STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. Date: 25/5/ 2016 Signature Le Thi Diep Huong i ABSTRACT This research aims to evaluate some aspects of an online English course for staff members at Hue Industrial College (HUEIC). Other aims of the study are to find out the main factors affecting the learners‟ participation in the online English course and how the affecting factors can be used to better the online English course at HUEIC.
The subjects for this study consist of 12 staff members of HUEIC, who participated in the online English course in the workplace. The data were mainly collected through questionnaires and interviews. The data collected were analyzed according to statistical frequency and percentage. The research findings indicated that the learners appreciated the online English course when considering four main issues: instructional design elements, instructional activities, instructor and technical support.
Moreover, the main factors affecting the learners‟ participation in the online English course were revealed; therefore, many suggestions for course designers/ instructors were presented. From the detailed findings, some pedagogical implications for designing and teaching an online English course were proposed. Limitations of the study were pointed out and further research was suggested. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank the lecturers and staff at Hue University, College of Foreign Languages, especially Ms Nguyen Thi Hai Yen – a staff member of Training Department, for helping me in my studying time.
I would also like to send my sincere thanks to my family and friends, especially my monitor - Ms Doan An Hien. They created the best conditions and support for me to complete this thesis. I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Ms Tran Quang Ngoc Thuy, who provided me with the possibility to complete this research. She has given me guidance and valuable comments as well as knowledge and skills necessary to complete this study on time.
She was a great help for me in the process of research and thesis writing. I thank her very much. Finally, I would like to thank all of the 12 research participants, who are also my coworkers, for supporting me during my research. I sincerely thank you! iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION. Organization of the research .3 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW. Theoretical background when designing and teaching an online course.
Course evaluation instruments. Online learning environment (virtual world) and online participation. Factors affecting student participation in an online course. Sense of community (SoC).
Promoting online participation by using the term “sense of community”. Research site and research participants. Instruments for data collection .21 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. An evaluation on the online English course at the workplace at HUEIC.
Instructional Design Elements:. Teaching strategies/Instructor. Main factors affecting the learners‟ participation when attending an online English course in HUEIC and how the main factors affect the learners‟ participation in the online English course. Effective and transparent interface.
Sense of community.4 Appropriate course content which is well related to the learners’ need. Using the affecting factors to better the online English course at HUEIC .1 Effective and transparent interface .3 Sense of community (SoC). Appropriate course content which is well related to the learners’ need .43 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Suggested further research .48 APPENDIX 1: The questionnaire .51 APPENDIX 2: The interview questions .54 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1.
HUEIC : Hue Industrial College 2. VLE : Virtual learning environment 3. SoC : Sense of community 4. FAQs : Frequently Asked Questions vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale The use of technologies for educational purposes has been available in the support of on-campus classroom teaching, online-dependent or fully online teaching mode since 1993 (Armatas, Holt & Rice, 2003). Research suggests that the online learning environment can be used to help distance learners participate in courses with no need to move to the real classroom (Keller & Cernerud, 2002; McDonald & Reushle, 2000). Derived from the huge advantages of the internet and distance learning, institutions have used it as a very effective way of communication. Hue Industrial College (HUEIC) joins this stream with its website at hueic.vn and working email system at outlook.vn, which have been used for many years.
In 2013, the college website and working email system were upgraded for more purposes including strengthening the connections between the departments/faculties and managing the activities of the college without papers and meeting. Apart from their various functions, the college website and working email system are a very potential tool for teaching English. In the academic year 2014-2015, an online English course embedded on the college website for staff members was set up. In 2014, a set of standards for lecturers/officers was established by the Rector Board.
Accordingly, the officers are required to study English and by the year 2016, all of the staff members and lecturers are expected to have an IELTS certificate with a total score of at least 4. Moreover, they are required to communicate well in English especially in the working environment. The purpose of this course is to enhance the English language skills of staff members in HUEIC and help them meet the standard established. This new standard creates a big challenge for the officers, who hardly have chance to practice their English.
A project encompassing an online English course 1 has been set up to reach that goal. However, the obstacles are still remarkable and hard to overcome. One of the biggest challenges is to attract them to attend the course regularly and voluntarily. Research aims This research aims to evaluate some aspects of the online English course for staff members at HUEIC.
