ICELW Paper—A Contemporary Educational Network for Professional Development
A Contemporary Educational Network for
Professional Development
https://doi.org/10.3991/ijac.v12i3.11093
Ayse Taskiran
Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey
[email protected]
Abstract—As seen in every aspect of life, technology has triggered revolutionary developments that shape and direct learning environments. Development of information technologies and the Internet has triggered the spread of
the languages all around the world through online communication. This has
made the English language one of the most popular international languages that
has become the most widely taught and learnt language ever. The English language has been embedded into national curriculum either as a required course
or as an instructional medium in many countries. In teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), foreign language teachers are looking for innovative ways
to involve the developing technology in the language teaching process in order
to support their students’ learning as well as their professional development. As
a social learning network, Edmodo, with millions of users worldwide stands out
as a platform used frequently by educators and researchers. In relevant literature
there is limited study focusing on teacher perception of Edmodo use in terms of
professional development in EFL context. This study aims to obtain in-depth
data including teachers’ opinions based on Edmodo use for their professional
development. The data gained from the study might provide ideas for educators
to make Edmodo more effective by revealing its most preferred, most commonly used features. In this study, as one of the qualitative methods, phenomenological research method is used. This is because the topic is about the individuals' first-hand experiences and phenomenology focuses on the interpretations of
those experiences regarding a phenomenon. The interviews, conducted with
five EFL teachers, revealed mostly positive perceptions regarding Edmodo. According to a majority of the participants, networks like Edmodo provide opportunities for life-long learning, international collaboration, keeping up to date,
time and space independent communication, and convenience for getting mutual help and sharing.
Keywords— Edmodo, EFL teacher, collaboration, professional development
1
Introduction
The English language has become a 'lingua franca'. This term explains the people
who are not native speakers of English but who use English for intercultural communication, and these people are the world’s largest English-using population [1]. Ac-
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cording to [2] approximately about a third of the world's population is now able to
communicate at a useful level in English. Therefore, English language has become a
part of primary, secondary or higher education curriculum either as a required course
or as an instructional medium in many countries such as, Japan, China, Qatar, Turkey,
Saudi Arabia, and many other Asian countries [3; 4; 5]. This triggered educators to
find innovative ways to enhance their teaching process in each country [6] by embedding information and communication technologies (ICT) into their teaching "to create
contemporary learning environment modernizing current teaching techniques, materials, methods, assessment tools and etc." [7] All these innovations triggered the creation of educational networks such as Edmodo. These social networks are designed for
educational purposes and help educators combine, modify and share course materials
and practical tools in order to enhance their teaching.
Social networks can occur anywhere, anytime, allowing people to engage in personal and professional relationships with each other. People have always used different ways and methods to establish a social network. The appeal of the development of
Internet technologies are the structures that make it easier for users of increasing social networks to cooperate with each other [8]. In addition, educational networks,
where personal information and experiences are shared, and virtual communities are
created by connecting with peers, have become widespread and become a basic communication tool. The rise of Web 2.0 and social networking sites over the last decade
has inspired new opportunities to enhance professional development. Thanks to new
media it has become a lot easier and more convenient for teachers to communicate,
collaborate and provide assistance. Web 2.0 helps educators become more curious
about their own learning by providing them with platforms where they can collaborate
and participate to share what they know and to learn from their colleagues [9]. The
promising features of these educational social networking sites align well with social
constructivist approaches to learning [10] because by means of these features teachers
can participate in spaces rich in discussion and thanks to diffused leadership these
platforms provide, those with knowledge of a topic can help others as needed. Many
researchers point out that using educational networks, like Edmodo, in education is
useful not only for students but also for teachers and instructors [11] and these networks present a flexible, borderless, and innovative atmosphere to create collaborative environments [12].
