ONLINE GRAMMAR CHECKERS VERSUS SELF-EDITING: AN INVESTIGATION OF ERROR CORRECTION RATES AND WRITING QUALITY

Background and Purpose: In order to compete with native speakers, EFL and ESL students are under more pressure to produce native-like academic papers. This has led to more reliance on online grammar checkers, but these can be ineffective with regards to identifying and giving feedback on particular grammatical forms, phrasing and issues relating to style. Language learners may not be effectively correcting these errors. Hence, this study aims to examine the effectiveness of one online grammar checker, grammarly.com, with that of self-editing. Methodology: This case study employed a descriptive approach to data analysis. 199 essays were collected from undergraduates at four universities in Kyushu, dated from April, 2019 to January, 2020. 99 essays were proofed by an online grammar checker, while 100 essays were self-edited. The English proficiency level of the participants was at the lower to intermediate range (i.e., TOEIC 300 to a TOEIC 500). The online grammar checker Grammarly was utilized by all participants to minimize issues relating to feedback. In the analysis of data, the complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) of the essays was assessed in order to examine the significant changes between the first and other drafts, and the types of errors produced. Findings: Results showed that there were no significant differences found in terms of the methods of editing, although the participants who employed online grammar checkers had better results. It was also shown that there were no significant differences in terms of syntactical complexity with either method of editing. There were fewer errors committed by the participants who self-edited, but there were no significant differences in the edited drafts with regards to errors/100 ratios, error-free clauses, and error-free clause ratios. The study showed marginal differences between the two methods of proofing but indicated that online tools can be useful for identifying certain grammatical errors. Contributions: This paper argues that educators need to work more with EFL learners on the editorial and proofing process, but online grammar checkers may be a useful pedagogical tool to help low-proficient L2 learners. Keywords: Writing quality, editing, online grammar checkers, proofing, syntactical complexity. Cite as: Long, R. (2022). Online grammar checkers versus self-editing: An investigation of error correction rates and writing quality. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1), 441-458. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp441-458

Pedagogical Creativity as a Means of Inclusion in Primary School

This chapter presents some creative pedagogical strategies used during the distance or remote learning period due to the COVID-19 pandemic from March to May 2020. The chapter explores the use of coding in a transdisciplinary way. Strategies for online tools and their specific use both in remote and in face-to-face learning are presented. The role of hands-on learning as a process of learning-by-doing and how to involve pupils using the methods of a flipped classroom are also presented. The chapter concludes with the importance of games to keep the class group united and cohesive in order to develop a healthy sense of competitiveness and collaboration among the pupils.

The advantage of modern progress on occupational safety and health with the help of online applications/platforms

The evolution of information and communication technologies has led to the development of an increasing number of interactive online tools, and the occupational safety and health sector is no stranger to this trend. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the transfer of a very large percentage of activities online, the idea of this paper starts from the need to easily manage the documentation on safety and health at work, staff and work points, thus reducing time and eliminating travel costs and last but not least avoiding physical contact as much as possible, by implementing an application or a platform at institution level. These online tools are addressed to all employers, employees, workers and public authorities with responsibilities in the field of occupational safety and health. Although at present the specialists in the field of OSH face bureaucracy, being a rather complex field and at the same time so necessary in the practice of service activities, online training platforms or applications come to their aid to streamline the process of OSH training and testing of knowledge. Due to modern progress, training will be possible from any point of work, requiring only an internet connection.

PARTICIPACE STUDENTŮ NA TVORBĚ PODPŮRNÝCH VÝUKOVÝCH MATERIÁLŮ V PŘEDMĚTU NĚMČINA PRO BANKOVNICTVÍ

The students of bachelor’s degree programmes at the Faculty of Economics of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen have the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and skills acquired in specialized subjects through additional specialized courses taught in German. The language courses in question aim to prepare students adequately for their professional career as well as to provide them with practical competences. This paper focuses on the students’ participation in creating the support materials in the German for Banking course. The graphics online tool called Canva was chosen to present the students’ projects. The individual students’ presentations were created in the form of interactive videos using EdPuzzle, another online tool. The popularity of online tools was also verified using a questionnaire.

