e-co in a pandemic: challenges and successes of moving to

(追手門学院大学）基盤教育論集　第8号（2021年3月)　Bulletin of Institute of Liberal Arts　Otemon Gakuin University（No.8）　March 2021　pp. 19－31

E-CO in a Pandemic :Challenges and successes of moving to an online self-access centre

Katherine THORNTON

withコロナのセルフアクセスセンター　――E‒COのオンライン化――

ソーントン，キャサリン

追手門学院大学基盤教育論集第8号（2021）ISSN 2188-4536

Abstract

The Covid−19 pandemic has resulted in a re-evaluation of all aspects of life and human interaction.

Social learning spaces and self-access centres, which rely to a great extent on bringing learners together in a

physical space, are no different, and in March 2020 English Café at Otemon (E−CO) had to rapidly re-assess

its functions to be able to keep supporting students at Otemon Gakuin University effectively. This paper

documents the actions that were taken in Spring 2020 to move E−CO’s activities online, and the challenges

that were faced in doing so. Affordances for future operations, facilitated by this forced move online, are also

highlighted.

Keywords :online learning, self-access language learning, social learning space, pandemic

Due to the dangers of face to face contact caused by the Covid−19 pandemic, in March 2020 Otemon

Gakuin University designated the university campus areas as out of bounds for students, except in special

circumstances, cancelled the graduation and entrance ceremonies, and announced that the first two weeks of

the new semester would be moved online. With the Japanese government declaration of a state of emergency

in Osaka prefecture on 7 April 2020, this was changed to online course delivery for the whole spring

semester, which ran until 21 July 2020. This paper documents the changes E−CO has made to its structures

and delivery to ensure it has been able to continue to offer services to Otemon Gakuin University students

throughout this unprecedented time. Specific challenges that E−CO has faced in fulfilling its mission are

described, with an account of how these challenges have been addressed.

E−CO’s Mission

English Cafe at Otemon (E−CO) has been supporting the language learning and international education

of Otemon Gakuin University students and staff from its base on Ai Campus since 2013. E−CO's current

E-CO in a Pandemic :Challenges and successes of moving to an online self-access centre

Katherine THORNTON

withコロナのセルフアクセスセンター　――E‒COのオンライン化――

ソーントン,キャサリン

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E‒CO in a Pandemic :Challenges and successes of moving to an online self-access centre

mission is provided below.

English Cafe at Otemon aims to develop :

　 1．positive attitudes to language learning and intercultural exchange

　 2．intercultural awareness and intercultural communicative competency,

　 3．life-long self-directed learning skills, and

　 4．communicative proficiency in English and other languages

　　　 among Otemon students, in order to prepare them to be successful participants in the global society.

We do this by providing :

　● a safe, multilingual environment for informal target language use at a variety of proficiency levels (Goals

1, 4)

　● opportunities for people of all nationalities to meet and make connections, in any language (Goals 1, 2, 4)

　● opportunities for students to learn with and from each other (Goals 1, 2, 4)

　● structured language learning advising programmes, both individual and course-based (Goals 1, 3, 4)

　● explicit instruction in English and other languages through communication-focused individual, group

and class sessions (Goals 1, 4)

　● customised language and culture-focused support programmes for study abroad (short & long term

programmes)(Goals 2, 4)

　● career support through internship, student job and volunteer programmes (Goals 2, 3)

While this mission does not explicitly state the provision of a physical space for these activities to take

place in the vast majority of E‒CO's activities have taken place within the walls of the self-access centre,

from 2013 to 2018 located on Ai Campus, and from 2019 with an additional site on the newly opened Sojiji

Campus.

A self-access centre such as E‒CO is a “social learning environment” (Benson, et al, 2016, p.288). The

connections made between learners and with staff are a very important part of any SAC’s success, and E‒CO

is no different. These connections have, until now, been facilitated by the physical space, which is designed

to facilitate maximum interaction between students (Thornton, 2020a). Students who meet at E‒CO can

motivate and inspire each other to learn and take on new challenges and to keep on studying towards their

goals. The pandemic represented a challenge to this assumption of a physical space, as students were no

longer allowed to come to campus.

