A Case Study of Home-based Teaching and Learning Practice at Ton Duc Thang University

Abstract

Online teaching has not been widely applied in education until the severe widespread outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic on a global scale. Like other educational institutions, Ton Duc Thang university promptly switched to online teaching practice for all courses for the sake of teachers’ and students’ safety and health protection. To investigate the implementation of home-based teaching practice at TDTU as well as its advantages and disadvantages, a case study was launched by the university with the participation of three teachers and 76 non-English major students from three English classes at elementary and pre-intermediate level. The study was a qualitative design; observations and interviews were used as research methods. The researcher found that there are generally three main stages in every three-period online lesson: teacher's presentation with Zoom, students' assignment in Google classroom, and teacher’s constructive feedback with Zoom. Teachers and students praised geographical convenience, time flexibility, and a customized learning environment and experienced technical problems. Students found it difficult to motivate themselves to study, had no self-discipline, and interactions were limited. Teachers also had difficulty in class control, and teachers exerted anxiety over technology use. These findings contributed to further research on online teaching practice as well as considerations as to whether face-to-face teaching and learning should be replaced in the long run.