2
Edmodo
Edmodo is a social networking platform designed for educational purposes. As a
free and secure virtual learning environment, Edmodo allows teachers and students to
communicate and collaborate outside the classroom. It has a user-friendly interface,
which is quite similar to Facebook, another popular social networking platform. Edmodo, which has the largest number of users among other educational social networks, is a K-12 social learning platform where teachers, students and parents can be
found together [13]. There are 100 million users in 400,000 schools in 190 countries
around the world [13]. Edmodo provides teachers with a safe environment where they
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ICELW Paper—A Contemporary Educational Network for Professional Development
can share all kinds of interactive materials, gather homework, perform many in-class
activities such as quizzes, discussions [13]. Edmodo, unlike other social networks,
does not want too much personal information to minimize the security problems that
may arise for users [14].
On Edmodo, teachers can open classes as closed groups, share the class code with
their students for practical enrollment. Not only classes, but also many other closed
subgroups for various purposes such as discussions, sharing materials, collaborating,
etc. can be opened on the platform. Thanks to many handy functions of Edmodo,
teachers can create exercises, quizzes, polls and alerts, and they can start discussions,
assign homework, share links and files, store materials in their libraries and more
importantly they can track progress of their students. Also, "E-portfolios of writing,
speaking and listening contributions, which would be otherwise rather difficult to
assess in real time by the teacher, can be uploaded on the platform and contribute to a
finer, more objective assessment process." [15]
[16] mentions the terms used for people of this century who spend time online as
follows: "We have had digital or cybercitizens, netizens (from internet and citizens),
digital natives, homo digitalis, digital youth, and generation Y, to name a few." Created by Nic Borg and Jeff O’Hara in 2008, Edmodo aims to combine the connectedness
of the 21st century with teaching and learning [17]. This educational networking platform is similar to Facebook in many ways, yet it is more secure and private for a
learning environment because teachers can create closed groups as classes with a
group code. This allows only teachers to create and manage accounts, and only those
students with a group code can access and join the group.
Based on a review of some studies, significant influence of social networks on
teachers' professional development was found. The studies reveal the fact that social
networks make teachers more open to new ideas and concepts and teachers understand, perceive and modify practices to fit in their own context. Also these networking
sites have the potential for a learning community to support each by sustaining commitment to the community or activity [18].
Edmodo consists of 12 different subject communities that provide a safe space for
teachers to share their knowledge, resources, ideas, course materials, worksheets,
suggestions, experiences and they can ask questions or solicit ideas on the community
wall [19]. There are between 90,000 and 500,000 registered users of these communities. These communities represent different interest areas such mathematics, linguistics, information technologies, social studies, science, world languages, career and
technology education, health, creative arts, special education, college preparation, and
personal development [20]. "When a member joins a community, all of the posts from
that community are sent via RSS feed directly to the member's personal profile page
so they can keep up to date on all of the community posts without ever leaving the
profile page." [20]
Teachers on Edmodo can also benefit from the Edmodo Library, which has unlimited space. The library allows teachers to upload, store, organize, collect, manage
documents, and view all of them on any device.
Studies that focused on evaluation of Edmodo from teachers' perspective revealed
positive findings. A study revealed findings regarding the perceptions of teachers at
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four higher education institutions. The teachers recommended educators use Edmodo
in their courses and they suggested that school administrations should encourage their
staff to use Edmodo by giving seminars to introduce the platform [20]. Similarly,
teachers in another study [15] favored Edmodo's features that provided them with
effective monitoring, timely guiding, and customization of the activities according to
the learners' proficiency levels. They were also content with the safe platform where
students could maximize their learning time. Edmodo has been compared with different educational social networks [19]. With a range of 12 different subject areas in
which teachers can share with each other through the online interface, Edmodo was
found to be a professional site that is used in teacher learning. In another study, prospective teachers stated their positive opinions about the use of Edmodo. According to
the views of the participants Edmodo can be used as an online virtual environment in
teacher training [21]. In another study findings indicated that as a user-friendly website, Edmodo, promoted communication between teachers with its practical use [22].
In relevant literature there is limited study focusing on teacher perception of Edmodo use in terms of professional development in EFL context. This study, including
EFL teachers aimed to obtain in-depth data on the use of Edmodo for professional
development. The data gained from the study might provide ideas to educators to
make Edmodo more effective by revealing its most preferred, most commonly used
features. The study intended to gather data related to the following research question:
• What are the perceptions of EFL teachers on Edmodo use in language classrooms
in terms of professional development?