PERCEPTION OF ONLINE LEARNING BY STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY PEDAGOGICAL STUDY PROGRAMS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The text focuses on the issue of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the authors focus on capturing, describing and interpreting the perception of online learning through the online tools MS Teams and LMS Moodle. The paper is based on data obtained from a research survey based on a quantitative approach. A self-designed questionnaire was chosen as the data collection tool. The questionnaire survey was conducted electronically among university students in pedagogical fields in the period from November 2020 to March 2021. In total, the authors analysed data from 462 questionnaires received. Not only the basic descriptive results but also the statistical significance of the relationships between the selected variables were evaluated, using adequate parametric and non-parametric tests.

Technological University Faculty ICT Barriers during the Pandemic

Во время пандемии коронавируса преподаватели столкнулись с необходимостью быстро перевести весь образовательный процесс в онлайн-формат. Университеты испытывали трудности с быстрой организацией и унификацией данного процесса для преподавательского состава. Готовность преподавателей к проведению онлайн-занятий существенно различалась, и в условиях самоизоляции они испытывали трудности в получении технической поддержки или консультаций относительно решения возникающих проблем. Данное исследование было нацелено на выявление ИКТ-барьеров, с которыми преподаватели столкнулись в ходе пандемии. Для решения этой задачи авторами был проведен опрос преподавателей Казанского национального исследовательского технологического университета на основе анкеты, включавшей утверждения относительно трудностей, с которыми преподаватели столкнулись в ходе онлайн-коммуникации с обучающимися с начала пандемии. Отношение к тридцати трем барьерам оценивалось на основе коэффициента углового преобразования Фишера с учетом должности, ученой степени преподавателей, стажа работы, возраста, пола и преподаваемых дисциплин. During the coronavirus pandemic, faculty members were faced with the need to suddenly transfer the entire educational process to an online format. Universities found it difficult to quickly organize and unify this process for their educators. The latter’s readiness to conduct online classes varied, and in conditions of self-isolation it was difficult for them to get technical support or consultations on how to solve emerging problems. The current study aims to identify the ICT barriers that educators faced after the outbreak of the pandemic and their preferences of the various online tools they used during this period. To achieve these objectives, the authors surveyed faculty members at the Kazan National Research Technological University. A questionnaire was developed including statements concerning difficulties faculty members had experienced in their online-communication with learners since the beginning of the pandemic. Attitudes towards thirty-three barriers were evaluated depending on respondents’ faculty position, scientific degree, teaching experience, age, gender, and group of taught disciplines.

STARTUP PROJECTS MACHINE TRANSLATION STRATEGY

The importance of ICT usage implementation in the startup project is analyzed. It has been proved that translation is of great importance for any startup project for establishing relationships with potential clients around the world. The role of the translator in the startup project is investigated. Translation has been proven to be important for any startup project to build relationships with potential clients around the world. A comprehensive analysis of the translation of startup projects from Ukrainian into English using the latest information and communication technologies in this process. Peculiarities of using modern ICT in translating the description of startup projects from Ukrainian into English are revealed. Exploring the use of information and computer technology in the translation process. It is determined that it is important for a translator of a startup project to understand all the features of using the software, choose the appropriate programs or online tools and develop a strategy for the translation process in the project. The results of this work are very important and necessary for further study of the features of the use of ICT in the translation of startup projects

Peptide-based epitope design on non-structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has caused the severe pandemic, COVID19 and since then its been critical to produce a potent vaccine to prevent the quick transmission and also to avoid alarming deaths. Among all type of vaccines peptide based epitope design tend to outshine with respect to low cost production and more efficacy. Therefore, we started with obtaining the necessary protein sequences from NCBI database of SARS-CoV-2 virus and filtered with respect to antigenicity, virulency, pathogenicity and non- homologous nature with human proteome using different available online tools and servers. The promising proteins was checked for containing common B and T- cell epitopes. The structure for these proteins were modeled from I-TASSER server followed by its refinement and validation. The predicted common epitopes were mapped on modeled structures of proteins by using Pepitope server. The surface exposed epitopes were docked with the most common allele DRB1*0101 using the GalaxyPepDock server. The epitopes, ELEGIQYGRS from Leader protein (NSP1), YGPFVDRQTA from 3c-like proteinase (nsp5), DLKWARFPKS from NSP9 and YQDVNCTEVP from Surface glycoprotein (spike protein) are the epitopes which has more hydrogen bonds. Hence these four epitopes could be considered as a more promising epitopes and these epitopes can be used for future studies.