The students of the course are beginners, although some have limited knowledge of characters or basic sentence patterns through self-study.By the end of this course, students are expected to reach proficiency level 5 in the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, organized by the Japan Foundation.
The following are the assessment items assigned to students in this course: Assessment items Weight 1. Online assignments (5% x 2) 10% 2. Activity logs (Attendance + completion of workbook exercises for each week) 10% 1. Mid-semester test (written) 20% 2. Oral test (interview) 20% 3. Final test (listening and writing) 40% Items 1 and 2 are continuous assessment components, on which most students can earn points.Items 3-5 are achievement based rather than proficiency based assessments.That is, if students master the study points required, they can pass by obtaining more than 50% of the score.It is rare for students to fail after completing all assessment items, as students who are not apt at language learning withdraw before the end of semester.
For beginner students, four contact hours per week is not enough to consolidate their newly learned grammatical points and the knowledge of kanji.Thus, the online assignment was considered to be more appropriate for their self-study than any form of an online test to assess their understanding (i.e., formative assessment).We felt that an online assignment would allow students to work independently to understand and conceptualise the contents covered in class while consulting their textbook and other references.Thus, it took the form of an open-book quiz.
The assignments were given in Weeks 4 and 8 during the semester.Each assignment was open for three weeks, allowing students to rework and save their answers many times.Once they submitted, they were unable to rework or edit the assignment.The contents of grammatical items and the format of questions are shown in Table 1. 25 questions for Assignment 1 and 33 questions for Assignment 2 were created.One question was presented per screen page and the picture or reading passage was duplicated for each question to avoid scrolling back to the beginning of the question.
The basic grammar points were taught through four skills (writing, reading, listening and speaking) during the 13-week course.The format of questions which allows automatic marking was chosen from Blackboard. 1 Questions on grammar and kanji were developed as shown in the examples below.

Grammar (Multiple choice)
An online grammar check can be conducted in the same manner as a hard copy.One of the advantages of the online form is being able to use colour and images.
Q: Compare the three cars and complete their description by choosing A, B or C in the brackets.

black one is ( )
To answer this question, learners look at the images and click the button corresponding to the answer.The images provide context and clues to the appropriate answer, enabling learners to use their grammatical knowledge.Visual stimuli, however, had to be selected carefully.If the description is ambiguous and applies to two objects, it creates a problem as the online program cannot accept two answers even if there are two possible ways to describe the object in the real world.This was one of the shortcomings of the online marking system in Blackboard.Although Blackboard has a question type which allows the setting of more than one answer, we chose the option of one choice to avoid confusion in the first trial for first year students.

Kanji (Fill in the blanks)
Students were asked to type in or cut and paste the character from the list."Cut and paste" was a recommended method, as some Japanese fonts were not compatible with the font for this system.
Q: Find the kanji from below to fill in each bracket to complete the sentence.You must type the character or copy and paste to fill the blank.
The knowledge of kanji was examined only for recognition.In the past, a conventional kanji test involved the writing and reading of kanji to test learners' knowledge.However, this exercise is less relevant today, when most documents and correspondence are completed using a computer.Therefore, recognizing and choosing the correct kanji was considered to be an appropriate task.
On submission of the assignment, students received automated feedback and marks.The correct answers were shown next to all answers provided by the user.Feedback was provided in the form of a cue to the answer or a suggestion to review certain grammatical items.For example: Ȼ Provide a comment: "Review plain form of verbs" Ȼ Provide the translation of the phrase in the question to work out the correct particle.Ȼ A key word or expression was extracted from the main text in the case of reading comprehension.
The score was calculated out of 50.The weight of the score was indicated next to each question.

student evaluation of online assignments
A short survey was conducted to investigate their perceptions after students had completed two online assignments.Students in the first year Japanese course were asked to participate.Out of 135 students, 50 students participated in the survey (20 females and 30 males) on a voluntary basis.The majority of the participants were majoring in Japanese language and linguistics.Students whose major was other than arts were not available at the time of evaluation.Their ages ranged between 18 and 33.
To evaluate the online assignments, the following eight questions regarding design, effectiveness of materials and preference for written or online modes of assignments were asked: 1.The online homework exercises helped to review the key grammatical points.2. The instructions were easy to understand.3. The design/layout of questions on the screen was easy to look at.4. The feedback was helpful. 5.The immediate marking system was good.6.Any points to improve the 1033lal online assignment system? 7. I prefer online to hard copy assignments.
Reason ( ) 8. In recent years, the delivery mode for university teaching has been shifting toward online.What do you think would be the ideal proportion of the online component in a campus-based language course?( ) 0% ( ) 30% ( ) 50% ( ) 70% ( ) 100% Participants indicated their response in a 5-point Likert scale for Questions 1-7 and multiple choice for Question 8, with written comments for Questions 6 and 7.The responses to the question were divided into three categories according to similarities amongst the foci of the items: 1) design and structure of assignment, 2) effectiveness of assignment, 3) delivery mode preference.Participants' interactions with the online test, that is working patterns and time spent on the assignments, were investigated using the "Test Access Log" in Blackboard 9.1.The times they had accessed and submitted the assignment in the threeweek period were collated to examine the tendency.

