I think the main merit of participating in the course actually has been to take part in a structured online course entity, and through that becoming familiar with tools that can be useful when having to structure and run online and blended learning courses in the future. As this will be expected from us by the administration and curricula are planned according to these premises, it has been essential to partake of it.

It is no secret that I am critical to employing online learning (excessively or exclusively) in foreign language education, and nothing has so far convinced me of the opposite. I strongly believe that students need personal face-to-face interaction to develop their confidence and communication competence, and I have not seen any method that efficiently can achieve these goals through online media. In fact, I do not believe that students even want their education exclusively thorough online media. Introducing blended learning elements and combining these with face-to-face meetings is a different matter, and here there is potential of supporting or improving the learning outcomes also in foreign language education. This seems to be supported by the recent ECAR 2019 Student Study:

https://tt.eduuni.fi/sites/kity/publicAAPAFUCIOdocs/ECAR/ECAR2019_StudentStudy_Raportti.pdf

There are cases where ONL can be defended, e.g. in continued education for people who already are in working life, where it is difficult or impossible to attend classes according to a set schedule. It is however noteworthy, that also in ONL there are (or should be) a need to participate in scheduled live activities and requirements on attendance, even though it is not face-to-face. Problematically, in the case of foreign language education, I find that the educational needs of students who have been in working life for some years, but not necessarily used the language in question on a regular basis are poorly compatible with ONL. What these students most require (and desire) is an opportunity to employ the language through interaction in meaningful discussions and in presentations. Once again, I find that this is best achieved through physical presence in a class or group environment. Many aspects of communication and interaction are lost in an ONL environment, therefore the environment is not conducive to foreign language learning. On a more positive note though, there are also many elements where ONL can be successfully employed also in foreign language learning, e.g. collaboration in projects, and preparation of assignments, collaborative writing etc. Especially for more advanced language learners, ONL can be successfully employed, but we should recognize the fact that, unless extensive teacher resources are allocated, it does not appear to be an efficient form of education for less advanced learners.

It seems to me that the current perception among some programme directors at our institution appears to be that ONL courses should enable students to complete courses at a time (and often in a manner) of their choosing, something which in my view does nothing but encourage students to conduct their studies through minimum input and effort, effectively ignoring any potential learning outcomes. Furthermore, there are cases where an apparent misconception that the same courses can be taught both as in-class and ONL in parallel and without expending additional teacher resources seems to exist (other than a possible initial investment). Even though the objectives and learning outcomes of in-class courses and ONL courses may be the same, they are different courses, and no teacher should accept being asked to what effectively amounts to teaching two separate courses with the resources of one. Additionally, contrary to what on some occasions has been the case, when introducing ONL courses in a programme, the teachers expected to teach these courses should be consulted prior to any decisions being made. In no case should the objective of introducing an ONL course be merely to place it at a specific position within a curriculum without regard of student needs, learning objectives and course outcomes.

In conclusion, from a foreign language perspective it is obvious that there are many aspects of ONL that can be valuable and successful, but ONL should be employed to the exclusion of face-to-face interaction only with reservations. Blended learning courses are a viable option in foreign language learning, but unless it is a case of advanced learners, exclusively ONL courses are not. Furthermore, the objective of introducing blended learning courses or ONL courses should always be the needs of the students in combination with a consideration of learning objectives and outcomes.