Emergency action :Moving E−CO services online

In the two weeks between the announcement to move classes online and the commencement of the

semester, E‒CO’s director and administrator, who were simultaneously training a new administrator (see

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Katherine THORNTON

staffing, below), developed online systems to replace the existing E‒CO services. Advising and conversation

services were all moved online, and we trained ourselves in how to use both Zoom and Webex, two

telecommunication systems adopted by the university. In order to be able to hold more than one kind of

session simultaneously, two accounts were used. Online English Practice conversation sessions had been

offered using Skype since 2018, and a small minority of students had been taking English Practice sessions

remotely during vacation periods even before the pandemic. In March 2020, these were moved to Zoom,

as it appeared to be more user-friendly for students, who could access a session from a single link without

necessarily downloading an application for their phones or laptops. When classes started on 9 April, E‒CO

services were fully operational online, with Advising, individual English Practice sessions and Easy Chat

group conversation sessions all provided.

Despite E‒CO services being offered online, we still faced several challenges in fostering a supportive

learning environment and in promoting our services across the university. An environment analysis (Nation

& Macalister, 2010) conducted to more deeply understand the predicament we faced revealed the following

challenges : lack of a physical SAC environment, difficulties in supporting staff, gaps in technological

knowledge and familiarity, and a lack of international students. In the following sections, each of these

challenges, and the ways in which we addressed them, are described in detail.

Lack of physical environment

As described above, the physical E‒CO space plays a big role in its usual operations. It is not only a space

in which the support activities take place, it also serves to highlight our presence as part of the university

support infrastructure, and the base from which students build the relationships which sustain their learning.

E‒CO defines itself as a community of practice, (Wenger, 1998) and that community has been, until now,

sustained through the physical space of the facilities. In moving all E‒CO activities online, this support for

building social relationships, and the PR advantages of being able to show students round a space specifically

curated to support language learning, was lost. Without being able to offer the usual tours and orientations,

(often done as part of classes in addition to showing round students who come through our doors) it would

prove difficult to get our message out, especially to first year students who for the most part, would have

had no experience of non-classroom-based language learning support environments such as E−CO. Without

having a place to run into each other and meet informally, how would students be able to meet and make new

friends, share their language learning and overseas experiences, and how could we support and sustain these

relationships?

Compensating for a physical site

E−CO website. In place of our physical facilities, the E−CO website started to play a more prominent

role as a portal for our services. E−CO established its own website when it first opened in 2013, to give

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information about E−CO staff and services and provide access to external links to language learning

resources. In spring 2020 this website was revamped, and the services page was expanded to provide

information on how to register and make reservations for our online services. We included QR codes on all

of our PR materials so that students could easily access the website and reservation systems. As this website

is available to the public, however, it was not possible to share direct links to our services on the website.

Instead, we made use of Google forms and asked students to register for services such as group conversation

services using their Otemon Student ID, to make sure these services were only available to Otemon students.

E−CO’s existing language learning links page was also completely revamped and updated to offer more

relevant information about a variety of external language learning resources that students can access from

their phones or laptops.

SNS. In addition to sharing information through the E−CO website as had always been done previously,

we made use of Campus Square, the student information portal, and expanded our social media presence.

E−CO has had a Facebook account since 2013 (http://www.facebook.com/ecootemon/), Twitter

since 2014 (https://twitter.com/ecootemon) and Instagram since 2018 (https://www.instagram.com/

englishcafeatotemon/). The Facebook account is largely directed at external PR and connecting E−CO with

other self-access centres. The Twitter account used to be linked to Facebook, sharing the same information,

but in April 2020 this was revamped to target its message directly at students, using more Japanese than

previously, and the DM function was used to encourage students to ask questions and contact E−CO directly.

Similarly, Instagram, which is the most popular social media site for young people was used not only to

promote E−CO services, but also to build a learning community by sharing photos and messages from E−

CO users, advice for language learning etc. Student staff are in charge of the Instagram account, although the

administrator and teachers can also access it. Putting students in charge has given it a fresh vibe which helps

E−CO stay relevant to our target audience.

