Gender, regions and multimedia applications: A medium-scale study of online learners towards media environments

Abstract Multimedia technology is assumed to relatively enhance students’ learning and increase the motivation and involvements of learners. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020, schooling and education have been severely disrupted. Schooling was suspended by lockdown policy with the result that courses were offered by online instruction in response to urgent calls in all educational settings. This article reports on results from a medium-scale study undertaken to investigate the learner presence of online learners towards media environments from gender, grade to regions in secondary educational setting in China during the pandemic. The current study employed a questionnaire survey and participants are schools (n = 12) and students (n = 4848). The findings of the study have shed light on the learner presence of online learners towards media environments during the covid-19 pandemic when secondary education was completely proceeded via online instructions. More importantly, the results of the medium-scale study illuminated impacts of media applications by online learners during their secondary education. In conclusion, the current study has generated a better insight into online learners and has implications for online pedagogy and secondary educational contexts where gender differences, grade differences and regional differences should be taken into account in media applications.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
On-line teaching and learning was urgently called in secondary education during the pandemic. The present study was undertaken across regions, and has shed light on online learners in relation to gender difference, regional difference and media difference in secondary education. Online teaching and learning constructed by multimedia applications is more likely to illuminate positive learning of secondary EFL learners as evidence collected in the study. The findings of the study also indicate that gender and regional differences should be taken into account while implementing computer-assisted language teaching and learning in secondary education.
More importantly, the current study has deepened our understandings of the challenges to learners towards multimedia environments and online instructions .

Introduction
With the growing popularity of educational technology, multimedia are an area of increased interests as educators and instructors seek to enhance the learning opportunities and experiences of students in multimedia environments (Clark & Mayer, 2016;Dousay & Trujillo, 2019). The shift is from a teaching paradigm to a learning paradigm, which changes not only the roles teachers and learners play, but also the role of technology, as well as the role of those who shape and support technological integration in education (Barr & Tagg, 1995). In recent development, technologies employed in language pedagogy are not just repositories of information or passive delivery mechanisms of static packaged course material (R.E. Mayer, 2014); instead, educational technologies play a key role in shaping the way of teaching and learning inherent in the paradigm shift, responding to the needs of instructors and learners. In line with the socio-cultural perspective, learning in multimedia environments is considered as a means of helping students to capture holistically the complex processes of learning, which occur within students and between students, instructors, and their sociocultural environments (Kramsch, 2002;Ushioda, 2016;Van Lier, 2004). However, it remains largely unknown how students present their own presence in multimedia learning environments. To what extent may gender difference, grade difference and regional difference be in relation to online learners attitudes towards media classroom discourse under online instructions in secondary educational settings? The present study was thus undertaken to investigate online learners towards digital-and-media classroom discourse of online instructions during the pandemic. The current study was to investigate online learners and explore the following research questions: Research question 1: What are impacts of gender differences on learner presence towards media environments?
Research question 2: What are impacts of regional differences on learner presence towards media environments?
Research question 3: What are impacts of grade differences on learner presence towards media environments?
Research question 4: What are impacts of media types on learner presence towards media environments?

Multimedia in language learning and teaching
With the advances of science and technology, the emergence of multimedia technology and its application to language teaching comes into play and sets a platform for reform and exploration of pedagogical models (R. E. Mayer, 2009). Media is defined as "a combination of various media (videos, audios, graphics, texts, and animations) within a single computer program" (Fotos, 1996, p. xiii). Multimedia technology offers a sense of reality and functions, which is assumed to relatively enhance students' learning and increase their motivation to study and their involvement in classroom-based activities. Falk and Carlson (1992) researched applications of multimedia, and concluded that applications of multimedia enhanced their subjects' learning, efficiency of learning and teaching, and satisfaction with instruction. Multimedia are regarded as an area of increased interest as instructors seek to enhance students' learning in a multimedia environment (Clark & Mayer, 2016;Dousay & Trujillo, 2019). Scholarship in the field has also demonstrated that multimedia technology plays a positive role in promoting initiatives among students and instructional effectiveness in class (Brett, 1997;Chun & Plass, 1996;R. E. Mayer, 2009). In other words, multimedia can provide powerful new technology-based educational tools which can lead to improvements in instruction as well as facilitating teaching and learning to a greater extent. Moreover, it is argued that multimedia teaching can create a context for exploratory, learner-directed, contextbound learning, and provide a language environment that can bring improvements to traditional classroom teaching (Kramsch, 2002). That is, if language classroom environments are constructed with rich media, classroom teaching is empowered to guide language learners to adapt their learning effectively and systematically, or to analyze, to create, and put the language they have learnt into real language use. The multi-media applications are considered to act as an enrichment for a double-voiced discourse among learners (Kramsch, 2002). In so doing, language learners are expected to progress, learning in supportive media classroom environments. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate impacts of multi-media teaching on learner presence towards multimedia classroom discourse during the pandemic.

