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Show & Tell Presentation Poster Presentation

To Zoom or not to Zoom? Privacy concerns and students’ attitude towards online learning

Sat, Jun 5, 11:30-12:15 Asia/Tokyo Room F

This presentation will attempt to offer insight into how students’ reacted towards greater use of videoconferencing software as the primary conduit of their language learning courses at the university level. In particular it will present data and offer analysis into students’ attitude towards how their privacy was impacted by the switch from the physical to the digital classroom. In order to facilitate learning under the COVID-19 pandemic, instructors had to speedily adapt to a ‘new normal’ of intense videoconferencing online language learning. Yet, did the decision by many educational institutions to transform to an online learning format have unintended consequences in relation to learners’ privacy? More importantly, in the future what lessons can be learnt, and what new parameters need to be set, to ensure that learners remain confident in an online learning environment setting?

The main research data included in this presentation was carried out at a national university in Japan. With additional research collected from a national university in Ukraine. 353 students completed surveys twice-a-semester between April 2020 and March 2021. The courses included in the study were compulsory English language classes for first and second year university students. The videoconferencing software used was Zoom and Microsoft Teams. The findings indicate that 32% of students expressed some privacy concerns, but accepted that compromises had to be made during the Coronavirus Pandemic. However, crucially this number rose to 71% if videoconferencing language classes were to remain a permanent part of their language learning process.

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  • Jaime Selwood

    Associate Professor at the Institute for Foreign Language Research and Education at Hiroshima University. Creator / Writer of the English News Weekly Podcast - 10 years+ / 435 episodes and counting! All Things MALL

  • Dr Kateryna Nykytchenko

    Associate Professor at Kyiv National Linguistic University. Main research areas are lexicology cognitive linguistics.