Online class visits. In a normal year, E−CO holds multiple orientations to its facilities in April and May,

as new first year students learn about different opportunities on campus. In 2020 we were able to replace

some of these orientations with online class visits. Logistically, these were quite easy to organise as teachers

only had to share the link for their online classes with E−CO. An E−CO teacher would then visit for 10−15

minutes, explain the services on offer and attempt to build rapport and a good impression of E−CO.

A new student-run service - Peer Chat. While some students did “find” E−CO and made connections

with E−CO teachers while practising English and getting support for their learning, the informal opportunities

for students to meet and interact had been lost by the lack of a physical space. We were acutely aware of how

difficult it was for many students to connect with others, especially first years, as classes were all online, and

often asynchronous. In order to compensate for this lack of informal interaction opportunities, E−CO student

volunteers proposed setting up a new kind of service. Instead of the weekly counter shift that each volunteer

usually did, where they would greet users, and help with reservations, book borrowing and other services, a

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Katherine THORNTON

new kind of group session was established from May 2020, named Peer Chat.

Figure 1 :Peer Chat poster designed by student staff

Each lunchtime, two student staff members and E−CO’s new administrator, Harumi Hiraguri, were

available for 40 minutes for any student to come and chat with, in either English or Japanese, about any

topics. No reservation was required once students registered one time to get the link, and sessions took place

at the same time each day. Student facilitators shared information about themselves on SNS to help them

seem more approachable to students, and also used Instagram direct messages to communicate with students.

These Peer Chat sessions became a new portal to E−CO, or what Kelly et al refer to as a “virtual triage

service” (2020, p.194). Instead of learning about E−CO from being given a physical tour, new users learned

about E−CO and met senpai and other users through this relaxed group session environment. Unfortunately,

take up of this service remained low, but those students who did join asked many questions and seemed to

enjoy talking with E−CO students.

This triage function was also present in teacher-led services, especially the Advising service. Students

who would usually first visit E−CO, hear about it and then book Advising to discuss specific language

goals and how to reach them, now booked Advising sessions to learn basic information about E−CO. This

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required the advisor to slow down and focus on information-sharing as much as helping the learner articulate

their needs and build a plan to achieve their goals. Davies et al (2020) remark on their perceived shift to

a more directive form of Advising when it was moved online. Anecdotally, I would concur with this, and

hypothesise that Advising fulfilling the role of introducing the SAC may be part of the reason for this.

Video publicity. Along with other university departments, E−CO quickly learned to embrace video as

a method for disseminating information in an engaging way. With assistance from the Joho-Media team,

several short videos were produced and shared on Otemon’s YouTube channel, and posted to our various

SNS and websites. Kelly et al (2020) recommend involving students directly in developing video resources

explaining services to students. E−CO student staff made and edited their own video to promote the Peer

Chat service, not only making the script and recording, but also the subtitles and graphics, themselves.

Supporting Staff

Building a new E−CO team

In usual times, E−CO has a small full-time staff consisting of one director/ teacher/ advisor (the author),

who also has teaching duties within the Institute of Liberal Arts, one full-time English teacher, provided

by an agency, and one full-time bilingual administrator, also provided by an agency. Unfortunately, both

the full-time teacher and administrator, who had been working at E−CO since 2017, left their positions in

March and April 2020 respectively, leaving only the director with direct experience of working in a self-

access environment. A new administrator was employed from early April, and a two-week handover training

period took place, but a significant proportion of this time was spent adapting to the new situation created

by the pandemic, which resulted in a slight skills gap being created in the usual E−CO systems. This has

been slowly rectified throughout the year. A new teacher was not employed until June 2020, so for the first

two months of the pandemic, E−CO’s operation was run by only one academic staff member. In addition,

the requirement to work from home meant that staff were rarely on campus together, so it was more difficult

to build rapport between the new team members. However, daily online meetings between the director

and administrator, and face-to-face training twice a week for the new teacher, helped to minimize these

communication issues. The new teacher also joined Peer Chat sessions to build rapport with student staff.

