Dynamics of Communication Teaching in Universities, Evolution or Regression in the Era of Digitalization

Jaouad ZERRAD

ENCG Settat, University Hassan First, Morocco

ABSTRACT: In the current situation, with technological advances, has communication experienced a stagnation imposed by restriction or even the disappearance of social exchanges in specific contexts, in particular the learning context? A real enthusiasm for distance education currently shows the focus on the construction of a “technologized” knowledge which could be centered on a purely cognitive vision; transmit an “inhumanized” content as a determining factor in the cost of learning, the development of interactive tools, imitation of interactional relationships in the classroom. The e. Learning produces value in university students. The problem of e. Learning is felt to be more a matter of pedagogical management than of content pedagogy.

In this article we will seek to demonstrate how can we create, develop and maintain integral and transversal communication skills in the era of digitalization. Once the TEC teaching strategy in the era of digitalization has been demonstrated, the question of its long-term effectiveness will be addressed using an integrative approach based on postulates of communication effectiveness.

KEYWORDS: ICT-eLearning- Animation and feedback- pedagogy- Digitalization- distance training

INTRODUCTION

The context of technological progress is more significant in this 20th century. Technological development has facilitated access to information and its processing. It is therefore easily identified, sorted and made available to users. In the space of a few years, a true technology of education and training was born which provides the framework and the tools necessary for a pedagogical organization under a new dimension for new perspectives in teaching. Currently, the integration of information and communication technologies or what can specifically be called digitalization, is essential in university establishments. Teachers are required to keep track of this advancement and progress.

The integration of ICT in teaching immediately brings to mind a preconceived idea of ​​the computerization of teaching tasks, of mastering the office and various information processing software in the era of digitalization. However, digitization should not be of a trend nature in the sense that it would be a fashion effect resisted by the traditional modes of education and which is characterized by the acquisition of new hardware or software or the design of courses on line. Universities should therefore move towards the path of change by giving themselves the opportunity to take advantage of digitalization without compromising the human aspect of teaching.

Students are the most affected by educational digitization. The training methods have changed, from the closed space which is the classroom, we have moved to an open space, commonly called virtual. Distance learning replaces or complements face-to-face training. Pedagogical engineering thus invents new learning devices.

The expectations of the students go beyond the staging stage of the lessons (PPT for example). They demand more efficiency and time savings. This is how universities have invested in platforms that allow easy and interactive online access to courses and exercises. Digitization even extends to the supervision of internship reports and PFEs by scheduling online meetings. Indeed, pedagogical digitization is essentially based on new attitudes to be developed, new apprehensions for greater involvement and motivation of both teachers and students. Both also need to refine and sharpen their digitization skills in order to integrate it into various disciplinary fields, including expression and communication techniques. The opening of this discipline to digitalization should not be considered as a simple fact of fashion but as a real intelligent solution with added value essential to the competitiveness of the various university institutions and students in terms of their employability.

Starting from this observation, our article is a reflection which should help to appreciate the choices in the teaching of TEC, to understand the preponderance of face-to-face or distance education as well as the importance of the hybrid system which combines the two, depending on the constraints of time. , feasibility and cost. It is a question of showing how the new educational challenges in TEC depend on the good management and the good use of the two approaches.

DIGITIZATION, FROM CONCEPT TO LITERACY

The concept digitization or digitalization in English, is related to digitization. It designates the conversion of an analog source into a digital format, the purpose of which is to transform information into a virtual representation (Brennen & Kreiss, 2016; Negroponte et al., 1997). It appeared for the first time in Wachal (1971) to designate the structuring role of digital tools and media in the contemporary world. Digitization is therefore a multiple transformation process. Digitalization, also known as digital transformation, refers to the process by which companies, organizations, institutions and society as a whole adopt and integrate digital technologies into their activities, processes and managerial models. Digitization encompasses a wide range of areas and can involve the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, data analytics, cloud computing, virtual reality, robotics, block chain and many more. These digital technologies offer new possibilities in terms of efficiency, productivity, communication, collaboration and value creation.

Digital has become at the heart of all economic, social, legal and even educational strategies based mainly on digital innovations. This allows the relaxation of structures, the fluidity of operation and the acceleration of information processing, digitalization to contribute amply to the creation of new modes of course design that combines written and oral, sobriety and ornament, media support and social networks at the service of the educational ecosystem. Morocco is one of the best ranked African countries in terms of internet use, i.e. 49% of Internet users online.[i]and 58.3% in terms of Internet access rate[ii][iii].

Several studies have shown the importance of the use of digital in almost all its forms in Morocco. We retain the most revealing on a national scale; the survey conducted by the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT) on Internet equipment and use by households and individuals. The following emerges:

• Daily use of social networks in urban areas 77%
• Geographical segmentation: 80% in urban areas and 68% in rural areas
• Daily access by age: 20 to 39 and 65 and over
• Tool used to access social networks: 83.3% use the phone their phone
• Time spent on the internet: 50% between 1 to 2 hours per day

More recently, the study undertaken by Hootsuite (2018) (social network management platform) and the agency We are social gives increasing figures on the use of the Internet. The time spent on the internet has increased significantly. It went from 2h to 2 hours and 53 minutes. Currently, digitalization is a major and essential asset in higher education, which is increasingly aware of the technical and educational issues. Digitization is an opportunity for teachers that allows them to manage the content provided and the tools used to distribute it in search of the quality of teaching, its efficiency and its profitability. The teacher has become responsible in a different way and initiatory regarding the digital transformation. The education sector is therefore not indifferent to this digital transformation. This can enable new forms of delivery, promote online learning, e-learning platforms, interactive tools, etc. The digitalization of education refers to the use of digital technologies in the field of education. This encompasses a wide range of practices, tools and resources that aim to integrate information and communication technologies (ICT) into learning and teaching. use of digital technologies in education. This encompasses a wide range of practices, tools and resources that aim to integrate information and communication technologies (ICT) into learning and teaching. use of digital technologies in education. This encompasses a wide range of practices, tools and resources that aim to integrate information and communication technologies (ICT) into learning and teaching.

