Effectiveness of Moodle E-Learning as an Academic Writing

Teaching Model in Bahasa Indonesia Courses at Sriwijaya University

Santi Oktarina

1,*

, Emzir

and Zainal Rafli

Universitas Sriwijaya, Jalan Raya Palembang-Prabumulih, Inderalaya, Indonesia

Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Jalan Rawamangun Muka, Jakarta Timur, Indonesia

Keywords: Effectiveness, model, teaching, academic writing, e-learning, MOODLE.

Abstract: Writing ability especially for academic purposes is highly required for college students. Writing activity is

non-separated part of academic workloads in higher education. Writing plays an essential role to achieve

academic success. This present research aims at examining the effectiveness of MOODLE e-learning for

academic writing in Bahasa Indonesia Course at Sriwijaya University. The research was conducted from

March to November 2017. Taking random sampling of respondents, the research used writing test as an

instrument. Then, the gathered data was analyzed quantitatively using T-Test. The result of the research shows

that t

observed

(5.15) was higher than t

table

(1.67). In the other words, there is a significant difference of means

scores between controlled and experimental classes. In conclusion, teaching model of academic writing in

Bahasa Indonesia courses using MOODLE e-learning is effective to increase students’ writing ability.

1 INTRODUCTION

Bahasa Indonesia has an important role in academic

life in Indonesia particularly in higher education level

of education. Bahasa Indonesia plays as a medium of

thought, expression and communication. All academic

activities mostly use Bahasa Indonesia as medium

language. Indeed, Bahasa Indonesia has its status as

official medium language in educational institutions.

Therefore, competence in Bahasa Indonesia is a

compulsory for the entire campus stakeholders

particularly students.

For higher education level, Bahasa Indonesia is

one of Personality Development subjects for

registered students. When taking this subject, they

focus on developing academic writing skills (Decree

of Directorate General of Higher Education

Department of National Education, 2006). Writing

skill must be acquired by all students since it

influences their academic achievement. A lot of

academic workloads require writing skill, for example

writing scientific papers, writing tests, writing thesis

proposal which they are mostly in academic purposes

and genre. The similar view was brought by Akhadiah

(Fulwiler, 2002) that writing is an obligatory activity

for scholars at university; otherwise, they could not

improve their academic career properly. However, in

fact, teaching and learning writing in subject of

Bahasa Indonesia particularly for academic writing

perform under-expectation. In general, some research

findings showed that Bahasa Indonesia at university

has not yet influenced much to improve students’

academic writing skills (Alwasilah, 2014).

To develop academic writing skill, it is necessary

to apply technology in the classroom. Nowadays, the

advances in technology can give positive advantages

for education. The computers and internet access

either hardware or software brings a lot of choices to

support teaching and education facility. The

advantages to use technology in the classroom are not

only the factors of speed and easiness but also

attractive and interactive teaching aids using

multimedia platforms. Moreover, there are, of course,

many teaching activities that can be supported by

technology and internet access. For instance, several

applications are created to assist teaching and learning

activities in and outside the classroom.

Furthermore, one application of technology that

can be applied for teaching is MOODLE e-learning.

MOODLE stands for Modular Object Oriented

Dynamic Learning Environment. Then, it is kind of

web-based application that enables the users to create

teaching materials and contents for learning anytime

and anywhere (Hollowel, 2011). Not only that,

MOODLE e-learning has some benefits for the users.

At first, it offers flexibility in teaching and create

Oktarina, S., Emzir, . and Raﬂi, Z.

Effectiveness of Moodle E-Learning as an Academic Writing Teaching Model in Bahasa Indonesia Courses at Sriwijaya Universit.

DOI: 10.5220/0009995400002499

In Proceedings of the 3rd Sriwijaya University International Conference on Learning and Education (SULE-IC 2018), pages 80-83

ISBN: 978-989-758-575-3

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

interactive teaching atmosphere. Then, the second,

MOODLE e-learning gives opportunities for

learners/users to get some learning experiences. At

last, when using it, the learners/users can observe and

discover how other learners do their learning

activities.

For second language teaching context, MOODLE

e-learning has been widely used as software

application to improve the quality of teaching process

and result (Standford, 2009; Eskandaria, 2016;

Extxebarria, Garay, dan Romero, 2012; Wulandari,

2016) Compare to the previous research, this current

study has some newness in the area of teaching

academic writing in first language context. Firstly, the

teaching model used in this research combines online

and offline classrooms using web-based teaching and

applying the principles of writing process approach,

namely pre-writing, writing, and post-writing.

