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THE USE OF LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN THE TEACHING OF

ENGLISH TO HIGH-LEVEL LEARNERS AT TERTIARY LEVEL

Conference Paper · March 2019

DOI: 10.21125/inted.2019.0915

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Stanislav Tumskiy
Moscow State Institute of International Relations
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 THE USE OF LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN THE
TEACHING OF ENGLISH TO HIGH-LEVEL LEARNERS AT TERTIARY
LEVEL
Stanislav Tumskiy
MGIMO-University (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)

Abstract
The increasingly demanding language requirements of specialized employment sectors along with the
fast pace of life experienced by employees in these sectors pose a challenge for students wishing to
improve their linguistic competencies. University language tutors have attempted to respond to this
challenge with the creation of online courses that enable such students to adapt their learning to their
individual schedules and lifestyles. However, the vast majority of learning management systems used
in these online courses are not designed with language learning in mind. Thus, they are not always
the most suitable platform for the building of an effective language course.
This research aims to determine the essential functionality required by a learning management
platform that seeks to provide a flexible learning process capable of adapting to the language learning
needs of university students.
This paper examines mechanisms for the integration of online learning environments into blended
learning courses. It focuses on the following parameters; course requirements, assignment types,
linguistic range or activity, and course administrator requirements. It finds that successful integration is
achieved through the implementation of pedagogical strategies that enhance and consolidate the
knowledge of language learners through individualization of the learning process.
The paper concludes by considering the creation of courses that achieve individualization of learning
paths through the utilization of multiple learning paths that result in courses that are more flexible and
efficient in terms of adaptation to the learning style of a particular user.
Keywords: LMS, learning management system, blended learning course, high-level learner, e-
learning, English language teaching and learning.

1 INTRODUCTION
The global e-learning market is growing and its value is set to achieve approximately $65 billion by
2023 [1]. It may be due to the increase in lifestyles becoming more dynamic, which requires a new
level of flexibility from people. E-learning helps them arrange their studies in line with their pace of life
and use their free time efficiently. Universities strive to develop in line with the general modern trends
and seek the opportunity to offer their course not only to their full-time students, but those aimed at
distance learning. Language tutors working at tertiary level have been also focusing on using distance
learning systems, learning management systems that could help them organize blended learning
classes.

2 METHODOLOGY
The paper outlines the strategies that should be used by university language tutors when integrating
the usage of learning management systems into curricula. They are based on the author’s
observations and extensive experience teaching high-level learners of English at MGIMO-University
(Russia) and using various LMSs for creation of language courses.

3 RESULTS

3.1 Advantages of learning platforms

There is no doubt that language learners can benefit the modern online courses based on learning
management systems (LMSs). In terms of language teaching distance learning courses, which may be

Proceedings of INTED2019 Conference ISBN: 978-84-09-08619-1

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11th-13th March 2019, Valencia, Spain
used as standalone courses and as part of blended learning courses, have a number of distinct
advantages:
• Elimination of time and space barriers. Learners can use their LMS anytime and anywhere if
they have access to the Internet.
• Flexibility in use and easy adaptation of the content and settings. The course author can in
real-time change the content of the electronic course or test, as well as settings. It is vital if the
material used needs urgent updating or as a tool for preventing cheating if students are given
major tests. The tutor may change such parameters of the tests and assignments as the
number of attempts, the number of tasks viewed at the same time, shuffling the questions order,
time limits etc.
• Usage of question banks. The option to have a large bank of assignments may be helpful if
the tutor wants to create more personalized tests and prevent students from cheating and
copying answers from each other.
• Usage of modern design. The visually appealing content makes the learners more motivated
and engaged in the learning process.
All the aforementioned advantages of LMSs let the language tutor use the time of the class more
efficiently and focus in the classroom on more creative and more advanced problems which require
their guidance and can’t be done by learners in self-study mode. This further improves the quality of
education obtained by university students and makes them more employable in the future.