DIGITIZATION OR LEARNING DIFFERENTLY

The development of the Internet leads to betting heavily on ICTs; this development shakes up some habits, gives rise to hopes and opens up prospects for progress. The competitiveness of organizations or public and private institutions depends more and more on controlling the flow of information and communication. The dynamics of online multimedia tools is beneficial to all areas, including education. The impact of new technologies on education is profound and lasting. We develop a considerable technological watch; we create software, we operate platforms. New resources are being put in place, all of which fall into the perspective of a real process of re-engineering education. So are we talking about a technological pedagogy? A new mode of training is emerging: e. Learning. The latter is recognized today as an alternative to traditional face-to-face teaching. We integrate more e. Learning in the educational activity because it allows not only to disseminate content but also to develop skills, to highlight them. Beyond its informative scope, the e. Learning helps to establish a new relationship between teacher and learner.

Currently the art and the know-how of the teacher are to be apprehended in a more systematic approach: to educate and train by face-to-face, to inform and to delegate by e. Learning. The educational activity is therefore subject to a dual approach; one essentially technical and the other essentially intellectual. The first highlights the educational aids, in particular the accessories associated with the educational activity (internet, video projectors, etc.). The second is directly related to the behavioral activity of both teacher and student. If the mechanistic approach draws its value from the development of information systems and technology, the intellectual approach is rooted in the human sciences such as behaviorism, psychology, pedagogy, etc. The variables student, teacher, institution and the teaching task are not considered in the same way in the two approaches. Digitizing education has many potential benefits. First, it provides access to a considerable amount of online educational resources. Students and teachers can use online platforms, virtual classes, educational videos, simulators, digital books and other tools to enrich the learning experience. In addition, the digitalization of education offers greater flexibility in terms of time and place of learning. Students can access educational resources anytime and from anywhere, allowing them to work at their own pace. This is particularly advantageous for distance learning. Digital tools and technologies can also make learning more interactive and engaging. Educational games, online quizzes, online discussions, forums and other forms of digital collaboration can stimulate student engagement and encourage active participation. Additionally, technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality provide opportunities for immersive learning, allowing students to have more real-world and realistic educational experiences. However, it should be noted that the digitalization of teaching does not entirely replace traditional teaching methods based on the constructivist idea (Piaget, 1969). The transmission of knowledge from one individual to another, in this case teacher/learner, is a processual construction based on the representation that each party has of this knowledge-reality. It is essential to maintain a balance between numerical and non-numerical approaches, exploiting the advantages of both methods. Face-to-face interactions between teachers and students, as well as classroom collaboration, remain important aspects of education. In summary, the digitalization of education offers opportunities to improve accessibility, flexibility, interaction and student engagement. It can complement traditional teaching methods and enable new forms of learning. However, it is essential to use these technologies in a balanced way adapted to the needs of students and teachers. However, our methodology does not consist in comparing or contrasting these two approaches. We are convinced that they are functionally linked, they should be reconciled by the teacher’s know-how. Thus, we will appreciate the value of the combined approach. But can all the subjects have taught benefit from this combined approach? Thus, we will appreciate the value of the combined approach. But can all the subjects have a benefit from this combined approach? We will appreciate the value of the combined approach. But can all the subjects taught benefit from this combined approach?

The use of the Internet for educational purposes in multiple forms is currently developing in all sectors of education and particularly in the university world. This new method of teaching offers advantages, in particular that of facilitating distance learning. It uses platforms, multimedia supports of the typetext, graphics, sound, computer graphics, animation and even video. These materials are part of a new, more attractive and interactive educational approach. The advantage of e. Learning is that it allows the learner to get information, to learn at their own pace, according to their needs and their availability. The rapid evolution of technology has accelerated the transformation of traditional teaching methods that have become obsolete in certain learning situations. A new resource therefore emerges at the service of the teacher and the student. These actors are faced with the challenge of mobilizing digital in their pedagogical engineering, of managing their margin of creativity and autonomy in the use of digital in their design or in the transformation of content through digitalization.

The definition of online learning applies to e. Learning: This is the use of the Internet to access educational resources with the aim of acquiring specific cognitive skills. The use of the Internet not only makes it possible to download resources which may possibly be tutorials, but above all it makes possible student/student and student/teacher dialogues at a distance, which is relatively new. At the end of this consideration, we can seize the concept of agility that we associate with that of pedagogy. We propose the following definition:

Pedagogical agility is the ability to adapt teaching methods to changes in the educational ecosystem, in this case digitalization.