Student volunteers

Of crucial importance was also the need to support our student volunteers. In 2019, E−CO had a total of

28 student volunteers working on either campus. With the onset of the pandemic, it was clear that the nature

of their activities would have to change drastically. The move to online learning was stressful for everyone,

so we were aware that not all students would be interested in continuing E−CO activities online. Students

were offered a choice : to continue as active members, or to take the semester off and become a sleeping

member. Students were free to change their status anytime and this situation would be reviewed in the fall

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Katherine THORNTON

semester. 11 students opted to be active members over the spring semester. They organised, made publicity

for and took part in Peer Chat, and used Instagram and Twitter to deliver content and promote E−CO to

Otemon students. With the opening of the new campus in 2019 we had already implemented the use of the

Slack team communication application to facilitate communication between members, with different channels

for different activities. We also moved our group meetings online, and held them in evenings rather than

during the day. Student leaders planned the agenda and kept minutes of every meeting. MS OneNote and

OneDrive were used as a shared folder so students could keep track of their activities. However, it was still

challenging to keep up with and support this enthusiastic group of student volunteers when we could not meet

in person. Davies et al (2020) highlight the importance of well-being of both students and staff, and the role

of community in providing connectivity as a key function of their SALC during the pandemic. For E−CO,

Peer Chat was one of our attempts to cater for student well-being. Both Peer Chat sessions and bi-monthly

meetings enabled students to maintain a sense of community and support each other through what was quite a

lonely and stressful time for many people.

In addition to these everyday support activities, four student volunteers also took part in a national Online

Student Forum, organised by the Japan Association for Self-Access Learning (JASAL). JASAL has held

student conferences and other events for several years since 2013, but this was its first online event. Two E−

CO student staff members volunteered to be team leaders at the online event, which took place on 4th July

2020. In his review of the forum, student participant Naoki Tashiro (2020), states that “the forum clarified

that most universities have had the same issue, which was how to make connections between students and

each center.” (Tashiro, 2020, p.295). Through interacting with other student staff and self-access users

around Japan, they were able to realise and confirm this, to share new ideas and feel inspired to work hard to

support Otemon students through E−CO.

Gaps in technological knowledge

Self-access has always existed hand in hand with technology. In fact many early SACs were established

to house the computers and audio-visual systems seen as vital for facilitating self-directed language learning

in the 1980s and 1990s (Gremmo & Riley, 1995; Thornton, 2020b). As these technologies have become

more mobile and personal, eliminating the need for satellite TV and shared software on fixed computer

terminals, some researchers have even gone so far as to suggest that wide adoption of technology-mediated

approaches to learning may render the physical self-access centre redundant (Reinders, 2012). While

SACs have mostly responded to these changes by becoming social learning spaces which prioritise learner

interactions and building communities of practice, they have also maintained, to differing degrees, an element

of virtual learning and often provide remote access to learning resources. These may be either custom-made

programmes, such as those that support advising and reflection, like the University of Helsinki Kaleidescope

Advising programme (Karlsson, 2008), or links to externally produced learning materials. With the onset

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of the pandemic, however, as Ruiz-Guerrero (2020) points out, these online programmes, which were often

previously designed to complement in-person learning opportunities, suddenly became more central to every

SAC’s operations, but not everyone had the familiarity with the different technologies required to access

them.

Although E−CO has used an online reservation service since its inception, until 2019 students were still

required to attend in person to make reservations. This was to encourage a physical presence in E−CO and

to give students an opportunity to interact, often in English, with E−CO teachers and student staff. From

2019, online access to the reservation system was offered on Sojiji campus as lack of full-time staff meant

that the counter was only open at limited times, but take-up was low, and most students preferred to make in-

person reservations. It was necessary to build, test and roll out new systems for both making reservations

and offering multiple remote sessions with E−CO staff at very short notice, and finding ways to communicate

these systems to users clearly.

As explained above, E−CO quickly expanded its website to make it more of a portal for students to access

E−CO’s new online services. However, both E−CO staff and Otemon students had relatively little experience

of using the telecommunication software and other technologies which would become a crucial part of our

online delivery. Students’ and teachers’ lack of digital literacy skills is a common situation around the world

(Al Ghazali, 2020). At Otemon, we have been lucky that the Bring Your Own Device policy, instigated

in 2019, which requires all incoming students to buy their own laptop, has meant that at least all first and

second year students have access to their own PC, although first years may not have had much experience of

using one for their classes before April. To combat this, E−CO conducted training sessions with all active

volunteer staff in how to use the new software, and clear instructions using screenshots were included on our

website for student users.