3.2 Requirements
Still, usage of an LMS in teaching process sets a number of requirements to it, its users and
administrators. The global e-learning market is replete with various types of LMSs for different types of
businesses, but there is hardly any specialized learning software that would be aimed at language
teaching and developing language competencies. This results in most LMSs lacking a reasonable
number of exercise types. Judging from experience teaching English to advanced learners at
MGIMO-University (level C1-C2 CEFR [2]), a successful language course may include the following
types of assignments: fill-in-the-gap, matching, true/false/not given (not stated), multiple choice,
checkboxes, open-ended questions. All these types of exercises must be supported by the LMS which
is going to be used for teaching languages.
The LMS must also have the interface that would be adapted to mobile learning as the younger
generation prefer using their mobiles phones and tablet PCs to learn, so the interface should adapt the
content of the task to each type of screen and should be compatible with all operating systems. It
should have simple and intuitive user-interface and the content should be well structured, it will
increase the efficiency of usage and motivate students to use the system regularly.
It is also essential that the administrators of university LMS creating such languages course have a
high level of competence in IT. It should facilitate the process of relatively quick course creation and
implementation of all the necessary updates to them. With the change of requirements, there is a
compelling need that administrators be capable of restructuring the course in accordance with the new
curricula.
The course needs to be interactive not only in terms of responsiveness of the virtual environment,
there must be an opportunity for a learner to interact with the tutor through an internal messaging
system. Still, online courses are used when it is convenient for students, so information exchange
between students and tutors may delay. For this reason, online courses should contain
comprehension check answers after each section with assignments, it will enable students to make
sure that they have grasped the material they have studied. The results of the comprehension check
may be later analysed by tutors to see the areas which need further improvement, conclusions can be
made whether the material needs to be altered or learners need to get more practice with more
challenging language points.

3.3 Suggested strategies

An important advantage of an LMS is the automatic check of tasks, the learners and the tutors get the
results through the statistics. In case of multiple-choice exercises, if there is a necessity, the tutors
may include detailed feedback for each of the options to make the learning process more
autonomous, although it may take a considerable amount of time. Lack of explanations for the wrong

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answers however decreases the effectiveness of the course, as students are often not aware why
their answers are erroneous, and this may result in them acting intuitively without analyzing their
answers. It is obvious that a course with detailed feedback on all possible options may require a lot of
time and resources, however it will be much more beneficial for learners. This is especially important
at university where development of students’ critical thinking ability is key to developing competencies
required for most high-profile jobs.
A learning management system (LMS) is a modern and helpful tool that can increase the efficiency of
language courses within the university curriculum, using methods that would boost the students’
motivation and encourage them to achieve improved results. To strive for excellence, become one of
the best students and be recognised for the success might be an impetus for ambitious learners.
Therefore, the elements of gamification and the rating of top students in LMS-based tasks are
essential [3], [4].
A good LMS with a question bank can be helpful when designing major tests. Students frequently try
to cheat in exams or when writing some important tests which can seriously impact their academic
ratings. If there is only one version of a test for the whole group, they may copy the answers off their
group mates, or they memorise whole exercises and pass on the information to other students who
are to write the same test later. In some situations they may even take pictures of their tests and then
distribute them among other students using social network. Such inventiveness and drive to get higher
marks with minimal effort may make the tests useless and undermine the tutor’s attempts to assess
the students’ knowledge. However, having a considerable number of different tasks in the question
bank could enable a tutor to produce dozens of tests with various content and make it nearly
impossible to cheat. The students could be asked to write the test electronically using the class
computers. Each student would have their individual version of the test or the tutor could just create
different versions of the test, copy them into separate files, and print the paper tests for assessment in
the classroom.
One of the latest methodological principles that should be observed when creating an online language
course for university students is having individual learning paths or custom learning experiences.
Having them can be ensured through usage of modern LMSs like NEO LMS, Matrix LMS and iSpring
etc. This can be achieved through creation of a tailor-made course on the basis of existing exercises
from the aforementioned question bank of the LMS. Following the latest trends with adaptive learning,
the “ideal” LMS needs to be equipped with artificial intelligence technology which would analyze the
answers chosen [5]–[9] and skip the further practice of the same material if excellent results are
achieved. It should provide more practice in case of unsatisfactory results within the language area
that needs to be mastered. Personalizing the learning process in such a way will let the more
advanced students progress further and the ones with less knowledge feel more confident about the
areas which they have difficulty with.