Findings
In this section, the results from the student survey will be reported according to the three categories mentioned above (1-3).In 4, the access record for two assignments is presented.

Design and structure of assignment
In order to examine whether the instructions were easy to follow, two questions were asked.Only a small number of participants (14%) indicated that they found the instructions were not easy, while more than 68% indicated that the instructions were clear enough to complete the assignment.

Q3: The design/layout of questions on the screen was easy to look at.
More than half of the participants (52%) indicated that screen design/layout was easy to follow, while 48% indicated "unsure" or "disagree."Assignment 1 had a problem with an image allowing students two possible ways to answer, causing some confusion and possibly affecting responses.Otherwise, the design and structure were well received.

Effectiveness
The effectiveness of the assignments was measured by answers to three questions in the survey.Sixty percent of the participants agreed that the tasks given to review grammar were helpful, while 12% disagreed.Questions in the assignments covered major grammatical points adequately.

Q4: The feedback was helpful.
Half of the participants (46%) indicated that immediate feedback upon completion was helpful, while 54% indicated "unsure" or "disagree." The feedback was simple, with one pop up feedback message which did not exhaust every possible pattern of errors.The method of providing feedback needs to be improved to overcome the error in this trial.

Q5: The immediate marking system was good.
This question had the most positive response of all questions.A significant number of participants indicated that they found immediate marking was beneficial.Among the participants who agreed, 52% of the students showed "strongly agree."This highlights the advantage of automated marking and feedback facilitated by computer.

Preference of delivery mode
To measure the perception of and preference for online assignments, two questions were asked.

Q7: I prefer online to hard copy assignments.
The results indicated that slightly more participants preferred the online delivery mode over the hard copy version of assignments.Fifty-two percent of the students preferred the online mode while 34% preferred the paper version.This question also asked the reason for their response.
The comments for "unsure" were fairly neutral as expected, while the comments for "disagree" contrasted with those for "agree."These comments clearly illustrated the advantages and disadvantages of online assignments.Those who preferred the online mode were enthusiastic about the benefits.The reasons for their preference were accessibility, the unlikeliness of misplacing their assignment, fewer errors in answering the questions, immediate feedback and marks, and less stress.Some comments from participants who agreed to Question 7 are below: 1. Accessibility Ȼ It is easier to submit and to access.Ȼ More accessible, less prone to be lost.Ȼ It is easier to confer with the teacher if we have any issues.2. Time management Ȼ It's a format that I am familiar with, and I can complete it wherever I have a computer.Also I can't "lose" the assignment.Ȼ Time management is easier to handle as clashes can be avoided with other commitments.Ȼ Allows me to complete the assignment wherever I am.

Immediate return of result
Ȼ Easy and quick Ȼ The immediate return of marks 4. Adaptability to the up-to-date system in our society Ȼ There is less chance of careless errors with online assignments (e.g., accidentally writing a kanji character incorrectly) / Immediate grade is also convenient).Ȼ Online assessment is more relevant to life in Japan.Often we will not write all the kanji we know by hand so it is better to simply read kanji than to write. 5. Psychologically less pressured Ȼ Gives me time to prepare emotionally -I don't get as nervous.Ȼ More relaxed / efficient Ȼ It is easier to perform an exam or complete an assignment at home without worrying about handing in a hard copy.
On the other hand, those who preferred a conventional paper assignment provided the reasons for their preference as shown below.The reasons they preferred hard copies were based on their belief that language is more effectively taught in the classroom and writing helps them to learn better.Limitations in computer mediated learning, such as being unable to use assignment sheets for future reference, lack of fairness (copying other students' answers or substitution of test taker) were pointed out. 1. Cognitive benefit / Flexibility of answers Ȼ Writing is always good, online, I may forget after completing the assignments, I remember more when writing.Ȼ With languages, there is more than one answer, or more than one way to phrase an answer.Computers cannot take this into account.Ȼ I think that in terms of learning a language, face to face teaching is crucial.Ȼ I like writing better.2. Easy to check the answers after completing Ȼ I prefer print so I can write and fix my answers after checking.Ȼ Hard copy is better.It is easier to see grammatical errors.Ȼ It is easier to correct answers on a hard copy.Ȼ I simply prefer hand writing assignments as the teacher can write on them and I can have a hard copy.Ȼ Easier to complete, less problems.Just do it on paper! 3. Avoid cheating Ȼ Though the tests are meant to be individual or without textbooks, some people still "cheat," or it disadvantages people who do it properly.Ȼ Cheating, no problems with plagiarism.
The proportion of an online component preferred in language courses was asked about in Question 8.In Table 2, pro-online and anti-online were indicated based on the participants' answers to Question 7. Regardless of their preference for online or paper delivery, a majority of students indicated that they would like to have between 30% and 50% of the course component delivered online.This means that blended learning with an online component of up to 50% was indicated as being a preferable delivery mode in campus-based language courses.There are slightly more pro-online students in the category of 50% than in the 30% category.However, even anti-online students did not choose 0%, which suggests that the trend in online teaching and learning is becoming acceptable.Overall, the number of pro-online responses exceeded the number of anti-online responses.There were some technical issues around submission: 1) pressing the submission button by mistake despite the screen for confirmation of submission "Are you sure?"; and 2) missing the deadline inadvertently and attributing this to a computer problem.As long as technical issues are cleared up and users are well informed of the submission process, online assessment can be smoothly accommodated in language classes.

