Students’ Engagement, Writing Performance and Perception towards
the Utilization of Edmodo in a Writing Course
Wahyu Kyestiati Sumarno and Ali Shodikin
Universitas Islam Darul Ulum, Airlangga Street No. 3, Sukodadi, Lamongan, Indonesia
Keywords: Writing course, Edmodo, ICT, Classroom Action Research.
Abstract: The utilization of technology in the language classroom is currently a common matter. Moreover, the
achievements and the engagement of students are believed to be enhanced by the usage of technology. Yet,
very few studies are concerned with how to create a digital environment for the teaching of writing. Edmodo,
a mobile application similar to Facebook made specifically for educational purposes, is believed to well-assist
teachers and students in writing instruction. By doing a Classroom Action Research to a university academic
writing course, how Edmodo facilitated students’ engagement, improved students’ writing performance and
how students perceived the use of Edmodo were investigated. This study was participated by 24 students in
the 5
th
semester of English Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Islam Darul
‘Ulum, Lamongan, East Java, Indonesia. In eight meetings, their engagements, writing skills’ improvement,
and response towards the application of Edmodo were measured. Four instruments were utilized to collect the
data, namely observation and document analysis, pre-and-posttest, and questionnaire. It was noted that
Edmodo facilitated the students’ engagement, improved students’ writing performance and students took
advantage of this application usage. However, some barriers to its implementation need to be taken into
consideration, e.g. the internet access.
1 INTRODUCTION
Teaching 21
st
-century students requires innovation
and creativity of the teachers since alternation from
conventional teaching to a more communicative and
technological style seems to be imperative
(Purnawarman et al., 2016; Sumarno et al., 2017).
Preserving traditional way of teaching may make
digital era generations uninterested in class,
discouraged, get bored, and unwillingly to complete
the tasks (Felder and Silverman, 1988; Godleski,
1984; Oxford, 1990; Smith and Renzulli, 1984,
Mokhtar, 2016). Therefore, integration of technology
into the classroom is highly encouraged.
A mobile application called Edmodo, one among
numerous online platform utilized for educational
purposes, is believed to well-assist teachers and
students during the teaching and learning process
(Purnawarman et. al, 2016). In line with them, Arroyo
(2011) sees Edmodo as an excellent and secure
communication tool for learning via social
networking. Furthermore, Fujimoto (2012) also
argues that the free Edmodo mobile application
allows learners to access any materials wherever and
whenever. Despite this potential of Edmodo in
supporting teaching and learning process, the
utilization of this tool in language classrooms,
including writing course, is still very limited.
The usage of Edmodo in writing class will provide
opportunities for students to submit their written
works without the need for any face-to-face
interaction. Besides, writing, which seems to be
bothersome and boring, will be less demanding, as
Edmodo provides a lot of interesting features to
practically aid teachers and students during the
writing class, either in classroom sessions or students’
individual learning time at home. Abadi et al. (2015)
also noted that online collaborative work by the
teacher and other learners at any time during the week
makes them more motivated and creative than before
and can increase their self-efficacy and help decrease
their anxiety in the process of writing. Lots of
teachers have welcomed these developments
Sumarno, W. and Shodikin, A.
Students’ Engagement, Writing Performance and Perception towards the Utilization of Edmodo in a Writing Course.
DOI: 10.5220/0007167703810386
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 381-386
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
381

enthusiastically, seeing the integration of new
technology-based pedagogies will potentially
improve students’ writing skills, and facilitate
collaboration and interaction both within and beyond
the classroom (Hyland and Hyland, 2006).
In addition to the skills of writing, the engagement
of students is also trusted to be enhanced by the usage
of technology, including Edmodo (Coffman, 2009;
Rank at al., 2011; Kearsley and Shneiderman, 1999).
Engagement itself is defined as a reflection of a
person’s active involvement in a task or activity
(Reeve et al., 2004). The involvement here could be
cognitively (flexibility in problem-solving,
preference for hard work, and positive coping in the
face of failure), emotionally (students’ affective
reactions in the classroom), and behaviorally
(positive conduct, involvement in learning tasks, and
participation in school-related activities) (Fredricks at
al., 2004). Many studies have claimed the benefits of
using technology for increasing engagement but very
few provide measurable evidence of engagement,
including in writing course (Reading and Levins,
2008). Thus, it is worth studying.
Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999) further affirm
that technology is able to facilitate engagement
through two things: interaction and meaningful tasks.
Type of interaction will include learner-content
interaction, learner-lecturer interaction, and learner-
learner interaction (Moore and Kearsley, 1996; Lonn,
2009). Meanwhile, meaningful tasks refer to tasks
which are able to be defined by students and they can
focus on applying their ideas to a specific context
(Kearsley and Shneiderman, 1999).
A number of studies had shown positive impacts
of Edmodo implementation in the classrooms
(Beltran-Cruz and Cruz, 2013; Ekici, 2017; Durak at
al., 2017; Al-Said, 2015; Mokhtar, 2016) and positive
attitudes of the users towards the implementation of it
(Yunkul and Cankaya, 2017). In EFL classrooms,
Edmodo has also found as helping the students
improve their achievements (Al-Kathiri, 2014;
Okumura, 2016; Khodary, 2017; Delacruz, 2013) and
enhance their engagements (Maguire at al., 2017;
Parsons at al., 2014; Burch at al., 2015). Regardless
of these numerous studies on Edmodo utilization,
very few researches concerned to create a digital
environment for the teaching of writing
(Purnawarman at al., 2016; Abadi at al., 2015;
Gardner, 2013). Thus, the present study attempted to
examine how Edmodo helps EFL learners improving
their writing performance, especially their
engagements and writing skills; while, their responses
towards the use of this application were also seen.