Moreover, it also adopts the grids and teaching

characteristics in Indonesian National Qualification

Framework and the principles of e-learning and

teaching. The second point of novelty of this research

is the teaching model used mind maple software in

planning writing activity so that the students are able

to plan and organize their ideas and topic easily and

more systematic. At third point, this teaching model

utilizes workshop activity feature, which is suitable

teaching wri ting. By using this feature, both the

teacher and the students can give their evaluation and

comments in the available columns completed by

clear and concise indicators. In addition, this feature

has facility to publish the entire students’ writings,

scores, and comments from teacher and peers. At last,

this teaching model is also utilized itself by video

recording using camtasia studio. Then, to reckon the

teaching needs and some new points, this current

research is seemingly necessary and important to

conduct for teaching academic writing in Bahasa

Indonesia classes.

Regarding to the background statements above,

this article addresses to figure out the effectiveness of

MOODLE e-learning for Bahasa Indonesia courses in

academic writing skill at Sriwijaya University,

Indonesia.

2 RESEARCH METHOD

To figure out the effectiveness of the developed

teaching method using MOODLE e-learning for

academic writing in Bahasa Indonesia courses,

experimental method was carried out in conducting

this present study. This type of method could test the

hypothesis of cause-effect relation (Gay, Mill, dan

Airasian, 2009). To be more specific, quasi-

experimental-research method was selected. The

groups either experimental or controlled groups were

taken from the existing classes without opening new

groups.

Regarding to the sample, this current research was

conducted in Sriwijaya University, Indonesia from

March to November 2017. The population was the

entire registered students who took the subject of

Bahasa Indonesia on odd semester. Applying random

sampling, 36 students were recruited as samples from

the mechanical engineering program as experimental

group and the agribusiness program as controlled

class.

For collecting data, writing test for academic

purposes was used involving two items of test. The

test was held twice: Pretest and post-test. To analyse

the gathered data, quantitative statistic calculation was

applied using T-test helped by SPSS 23 to test the

hypothesis “the academic writing skill using

MOODLE e-learning in Bahasa Indonesia courses is

higher than the other which is not using it” (H○ = µ

≦ µ

2 and

H1 = µ

＞µ

2).

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The test of effectiveness was conducted by the unit

of Subject Personality Development Sriwijaya

University. It was taken seven times followed by 36

sample students both experimental and controlled

groups. Then, two-mode activities were executed:

offline and online classes using web base. One

hundred minutes (two credits) were allocated as

duration for offline class; meanwhile, the duration of

web base online class was unlimited. However, the

students are given the due time to submit the task and

assessed their own tasks as well as others task. The

combination of this two-mode activity can maximize

the teaching learning process. Before that, all students

are required to register as participants on MOODLE

provided by Sriwijaya University as can be seen in

Figure 1.

Figure 1. Moodle e-learning for sriwijaya student

Effectiveness of Moodle E-Learning as an Academic Writing Teaching Model in Bahasa Indonesia Courses at Sriwijaya Universit

Before conducting the experimental stage of research,

both classes were taken a pre-academic writing test.

Result of the test showed that the students’ academic

writing skill was low and not optimal. Considering

this, the developed model of teaching using

MOODLE e-learning for academic writing in Bahasa

Indonesia courses was executed in experimental

class. After that, post-tests were given for both

groups.

To test the hypothesis, t-test was used by using

SPPS 23 application program. This test used T-test

independent sample. The test was applied by

comparing the gain score from control and

experiment groups to test null hypothesis that there is

any significant mean difference between two groups.

The result can be seen on the Table 1.

Table 1: Group statistics.

Academi

c writing

skill

Class N Mean SD SE

Ekspe

ri-

ment

36 85.38 6.41 1.07

Contr

36 70.86 8.45 1.41

Table 1 shows that experiment group with 36 samples

(N) has mean 85.38 with standard deviation 6.41 and

the standard error mean 1.069. Meanwhile, control

group with the same number oof samples (N=36)

scores mean 70.86 with standard deviation 8.45 and

standard error mean 1.408.

Table 2: Independent samples test.

Academic

writing

skill

F Sig. t Df p

2.170 1.45 8.213

8.213

65.3

.000

It can be seen in Table 2 that t

observed

is higher than

table

. Therefore, it can be concluded that one-sided test

shows 1.67 so that t

observed

(8.213) 〉t

table

(1,67) with

0.05 level of significance n-1=35. In conclusion, the

difference of means is significant. At the same time,

is rejected and H

is accepted. In the other words,

the developed teaching model using MOODLE e-

learning for academic writing skill in Bahasa

Indonesia classes is more effective in improving

students’ academic writing skill.

