Mrzabay M.
ONLINE EVENING CLASSES IN TEFL: HOW MASTERS STUDENTS PERCEIVE THEIR ROLE IN ACADEMIC AND CAREER PROGRESSION *
Аннотация:
this research explores perceptions of Master’s students towards online education in evening classes. Evening online classes have become flexible for students, as they can balance their work, family responsibilities and academic development. While online learning offers accessibility and convenience, challenges such as technical issues, lack of face-to-face interaction, and time management difficulties persist. Through literature review this paper examines the perceptions of students on benefits, challenges of online evening classes. The finding aims to inform educational institutions to enhance the experience of TEFL master’s students within online evening classes context.
Ключевые слова:
online classes, master students, challenges, students perceptions
Introduction. Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) possesses a vital role in modern education, as it prepares the new generation for the competitive work environment of the 21st century. With the global rise of online education technologies especially after Covid-19 (Mouratidis & Papagiannakis, 2021, Bozkurt, 2020), it became obvious that online programs have become popular on every education level. For those who pursue Master’s degree online education can be a good opportunity to combine their social, academic and professional life without any change for the worse. These programmes can be held online in the evening to fulfill the needs of post-graduate adults who have other commitments such as personal life and full-time jobs.While flexibility and perks of an online education is well-documented, (Hermawan, 2021, Dyrbye et al, 2009, Tareen et al, 2020) there is a gap in knowledge about how actual Master’s degree students perceive an impact of online education as a bridge to their professional and academically successful careers. Understanding these perceptions can be useful for designing better and more effective programs, instructional methodologies and student support programs in the TEFL area of higher education.The following article discovers TEFL Master’s Students’ perceptions of online learning. Specifically, their view on effectiveness of online classes in their academic growth combined with career goals. By discussing both the benefits and drawbacks of online learning in a Masters degree programme, this paper aims to give insights into the perception of modern students and contribute to the information on how flexible and balanced online education can grow decent professionals in TEFL area of education. The following question set the goal for the study:1. What benefits do TEFL Master’s students associate with online evening classes?2. How do they perceive online learning in supporting their current or future teaching careers?3. What challenges do they face in online evening classes, and how do these impact their learning experience?By analyzing student perspectives, this paper aims to provide actionable insights for educators and institutions to enhance the quality and effectiveness of online TEFL programs.Literature review.The evolution of online educational platforms has grown in recent years. This shift can be seen in different ways for post-graduate students, for example Anderson (2020) found that online classes facilitate improvement of accessibility. It allows students to balance their academic and professional development. In TEFL context this may help those, who are working or doing their personal commitments.1. 1. Benefits of online learning.Students often perceive online classes as both beneficial and challenging at once (Johnson et al., 2022). While convenience is the most popular advantage identified among researchers, there are also drawbacks such as engagement problems and health issues. The duality of online education is important for understanding how TEFL Master’s students view their evening online classes.1.2 Flexibility. Evening classes are considered to be flexible. According to Oliphant & Branch-Mueller (2018), evening classes allow students to manage their professional and personal commitments without compromising their academic goals. Jung et al (2025) found that work-life balance in evening classes is a key factor that is seen as positive among master’s students. It allows students to allocate time so that work and study do not distract each other. This is particularly useful for those students who manage different roles and jobs. By putting their lessons in evening time, students create a good timetable for themselves, allowing managing time properly (Oliphant & Branch-Mueller, 2018). Time and asynchronous classes help working adults to have better flexibility in terms of dedicating time for their academic improvement (Moore, 2023).1.3 Work-Life balance.The combination of work, study and family responsibilities can result in an increased stress level for every student (Bayrak, 2024). Students report that they feel overwhelmed by complication of their time management, thus they start losing their academic performance level (Martinak, 2012).Master’s students’ participation in online lessons is helping them in enhancing their digital skills, which are crucial for their teacher’s career. Moreover, it helps students to develop self-learning features that are helpful overall (Richards, 2023).Effective time management strategies are important in making progress whether in academic life or professional development. It was found that students who have clear schedules and better time management tend to perform better in university (Oliphant & Branch-Mueller, 2018).1.4 Support and research work.Some students may not have the support networks that can help successfully manage their work and life balance. For instance, without sufficient assistance from family or institutions, students who are also parents or other caretakers may find it challenging to balance their obligations (Monalisa et al., 2024).Support for work and life balance of students can be seen as responsibility not only for students themselves, but also for educational institutions. This can be seen in offering tools including adjustable deadlines, and peer collaboration options. These kinds of assistance systems can assist students in keeping with balance.Masters’ students believe that their participation in online lessons foster their digital competence, According to Kassymova (2023), even though the majority of respondents believe they are digitally competent, many of them acknowledge lack of knowledge that can help them with effective teaching. Enhancing digital skills is a need for Master’s students.Students emphasize research training in their Master’s degree program, thus showing the need for training and lessons about research writing in evening classes (Akimbek, 2024).2. Challenges.2.1 Technical issues.Technical challenges remain the main concern of students (Hemmati, 2016). Issues such as poor internet connection, weak hardware, and software adaptability.It is obvious that face-to-face interactions in education are vital, thus, the lack of real interaction between supervisor and master student can be challenging. This can lead to the isolation of students and feeling of absence and unseriousness of the program (Ates et al., 2021, Hung & Bao, 2023).2.2 Motivation.Success in online education often involves motivation and discipline as a key factor to study. Without the traditional face-to-face interactions students may lose the track and be lost on the deadlines. Studies show that students often may develop strategies to maintain their discipline and motivation (Hung, 2022, Rojas et al., 2023). 2.3 Personal obligations.For masters students, especially those taking evening online courses, time management is a crucial concern. These students frequently balance their academic endeavors with a number of other commitments, including full-time jobs, family duties, and personal commitments. Trying to juggle these obligations can cause a lot of stress and exhaustion.Managing Work and Study: A lot of masters degree candidates work full-time jobs and attend classes in the evenings. Their time for both personal and academic obligations may be limited as a result of this dual commitment. According to research, students frequently adopt particular time management techniques, such as making thorough calendars and setting priorities, to deal with these pressures (Goodall & Keyworth, 2016). However, if not properly handled, the continual juggling of responsibilities might result in burnout.Conclusion.This paper examined the perception of TEFL Master’s students’, exploring the benefits and flaws of the learning format. The findings reveal that online evening classes provide flexibility for working adult students, helping them with balancing their responsibilities and distributing time evenly. Furthermore, Enhanced time management capabilities and digital competence development can be essential for career development as well as academic development. Online evening classes can provide self-directed learning within a higher education context.Nonetheless, there are still major issues that affect the educational process. Persistent obstacles include technical issues, less in-person engagement, and the obstacles to stay motivated. Additionally, students experience a great amount of stress due to the huge demands of their academic, professional, and familial responsibilities, which can occasionally result in burnout.In the end, this study emphasizes that although online evening courses offer crucial access to graduate education, their full potential can only be achieved by purposefully designing programs that take into account the pedagogical and social requirements of working adult learners in the TEFL context.
Номер журнала Вестник науки №5 (86) том 2
Ссылка для цитирования:
Mrzabay M. ONLINE EVENING CLASSES IN TEFL: HOW MASTERS STUDENTS PERCEIVE THEIR ROLE IN ACADEMIC AND CAREER PROGRESSION // Вестник науки №5 (86) том 2. С. 407 - 413. 2025 г. ISSN 2712-8849 // Электронный ресурс: https://www.вестник-науки.рф/article/22874 (дата обращения: 20.07.2025 г.)
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