Impact of the “Virtual Environmental Challenge” Project in Foreign
Language Learning in Burkina Faso

Rabiyatou H. Zigani, Christine Evain

(Department of Foreign Languages, Université de Rennes 2, France)

The experiment included 52 students from 5 different countries. We focused on the Burkina Faso group, namely the 12 students from Masters of Applied Linguistics, British Literature and African Literature program at the University Joseph KI-Zerbo. The course was based on a MOOC (“The Stories We Live By”), and offered regular online meetings as well as an online international competition (8 teams from the 5 participating countries). The present research is based on quantitative data (pre- and post-tests) and qualitative data (online-class observation, interviews and surveys). The study concluded that the integration of digital devices and the new teaching/learning methods as proposed in the VEC challenge can be regarded as a valuable addition to the efficiency of the University Joseph KI-Zerbo.

Key words: virtual classroom, collaboration, distance learning, language teaching