Gender, regions and media in multimedia applications
Gender and regions are considered as two key learner factors which may affect learner perceptions towards multimedia classroom discourse in the field of computer-assisted language teaching and multimedia applications. In the research literature, gender has been a variable in relation to how multi-media learning environment is perceived (Dousay & Trujillo, 2019). Chanlin (1999Chanlin ( , 2001 and Luik (2011) in their research have reported that males held a more positive attitude towards the use of computers. Wehrwein et al. (2007) reported that in their study the female participants preferred unimodal learning whereas male subjects preferred multimodal learning. By contrast, in the study undertaken by Bollinger and Supanakorn (2011), found that the females appeared to prefer more multimodal learning than the males. In addition, many studies with a focus on gender and technology-assisted teaching reported that female learners were more at ease when using technology for learning purposes (Agosto, 2004;Luik, 2011;Nistor, 2013;Selwyn, 2007). Nistor (2013) points out that females tend to more actively participate in online learning opportunities. To summarize, the research on gender and multimedia does not reach conclusive results. The findings of the research on gender difference in multi-media environments remains inconclusive not showing whether there is gender differences in their perceptions towards multimedia learning environments or not. Nevertheless, previous studies (Bollinger & Supanakorn, 2011;Chanlin, 2001;Luik, 2011;Nistor, 2013), have showed that females and males differ in the overall functions of using technology. This makes it more challenging to investigate perceptions of females and males towards multimedia learning environments when applying multimedia into classroom discourse to assist language teaching and learning. In addition to researching gender difference as a factor to perceptions towards multimedia classroom discourse, the current study further focused on investigating perceptions towards multimedia classroom discourse in relation to regions and mediatypes. Regions and media-types are two learner factors closely related to perceptions but are little studied in the research literature on multi-media applications.

Online learners, presence and learner presence
Online learners are learners or students who complete online courses and do relevant studies in digital environment or media environments not in any physical classrooms. According to sociocultural theory, learning occurs when learners engage in specific learning activities which enable to motivate their cognitive development, and learners are mediated to adapt, adjust and restructure their existing knowledge, beliefs, and practices in learning environments (L.S. Vygotsky, 1986;Lantolf, 2000;L. S. Vygotsky, 1978). In line with the concept of presence and learner presence. Presence, according to Garrison et al. (2000), is defined as the ability of participants in a community of inquiry to project themselves as real people through the medium of communication being used. It is argued that presence may instigate, sustain, and support learners' cognitive and affective learning (Rourke et al., 2001), and, thus, presence of learners could be positively related to learning development (Russo & Benson, 2005). More specifically, learner presence is viewed as the degree of feelings and perceptions of being connected to intellectual entities (Tu & McIsaac, 2002). In other words, through any learning activities learners may restructure knowledge, learning is expected to occur at the intersections of experiential learning and existing knowledge, where students are expected to integrate existing knowledge into their understandings in a more meaningful way (Johnson & Golombek, 2003). That is also crucial for online teaching and learning to take place as online teachers and online learners are given opportunities to create a space in which teachers' online instructions and students' online learning engagement may be associated with learning development (Johnson & Golombek, 2003, p. 735). In addition, online learner presence seems to be related to gender, regions, and grades (year of learning). To what extent may gender, regions and grades of online learners be related to learner presence towards multi-media environments while implementing multi-media teaching and learning into secondary educational setting? The present study, therefore, is undertaken to research learner presence of online learners towards multi-media environments.

