Journal of Japanese language and international education studies

This is a report on an exam experiment conducted simultaneously online using YouTube video streaming to measure the conversation skills of beginner-level Japanese learners. The Intensive Japanese Language Course is for students who study Japanese for the first time. In the conversation classes of the course, which I was responsible for, I've had students think about the differences in education systems between their home countries and Japan and to share information with their classmates in the second half of the semester. The final exam has been an opportunity to present the results of their learning. Students wrote speeches on the theme of their country's educational system and its problems and gave the speeches without a manuscript. However, due to the spread of COVID-19, classes were forced to go online. Only one of the students scheduled to take the course was able to enter Japan. This meant he had no classmates, was restricted from going out and lost the opportunity to practice communication using the Japanese he had learned, despite being in Japan. Therefore, I needed to change the format of the final exam and I created a video exam with Microsoft PowerPoint and several free audio-editing applications and conducted the exam by distributing it on YouTube privately. The exam aims to evaluate the ability to improvise speech close to real-life usage situations. With the audio recording function on their smartphones running, the student followed the instructions and spoke with the speaker in the video and submitted the audio data as their answer. The results showed that this type of exam question video could be created and conducted with only a computer, a microphone, and an internet connection without any other material costs. This method also shows that it is possible to avoid inconsistency in evaluation caused by the lack of concentration that could occur in an interview-style exam as the instructor acts as the speaking partner in the flesh, and that students can take the exam with their smart-phone. On the other hand, it was also found that both instructors and students must have a sufficient Wi-Fi environment for such an exam to be conducted. Moreover, it takes time for instructors to familiarize themselves with ICT tools to create the exam. Currently, most instructors are not professionals with online classes or ICT tools. However, acquisition and mastery of ICT tools should not depend on the efforts of individual instructors only. It should be supported sufficiently by their educational institutions to help them become proficient in ICT tools.