The e. Learning has changed the habits of access to information and to documents of a varied nature, consequently changing the interactions between the people who create these documents and those who consult them. In order to optimize its use, it requires three fundamental aspects:

• A functional aspect, relating to navigation on the platform
• A financial aspect, which includes both the financial cost of the design of the platform and its hosting
• A technical aspectwhich relates to the technical skills that the designer should have as well as the mastery of the limits of these tools
• Aesthetic aspectswhich refer to the appearance of the content offered to users (example; design and color scheme)

In short, digitization contributes to the search for new forms of knowledge organization based on the control of information and the capitalization of knowledge with a view to efficiency and lower cost, useful for the management of learners, content education and training in the broad sense. There are no good or bad technologies in teaching but more or less good pedagogies using technologies.

However, beyond conceptions of the impact of technologies, the question of the effectiveness of e. learning remains problematic. It introduces constantly renewed questions around notions such as motivation for users, group dynamics, interaction and animation, etc. Digitization has repositioned the triadic scheme onpedagogical triangle formalized by Jean Houssaye (1988) defines a pedagogical act as the space between three vertices of a triangle: the teacher, the student and the knowledge. With COVID19, the educational act also integrates mediating technology.

The pedagogical act is therefore articulated around three fundamental relationships: 1- didactic 2- pedagogical 3- learning. Teaching therefore means scripting according to two fundamental models; behaviorist like the lecture and socioconstructivist when it comes to teamwork or peer learning. However, the courses given online during the pandemic, for example, have built a new, more complex relationship with the technological teaching act. It is no longer a question of teaching, learning and training but also of personalizing the content instead of simply transmitting it to a group (Sauvé, 2014, Connac 2017).

III.1. The teaching of TEC at a distance

The digitization of TEC abandons traditional functions of the teacher such as animation and personalized support. The sender/receiver model recovers its technical definition: a source of message and a point of arrival. Professional communication, enriched and developed by the integration of social psychology, requires teachers to adapt in order to retain their classic functions: animation and interactivity and feedback. Face-to-face situations are relatively abandoned with the emergence of ICT. It should, however, be specified that this is not a question of disempowerment on the part of teachers but rather of an evolution imposed by the new educational strategies of the 21st century. A new didactic contract binds the teacher to the learner. The student/teacher relationship is replaced and/or completed by the student/teacher relationship mediated by digital technology (internet as a tool). The teacher is therefore brought more than before to combine face-to-face and distance education, what is commonly called blend-Learning.

III.2. The content of the online expression and communication techniques course

Introduced in the university programs under the name of Techniques of Expression and Communication, the course is centered on the mastery of oral and written communication. The related topics are varied:

• Summary writing techniques
• Techniques for writing a dissertation
• Professional writing (cover letter, CV, business letters – complaint order, etc.)
• The argument
• Public Speaking (Presentation Techniques)
• Job interview, etc.
• Human development tools such as neurolinguistic programming, transactional analysis, etc.

We notice from the outset that the communication course revolves around two fundamental aspects: human and technical. The two qualifications are not distinguished among students. At the same time, one can wonder about the effectiveness of the integration of ICT in the human aspect, which requires face-to-face situations, the construction of problem situations, relational regulations, etc. This limiting aspect would be particularly important because it would inevitably force the teacher to take a position on whether or not to maintain these chapters remotely. The human dimension of the TEC reveals new concepts hitherto unexploited as it should be, in the university course, among others motivation, charisma, personality, presence, impact on others, personality, the relational approach, creativity, flexibility, leadership, etc. This ability to relate to specific contexts cannot be learned and developed without the personalized support of a teacher. The acquisition of these new skills called soft skills is not done in a voluntary way or outside of a reflection on the methods of online adaptation. In short, there would be a mode of integration of ICT to teach communication in which the teacher will take care of “taking charge of the creation of the conditions of possibility of learning” (Chevallard, 1986). The acquisition of these new skills called soft skills is not done in a voluntary way or outside of a reflection on the methods of online adaptation. In short, there would be a mode of integration of ICT to teach communication in which the teacher will take care of “taking charge of the creation of the conditions of possibility of learning” (Chevallard, 1986). The acquisition of these new skills called soft skills is not done in a voluntary way or outside of a reflection on the methods of online adaptation. In short, there would be a mode of integration of ICT to teach communication in which the teacher will take care of “taking charge of the creation of the conditions of possibility of learning” (Chevallard, 1986).

III.3. TEC, from human dynamics to digitized dynamics

Conscious of currently living in full technological evolution, the teacher is more and more concerned about what it implies at the level of the individual and its repercussions on the interactions in a learning situation. The promises of the technological revolution to teach communication stand side by side with the threats to it. The focus on technical skills does not prevent us from being interested in the behavior of individuals, their attitudes in various communication situations. With the advent of ICT, one could imagine that teaching has lost its human role: the art of communication, presence and impact on others, for example, cannot be learned from a distance. These skills therefore turn out to be special because they do not seem to be able to be developed in students via ICT. Behavioral and attitudinal skills are an important part of communication training. Teachers seek to change students’ behavior and interpersonal skills so that they meet their specific needs and increase their employability in the labor market. Smart tutors do not replace dynamic tutors. The relationship of symmetry and dysmetry teacher/student in matters of knowledge and knowledge is considered differently. The two actors become responsible for the knowledge to be transmitted in an agile and open constructivist approach. Behavioral and attitudinal skills are an important part of communication training. Teachers seek to change students’ behavior and interpersonal skills so that they meet their specific needs and increase their employability in the labor market. Smart tutors do not replace dynamic tutors. The relationship of symmetry and dysmetry teacher/student in matters of knowledge and knowledge is considered differently. The two actors become responsible for the knowledge to be transmitted in an agile and open constructivist approach. Behavioral and attitudinal skills are an important part of communication training. Teachers seek to change students’ behavior and interpersonal skills so that they meet their specific needs and increase their employability in the labor market. Smart tutors do not replace dynamic tutors. The relationship of symmetry and dysmetry teacher/student in matters of knowledge and knowledge is considered differently. The two actors become responsible for the knowledge to be transmitted in an agile and open constructivist approach. Teachers seek to change students’ behavior and interpersonal skills so that they meet their specific needs and increase their employability in the labor market. Smart tutors do not replace dynamic tutors. The relationship of symmetry and dysmetry teacher/student in matters of knowledge and knowledge is considered differently. The two actors become responsible for the knowledge to be transmitted in an agile and open constructivist approach. Teachers seek to change students’ behavior and interpersonal skills so that they meet their specific needs and increase their employability in the labor market. Smart tutors do not replace dynamic tutors. The relationship of symmetry and dysmetry teacher/student in matters of knowledge and knowledge is considered differently. The two actors become responsible for the knowledge to be transmitted in an agile and open constructivist approach.

