Senior English Teachers' Perceptions of SAOLT as an OER Designed Based on RACQAIL Attributes
E-learning was adopted as the sole option to ensure the continuation of academic activities when the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world in early 2020. In response to the economic and social activities lockdown that has led to a stop in face-to-face teaching and learning activities, Self-Assessed Online Listening Tests or SAOLT was initiated by Assoc. Prof. Dr Mah Boon Yih, a Certified Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE), is one of the Open Educational Resources (OER) formulated based on RACQAIL attributes.
A. Applying RACQAIL Attributes Solutions
OER, as defined by UNESCO, refers to "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium–digital or otherwise–that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions". It may increase flexibility and equal opportunity in access to learning resources, resulting in improved accessibility and greater openness in education (Ehlers, 2011).
SAOLT is an OER designed based on RACQAIL attributes. It is an acronym referring to Relevance, Accuracy, Clarity, Quality, Accessibility, Interaction, and Licensing. These attributes are a set of OER rubrics developed by the Institute of Continuing Education and Professional Studies (iCEPS) at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).
a. Relevance
SAOLT offers English as a Second Language (ESL) learners a platform with appropriate and supportive content—news items, talk, and conversation—to practise their listening skills in a test format.
It promotes active learning, class participation, and opportunities for students to test their listening skills based on the three types of listening texts.
It facilitates self-access and self-assessed instructional approaches.
It uses videos featured on the WeCWI Integrated Solutions YouTube Channel that support multiple modalities of learning specific listening skills.
b. Accuracy
SAOLT offers a structured playlist published on the WeCWI Integrated Solutions blog at https://www.wecwi.com/post/self-assessed-online-listening-tests, with accurate, clear, and detailed instructions.
It reflects the accurate and up-to-date listening test format with different numbers of questions and options (A, B, and C) for each type of listening test video: news items (five questions), talk (eight questions), and conversation (seven questions).
It explores one of the university's diploma English courses for listening skills, which can serve as supplementary listening practice alongside the course book's exercises.
c. Clarity
.SAOLT offers two sets of questions labelled a and b for each type of listening test video.
A set of clear guidelines is given on the webpage for learners and teachers before attempting SAOLT:
If the user is a learner, they can post answers in the Comments section below the YouTube video and check them later via the Reply to Comments feature.
If the user is a teacher, he or she is free to use these videos in his or her listening lessons.
Below are the guidelines before attempting each test:
View the video in full-screen mode to read the questions easily.
When you listen for the first time, do not listen and answer simultaneously.
When you listen, the first step is to understand the overall idea; you may initially determine possible answers.
You should begin answering when you listen for the second time to ensure you do not miss any information needed to answer the other questions.
The second round of listening is to confirm the accuracy of the answers you have determined earlier.
Please do not type your answers in a brief format like A, B, C, D, A; for ease of reading, you should type like 1.A, 2.B, 3.C, 4.D, and 5.A.
d. Quality
SAOLT consists of 12 listening test videos created using Microsoft PowerPoint, Photos, and Video Editor to ensure high-quality video and audio.
The videos are arranged and listed systematically as follows:
Learners are more engaged when the full HD video automatically plays to read the instructions and questions while listening to the audio.
SAOLT was featured on OER Daily and received 828 Likes on Facebook on 21 July 2021.
e. Accessibility
SAOLT is a well-designed, easy-to-use, open-access resource for listening practice in an exam format.
Teachers can provide their students with the entire SAOLT webpage link to do the listening practices.
Teachers can also provide their students with a YouTube listening video link for the specific type of listening practice.
Students can complete the listening practices on the go using various mobile devices, such as phones, tablets, and computers.
f. Interactivity
Students can submit their answers by posting comments on the listening videos on YouTube, and they will receive feedback from the admin for self-assessment.
If students have queries, they can reply to the admin's replies for further explanations.
You may visit https://www.wecwi.com/post/here-are-the-answers to access the answer keys for all the tests and visit https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSMitzg2Xi1Y5QHvIbKk_dFcZ0Eh7ZHUp to find the listening video playlist.
Teachers can also discuss with their students, referring to the provided, verified answer keys.
Students are motivated by seeing the thumb-up and love icons received from the admin in their comments.
g. Licencing
SAOLT is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
It allows adaptations of SAOLT to be shared alike by others.
It prohibits commercial uses of SAOLT.
B. Senior English Teachers' Perceptions
While popular in higher education, open educational resources (OER) represent an underutilised means of increasing student access to learning across all academic settings. Most teachers were unaware of the existence of OER, and those who were unsure how to access them. ICT has been identified as one of the most persistent barriers to implementing OERs in many educational settings. As COVID-19 pushed educators to embrace digital texts, they were more likely to be aware of – but not to use – free, publicly licensed resources. Increased awareness of open educational resources did not translate into increased use of OER as mandatory materials during the COVID year.
Connecting learners to resources is never enough for learning, especially during a pandemic that has created significant challenges for English as a second language learners (ESL). Teachers also struggle with listening comprehension. It is frequently taken for granted or ignored in the classroom. OER materials for listening practice are scarce, particularly in exam format. There is also a scarcity of useful studies on the use of OER; while well-established, this may not always be easy to achieve. Most listening texts, when available, are of a single type, which may be inconvenient for ESL students who want to practise different audio formats. Educators' perceptions of incorporating OER into their teaching are mixed.
