MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------ GRADUATION THESIS ESL ENGINEERING STUDENTS’ SELF-EFFICACY IN LEARNING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ENGLISH MOOC: A COMPARATIVE STUDY STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN NHU QUYNH ID NUMBER: 17022051 CLASS CODE: DHAV13C COHORT: 2017 – 2021 SUPERVISOR NAME: PHAN THI TUYET NGA, Ph. HCMC, 06/2021 HCMC, 06/2021 STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN NHU QUYNH STUDENT ID NUMBER: 17022051 MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------ Student name : Nguyen Nhu Quynh ID Number : 17022051 Class Code : DHAV13C Cohort : 2017 – 2021 Supervisor Name : Phan Thi Tuyet Nga, Ph. Chen Cheng-Hu, Ph. Student’s declaration: I declare that this graduation report is entirely my own work and does not involve in plagiarism or collusion.
It also has not been accepted as part of a submission to another purpose else where. I accept heavy penalty for any cheating or plagiarism. Date submitted : 17/06/2021 Signed : Nguyễn Như Quỳnh Word count : 7757 words SUPERVISOR NAME: PHAN 1|P a g e STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN NHU QUYNH STUDENT ID NUMBER: 17022051 ESL ENGINEERING STUDENTS’ SELF-EFFICACY IN LEARNING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ENGLISH MOOC: A COMPARATIVE STUDY ABSTRACT In recent years, there has been considerable research into the self-efficacy of engineering students in online learning. By contrast, few studies have focused investigated English as second language (ESL) engineering students’ self-efficacy in MOOCs learning in Asia countries.
This study examined and compared the MOOCs’ self-efficacy levels of engineering students in Taiwan and Vietnam by surveying 222 students, which including 100 students from a technical university in Vietnam and 122 students from a comprehensive university in Taiwan. The results show that there were no significant differences in the self-efficacy beliefs of students in both sites in three dimensions of MOOCs: a) using technology, b) managing time, and c) learning in the interdisciplinary English MOOCs environment. In addition, to contribute to the research on Asian engineering students’ MOOCs self-efficacy, by conducting focus group interviews on 30 volunteers from the survey participants, our study showed that previous experience, planning skills, English language ability could predict how confident an engineering student would be in an English MOOCs environment. Keywords: ELS, MOOCs, self-efficacy, Asian students, engineering students, MOOCs learning, MOOCs self-efficacy.
SUPERVISOR NAME: PHAN 2|P a g e STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN NHU QUYNH STUDENT ID NUMBER: 17022051 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Throughout the writing of this dissertation, I have received plenty of enthusiastic help and support that guide and encourageme to overcome all the challenges and finish our research work. Without them, this project would not exist as it does today. Firstly, I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my esteemed supervisor – Dr. Phan Thi Tuyet Nga, from Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH), for her invaluable supervision, guidance and tutelage during my research process.
She not only gave me the golden opportunities to do this wonderful project on the topic “ESL engineering students’ self-efficacy in learning an interdisciplinary English MOOC”, which allowed me gained precious knowledge and useful skills but also me sharpen my thinking and brought my work to a higher level with her insightful comments and suggestions. I also would like to extend my sincere thanks toAssoc. Chen Cheng-Hu, co-advisor, from National I-Lan University (NIU), and his teamfor their meaningful assistance at every stage of the research project. Without their support, my team could not achieve our goals and this thesis could not be done on schedule.
Secondly, I wish to express my sincere appreciationto all IUH and NIU engineering university for their patience and effort in participatingin the questionnaire survey as well as focus group interviews. They not only provided me meaningful data of engineering students’ self-efficacy but also sharedwith me their feelings, opinion and experiences in learning MOOCs. Their positive support was the key factor that completed my research work. Last but not least, I also had great pleasure of working with Dang Thi Mi Chau and Truong Thi Thanh Huong.
As my team members, I could not begin to express my thanksfor their wonderful collaboration, for the stimulating discussions and all the sleepless night we were working together before deadlines. And as friends, their unwavering support and belief in me, as well as their treasured advices and encouragements were things that helped me to maintain a positive mindset and successfully overcome all the challenges during this period of writing the dissertation. Working with them in this research project was one of the most cherished experiences in my life. SUPERVISOR NAME: PHAN 3|P a g e STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN NHU QUYNH STUDENT ID NUMBER: 17022051 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.
Scope of the study. CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of key terms/concepts. Engineering Students’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs.
Online Learning and MOOCs. Engineering education and MOOCs:. Results of previous studies. CHAPTER III: RESEARCH DESIGN.
Research methodology and research methods. CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Question 1: What are the perceived self-efficacy levels of engineering students in joining an Interdisciplinary English MOOC at the two universities?. 18 SUPERVISOR NAME: PHAN 4|P a g e STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN NHU QUYNH STUDENT ID NUMBER: 17022051 4.
Question 2: What predicts engineering students’ self-efficacy in joining the MOOC in the two contexts?. 26 LIST OF TABLES Table 4.Perceived self-efficacy of IUH and NIU engineering students.Error! Bookmark not defined.Comparative analysis between the engineering students of two universities regarding the MOOCs self-efficacy scale. 18 SUPERVISOR NAME: PHAN 5|P a g e STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN NHU QUỲNH STUDENT ID NUMBER: 17022051 1. Rationale According to Carew and Mitchell (2001), engineering profession constantly develops to meet the changing demands of environment, society and economy.