Indeed, as an intermediate solution, the teacher can design courses via hypermedia (Popescu, 2008) in the form of texts, video and audio whose access is restricted to students or free access. Another alternative has been proposed by Brusilovsky (2001), it is adaptive hypermedia. Based on the design of a model of objectives, preferences and knowledge identified in each learner individually. This modeling is considered as a reference to meet the specific needs of individual learners in a group of students.

More emphasis is placed on the importance of communication in the university curriculum, which is fundamentally modern and corresponds to the professions of the future. Furthermore, the teaching profession has been revolutionized by the integration of ICT in the sense that it calls into question concepts rooted in classical pedagogy, in particular interaction, animation and more specifically feedback to the beyond the descriptive and linear model (Laswell, 1947, 1948) of interpersonal communication.

1. THE INTERACTION PROCESS, WHAT PERSPECTIVE WITH DIGITALIZATION?

• The concept of interaction

A nuance is necessary. The digital concept is one of the aspects that define communication by the Palo Alto school, (Watzlawick P., Beavin J., Jackson D, 1972). The digital corresponds to the observable and manifest concrete manifestations of the actors of the communication, namely their words.

Moreover, arises from social psychology[iv], the term interaction refers to an action that involves several people. It considers the interaction as an object structuring the social exchanges as privileged places of construction of the interpersonal relations resulting from a social learning conditioned by internal and external determinants. Interaction presupposes a connection of the social and the psychological.

Interaction is “the internal force of collective action seen from the side of those who participate in it”[v].From the outset, the concept introduces an operational definition because it refers to the idea of ​​the process. There is interaction each time an individual transmits a message that provokes the reaction of the other. The most elementary way of approaching interaction is the technicist diagram of communication, in particular that of Laswell (1948): who? say what? Through what channel? Whose? By what means? The interaction occurs between two or more people in a face-to-face situation. “Throughout the unfolding of any communicative exchange, the various participants […] exert on each other a network of mutual influence, to speak is to exchange, and it is to change by exchanging”[vi] What characterizes the interaction is that it is a collective product, a common construct whose components are: a spatio-temporal framework, a purpose of the interaction, the participants and the shared knowledge such as the set of signs – code- which facilitate the exchange.

With technological development; students and teachers interact remotely. A new approach to interaction emerges in this case, man-machine where the actors are only intermediaries. The relationship to time and space is redefined and even extended.

We manage to interact less and less with the integration of ICT. When communicating with people in the classroom or lecture hall, this falls within the spectrum of perception. The exchange in a learning situation is above all a cultural and emotional exchange, which is not allowed, or barely allowed by ICT. The MOOC or a discussion forum, for example, are spaces for interaction focused on a variety of content (text, video, etc.) of course, but which do not give importance to the underpinning of these contents such as anxieties, emotions and affects… this is more a matter of clinical, sociometric or psychoanalytical approaches. ICT widens the human distance between learners and teachers rather than reducing it. “Telepresence” (Moles A. 1995) reduces the intersubjective phenomena between the two actors of the pedagogical question and calls into question the co-construction of behaviors in a “multidimensional” cooperative activity which is the transmission of knowledge. A TEC course taught through ICT is rich in information to develop technical skills and not strictly human skills relating to attitudes and behaviors. These are rich sources of knowledge for the user but do not represent a field where interpersonal relationships and all the corollary abstractions (motivation, leadership, emotional intelligence, etc.) are actualized and reproduced between teacher and student. A TEC course taught through ICT is rich in information to develop technical skills and not strictly human skills relating to attitudes and behaviors. These are rich sources of knowledge for the user but do not represent a field where interpersonal relationships and all the corollary abstractions (motivation, leadership, emotional intelligence, etc.) are actualized and reproduced between teacher and student. A TEC course taught through ICT is rich in information to develop technical skills and not strictly human skills relating to attitudes and behaviors. These are rich sources of knowledge for the user but do not represent a field where interpersonal relationships and all the corollary abstractions (motivation, leadership, emotional intelligence, etc.) are actualized and reproduced between teacher and student.

The advantage for students is the availability of information in real time, the continuous transmission of the content to be dispensed without transmitting this human energy generated by face-to-face learning.

Indeed, information is a purely formal logic, impersonal rather than interpersonal. We can teach a student how to write an order letter, a CV, a cover letter, but very difficult to conduct a job interview in its human, attitudinal, behavioral and psychological dimension on university platforms. The teacher can only partially help the student in such specific topics. He needs experimentation, experiential learning through role-playing games or simulations, which is not easy with ICT. To communicate is first of all to put the receiver in a state of communication; a pedagogical paternalism is created between the actors.