3
Method
This study was constructed in a qualitative research design to serve the purpose of
the research question. In this study, one of the qualitative research methods, phenomenological research method, is applied. The reason for this is the relevance of the
subject to the experiences of the participants and the fact that phenomenology focuses
on making sense of the experiences of individuals about a phenomenon, investigating
the structures of consciousness in human experiences [23], describing what an individual experiences and how to describe the essence of individual experiences [24].
Thanks to this method, first-hand in-depth knowledge about the subject will be obtained through the meaningful insights made by the EFL teachers about the perception
of Edmodo.
Phenomenology is closely related to philosophy, one of the theories that form the
basis of qualitative research methods. The aim of phenomenological research is to
define different ways in which people experience, interpret, understand and conceptualize a particular aspect of a phenomenon. Although teaching and learning in the field
of education is a phenomenon known to everyone, our approach, understanding and
interpretations may differ greatly. At this point, phenomenology tries to form the
definition of the essence. With this definition, phenomenology aims at finding answers to the questions of what individuals have experienced and how they have experienced. In the phenomenological research, there is no need to defend any theory, to
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ICELW Paper—A Contemporary Educational Network for Professional Development
prove it or not. It just focuses on describing the phenomenon as closely as possible.
One of the main reasons for the emergence of phenomenological research might be
the fact that reality is trapped between the sterile environment in positive science
research and the subjective approach [25]. In this study, Hermeneutical (Interpretive)
Phenomenological Research method was applied. As pointed out in [26], the researcher in the interpretive phenomenology focuses on the experienced phenomenon
and its meaning, that is, the researcher does not merely describe. The process also
includes the interpretation [27]. In this method, the researcher listens, questions, observes and evaluates the individuals who experience the phenomenon. In this approach, it is aimed to give a rich value to the phenomenon through intuition [27].
Therefore, the researcher is actively involved in this process and contributes to the
process. In the process of understanding, the researcher should not go beyond the
concrete data at hand and must be disciplined about not making over-meaning.
3.1
Participants
Data sources in phenomenological research are the primary people who experience
the phenomenon that the research focuses on and those who can reflect these experiences [28]. Two criteria were determined in the study. The first one is that the participant should have at least 10 years of work experience as an EFL teacher and the second one is that the participant should have used Edmodo for at least 5 academic years.
When conducting a phenomenological investigation, according to [29], the number of
participants must be limited to a minimum of three and a maximum of six. By this
way it is possible to access sufficient information through intensive interviews. Therefore, five volunteer EFL teachers from a state university who accepted the interview
invitation took part in the research. The teachers' years of experience in language teaching ranged from 10 to 21. All participants had been using Edmodo in their
language classes for five years.
Table 1. Participants and their years of experience
Participants
Teacher 1
Teacher 2
Teacher 3
Teacher 4
Teacher 5
4
Years of experience
12
10
16
21
19
Data Collection
For qualitative data collection, 30- to 45-minute interviews were conducted with
five language teachers. Semi-structured interviews were carried out by adopting a
phenomenological approach. By applying this approach during the interviews, the
researcher aimed to find detailed answers to the questions of what individuals experienced and how they experienced it. Recorded interviews were transcribed for text
analysis, and then important statements, which were believed to define the phenome-
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non, were identified. The researcher aimed to reveal the true experiences with these
important expressions. These expressions were grouped together to create meaningful
units (codes). The same process was repeated for each participant and the texts were
continuously revised throughout the process. Once all the codes had been obtained,
the themes thought to describe the event were created.
The interviews were planned according to the availability of the participants.
Open-ended questions were directed to the participants. As the number of participants
was not high, the researcher conducted longer interviews, which took approximately
30 to 45 minutes to retrieve the data. The participants responded to two open-ended
questions during the dialogue-based, unstructured, interactive interviews. The questions focused on how satisfied they were with Edmodo use in EFL teaching context
and how they used Edmodo for their professional development.