Multimedia applications into English education
The education system in China consists of 6-years primary schooling, 6-year secondary and high school education and a 4-year tertiary education. As for foreign language education, all students in secondary and high schools must study English as a core subject. As being an EFL context, teachers' instructions and classrooms have been vital for all secondary students to study and learn English. In other words, classroom teaching is inevitably regarded as the main avenue for students to learn the English language. Alongside the development of concepts and technology in modern education, the applications of educational technology and media are relatively encouraged in middle schools with an aim to improve language learning and to create better learning environments. More specifically, it is argued that the introduction of hi-tech and low-tech and multimedia education have brought about a revolution in the transmission of knowledge and affords a new type of teaching and learning in English teacher education in China (Wang, 2012;Zhang & Hung, 2007). Multimedia technology can offer not only rich, sources of learning materials, but also an interface with audio-and-visual materials, which to a large extent support student learning. Multimedia may encourage teachers to devise ever more refined procedures for the organization and presentation of knowledge to their students (Kramsch, 2002). However, it remains largely unknown of how multi-media applications, to what extent, affect language learning of online learners in secondary educational settings. With the question in mind, the current study is undertaken to investigate to what degrees online learners perceive and feel themselves being connected to multi-media environments while English language teaching was carried out by online courses in secondary schools. In addition, it is argued that multimedia teaching creates a context for language teaching in China. Multimedia has its own features such as visibility and liveliness. Integrating multimedia into English language teaching is expected to make language learning lively and interesting, as well as optimizing teachers' instructions. However, applications of multimedia technology does not mean that teachers heavily depend on multimedia devices and then they are turned into slaves to the multimedia. Instead, through multimedia applications, English teachers in an EFL context are expected to become effective not only in nurturing students' language learning but also laying supports to EFL learners in multimedia environments. In other words, multimedia applications are assumed to create a good platform for better interaction between teachers and students in middle schools, while at the same time constructing multimedia environments which aid students' learning and assists teachers to improve traditional teaching methods in middle schools in China. Due to a dearth of research on impacts of multimedia applications online learners in secondary educational settings it remains largely unknown of impacts of multimedia applications on students in secondary schools. The current study is, therefore, a medium scale study which aims to investigate learner presence of online learners towards multimedia learning environments in which online English language teaching was called in response to teach and to learn online during the covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Research context
Convenience sampling was adopted in research methodology, and 12 schools were recruited and voluntarily participated in the present study. Multimedia applications were utilized by the 12 school into English language teaching. The multimedia applications include 2-type-digital-and media and 3-type digital-and-media, lasting from March 2020 to November 2020. The 2-type digital media applications used audio/video clips and PowerPoint slides whereas the 3-type digital media applications include audio/video clips, PowerPoint slides and one school-based learning platform. In addition, the 12 schools adopted the design of applying multi-media into online instructions, which was mainly guided by four principles: a). to offers paths of exploration, b) to provide opportunities for varying the contextual frame in which knowledge is organized and presented, c) to enable online learner to direct their learning, and to set their own learning priorities, and d) to encourage online learners to make connections between items, to discover patterns, and to make inferences. In the online courses, the teachers were assumed to play a role as facilitators, and online interactions between teachers and students were gradually enhanced in the multimedia discourse. In the present study, a major feature of multimedia applications is to teach and improve students' overall ability to study English online, and to develop their communicative competence and capacity for language learning during the pandemic in 2020, when courses in secondary schools were offered online in response to the urgent call for suspending teaching in physical classrooms.

Participants
The total number of participants is 4848, aged from 12 to 18 (M = 15.5). They are students from 12 junior and senior high schools across Jiangsu province. The 12 junior high schools and senior high schools participating in the study are located in six different regions in Jiangsu province, including Xuzhou City (XZ), Huaian City (HA), Lianyuan Kang City (LYK), Suqian City (SQ), Yangcheng City (YC), and Yangzhou City (YZ). Among the participants, there are 2182 male students (51%), 2666 female students (49%). The number of Grade-1 student participants in high schools is 812, Grade-2 is 810, and Grade-3 is 808 in high schools among 6 schools. The number of Year-1 student participants is 811, Year-2 is 807, and Year-3 is 800 in senior high schools (see , Table 1).

