Abstract:

The proliferation of various learning management systems (LMSs) has been given prominence in the past decade, especially in the higher education setting, but with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic they have become an indispensable teaching and learning tool in the contemporary classroom, whether considering primary, secondary, or higher education learning environment. Even though Edmodo, Microsoft Teams, Moodle, and Merlin have had a wider scope in Croatia, Google Classroom has been the most frequently used system at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb for almost a decade. However, it must be noted that its full potential and functionality has been sufficiently exploited since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote as well as hybrid learning, and the same trend continues in the blended learning environment in the post-pandemic era.

Although significant research interest was noticed with respect to the implementation of various ICT and digital tools in the contemporary classroom during the COVID-19 and post-pandemic period, as well as the changing pedagogical paradigm necessitated by teaching and learning in exclusively virtual classrooms, it was surprising to notice that the same attention was not given to researching the effectiveness of various learning management systems (LMSs) that were extensively used for bridging the gap between the traditional face-to-face instruction and exclusively online remote instruction. For all the previously mentioned reasons, the research exploring the specifics of online, hybrid and blended learning in the business English courses, and conducted at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb between September 2021 and June 2023, places a particular emphasis on the features of Google Classroom as an efficient teaching, learning, content-sharing, assessment, testing, administration and communication tool, which will be thoroughly analysed in this paper. More specifically, 171 students were surveyed about their perceptions of the opportunities and the challenges presented by Google Classroom together with its accompanying features such as Google Meet, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Forms, Breakout Rooms, Google Jamboard and Interactive Smart Board, which were particularly useful in hybrid classes. Students’ perceptions will be compared to the teaching perspective of Google Classroom as an appropriate platform for achieving the desired learning outcomes in the ESP classroom in a more task-based, learner-centred, and multimodal learning environment. In addition to its numerous opportunities, this research also considers the challenges encountered by using Google Classroom such as cognitive overload, technical glitches, increased levels of plagiarism, social distancing, and excessive workload, which can be daunting both for students as well as teachers.

The findings of this research will present a practical insight into the implications of implementing Google Classroom within the course objectives and learning outcomes of ESP courses with emphasis on the period of exclusively online and hybrid learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and blended learning in the post-pandemic era, thus contributing a diverse perspective to predominantly comprehensive overviews of different types of learning management systems (LMSs).

Keywords:

Learning management system (LMS), blended learning, remote instruction, ESP courses, Google Classroom, multimodal learning environment.