The Effectiveness of an Online Language Course during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Students’ Perceptions and Hard Evidence

The aim of this study is to analyse the delivery of an online English language course taught at the Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping during the COVID-19 pandemic with the ultimate purpose of identifying those features which could be applied to a prospective blended English as a foreign language (EFL) course in the future. The rationale behind this research is a necessity to redesign the existing language education programme at the University which is outdated and far from being digital. By applying the Mashaw model of evaluating the effectiveness of an online course, the authors analyse the results of the survey carried out among a focus group of 22 students from the radio engineering department of the Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping. In the end, the authors identify the points for further consideration in the process of developing a prospective blended EFL course.