Abstract:

Obtaining a bachelor's degree in institutions of higher education in the State of Israel is conditional on proof of knowledge of English. For this purpose, courses for learning English at the various levels were included in the various curricula. Over the years, academic institutions had faced this challenge, when in 2019, following the work of an expert committee, the Israeli Council for Higher Education approved a reform in English studies. As part of the reform, the CEFR standard was adopted for teaching English as a second language. The skills required up to that point in time and put it as a teaching of four skills - reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Alongside all that is written, it is well known that higher education institutions have faced the challenges of dealing with the corona plague. Challenges inherent in opportunities in the form of different / innovative thinking in the areas of teaching. Some institutions have turned to examine the establishment of hybrid courses that combine online teaching and frontal teaching. This paper deals with the preparation of a hybrid course that meets the requirements of colleges, adapted for students while meeting a few basic principles: The course must be meaningful, generate engagement, be measurable, expandable and accessible. The course, which is a hybrid course, is an asynchronous course supported by a teaching instructor through several sessions throughout the semester. In its online part, innovative technological elements such as Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning are used. These elements are a tool designed as such that allows for the challenges of acquiring the four language skills. In this way, it is a novelty in the Israeli academic world, both in terms of the unique academic challenge and in terms of teaching methodologies, and in terms of technology combinations in the process of teaching and evaluating students, all in the context of tackling the COVID 19 challenges.

Keywords:

Distance Education, Educational Research, e-learning, Information Management, Educational Technology.