Other aims of the study are to find out the main factors affecting the learners‟ participation in the online English course and to find out how the affecting factors can be used to better the online English course at HUEIC. Research questions In this study, these following research questions can be answered: 1. How effective is the online English course in the workplace in HUEIC, evaluated by the learners? 2. What are the main factors affect the learners‟ participation in the online English course? 3.
How can the affecting factors be used to better the online English course at HUEIC? 1. Research significances As mentioned earlier in the aims of the research, this research will analyze the factors that can be used as a source of motivation in learning an online English course at HUEIC. It is hoped that the research brings benefits to the college in general and the learners in particular. To the College: This research will meet the demand for training the high quality human resource.
To the learners: This research will help them to have a chance to improve their English language skills by participating in the online English course. With the benefits above, the study is hoped to have some contribution to the upgrading process to become a university of the college 2 1. Research scope The research is conducted to focus on investigating the factors, which affect learners‟ participation in the online English course at HUEIC and how they can be used to better future online English courses at HUEIC. Organization of the research This research comprises five chapters Chapter 1: Introduction – this chapter provides the introduction, the rationale of the problem tackling with the topic, the background and the aim of the study, the scope and the research questions.
Chapter 2: Literature review and theoretical background - This chapter includes literature relevant to the research topic which is reviewed to establish the foundation of the current research. Chapter 3: Methodology This chapter presents the research methodology used to conduct the research. Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion - This chapter shows the research results of the research via data collection and analysis. Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implications - This chapter presents some discussions, the conclusions, the implications and the limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further research.
3 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter focuses on the literature review and theoretical background of the study. It includes a number of important theoretical terms and previous studies related to the research are also be reviewed. Theoretical background when designing and teaching an online course In 1987, Chickering and Gamson established a study on “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education”. Via their research, seven principles for good teaching and learning were suggested for good practice in undergraduate education.
Encouraging contact between students and faculty 2. Developing reciprocity and cooperation among students. Encouraging active learning. Giving prompt feedback.
Emphasizing time on task. Communicating high expectations. Respecting diverse talents and ways of learning. From then, the seven principles as listed above were used widely as a framework for designing, teaching and evaluating traditional, face-to-face courses.
In 2001, Graham, Lim, Craner and Duffy used the seven principles to evaluate several online courses. Taking the perspective of a student enrolled in the courses, they developed a list of "lessons learned" for online instruction that corresponds to the original seven principles. These lessons can be considered seriously to apply when designing and teaching an online English course in general and in the workplace in specific. 4 Principle 1: Encouraging contact between students and faculty According to Graham et al (2001), there are several ways to encourage contact between students and faculty in an online course.
Firstly, clear guidelines for interaction between instructor and students should be provided. In the syllabus and related documents, students should be shown clearly when and how they can contact with the instructor/the faculty. Instructor may also use a FAQs sheet, in which the means of communication are suggested. For example “For any further inquiry, please send an email DIRECTLY to the instructor or contact the technical support team at ….” Moreover, instructor should also establish policies describing clearly the types of communication provided in different online/web-based channels such as email, comments on blogs, etc.
In addition, to encourage students to contact the faculty and make them feel confident as their voice are considerable, clear standards for instructors' timelines for responding to messages should be set. Therefore, students may know how long they should expect for a reply for the instructors. Principle 2: Developing reciprocity and cooperation among students. It is suggested by Graham et al (2001) that meaningful cooperation among students in an online course can be facilitated by well-designed discussion assignments.
In details, learners should be required to participate in the activities and their grade depends on the activeness of the participation. To encourage the cooperation, the groups should be small and the discussion activities should focus on task and produce some visible outcomes to enhance learners‟ interest when participating. The tasks assigned have to engage learners in the content and after each task/discussion, feedback should be provided. Before assigning a task, it is compulsory that the instructors post their expectations for discussion and evaluation should be based on the quality of the postings instead of the length or number of the posts.
5 Principle 3: Encouraging active learning To integrate students with the course content in an online course and make them study actively, Graham et al (2001) recommended that students should be required to present course projects to enhance their active participation. Projects are an important part of face-to-face courses. Students learn valuable skills from presenting their projects and are often motivated to perform better. By doing projects, students also have an opportunity to learn a great deal from seeing their classmates works and discussing with their peer.