Digitization has freed up, a fortiori, the teaching of human components such as emotions and perceptions. Of course, listening is a fundamental condition of communication. The teacher can listen to the student via skype, facebook, instagram or a live on YouTube but would the objective be achieved in the same way as face-to-face? In real time, of course, but relatively synchronized. In addition, we listen without observing behavior or proposing corrections. The concept of influence in interpersonal communication (Benoit, 2001) does not apply in the same way or with the same intensity in a teacher-student exchange. The digitization of TEC influences knowledge and not ideas, behaviors and attitudes. The COVID19 pandemic is a relevant example of our thinking at this level. Student absenteeism is proof that digital has not been able to motivate them to attend their course regularly. Sometimes, the teacher does not activate his camera during a lesson, which represents a psychological restriction for the members of the group who themselves choose to be invisible to the teacher. They are satisfied with the hearing, the consultation of the platform of the establishment or the MOOC, etc. All that digitization can really offer the student are only data, the supposed connections are of a rational and relatively subjective order. Its role is limited to helping users to free themselves from the problem of information thanks to its availability and its richness. Student absenteeism is proof that digital has not been able to motivate them to attend their course regularly. Sometimes, the teacher does not activate his camera during a lesson, which represents a psychological restriction for the members of the group who themselves choose to be invisible to the teacher. They are satisfied with the hearing, the consultation of the platform of the establishment or the MOOC, etc. All that digitization can really offer the student are only data, the supposed connections are of a rational and relatively subjective order. Its role is limited to helping users to free themselves from the problem of information thanks to its availability and its richness. Student absenteeism is proof that digital has not been able to motivate them to attend their course regularly. Sometimes, the teacher does not activate his camera during a lesson, which represents a psychological restriction for the members of the group who themselves choose to be invisible to the teacher. They are satisfied with the hearing, the consultation of the platform of the establishment or the MOOC, etc. All that digitization can really offer the student are only data, the supposed connections are of a rational and relatively subjective order. Its role is limited to helping users to free themselves from the problem of information thanks to its availability and its richness. the teacher does not activate his camera during a lesson, which represents a psychological restriction for the members of the group who themselves choose to be invisible to the teacher. They are satisfied with the hearing, the consultation of the platform of the establishment or the MOOC, etc. All that digitization can really offer the student are only data, the supposed connections are of a rational and relatively subjective order. Its role is limited to helping users to free themselves from the problem of information thanks to its availability and its richness. the teacher does not activate his camera during a lesson, which represents a psychological restriction for the members of the group who themselves choose to be invisible to the teacher. They are satisfied with the hearing, the consultation of the platform of the establishment or the MOOC, etc. All that digitization can really offer the student are only data, the supposed connections are of a rational and relatively subjective order. Its role is limited to helping users to free themselves from the problem of information thanks to its availability and its richness. All that digitization can really offer the student are only data, the supposed connections are of a rational and relatively subjective order. Its role is limited to helping users to free themselves from the problem of information thanks to its availability and its richness. All that digitization can really offer the student are only data, the supposed connections are of a rational and relatively subjective order. Its role is limited to helping users to free themselves from the problem of information thanks to its availability and its richness.

A concept corollary to the interaction is also called into question; the concept of group. Teaching face-to-face communication means exploiting group work, promoting action and collective intelligence. The class space is above all a social entity with all its adventures and human specificities. The question raised by the notion of group dynamics (Lewin, 1959, Maisonneuve, 1968, Mucchielli, 1980) relates to the nature of the activity and the individuals positioned in a learning situation. ICTs have, in a way, individualized learning without investing in the development of groups. The group concept in social psychology implies the existence of an interaction between the members of the group. The action of one member serves as a stimulus to the behavior of the other. This relationship of cause and effect and interdependence is less present in the virtual space built by digitalization. ICTs do not make it possible to realize the forces and psychic processes inherent in the interactions that animate the members of a group structure. To teach communication is to act in this dimension of possible influences. The teacher and the student are in a state of interdependence not only functional by the activity which binds them but also psychological. Such a report results in interactive behavior, even the technical lessons are transmitted in this spirit of exchange which substantially conditions understanding and interpersonal relations. We believe that communication, an emerging disciplinary field in academic institutions, is part of a social organization that is the class (or amphitheater) which is in no way served through ICT. These play an auxiliary role in which we capitalize on information more than we apprehend it in a social network.[vii]

2. Problem of animation

Group facilitation is an integral part of the educational task, it constantly engages interpersonal relationships. Teaching communication naturally means maintaining one’s role as teacher-facilitator. It requires exchange and dialogue. Facilitation creates communication situations that undeniably presuppose affective relationships between learners and teachers. It consists of generating a learning dynamic in which the stakeholders fully understand their respective roles; transceiver whose main vector is listening. This makes the learner an active agent and not a passive receiver of messages. Indeed, listening is one of the problematic points in the teaching of communication via ICT. The attitudes resulting from listening are conditioned by several parameters such as perception; the frame of reference; involvement in the communication situation, etc.

