Investigating the EFL Courses Shift into Moodle during the Pandemic of COVID–19: The case of MA Language and Communication at Mostaganem University

Abstract

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 has affected all countries worldwide in all sectors, mainly in the education sector. Schools and Universities were closed. Teaching and learning were transformed from face to face environments to online platforms. In light of the latter, a pivotal query in this study was to investigate the shift of English as a foreign language (EFL) learning and teaching into Moodle online learning platform and how the delivery of online EFL courses was (un-)beneficial for students to end up the academic year. This research paper sets out to deconstruct recent calls for integrating several E-learning platforms or apps into the Algerian university. To carry out this study, we used an interview with six Algerian university teachers as a first research tool to cover all issues that arose regarding the use of MOODLE e-learning platform imposed by the Ministry of Higher Education. Another target in this paper is to uncover the main difficulties our colleagues have faced during the confinement. The second research tool we used in this survey was an online class observation followed by six questions on Moodle, the Google Meet app, and a closed Facebook group. We chose 24 MA Language and communication students from the English language department of Mostaganem University to reveal the obstacles they faced throughout the Covid- 19 Pandemic. The results showed that both teachers and students are ready to access various online platforms or apps as alternatives such as Zoom, Google Meet and Facebook closed groups to continue teaching and learning English.