5
Findings
The content analysis of the interview responses revealed the teacher participants'
opinions about the use of Edmodo in EFL context in terms of their professional development. Table 2 shows positive important expressions of teachers on the use of
Edmodo for professional purposes, and the codes and themes created by the researcher based on those expressions.
Table 2. Positive Teacher Responses
Important statements
Whenever there is a new
classroom tool or new
application that is worth
trying, I immediately
share it on Edmodo for
other colleagues' benefit
and they do the same.
This platform makes it
easy to share what is
new in seconds.
There are many groups
on Edmodo such as
EFL, English Language
Arts, Grammar,
Spelling, and Writing. I
follow most of these
groups. It is really practical to find what I am
looking for thanks to
these specific groups.
Technology allows us to
transverse distance and
94
Codes
themes
Easy to share new developments related to the
profession
Keeping up to date
Practical platform to
search for specific topics
Practical search
Provides communication
opportunities
Communication
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ICELW Paper—A Contemporary Educational Network for Professional Development
gives us an opportunity
to come closer.
Any device would be ok
to use Edmodo, it can be
used on mobile devices
and this is a great convenience for us.
Some colleagues in
different countries share
their bright ideas related
to preparing quizzes or
extra materials on certain grammar points.
These shares make my
work incredibly easy.
Every day I learn something new about my
profession. This platform is not just for our
students' learning. We
are learning new things
from other colleagues at
any moment.
Edmodo offers professional development
webinars and I benefit
them a lot. There are a
lot of training sessions
on new technology and
we learn a lot from each
other during peer collaboration. It helps me
get student perspective
and practice the introduced tools.
I can find a lot of course
materials that have been
tested by other colleagues and I share my
materials with the other
teachers easily.
With teachers from
different countries as
members of certain
groups we are able to
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Easy to access works on
any device
Practical use
Provides interaction
with other colleagues
worldwide
Sharing information
Good for
professional development
Professional development
Professional
community
Helps create professional
community
Life-long learning
Opportunities for lifelong learning
Collaboration
Fosters collaboration
Professional
community
Providing community
support
Provides easy connection
with other teachers
Community support
Help each other
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ICELW Paper—A Contemporary Educational Network for Professional Development
communicate and share
course material, plans,
ideas. In this way, you
have a professional
social environment.
This platform fosters
interactivity, collaboration and participation.
The professional development unit in our
school initiated small
teacher group work on
Edmodo. Those teachers
who share the same
classes can keep in
touch with each other on
Edmodo and we keep
track of our students'
performance, we can
discuss about our students' weaknesses etc.
In our institution we use
Edmodo for our teacher
group, it is the best way
of sharing information.
Edmodo lets teachers all
over the world contact,
reach across the ocean,
learn and collaborate
with teachers around the
world.
There are posts about
open online courses on
many different subjects
related to my profession. They are opportunities for life-long learning. Sometimes I try
taking those courses and
they contribute to my
teaching! I keep learning all the time!
It is an amazing resource. Teachers can
use it anywhere in the
world. I have shared lots
of course materials with
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Convenient for getting
help from other colleagues
Connecting others
Professional community
Fosters collaboration
Collaboration
Professional community
Learning through discussions
Provides opportunities to
get help from others
Learning through discussions
Promotes learning
through discussions
Sharing information
Professional support
Convenient platform for
sharing ideas
Provides easy connection with other teachers
Connecting others
Fosters collaboration
Collaboration
Opportunities for lifelong learning
Life-long learning
Good for
professional development
Professional development
Professional community
Professional development
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ICELW Paper—A Contemporary Educational Network for Professional Development
many colleagues around
the world so far and
they have shared with
me their materials, experiences, lesson tips
and sources.
Thanks to Edmodo, my
lessons became more
active and connecting
with both students and
other colleagues is
great.
My all classes really
enjoy the ease of sharing work on Edmodo.
We are able to do quizzes and other assignments using it. Teachers
can easily share resources with each other.
When we are in need of
help about a specific
issue such as finding an
appropriate app or how
to organize a specific
group project, we consult each other on Edmodo. Many teachers
around the world share
what they know and this
is amazing.