This result may be consistent to study by

Extxebarria, Garay, and Romero (2009); Syamsudin

and Alamin (2014); Adas and Bakir (2013); Chan

et.al. (2013) which stated the similar findings.

MOODLE e-learning can enhance the quality of

process and result of teaching academic writing.

The developed model of teaching stimulates

students to develop independence and autonomy in

finding knowledge and motivate themselves to self-

learning. From the phase of exploration, they can

independently find the theories and concepts related

to the discussed topics using internet. During this

phase, they choose and select learning sources they

have. The similar finding also revealed on the

research by Kirkpatrick and Klein (2016). They found

that internet learning sources requires students to

activate their critical thinking when getting a large

amount of information.

In addition, this developed model can also

implement the principles of teaching writing directly.

The most interesting point during the implementation

of this model is that the students feel very enthusiastic

and challenging in planning their writing using mind

maple software. They creatively brainstorm ideas and

they develop after comments and assessment from

peer and the lecturer on workshop feature. Almost the

same encounter occurs on the phase of recreation

composition.

Moreover, the research findings show that the

students are able to produce good writing products.

This is because some reasons. At first, students have

well-planned writing draft. Not only that, the

assessment from themselves, peer, and the lecturer

improves their writing products. And the third reason,

the entire students’ writing products are published

through workshop feature that is accessible for all. It

then makes students try to submit their best writing.

The effectiveness of MOODLE in improving

writing skill has been proved not only by this present

research. Some higher education and institutions have

applied MOODLE for their academic writing classes.

For example, research by Wulandari (2016) under the

title “MOODLE-Based Learning Model for

Paragraph Writing Class”. This research found that

the developed model using MOODLE has improved

the students’ abilities in writing paragraph in Sanata

Darma University. Secondly, study by Adas dan

Bakir (2013) with the title “Writing Difficulties and

New Solutions: Blended Learning as an Approach to

Improve Writing Abilities”. This study aimed at

finding out the effectiveness of MOODLE in teaching

writing at one university in Palestine. Moreover,

Chan, Pandian, Joseph and Ghazali conducted a

research with the title “Teaching Business Writing

Using Wiki: Online Collaborative Writing”. Their

research was to figure out the effectiveness of wiki

MOODLE in teaching writing particularly company

profile and business reports in Universitas Sain

Malaysia. Furthermore, research by Li Zhang and Yu

Sheng (2014) in Midwestern American University

SULE-IC 2018 - 3rd Sriwijaya University International Conference on Learning and Education

with their article “Evaluating an Academic Writing

Course-based on an Integrated Model”. They did this

research to evaluate academic writing course for ELS

learners helped by technology which is MOODLE.

Nonetheless, there are also some difference and

similarity between this present research and the

previous one. The similar aspect is that this current

research has proven its effectiveness in improving

academic writing skill based on effectiviness test. At

second, both this current research and previous

research utilize material and activity features on

MOODLE. The third point is all research exploits

teaching writing. And the fourth, the students who

took part on the research gave positive responses

during the teaching process. On the other hand, this

current research comes also with distinctive point

compared to the previous research. The developed

model on this current research introduce teaching

structure which mixes the offline learning and web-

based learning by implementing the principles of

writing process approach (pre-writing, whilst writing,

and post-writing), the teaching characteristics of

KKNI, and the aspects of E-Learning. In addition, the

developed model adapted and modified creative

productive teaching model particularly its structure of

teaching. The second is that this research also utilized

Mind Maple Software in planning the writing

products so that the students were more enthusiastic

to write their drafts. The third point, this current

research employed activity feature called Workshop.

This feature is very helpful and compatible with the

characteristics of teaching writing. Either lecturer or

students can grade the writing product using the clear

indicators provided by a coloum for comment in each

indicator. Besides, this feature can also publish all

students’ writing products, grades, and comments

from both peers and lecturer. The last distinctive point

on the research is that the video for teachings were

specifically made in camtasia studio format. The

vidoes were included only for the developed model of

teaching based on the need analysis of students and

lecturer.

4 CONCLUSION

After testing the T-test, it shows that t

observed

is higher

than t

table

. Therefore, there is any significant

difference of means scores between experimental and

controlled classes. In conclusion, the developed

model of teaching using MOODLE e-learning for

academic writing purposes in Bahasa Indonesia

classes is more effective to improve the students’

academic writing skill at Sriwijaya University,

Indonesia

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Effectiveness of Moodle E-Learning as an Academic Writing Teaching Model in Bahasa Indonesia Courses at Sriwijaya Universit