The PMC questionnaire survey
In order to investigate learner presence towards media classroom discourse, the PMC (presence media classroom) questionnaire consists of two parts were developed and administered to collect relevant data in the present study. The first part of the PMC questionnaire was personal information, and the second part focused on "learner presence towards multimedia environments" with an aim to examine learner presence towards multi-media environments. It was composed by learning presence, and media presence. The former has eight categories including integration, motivation, task-orientation, communication-support, activity-participation, self-adaptation, critical thinking and self-efficiency (40 items in total) and the latter has five categories including variety, flexibility, inspiration, criticality and effectiveness (20 items in total). The 60 items were designed in a format of a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (not all true) to 5 (very true). In order to ensure the validity and reliability of it, the PMC questionnaire was adapted and piloted before being employed in the current study. The questionnaire has Cronbach's alpha = 0.82, and it means that the PMC questionnaire is a research instrument with high reliability. After collecting and checking the questionnaires, incomplete questionnaires were removed from data analysis. Thus, the number of valid questionnaires is 4780 in total, with a returning rate of 98.6%. Among these valid questionnaires, 60.68% of them were collected from the female participants, 41.3% from the male participants; 50.43% from senior high schools and 49.56% from junior high schools.

Results and discussion
The data were analyzed by SPSS 23.0 for the current quantitative research. As multimedia applications in terms of gender, regions, grades and media types are examined in the current study, the presence of the participants towards multimedia environments were discussed in related to research questions respectively in this section.
Research question 1: What are impacts of gender differences on learner presence towards media environments?
Gender may play a role in how learners perceive multi-media learning environment (Dousay & Trujillo, 2019). As seen from Table 2, male participants and female participants responded to significantly perceive difference in media classroom in terms of integration (p < 0.01, t = 0.76), task-orientation (p < 0.05, t = 2.21), self-adaptation (p < 0.05, t = 2.23), and self-efficiency (p < 0.05, t = 0.92). In addition, female students appeared to perceive media classroom more positive than male students. As Table 2 shows, female participants (M = 3.85, SD = 0.87) responded to perceive better communication support than male participants (M = 3.65, SD = 1.02) in media classroom. Female students (M = 3.62, SD = 0.85) also appeared more task-orientation than male students (M = 3.49, SD = 0.96). As to self-adaptation, female students (M = 3.59, SD = 1.01) responded to perceive more self-adjustment than male students (M = 3.42, SD = 1.10) in media classroom environment. To sum up, these findings indicate that female students and male students perceive media classroom significantly different in their learning in media classroom discourse. Female students perceive that in media classroom they are more likely to be integrative, to be task-oriented to be self-adaptive and to be self-efficiency in their learning. Interestingly, the finding of the current study is consist with that of research undertaken by Bollinger and Supanakorn (2011), that is, females appeared to prefer more multimodal learning. Female learners are more at ease using technology for learning purposes (Agosto, 2004;Luik, 2011;Nistor, 2013;Selwyn, 2007).