3.4 LMS-related projects

Apart from traditional grammar and lexical exercises that advanced-level students usually perform with
the help of paper textbooks, they can do a number of creative tasks with the help of an LMS. For
instance, they may take part in a number of projects, utilising the multimedia capabilities of online
resources and digital devices.
Video-based learning is presently one of the most popular ways to learn. The young are constantly
exposed to video content online through social networks and are used to absorbing a lot of visual
information rather than reading long-winded texts. Advanced learners of English may benefit from
listening to modules in their LMS or audio representing a number of different discourses. They may
learn plenty of new vocabulary watching videos or television programs [10]–[12].
Furthermore, students may create new video content themselves. A group of students may be asked
by their tutor to create a short video course for English language learners of their department. Such a
course may consist of 10 2–3-minute videos regarding new university projects in English. The tutors
should ask their students to think of a topical issue for the video, plan it through, write a script and use
some advanced, topical vocabulary. When the script is ready, the tutor may proofread it, ‘polish’ the
language and add further advanced vocabulary and grammar structures. With the guidance of their
tutor, the students could work in a team and shoot the video, some can take over the role of the news
presenter while others shoot and edit the video. When taping the next video, the students could swap
roles to ensure that everyone is involved in all types of activities related to the project. The best videos
may later be transcribed, some new exercises may be added by the language professors and they

3532
may be used later for listening comprehension or other purposes within some of the learning modules
of the LMS. In other words, the student created content may be used as a learning tool for other
students studying English at the university.
A tutor could engage their students in a news transcription service. A challenging news item which
would be demanding in terms of its vocabulary and the anchor’s speed of speech would be chosen
each week. The tutor would upload the corresponding audio or video files and each student would be
allocated a news item – if it is too short – or a section of it to transcribe and translate and produce both
for their fellow students. The LMS features would enable the students to transcribe and translate
virtually, on the go, and submit the results of their work to their tutor through the LMS. This way the
tutor can see both the text and watch the original video or listen to the audio file of the news item.
Such a project could improve the linguistic competencies of the students involved, help them learn
teamwork and stick to particular deadlines. The results of the work can successfully be used later in a
face-to-face class with the whole team and the tutor. The students could also work together on the
vocabulary of the whole transcript, or orally translate some parts, from their native language into
English and backwards. They might also be asked by their tutor to analyse some of the controversial
ideas from the listening lesson and express their opinions in class or in writing, in the form of an
essay, which might boost their critical thinking skills.
If the LMS functionality allows its users to converse in online forums or discussions it could help the
tutor extend the discussions beyond the classroom and engage the students in the analysis of
different controversial comments. Alternatively, a tutor could provide the students a task to follow-up
on the developments in a particular field. For instance, the further development of peace talks if the
students study international relations, or any other major event in a different field. The students would
be requested to collect information regarding the speakers and share their opinion on their speeches,
etc. Moreover, forums could be used for the analysis of literary texts and their language features, the
discussion of the author’s viewpoint and the students’ ideas.
Teaching English to language learners at a university should cater for the needs of a particular group
of students. It should be centred on the development of advanced language skills and the
competencies that the future graduate or specialist needs. However, the LMSs that are used at
universities for language teaching should create enhanced individualized experiences [13], tailor the
content of the courses studied to the learning style of an individual and promote their further linguistic
development.

4 CONCLUSIONS
Although e-learning has become an indispensable part of teaching English to university students, it
requires further extensive research. It is vital to understand the correlation of in-class activities and
online practise – which assignment should better be studied with a tutor or done in self-study mode. It
is essential to find ways to increase the efficiency of distance learning courses as well and make it at
par with face-to-face classes.
There are a number of trends in e-learning and in LMSs in particular which could benefit language
learners at universities. Some scientists believe that using digital games in language learning can
increase the learners’ motivation, as games represent ‘powerful learning experiences’ [4] and enable
them to participate in learning communities [14], [15], while providing them with an opportunity for
intercultural learning [16] which is vital for developing cultural competence [17].
Another engaging type of learning is microlearning. It presupposes studying of the material in small
chunks. Such assignments, with theory and small tests, can be relatively quickly developed and
studied, so it has been gaining popularity in the last several years [18]–[20] . Due to the small size of
such modules, the content can be revised by students multiple times, and the retention level should be
considerably higher in comparison to the traditionally large language units. Microlearning can be
implemented in the form of videos for listening comprehension, vocabulary practice for some
subtopics (for instance, vocabulary for dealing with a conflict rather than for negotiations), grammar
practice for some challenging grammar subjects or pronunciation practice.
Another area that could boost the autonomy of language users is artificial intelligence (AI), which, in
conjunction with speech recognition technology, could create an imaginary conversation partner that
would interact and enable language learners to practice their speaking skills outside the classroom.

3533
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