MyEnglishLab component used in the distant part of blended learning

Abstract

Demands on the quality of teaching/learning materials in the sense of targeting studentsʼ individualized learning styles and needs make educators know, carefully consider, and then choose from many different digital tools in order to make their teaching more effective, appealing and engaging for students in the learning process. An online component to different paper-printed English learning materials – MyEnglishLab provides a smart solution to fulfill both teachersʼ and studentsʼ needs. The research being carried out at the Faculty of Science, University of Hradec Kralove, tests and verifies the effectiveness of blended learning using the online component MyEnglishLab in the distant form, and the tools of smartboard used in the present form of the blended learning model. In the paper we present MyEnglishLab component itself, its contribution to blended learning, then we introduce our pedagogical experiment having been going on within the Faculty of Science and students studying different scientific areas. We also present the first results coming out from testing two groups of students – one using MyEnglishLab component and the other using only paper-based materials, while both groups of students are exposed to the use of smartboard in face-to-face form.