Research question 2: What are impacts of grade differences on learner presence towards media environments?
To what extent may grade differences of the participants be in related to learner presence in terms of integration, motivation, communication-support, task-orientation, critical thinking, selfadaptation, activity-participation, and self-efficiency towards multi-media learning environments? Table 3 shows grade differences and learner presence towards multi-media environments. As seen from Table 3, it is found that there is significant difference between different grades of the participants and their perceptions of motivation, communication-support, taskorientation, activity-participation, and self-efficiency in multi-media learning environments. In particular, participants of the 3 rd graders from junior high school appeared to perceive significant difference in integration (M = 3.94, SD = 0.73), motivation (M = 3.95, SD = 0.85), communication support (M = 4.35, SD = 0.77), task orientation (M = 4.08, SD = 0.72), self-adaptation (M = 4.04, SD = 0.82), activity participation (M = 4.08, SD = 0.81), and self-efficiency (M = 3.97, SD = 0.98). These findings indicate that participants of the 3 rd graders from junior high schools showed high positive perceptions towards multi-media classroom discourse. Moreover, participants of the Year-3 students from senior high schools responded to perceive significant difference in self-efficiency (M = 3.98, SD = 1.04) towards multi-media learning environments. In other words, the finding indicates that the Year-3 student participants from senior high schools perceived positively self-efficiency towards multi-media classroom discourse. To sum up, results of the current study have showed that participants of the 3rd graders (Grade-3) from junior high schools appeared highly positive perceptions towards multi-media classroom discourse in their language learning. These findings seem to imply that the 3rd graders from junior high schools in the current study are more likely to perceive more benefits while applying multimedia technology into English language teaching. As these participants are in the process of second language acquisition, it is more likely that the more the online instruction is with multimedia, the more the online learners are involved in their own learning.
Research question 3: What are impacts of regional differences on learner presence towards media environments? Table 4 shows regional difference and perceptions towards multi-media classroom discourse. In the present study, regional difference is related to perceptions of learners in terms of eight categories including integration, motivation, communication support, task orientation, critical thinking, self-adaptation, activity participation and self-efficiency. Interestingly, significant difference (p < 0.05) was found between regions and integration, task orientation, activity participation, and self-efficiency. Specifically, participants from Xuzhou region appeared to perceive significant difference in integration (p < 0.01, M = 3.78, SD = 0.83), motivation (M = 3.98, SD = 0.81), communication-support (M = 4.72, SD = 0.82), task-orientation (p < 0.01, M = 3.99, SD = 0.82), self-adaptation (M = 3.80, SD = 1.05), and activity participation (p < 0.01, M = 3.94, SD = 0 .26). Participants from Lian-Yun-Kuang (LYK) region appeared to perceive significant difference in critical thinking (M = 3.89, SD = 0.67). And, it was found that participants from Yang-Cheng (YC) region responded to perceive significant difference in self-efficiency (p < 0.05, M = 3.58, SD = 1.12). The results indicate that regional difference as a key factor is related to perceptions of learners towards multi-media classroom discourse. Participants from Xuzhou city appeared significant difference in perceptions towards multimedia classroom discourse in terms of integration, task-orientation and activity-participation while comparing perceptions of participants from other five regions. Among the six regions, Xuzhou city is categorised as the largest city in the northern part of Jiangsu province. That is to say, based on results of the current study regional difference does exist in learner presence towards multimedia learning environments.
Research questions 4: What are impacts of media types on learner presence in media environments? Did the online learners display different learner presence towards 2-type media applications in contrast with 3-type media applications? Table 5 shows participants' presence toward 2-type and In other words, 3-type digital-and-media in the current study were positively perceived to have brought variety, flexibility, inspiration, criticality and effectiveness into online classroom discourse. The finding indicates that the online learners perceived more advantages while 3-type digital-andmedia being applied into online English language teaching and it is more likely that the online learners preferred richer media discourse in the online ELT course. Therefore, applications of multimedia technology featuring audio and visual effects offer a sense of reality to teachers and students online.

Conclusion
The advent of technology and media has brought changes and challenges to educational contexts as well as teachers' instructions and language teaching. During the covid-19 pandemic, multimedia applications were said to have met the urgent need for online teaching when schooling was completely suspended. Being given the online instructions, learner presence towards multi-media applications has played a key role to affect their learning gains and achievements. The current medium-scale study has shed light on multi-media applications into online instruction during the pandemic. Gender differences, regional differences, grade difference and types of media are closely related to learner presence towards media environments and the interconnected contextual learning involved in language learning. We also have gained better understandings of how gender differences, grade differences and regional differences in related to multi-media environments. The finding has showed that female participants responded to perceive more positive benefits towards multi-media classroom discourse than male participants. The finding is consistent with that of one study undertaken by Bollinger and Supanakorn (2011). As to regional differences, there are certain impacts of regions on multi-media applications and different regions do display differences towards multi-media environments. Participants from Xuzhou city appeared significant positive perceptions in their presence towards multi-media classroom discourse when comparing with participants from the other five regions in the study. In addition, grade differences matter in multimedia application. It is interesting to find that the 3rd grade participants from junior high schools and the year-3 participants from senior high schools appeared significantly different presence towards multi-media classroom discourse despite that they are under the ongoing pressure of taking very competitive national entrance examinations soon. More importantly, as to media applications it is also found that the participants appeared significantly positive perceptions in their presence towards 3-type digital media applications into learning environments. Moreover, the current study has implications for media applications into English language teaching in the future. In the study, more than 3-type of media are perceived positively attributed their learning by the participants. In this way, the study has shed light on learner presence towards media classroom discourse for depth and richness of insights to be gained, while recognizing that there are nested in, and interconnected with, the wider systems of educational technology and social-culturally educational contexts at large during the covid-19 pandemic. In a nutshell, the results of the current study have deepened our understandings of the challenges to learner presence towards media environments and online instructions during the covid-19 pandemic.