Security concerns were also an issue, as any services had to be made accessible only to Otemon

students, and steps needed to be taken to keep these environments safe. For example, to make reservations,

students first had to make an account using their student number. To access the reservation-free Easy Chat

conversation service, they had to register their email address to receive the Webex link for the session. While

student volunteers wanted to use Instagram live to host their Peer Chat event, the fact that it was impossible

to restrict this event to Otemon students meant that we could not allow it to be used. Instead students had

to first register for the link using an online form from the Campus Square portal or E−CO website. This

necessarily meant that fewer students were able to access these services, resulting in a lower turn-out, but this

was considered unavoidable and student safety was the main priority.

Anas et al (2020) point out the benefits of being able to integrate e-SALL (internet-based self-access

language learning provision) with existing Learning Management Systems (LMS). As yet, E−CO has

been unable to do this with Otemon’s LMS, WebClass, which is mainly set up to support classes within a

traditional curriculum. While this is not yet possible across the whole university population. individual

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Katherine THORNTON

professors have, however, at E−CO’s request, added E−CO links to their class LMS pages, making E−CO

more accessible to their students.

Lack of incoming international students

E−CO is an international space, and, despite the relatively low number of international students at our

institution, has always been able to attract students of various nationalities : Japanese students who are

interested in overseas, matriculated international students and who may want to keep up their English while

studying at a Japanese university, and short-term exchange students who want to make Japanese friends. The

friendships facilitated between these groups are one of E−CO’s strong points which enriches the lives and

study experiences of its learners. The pandemic meant that all short-term exchange programmes were halted,

with only two existing exchange students being able to continue their studies, and no new students arrived.

Due to a harsh re-entry ban imposed by Japanese authorities, some international students who had temporarily

returned home during the spring vacation period also found themselves unable to come back to Japan. The

usually vibrant atmosphere of E−CO was necessarily diminished.

E−CO was lucky to have some existing international students on its student volunteer staff. Some of

these students were in Japan, others were back in their home countries. Four of these students became Peer

Chat session facilitators, enabling E−CO to continuing facilitating contact between students of different

nationalities.

In order to expand these opportunities, E−CO’s director got permission from the Center for International

Studies to contact previous exchange students who had completed their time at Otemon, and how had worked

as conversation facilitators during their studies in Japan. Of these students, six showed an interest in taking

part in exchange activities from their home countries, and two students eventually did so, both from Europe.

A new session was created, called Ryugakusei (exchange student) Chat. Similar to Peer Chat, Otemon

students were invited to join an online group session with these exchange students, at a time which accounted

for the time different between the two countries. Otemon students were excited to speak English with these

students, and to learn about their lives back in Germany and France. This was facilitated by one of the E−CO

teachers.

Affordances of the online delivery mode

It is undoubtedly true that the move to online learning was extremely disruptive. Students who may have

already been intimidated to speak English in the physical environment of E−CO, may have been even less

inclined to engage in online activities, where visual communication cues are not as obvious or even absent.

However, the mode to online delivery did have some advantages which have enabled E−CO to enhance

its services and improve take up, namely the ability to connect across borders, and the growing familiarity

of students within online learning modes. Ryugakusei Chat, the group session offered with international

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students no longer living in Japan, was only possible thanks to the normalization of the telecommunications

technology used to facilitate it. Otemon students had the opportunity to meet people from other countries

without leaving their homes. Similarly, this familiarity with online services and the fact that they were easily

accessible from home, resulted in a much higher level of participation during the summer vacation period.

While one on one conversation sessions have been offered throughout vacation periods since 2017, usually

take up is extremely low. This was not the case in 2020.

Discussion : Impact of the pandemic on E−CO’s mission

Despite the pandemic, E−CO has still been able to contribute to the language and international education of

Otemon students. In terms of its mission, it has been able to do the following things.