A survey was conducted in July-August 2021 using a purposive sampling method where the subjects fit the criteria set by the researchers (Creswell, 2014)—it comprises those English teachers/lecturers from secondary schools, colleges, university colleges, enrollment institutes of teacher education, as well as public and private universities who possess 16-40 years of teaching experience. The primary goal of this study is to assess senior English teachers' perceptions of the usefulness, ease of use, attitude toward use, and behavioural intention to use the Self-Assessed Online Listening Tests (SAOLT) in their classroom instruction. Thus, the four research objectives of this study are listed as follows:
To identify the senior English teachers' perceived usefulness of SAOLT in their teaching of listening skills;
To identify the senior English teachers' perceived ease of use of SAOLT in their teaching of listening skills;
To identify the senior English teachers' attitude toward the use of SAOLT in their teaching of listening skills; and
To identify the senior English teachers' behavioural intention to use SAOLT in their teaching of listening skills.
Based on the above objectives, four research questions are formulated as follows:
What is the senior English teachers' perceived usefulness of SAOLT in teaching listening skills?
What is the senior English teachers' perceived ease of use of SAOLT in their teaching of listening skills?
What is the senior English teachers' attitude towards using SAOLT in their teaching of listening skills?
What are the senior English teachers' behavioural intentions in using SAOLT in their teaching of listening skills?
Among the ten senior English educators, as referred to in the 1st chart, three of them came from public and private universities (30%), two from university colleges (20%), two from secondary schools (20%), one respondent from enrollment (10%), one respondent from an institute of teacher education (10%), and one respondent from college (Form 6) (10%). The 2nd chart shows that the ten senior English educators were teaching students at six different levels: five at degree level (50%), one at certificate level (10%), one at pre-diploma level (10%), one at Form 6 level (10%), one at Form 5 level (%), and one at Form 4 level (10%).
They were given a week to browse SAOLT before answering an online questionnaire via a Google Form link sent via WhatsApp messages. The data were collected and analysed through descriptive analysis of the English teachers' perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude towards use, and behavioural intention to use SAOLT. The items in the questionnaire were adapted based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT (Venkatesh, 2012) to suit the study's objectives using five Likert scales: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and strongly agree for measuring the perceptions.
Below are the related items and the analysed results about the perceptions of 10 senior English teachers from seven learning institutions.
Perceived Usefulness (PU)
Using SAOLT enables my students to practise listening skills more quickly.
Using SAOLT improves my students' listening performance.
Using SAOLT increases my productivity, so my students can practise their listening skills.
Using SAOLT enhances my effectiveness in helping my students practise listening skills.
Perceived Ease of Use (PEU)
Learning to use SAOLT so my students can practise their listening skills is easy for me.
I find it easy to use SAOLT so my students can practise the listening skills I want them to learn.
I find SAOLT easy for my students to practise listening skills.
Attitude towards Use (ATU)
I find it hard to stop once I start using SAOLT so my students can practise their listening skills.
I look forward to those aspects so that my students can practise the listening skills required for using SAOLT.
I want my students to practise their listening skills with SAOLT.
Behavioural Intention to Use (BIU)
I intend to continue using SAOLT so my students can practise their listening skills.
I expect to use SAOLT so that my students can practise listening skills in the future.
I plan to use SAOLT so that my students can practise listening skills in the future.
a. Perceived Usefulness (PU)
According to the analysis, no one was found to be neutral, to disagree, or strongly disagree with the usefulness of SAOLT in practice speed, improvement, teaching productivity, and efficacy for students to practise their listening skills. According to the findings, half of the senior English instructors agreed or strongly agreed that adopting SAOLT allows their students to practise listening skills more rapidly and enhance their listening performance. Furthermore, 60% of respondents strongly agreed that SAOLT boosts their productivity to improve their students' listening abilities. Regarding efficacy, 70% of senior English instructors strongly felt that SAOLT improves their teaching by allowing pupils to practise listening skills.
b. Perceived Ease of Use (PEU)
Likewise, no one was found to be neutral, disagree, or strongly disagree on the ease of use of SAOLT for learning to use SAOLT, practising with SAOLT, and using SAOLT to develop students' listening skills. Based on the findings, 60% of senior English instructors strongly believed that applying SAOLT to their students' listening skills was easy. Furthermore, 70% of respondents strongly agreed that it was simple to utilise SAOLT for their students to practise the listening skills they wanted them to master. SAOLT makes it easy for their students to practise listening skills.
c. Attitude towards Use (ATU)
Furthermore, no one disagreed or strongly disagreed with the attitude toward using SAOLT, including ceasing to use SAOLT, incorporating SAOLT components into listening practice, and enjoying SAOLT to help students exercise their listening abilities. According to the findings, 40% of senior English instructors strongly agreed that quitting is difficult once they begin utilising SAOLT so that their students can practise their listening skills. Furthermore, 50% of respondents strongly agreed that they look forward to practising listening skills that entail the usage of SAOLT. 60% strongly agreed that using SAOLT to practise listening skills benefits their students.
d. Behavioural Intention to Use (BIU)
Also, no one disputed or strongly disagreed with their behavioural intention to utilise SAOLT for continuity, anticipation, and future planning for students to practise their listening skills. Based on the findings, half of the senior English instructors strongly agreed that they aim to continue utilising SAOLT so that their students can practise listening skills in the future. Furthermore, 60% of respondents strongly agreed that they intend to use SAOLT for their students to practise listening skills. In addition, 60% strongly agreed that they want to use SAOLT to help their students practise listening skills in the future.
Overall, senior English teachers from various education sectors reported positive perceptions of the usefulness, ease of use, attitude toward use, and behavioural intention to use SAOLT in their teaching, particularly for listening skills. The findings also addressed the four research questions regarding perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude toward use, and behavioural intentions to use SAOLT in teaching listening skills. Teachers should play roles in the educational process based on their expertise, particularly in selecting learning resources for their students to interact with.
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