Edmodo has enhanced
my classroom in more
ways than one. Highly
recommended for all
language teachers. I
keep learning new
things related to my job
every day by following
the new posts on the
main page.
Sometimes Edmodo
staff posts discussion
topics such as "How do
you maintain your
work/life balance and
mental health?" As
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Provides opportunities to
get help from others
Sharing information
convenient platform for
sharing ideas and
resources
Professional support
Provides easy connection
with other teachers and
students
Connecting others
Convenient platform for
sharing work for classes
Enhances teaching
Convenient platform for
sharing ideas and resources
Practical sharing
Provides opportunities to
get help from others
Professional support
Opportunities for lifelong learning
Life-long learning
Good for professional
development
Professional development
Professional community
Professional development
Practical sharing
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ICELW Paper—A Contemporary Educational Network for Professional Development
teachers in many
schools we start discussing about the topic from
our own perspectives.
These posts help us
support each other by
giving advice. Edmodo
helps us create a huge
community of EFL
teachers.
6
Promotes
learning through
discussions
Sharing ideas, exchanging
advice
Learning through discussions
Convenient platform for
sharing ideas
Discussion
Content analysis of the interviews revealed positive opinions regarding Edmodo
use for professional development in EFL context, which is similar to the relevant
literature that focuses on teacher perception [15; 20]. Participants' responses can be
merged under four main themes, which are: practicality, enhancing life-long learning,
convenient communication, and forming collaborative communities.
The participants focused on user-friendly features of Edmodo by pointing out how
practical it is to keep in touch with their students and other teachers around the world.
This feature of the platform might promote interaction among teachers and educators
in language teaching and learning context. Also, teachers find Edmodo quite practical
in terms of reaching resources, sharing course materials, searching for specific topics
in interest communities and organizing their library. As the platform works perfectly
on all devices, they emphasize that they can easily keep up-to-date information and
stay in touch with other colleagues. They expressed that their colleagues could easily
access the content they shared because the platform supported almost all media.
Participants also underlined that Edmodo helps them learn new things related to
their profession. They claim that they can keep up to date with the informative posts
from either other educators or the Edmodo professional development team. This is
important because "Only the teachers who continue to improve their practice, skills,
and instructional strategies can successfully help others learn." [19] Teachers point
out professional development webinars on Edmodo to be highly beneficial as they
keep them up to date with the new classroom technologies. They emphasized that
webinars increase their enthusiasm for teaching as they learn new classroom practices
every day. This type of professional development that is initiated by individuals themselves might be more effective and longer lasting than the one initiated top down.
As many other communication technologies, the Edmodo platform seems to be enhancing communication among teachers by making distances closer, which is a similar finding with [22]. Teachers state that they have chances to meet other teachers,
consult professionals about their job-related problems, get help from experts on Edmodo by means of easy messaging, discussion boards and other communication tools
that allow teachers to engage in social learning, giving every teacher a chance to
speak up.
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ICELW Paper—A Contemporary Educational Network for Professional Development
Participants also pointed out the importance of collaboration in their profession.
This collaboration is possible among teachers all around the world since hundreds of
teachers can meet, communicate and start working together on Edmodo. According to
participants’ comments it is very likely to meet another EFL teacher from another
country and design collaborative projects that provide their learners with the opportunities of practicing English outside the classroom. The participants underlined similar
advantages of Edmodo related to collaboration in literature [19] as they claimed
thanks to the main message board in the interest communities, they could easily engage in collaborative tasks.
This study revealed that educational networking sites promote professional development in many ways by creating online learning spaces where teachers from all
around the world connect, help and support each other.
7
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8
Author
Ayse Taskiran is an ELT lecturer and distance education expert at School of Foreign Languages, Anadolu University. Her academic interest areas are e-learning,
mobile learning, intelligent language tutoring systems, augmented reality, gamification and interactive course materials.
This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the International Conference on E-Learning in
the Workplace 2019 (ICELW 2019), held in June 2019, at Columbia University in New York, NY, USA.
Article submitted 2019-06-23. Resubmitted 2019-08-05. Final acceptance 2019-08-22. Final version published as submitted by the authors.
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