　 1） Fostering positive attitudes to language learning and intercultural exchange. This has been done

through individual interactions between teachers, E−CO volunteers and E−CO users, especially

through the new Peer Chat service. It has also been supported through SNS activities.

　 2） Develop intercultural awareness and intercultural communicative competency. Thanks to

the presence of existing international students in E−CO volunteer activities, and the very kind

participation of former exchange students, E−CO has been able to connect Otemon students with

people from a variety of countries for informal interact, through the Peer Chat and Ryugakusei Chat

services. Workshops on international themes were also developed and delivered online by E−CO

teachers.

　 3） Develop life-long self-directed learning skills. E−CO’s Advising service has continued as usual

throughout the pandemic. Unfortunately, as most students only learn and sign up for the Advising

service after visiting E−CO and talking to the staff, take up has been lower than in previous semesters.

Additionally, book borrowing has not been possible. To make up for this, E−CO’s website was

completely revamped to offer more links to online language learning resources.

　 4） Develop communicative proficiency in English and other languages among Otemon students.

Similarly, E−CO’s conversation sessions have continued as usual throughout the pandemic. While

fewer students chose to access the service, those that did so often joined several times a week or more,

and were able to focus hard on improving their communicative English ability. Unfortunately, we

were not able to offer any sessions in other languages in Spring 2020, although some informal Chinese

learning did take place in the Peer Chat sessions.

Conclusion :Areas for future growth

Despite the return to some in-person classes since September 2020, E−CO continues to offer most of

its services online, with some face-to-face sessions with teachers on either campus. It is likely that social

distancing will be a consideration in educational environments for the considerable future. Several areas have

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Katherine THORNTON

been identified where E−CO can improve its delivery to students, to help maximise its impact on the language

and international education of Otemon students.

　 1） Creating an accessible environment to ask for support. Kelly et al highlight the importance of

“normalising help-seeking behaviour” (2020, p.194) among students. E−CO is one of the support

networks provided at Otemon Gakuin University, but students still seem hesitant to reach out and ask

questions about what E−CO can offer them. It is necessary to encourage and normalize these kinds

of questions, so students have more confidence to investigate the opportunities available to them.

Providing more peer-led services, such as Peer Chat, which may be less intimidating to students, may

be one way to do this.

　 2） Streamlining systems to minimize the learning curve for new learners. It is undeniable that the

multitude of systems E−CO has used this year may be confusing for many learners. Where previously

all participation could be achieved simply by turning up in E−CO’s physical space, or at most by

talking to counter staff, currently students have to navigate different systems (one-off sign-up forms,

registering an account with a reservation system, keeping different Webex or Zoom links for different

sessions). As much as is possible, these should be streamlined to allow easier access to E−CO

services, while still prioritising security for students.

　 3） Integration with existing LMS. Currently, to get information about E−CO, students have to access

our website, through E−CO’s page on the university website, or the links and QR codes provided

on our promotional materials. If E−CO could integrate better with WebClass, the LMS used for the

mainstream curriculum, it may be easier for students to access E−CO services. More collaboration

with university faculty may also help to spread the word about E−CO services through more online

class visits.

　 4） Develop more on-demand and video content. E−CO workshops have always suffered from low

participation, with some students complaining that they have classes at times when workshops

are offered. By developing more on-demand and video content. E−CO could reach more users.

However, in order to fulfill E−CO’s aims to develop a community of learners, the design of

these materials should also include opportunities for students to interact (either synchronously or

asynchronously) with each other and other E−CO users. Student volunteers or future internship

students may be able to get involved with this aspect of E−CO. Existing on-demand workshop

materials have been linked to synchronous workshop sessions. Offering these videos as a taster

for synchronous content can be one way to attract more users and contribute to students’ language

education.

Overall, E−CO has so far been able to weather the storm of the novel coronavirus pandemic, and continue

to offer all its core services to Otemon students, fulfilling its mission. The lessons we have all learned from

moving to an online delivery mode have been useful ones, and E−CO plans to continue offering an online

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service to complement its in-person services, even after the danger of the pandemic subsides. Improvements

in publicity and collaboration with other parts of the university may help us to reach even more students in

the future.

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