Enhancing Freshman Students' Performance With Online Reading and Writing Activities

Abstract

The present study investigates the effectiveness of integrating RCampus in EFL freshman classrooms in developing EFL students' reading and writing skills. Two groups of freshman students majoring in translation participated in the study. Before instruction, pretest results showed no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in their reading and writing skills in EFL (English as a foreign language). Both groups received traditional in-class instruction that depended on the textbook, completed the same chapters, did the same exercises and took the same quizzes. In addition, the experimental group received online instruction using RCampus (www.rcampus.com), an open source Online Course Management System. RCampus has as a discussion forum, ePortfolio for each student, i-Rubrics, course documents, a message center and other tools. The experimental group received online reading and writing extension activities. Each week discussion threads that required the students to search for information, read extra material and respond to questions in writing were posted. The students were free to post their own book summaries, discussion threads and comment on each other's posts. The instructor served as a facilitator. She provided feedback and individual help. At the end of the semester both groups were post-tested and their scores compared to find out the effect of using a combination of online reading and writing activities using RCampus on the students' reading and writing skills development. The students answered a post-treatment questionnaire to find out how they felt about RCampus and their online learning experience. Results will be reported in detail.