It stipulates that “the term ”animate” is an evocation of human relations, even of warmth, doesn’t animating mean giving life, anima, vital breath? »[viii] Facilitation refers to any action likely to serve and develop communication between the members of a group. It is a method that facilitates integration and participation. The actors in the education system in terms of constraints and opportunities play decisive roles in the outcome of a course animation. This may correspond to the application of one of the following models:

Unipolar which is established from a lecture animated by illustrations without interactivity with the participants

• Bipolar which essentially develops on a relational, interactive model between the teacher and the student. The tutorials, the scripting of the courses, the role plays are the main contributions of this model. Personalized support is provided for each actor
• Tripolar, based on a triadic scheme: the teacher, the space and all the participants

The nature of the animation is that we go from a situation where we are alone to a situation where we are two or more. The student is both the sole master of his functioning and “relationally” interdependent. Proximity is experienced positively because it generates assistance and orientation. The teacher is assigned the role of team leader. This brings us to a fundamental question: if NICTs play a preeminent role in the educational process through the transmission of knowledge, can we nevertheless affirm that they are effective in the animation of a course on communication, considering the factors of human contingency? Remote animation devices lead de facto to controlling contingency factors such as technology, but with difficulty the adoption of subsequent human behaviors. The link between NICTs and animation would be of an adaptive nature: animation on the Net would be adapted to a certain type of content and unsuitable for others, including communication. It is therefore up to the users of NTIC to identify the best means of optimizing the technology in the educational process and to make the modifications necessary for its functioning. The dynamics of animation on a platform depends on the relevance of the strategies chosen and their management. The substrate of this technological tool of animation is the concretization of the coherence between the imperatives of the human communication and the resistance of the NICT to this component. Animation prevents the teacher from dissolving the interactional collective. The concern is more to understand the why and the how of behaviors rather than to offer recipes for reactions to communication situations. The heart of the animation in a class is not the simple description of what to do in a written or in an oral situation but also the development of knowledge to act.

The wealth of communication content (CV, cover letters, professional correspondence and even personal development tools, etc.) explains the use of varied and appropriate animation techniques for this type of teaching. Animation is a real catalyst of ideas which is not allowed even in a discussion forum because it lacks an essential element which is feedback.

3. The educational platform, an alternative place of entertainment

The major challenge of an educational platform is to be able to have educational content independent of the operating system, software, hardware, context, presentation. Alsothe search for new forms of knowledge organization based on the control of information and the capitalization of knowledge with a view to efficiency and lower cost, useful for the management of learners, educational content and training in the broad sense .It is free software made available to teachers. To optimize its use, it requires three fundamental aspects:

• A functional aspect, relating to navigation on the platform
• A financial aspect, which includes both the financial cost of the design of the platform and its hosting
• A technical aspect which relates to the knowledge that the designer should have as well as the mastery of the limits of these tools
• Aesthetic aspects that refer to the appearance of the content offered to users (example; design and color scheme)

Moodle is software for setting up online courses and research links. It offers tools adapted to the objectives of each teacher or institution:

• Transfer of information is a means of making information available to users. Only teachers can upload files. It is a one-way tool without interactivity
• A posteriori evaluation, rarely on the spot
• Co-creation of content, creating content with the contribution and collaboration of other professors

Teachers host their lessons there as a simple attachment, it is also for multiple uses by the teacher:

– add a resource, drop a file from your computer, it’s an easy task performed in the same way as an attachment. It is still necessary that the added content has a meaning on its own without reference.

– add a resource, link to a web page. It’s an easy way to guide students to additional information not contained on the platform.

– to create adiscussion forum or news. The first is reserved for the exchange of e-mails relating to the themes presented by the teacher; place of exchange and discussion also of the students explaining themselves between them. This exchange cannot be called an interaction in the psychosocial sense. The second is launched to transmitcourse announcements. The news forum is limited, students cannot start discussions. It cannot be defined as a source of learning. The forum should only be used for substantive discussions, publication of weekly reports, resource comments and analysis, etc. It does not serve as a receptacle for the attitudinal and behavioral supervision of students. A course on transactional analysis is available there but without added value if it is not supplemented by face-to-face interventions

– design tests to assess summatively or formatively. It is a delicate task that takes time. For the need of adaptation, we create the test then the questions using the categories. Tests can be secure and time-limited. Here too, the exchange is reduced in the sense that the platform does not favor hot corrective interactions

– making lessons available to students is an excellent way to present information in the form of a guided journey. By extension, this allows evaluation in the form of a scenario, case study or individual rather than group role plays. We do remote animation which makes the psychosocial definition of the group obsolete. Presence in the same place, as a defining element of the group, is lacking. The notion of group is redefined according to technological developments. The deal of the virtual conditions the extension of the definition of the group

– it is a considerable database which allows to collect, share and search for achievements made

Operational content management on Moodle aims to ensure the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of operations-specific tasks. It is necessary to prepare a good use of the resources in order to satisfy the educational objectives assigned to this tool. The interaction between the teacher and the student practiced on Moodle, allows, relatively instantaneously, to create new “computerized” relationships. Rather, it is centered on the dissemination of content to combine training and information. The teacher “abandons” the face-to-face relationship to play a new role that of the mediator, the student becomes more and more autonomous as regards the acquisition of knowledge.

One of the fundamental developments concerns the scripting of courses in a more attractive form by integrating multimedia, sounds, images, videos, etc. The animation dimension takes on its full extent in an artfactual way. Access to the platform requires an identifier and a password for the security of the content being, for the most part, in restricted access. Only the teacher holds the access key that he communicates to the students. Any question revealed at the time of the consultation remains pending pending the teacher’s connection. Such a limit makes the platform less operational due to its static nature, less animated to answer questions resulting from the consultation of a course. Even more difficult when it comes to a communication course that requires one or more experiments.

