A comparative study of the effects of face-to-face and online college English classes on learners’ learning flow and class satisfaction

The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of face-to-face and asynchronous online English classes on learners’ learning flow and class satisfaction. The study was conducted over 15 weeks with 52 Korean college students. Twenty-six of them took the face-to-face English classes, while the others took the asynchronous online English classes. The results were as follows. First, the students in the face-to-face English classes were found to have higher learning flow than those in the asynchronous online English classes, which was a statistically significant difference. Second, among the nine factors of learning flow, the students in the face-to-face classes showed higher learning flow in four factors: ‘task concentration,’ ‘distorted sense of time,’ ‘autotelic experience,’ and ‘loss of self-consciousness,’ compared to those in the asynchronous online classes, which showed statistically significant differences. This finding indicates that face-to-face English classes have a positive impact on students’ learning flow. Third, the students in the face-to-face classes were more satisfied than those in the asynchronous online classes, but the result did not show a statistically significant difference. It is concluded that face-to-face English classes can be effective for college students. Based on the study, some guidelines for effective English classes were suggested.