Blended Online EFL Activities in MOODLE for Higher Education

Abstract

A blended learning environment is becoming more and more important in all subject areas, especially language education. This study is conducted to investigate the effects of blended EFL writing activities on students' perceptions and writing performance. This study employs both quantitative and qualitative research methods. An experiment (n=40) was conducted with two groups of English majors having the same curriculum, course-book, facilities for 15 weeks. The experimental group takes weekly writing activities online while the control group does not. After the experiment, the experiment group was surveyed (n=20) and interviewed (n=12). Independent samples T-tests show that the experimental group doing their writing activities in a blended environment performs better than the control group doing those activities on paper. The questionnaire and interview data further confirm that students have positive perceptions of EFL writing activities in blended classes. It is suggested that EFL students should be given online writing activities blended with their traditional sessions. Designing interesting writing tasks, providing good topics for discussion, creating a more interactive online environment that boosts collaborative learning are good ways to motivate students and improve student performance.

The Implementation of Blended Learning for English Courses at Higher Education in Vietnam: Teachers’ Perceptions

“…The presented results are consistent with earlier studies, which have shown that BL is thought to have several benefits for both instructors and students. Firstly, it is in line with Hockly and Clandfield (2010), Reinders (2012), Vu et al (2022), Hanh (2022), Cao (2022), and Phuong et al (2022) in that BL is perceived by EFL teachers as applicable and necessary to be implemented and useful for both their teaching and students' learning in some extent. The EFL teachers confirmed that they had an opportunity to plan lessons and correctly adapt various teaching methods and approaches in two distinct modes, online and offline, easily monitor the students' progress via Moodle, and encourage them to learn about the use of technology in their instruction.…”

“…Additionally, Huy et al (2020) defined BL as a program that includes "traditional lectures, virtual or online lessons, multimedia contents especially videos and audios, email systems, discussion forums, and a chat system." Furthermore, this is also the synchronization of learning in conventional onsite learning and online learning, which can be presented on a continuum in Figure 1 below, with BL between the two ends, namely onsite and online learning (Allan, 2007;Phuong et al, 2022;Reinders, 2012;Stein & Graham, 2014;Vu et al, 2022). A course in the blended mode could fall anywhere in this spectrum in that the rate of onsite and online meetings is arbitrary (Stein & Graham, 2014).…”

“…Another study conducted among English-majored students by Vu et al (2022), which employed both quantitative and qualitative research methods, concluded that the students in the experimental group (N=20) performed better than those in the control group (N=20) after the experiment and that the experimented students had positive perceptions about blended online EFL writing activities. The authors also suggested several strategies for successful BL employment, including designing interesting tasks and discussion topics and establishing a collaborative and interactive learning environment.…”

“…In the last few decades, Vietnam's educational system has seen and experienced a visible and huge change with the assistance of the developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (Dao et al, 2021Hanh, 2022). There was a transition from learning in traditional classrooms to learning in online classrooms and even the combination of both traditional and online learning, namely blended learning (BL), to cope with the situation and solve the problems of school closures (Tran & Nguyen, 2023;Lien, 2022;Pham et al, 2021).…”

“…The benefits and opportunities that BL has provided teachers and learners cannot be denied. In the EFL context, there have been studies on the characteristics and effectiveness of BL on university students (Hung et al, 2023;Vu et al, 2022), students' perceptions towards the implementation of BL in English classrooms (Anh et al, 2022;Tran & Nguyen, 2023;Thao et al, 2021). However, the perceptions of Vietnamese EFL instructors about the implications of BL have been the subject of comparatively few investigations (Thao et al, 2021).…”