With properly added, maintained and organized files, teachers are able to store the data that users need for consultation. Among the blocks of the platform that have an affinity with animation are the chat and the forum.

Forum: two kinds of forum feed an educational platform, those reserved for the transmission of course announcements and those reserved for discussions between users. We retain the unipolar diagram in the first case and bipolar which does not engage the teacher in the second case. A forum can look like this:

The proposed discussion is in no way similar to that established face-to-face. These are opinions submitted and posted for discussion that do not involve any real interaction on the part of the teacher. He may not even be present on the forum at the time of the discussion. Opinions are consulted a posteriori and not instantaneously.

Cat: specially designed to serve students in order to engage in real-time interactivity; they can discuss, enter into a relationship in order to exchange information and opinions. The exchanges are open and free without affecting the content of the educational platform. It is a space run exclusively by students. The teacher can agree or not to animate it. It is a communication tool that does not serve the course of communication.

Moreover,the communication teacher offers preparatory readings, at a distance, accompanied by a list of questions and homework to be answered before submitting his course. The idea being to maintain permanent contact between the teacher and the student.It is therefore essential to provide support for learners in order to ensure their level of assimilation and involvement. This involves assessing learners in order to clearly visualize their progress. The teacher can design various quizzes and exercises. The error rate is an indicator of pedagogical effectiveness and the degree of assimilation of lessons. The learner is therefore not left to himself. The setting up of tutoring proves to be reassuring and motivating for the students.

We can see that animation is therefore associated with technological and not human performance. The online communication course already lacks this dimension. Job interview simulations, for example, are ineffective online. The space in the two learning strategies – virtual and/or real – is not the same. Knowing how to be in a job interview situation cannot be learned via the internet. The teacher should pay attention to behaviors because they are observable and even measurable. ICTs do not offer this opportunity. On the contrary, they allow the good management of information and its good circulation. But the teacher does not have the necessary tools to ensure its proper use.

Animation is part of this socio-cultural context that is not offered by the virtual. The latter is a place of consumption rather than human production. The virtual does not develop this spirit of intellectual liberation which establishes an exchange with feedback whose main vector is listening. The teacher listens to everything; learners’ words, gestures and even silence. Communication, as content, is part of this spirit of instant sharing where everything is meaningful. Communication, as content, is part of this spirit of instant sharing where everything is meaningful.

Note that courses on TEC abound online; students consult them regularly without worrying about consolidating these skills through tutorials. Mastering and investing them is the responsibility of the teacher in a face-to-face situation. We still have to ask questions about the readership of this information. The teacher does not have tools for measuring the consultation of the information disseminated on the platform unless it is accompanied by a face-to-face test. Distance learning does not allow the teacher to exploit the potential of everyone, to manage it in a dynamic and optimal way. Distance reduces the affective and emotional mobilization of both partners: teacher and learner. They need it for the mobilization and federation of energies.

The student is left to his own devices in the absence of an online facilitator for reasons of availability or ethics (a professor chatting with his students might not be well received in specific cultural contexts. animation offered by the face-to-face teacher invests and fully exploits the fundamental parameters of a course on/through communication: listening, questioning, reformulation as well as body language with its expressions and the manifestations it deploys .

Currently, with the integration of NTIC in the educational process, listening begins to deteriorate. The student, when he consults content on the web page or the platform of the university institution to which he belongs, he listens to himself, to his own unsupervised interpretations. The messages transmitted to him do not resound in meaning developed. The face-to-face allows you to express yourself, to speak; to explore for the best his para-verbal skills. This will arises from his need to assert himself by communicating.

Indeed, it is risky to dissociate the activity of teaching from the animation even less when it is about a course of communication. One cannot shirk responsibility for one’s role as an animator with the NICTs which have certainly facilitated the acquisition of knowledge but do not replace human interaction in the dynamics of online animation as we have presented it before. Co-responsibility makes the partners in a communication situation aware of the influences on each other. This interdependence is a powerful stimulant of reciprocal gratifications commonly accepted under the name of feedback.

FEEDBACK WHAT PERSPECTIVE WITH ICT?

Feedback can be defined as “information on performance [including the student’s product], a construct of a fairly subjective nature, its content varies in relevance to the performance of the individual”[ix] Feedback proceeds by constantly regulating performance instead of penalizing receivers. It is a question of provoking individual stimuli likely to multiply the chances of success of the educational process. The feedback concept reveals the notion of sharing in particularity. The receiver retains a zone of autonomy which assures him of his responsibility in the act of communication, and a zone shared with the moderator. Individual functioning is corroborated by collective functioning, which responds to a need for adjustment on the part of both parties; transmitter and receiver.

Feedback is an inescapable reality of educational activity. This complex process is decisive in student performance. It contributes to the development of self-confidence. At the end of each exchange, the actors need a reaction that informs the other about the effect that the communication process has had on his partner. Feedback, from the simplest expression to the most complex of gratifications, is an inexhaustible opportunity for resourcing. It creates a climate of participatory reception served by social qualities inherent in human interactions such as contentment, satisfaction, respect, propriety… Feedback prevents students from going astray. They are constantly placed and replaced in the face of the challenges of communication, clearly understanding the techniques of written and oral communication.