Time spent on online assignments
Assignments 1 and 2 were completed by 135 and 121 students respectively.The number of students who took the second assignment was lower due to withdrawal from the course and non-submission.The information on the duration they spent in completing the assignments, submission date and scores is collated in the table and figure below.
The access record shows the duration time from opening the assignment until submission.That is, a period of 30 hours does not mean the students spent all this time completing the assignment.About 40% of the students completed the assignment in one session, spending 1-2 hours, as shown below.Most students worked on the assignment more than once, possibly over a few days.In the case of Assignment 1, as it was the first trial, many students first checked what kind of questions they were given, and then worked on the questions later, which made the access time longer.A few students finished the assignment in less than 10 minutes, while others left the assignment open for almost the entire duration of the assigned time.Students who finished quickly could be pseudo-beginners 2 pretending to be beginners but having a good command of language.Figure 4 shows when they submitted the assignments.Submissions concentrate on the due date and on the day before the due date.Although three weeks were given to complete the assignment, students seemed to complete it during one session.This may be because the students do not trust the saving mode of the program, so completed in one session in case they lost their work.Despite being instructed to revise their answers by consulting the textbook, the idea of working on the questions over time did not seem to be taken up by some students.Part of the reason might lie in the layout of the screen which showed only one question per page.This layout needs technical adjustment.

summary and discussion
By analysing the teachers' comments and the results of the students' survey, the advantages and disadvantages of online assignments have become clear as follows.Automatic marking frees teachers from time-consuming marking especially for a large group of first year students, and immediately provides students with scores and feedback.However, online assignments have a limitation which is dictated by the computer system.An automatic marking system cannot give students the opportunity to practice their writing and produce their own sentences.Online assignments also reduce the opportunity to revise the assignment on completion.These views are shared by students.Some students prefer the process of writing their answers on paper and going through the feedback received from their instructors.However, in a blended learning environment, teachers can make up for the lack of writing practice using the time saved by automatic marking.
While students acknowledge the merit of automatic marking, they are not forgiving of any technical glitches.This might be particularly the case of students who fell in the transition period from hard copy to online.Given the way technology is changing, it is expected that students will eventually readily accept an online format.Instructors will gain more experience in technology and will be able to provide advice to students.Several shortcomings of the current system of online assignment delivery and their solutions are summarized below: 1.The merits of creative writing, i.e., composition, are hard to make up for, particularly for the learning of Japanese, which requires non-alphabetic characters.
As mentioned earlier, instructors can use time saved by an online system for writing practice.2. When there is more than one possible answer, the marking system cannot cope.
Instructors have to set questions carefully, creating simple scenarios to avoid misleading students.3. Students tend to complete the online assignment in one go, rather than working on the questions in a few separate trials as they often do for a paper based assignment.Instructors should provide guidance on how to make use of online tools, and modify the screen display to makes revising easier (e.g., summary of submitted answers).4. Students need to be prepared for unpredictable technical errors.
Technical issues should be solved by the advancement of technology.The requirements for the fulfilment of writing exercises will have to be resolved through traditional compositions and other pen and paper formats until innovative technology in online modes appears.We need to explore ways to cope with the shortcomings mentioned above in the future development of online exercises.
There is no doubt that language instructors need to adopt an online component in their teaching to keep up with the advances in technology.The change in the lifestyle of students and expectations from society demand flexible delivery of education.Ways of handling online tools and tasks are also necessary skills which professionals and members of society need to learn.Further inquiry into blended learning for language learning through longitudinal studies will enable us to make more insightful planning for the future.notes 1.A few other types of question formats were also available: hot spot (locating the spot in question in the chart), jumbled sentences, matching answers.2. The ability of teachers to judge beginners is difficult, as people who self-studied the language can enrol in the course.
Figure 1.Responses to design and structure of online assignment Q2: The instructions were easy to understand.Only a small number of participants (14%) indicated that they found the instructions were not easy, while more than 68% indicated that the instructions were clear enough to complete the assignment.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Responses to effectiveness of online assignment

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Response to Question 7, "Preference on online assignments" Figure 4. Timing of submission

Table 1 :
Contents of assignments 1 and 2

Table 2 :
Ideal proportion of online component indicated by students (N = 50)

Table 3 :
Access record for assignments 1 and 2