While originally being “a broad spectrum of artistic knowledge, craftsmanship and management skills” (Kastenhofer et al. 44), in the 21st century this profession has shifted towards a more specialized and technically focused side. This eventually led to a requirement for engineering students to develop their sustainability literacy (knowledge, competences, values, and attitudes related to sustainable development) and quickly adapt to new engineering technology and machines. However, to keep up with the continuously growing environmental, economic and social demands of this era, engineering students may need more knowledge and practical skills than what they can learn from a sole university or the outdated traditional education program.
In line with the rapid development of education today, new technology are emerging, providing a variety of tools for educators to improve the process of teaching and learning. Among those, online learning in general and MOOCs (Massive open online courses) in particular has contributed a significant part in lifelong education (Kalz, 2015). Especially in the last decade, MOOCs have become a major innovation in the teaching and learning processes in both academia and industry, with advanced platforms which allow hundreds of thousands of learners worldwide to study from the best instructors and to access the most updated knowledge, regardless of time or location, provided they have a device with Internet access (Baturay, 2015). To engineering students, not only they can equip themselves with the most suitable knowledge and skills to deal with the global environmental, economic and social concerns of the 21 stcentuary but they can also gain more laboratory practical skills through virtual and remote laboratories or computer simulations in MOOCs platform (Iqbal et al.
According to a study conducted by Liyanagunawardena, Williams and Adams, (2013) which examined the locations of MOOC participants, including Mobi MOOC’s, the majority are from North America and Europe, while Asia and Africa have limited participation. Aside from Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, the influence of MOOCs in other parts of Asian, including Vietnam was quite limited (Chen, 2013). SUPERVISOR NAME: PHAN 5|P a g e STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN NHU QUỲNH STUDENT ID NUMBER: 17022051 In addition, although students have the convenience of working through a MOOC at their own time and pace, the dropout rate is surprisingly high. Several studies stated that more than 90% of people who register for MOOCs, even the most popular ones, do not continue to complete the course (Daniel, 2012; Sandeen, 2013).
Also, according to Chopra1 and Syazwani (2020), the MOOCs’ completion rate in developing countries is much lower than in developed countries.Aulay, Stewart, and Siemens (2010) stated that the high dropout ratio is an almost-inevitable result of any open, online activity, because initial commitment is missing. However, as MOOCs are becoming more and more popular all over the world, many researchers and educational developer are starting to explore innovative ways to settle this problem and enhance students’ participation in the courses. Zimmerman (2000) suggested that learner’s self-efficacy beliefs are possibly one of the major factors that need to be seriously considered, as high self-efficacy levels can bringpositive impacts to students’ performance and potentially decrease MOOCs students’ dropout rate. As stated above, the literature has shown the current learning needs of engineering students to catch up with technology and knowledge changes, a limited number of MOOCs in Asia and the high dropout rate of MOOCs learners.
Therefore, the need to develop MOOCs in this area of the world which has a small number of dropping-out engineering students is urgent. However, in order to offer such MOOCs, it is important to understand what can encourage engineering students to attend MOOCs and what can help them retain their learning. Therefore, this study is conducted to understand engineering students’ self-efficacy in learning an Interdisciplinary English MOOC. Research Objectives: This study is one part of a project which is to develop an Interdisciplinary English MOOC for engineering students at a university in Vietnam and a university in Taiwan.
Therefore, the main purposes of the present thesis are: Making a comparison of the self-efficacy levels in learning an Interdisciplinary English MOOC of engineering students in both universities. Understanding the reasons for the ratings of self-efficacy levels It’s expected that results of this study will contribute to the development of the English Interdisciplinary MOOC in the two universities, which is very important and meaningful to the engineering education. Research Questions SUPERVISOR NAME: PHAN 6|P a g e STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN NHU QUỲNH STUDENT ID NUMBER: 17022051 Our thesis is a comparative study which focus on comparing the self-efficacy levels of engineering students’ in a university in Taiwan) and a university in Vietnam). This led to the following two research questions: What are the perceived self-efficacy levels of engineering students in joining an Interdisciplinary English MOOC at the two universities? What predicts engineering students’ self-efficacy in joining the MOOC in the two contexts? 1.
Scope of the study This study primarily focused on comparing of self-efficacy levels of engineering students in IUH – Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) and NIU – National Ilan University (Taiwan). The researchers aimed to describe the difference of self-efficacy levels in both universities in term of using technology, managing time, and learning in the interdisciplinary English MOOCs environment. The scope of the study was limited to recruiting 180 volunteers who are engineering students at IUH and NIU university. This recruitment period would last for a maximum of two months.
Each participant to the study would be asked to complete a short questionnaire in order to evaluate their self-efficacy levels in learning an Interdisciplinary English MOOC. 30 volunteers would be contacted using their emails accounts or cell phone numbers to attend a focus group interview. SUPERVISOR NAME: PHAN 7|P a g e STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN NHU QUỲNH STUDENT ID NUMBER: 17022051 2. CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW In this section, a literature review was conducted to determine if suitable instruments already existed that could be used for the present study.
Specifically, we focus on work relating to engineering students’ self-efficacy beliefs, online learning, engineering education and MOOCs, and comparative study. Definition of key terms/concepts 2.