For the ergonomist, feedback is a formal, non-quantifiable element, but in the “humanist” tradition, it produces an internal momentum in the receiver. The latter does not just use his skills but expects an evaluation in return for his performance. It is the key that opens doors that were previously insurmountable. It is a lever for change and improvement based on communication and interactions. It makes it possible to target personality dimensions that deserve special attention. It is considered as a tool for managing interpersonal interactions in a communication situation, thereby placing it in a logic of direct intervention leading to the desired results. The technological environment in which feedback occurs is isolated from the communication actors. It is associated with a distant source who finds it difficult to assess the impact of the interaction on the other. Feedback is therefore essentially an interpersonal communication process that conveys useful content for the recipient because it produces cognitive, behavioral and attitudinal change. The operational – that is to say the mastery of written and oral communication techniques – is relegated to the rank of means.

The observation of behavior in the classroom is a factor that contributes to the achievement of the communicative objectives sought by both the student and the teacher. Consolidation or improvement actions are carried out relentlessly. In a learning situation on the web, the teacher’s efforts to optimize the feedback resulting from contact on the net remain unambitious. A climate of ambivalence reigns; we are torn between the usefulness of feedback following a “technologized” interaction and the predisposition to act downstream. The teacher is part of an attempt to iron out the difficulties presented by feedback through digitalization. On the other hand, the face-to-face makes it possible to evaluate the perception of the method of the course, the information transmitted, the credibility of the source of the feedback and the quality of it. The platforms offer the teacher an uncertain space of interaction. The student is in constant search of active feedback which constantly reminds him of the teacher-facilitator with whom he shares values, who creates prospects for development by experimenting with them (role play, simulation, etc.) He prefers to find himself in regular and structured exchanges. The observation of face-to-face behaviors involves pro-activity that takes initiative and anticipation in order to keep the receiver highly motivated and raise them to the highest level of performance. which creates development prospects for him by experimenting with them (role-playing, simulation, etc.) He prefers to meet in regular and structured exchanges. The observation of face-to-face behaviors involves pro-activity that takes initiative and anticipation in order to keep the receiver highly motivated and raise them to the highest level of performance. which creates development prospects for him by experimenting with them (role-playing, simulation, etc.) He prefers to meet in regular and structured exchanges. The observation of face-to-face behaviors involves pro-activity that takes initiative and anticipation in order to keep the receiver highly motivated and raise them to the highest level of performance.

Feedback is not based on the return of a message following a question posed on a forum or a chat, it rather results from a subjective process which engages the respective feelings of the teacher and the student going through the attitudes and behaviors. How can one, for example, teach a student the assumptions of neurolinguistic programming or transactional analysis based primarily on attitudes and behaviors and act outside their precepts? Nor can we measure the gap between understanding and transmission. ICTs do not generate this perception because feedback basically consists in taking one’s part in supporting students, encouraging them, confronting them with their failings, favoring initiative, in short, create a state of mind in the exchange by making it more communicative. The student becomes an actor and subject of feedback. In the absence of this one risks the disintegration of the learners. The role of the teacher is similar to that of a mentor who guides, accompanies and creates a context of communication focused on continuous improvement.

CONCLUSION

Communication is not an ornamental subject in university curricula. It consists of complex activities shared between what is technical and what is human. Its teaching is constantly evolving in terms of its objectives (adequacy with the needs of the labor market), its methods (participation, animation, and integration of ICT)

All of the remarks reviewed in our contribution give face-to-face a preponderant role, supplemented by distance education. The face-to-face remains the only student conduct practice that is based on aspects that contribute to the mobilization as well as the motivation of the receivers producing system effects. Communication acts in this systemic dimension in the sense that it aims to exploit communication skills, improve technical or operational performance – such as mastery of writing tools – and human performance – such as personal development. Many university institutions have taken up the challenge of change by integrating NICTs as a tool to help transmit knowledge. Although the use of technology comes up against limits as to its integration in the teaching of certain subjects, in this case communication. We have tried to identify a few of them. The limits can be organized around a few concepts inherent to face-to-face teaching: interaction, facilitation, and feedback. Another limit encountered by the platform is maintaining the interest of learners. Either we begin to review the usefulness of the communication courses available on the platform, being convinced that the face-to-face largely meets expectations and needs; the connection is less and less regular. Either we judge the distanciel as largely sufficient. Learners no longer engage face-to-face. In both cases, tutoring must be developed in a proactive approach: completion of work marked and discussed in class. Students should therefore be put in a state of mind of continuous learning promoted jointly by face-to-face and distance education.

However, reflection on the positioning of NICTs clearly reveals that they are essential regardless of the subject taught. Hence the need to engage both an instrumental perspective by taking advantage of technological evolution and a human perspective focused on the quest for greater behavioral efficiency that considers exclusively the psychological and psycho-sociological mechanisms inherent in a situation of human communication.

REFERENCES

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[i]The McKinsey report (2012) Global Institute

[iii]The Internet Society (ISOC) report (2018)

[iv]Fischer, GN (1987), the fundamental concepts of social psychology, Paris, Dunod, p16

[v]– Eubanck, quoted by: Maisonneuve in: Group dynamics, Collection QSJ, PUF, 1968, P51

[vi]– Orecchioni C, Verbal interactions, Volume I; Armond Collin, Paris, 1990, P17

[vii]In the sense that has been evoked by social psychology and not the modern sense of the term which refers to

virtual meeting space such as Facebook or twitter

[viii]– Delorme C, from educational animation to research-action, social chronicle, 1982, pp 39 et seq.

[ix]– collective, performance management at work, assessment of knowledge, under the direction of: Sylvie Saint-Onge and Victor Haines, de boeck, Brussels, 2007, p306