Online EMP Practical Course: Feedback and Planning
Online EMP Practical Course: Feedback and Planning

Summary/Abstract: The sudden transition from onsite to online teaching caused by the ongoing pandemic constituted an enormous challenge for higher education institutions, teaching staffandstudents. Institutional and individual resources were required to replace lecture halls and classrooms with virtual learning environments. Besides technical prerequisites, teachers had to find means of rapidly adapting their teaching approach to face the demands, opportunities but also challenges of the online environment. In this context, the currentpaper focuses on the English for Medical Purposes (EMP) practical course for first year undergraduate students at the Faculty of Dental Medicine, “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, which was conducted exclusively online on the Microsoft Teams platform in the second semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. Thus, a questionnaire administered to assess the students’ feedback revealed that lack of face-to-face communication, inability to interact and socialize with colleagues and absence of pair or group speaking activities represented problematic areas while ease of access to classroom materials, online quizzes, video watching, focus on oral presentation skills and student-teacher interaction were positively valued by the respondents. The results of this analysis were used to guide the planning of future online teaching activities.

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