2 METHOD
To pursue the research objective, a classroom action
research with Kemmis and McTaggart’s model
(Kemmis and McTaggart, 1988) was utilized. This
model suggests classroom action research to be done
in one or more cycles. Each cycle consists of four
phases, namely plan, action, observe, and reflect. The
number of cycles will depend on the research’s aim.
Once it is achieved, the cycle is discontinued.
This study was conducted in two cycles within
eight meetings, four meetings for each cycle. In the
planning phase, the researchers prepared the
materials, lesson plan, and designed the steps for the
action phase. The researchers also prepared writing
class in Edmodo application, completed with its
teaching-aids, prepared sheets for classroom
observation, document analysis, pre-and-post-test,
and questionnaire. Meanwhile, during the action
phase, the teacher-researchers followed activities
based on the lesson plan. In the observation phase, the
researchers observed the effects of treatments on the
students’ writing skills and engagement based on the
instruments used. Finally, in the reflection phase, the
researchers analyzed the data noted in the observation
phase and decided whether the next cycle needs to be
done or not.
The study was done in an Academic Writing
course involving 24 students in the 5
th
semester of
English Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and
Education, Universitas Islam Darul ‘Ulum,
Lamongan, East Java, Indonesia. In eight meetings,
their engagements, writing skills’ improvement, and
response towards the insertion of Edmodo were
measured.
Four instruments were used to collect the data.
First, observations, and second, document analysis,
were used to see how Edmodo influence students’
engagement. Second, pre-and-posttest was done to
measure the students’ writing skills improvement. In
pre-and-posttest, the students were asked to make an
essay by choosing the given themes. Their essays
were evaluated by some categories, namely idea,
organization, vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation.
Third, a closed-ended questionnaire was used to
check students’ opinions about the use of Edmodo.
Each collected data was interpreted in such a way
to make it meaningful. The notes from classroom
observation and the documents containing online
activities via Edmodo were descriptively analyzed.
Meanwhile, the students' pre-and-posttest was
evaluated by using a writing rubric and then was
compared to see whether their skills were improved
or not. Aspects measured in the rubric were the idea,
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
382

organization, grammar, vocabulary styles and
mechanics or punctuation. The questionnaires were
analyzed by using the Likert scale with an interval
from 1-5 (disagree-strongly agree). Both the students’
writing skills and engagement were noted as
"complete" in this study if the students have passed
75, meaning that the students have done their work
well and are ready for the next material.
3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
3.1 Findings
Before conducting the research, the researcher did a
preliminary observation and pretest to know the
students’ prior ability. Table 1 showed the results of
these first activities.
Table 1: Initial condition.
No.
Indicators
Achievements
Category
1.
Students’
engagement
63%
Poor
2.
Students’
outcomes
35%
Poor
It can be seen from the initial condition that the
average students’ engagement was 63% of the
minimum target of 75%. It means that the students’
engagement was still low. Meanwhile, the total
student who passed 75 in the pretest was only 35%,
with the average score of 54 on a scale of 1 to 100.
Based on these data, the students' engagement, which
was gotten from the researchers' observation at this
class' previous semester writing course, and students’
writing skills, taken from the pre-test given in the first
meeting of Academic Writing course, were regarded
as low, thus it needs to be improved.
The above initial condition serves as the basis for
the action done in the research. In order to reach the
expectations, the researchers did a variety of
preparations, including syllabus and lesson plan
development, materials development, media selection
and assessment planning (the planning phase).
Difficulties faced in each step, especially regarding
the students’ engagement and writing outcomes, were
identified and resolved. Suggestions for students to
facilitate the students’ learning were also given.
Action phase of Cycle 1 was conducted in four
meetings. The first meeting was to discuss the
academic writing process, including the pre-writing
and planning stages. The discussion was led by the
researcher-lecturer. She started by giving the theory
of how to do pre-writing and makes an outline. The
students paid attention carefully. After that, the
students did some practices on pre-writing and
outlining. Each of them made their own pre-writing
and outline. In the second meeting, the students had
ready with their own pre-writing and outline to be
evaluated together. They edited and revised their
outline until it seemed appropriate to be developed
after consulting with the lecturer one by one. In the
third meeting, the class paid attention to the lecturers’
explanation on developing an outline into a
paragraph. They learned about what a paragraph
usually consisted of. In the end of that meeting, the
students were asked to develop their own paragraph
into a good paragraph. The paragraphs they
developed by the end of this meeting were the ones
being assessed to know their writing score during the
action phase of Cycle 1. As treatments, for each
meeting, the students were given examples to broaden
their understanding via Edmodo (off-class activities).
The lecturer also encouraged them to ask questions if
they have problems and share opinions in the
platform provided (Edmodo’s Feed). Using Feed,
both the teacher and students interact with each other
by adding new message or assignment at anytime and
anywhere. Their outlines and paragraphs were also
submitted online, to make it quicker and easier to be
scored. They can see their scores directly once the
lecturer posted it. Complain was also welcome online
and offline. During this action phase, the researcher
acted as teacher-researcher. Thus, other than giving
the explanation to each topic, she also observed the
students' activities, both in the classroom and via Feed
in Edmodo, by making notes to record the students’
engagement. The level of engagement and students’
writing scores can be seen in Table 2.
Table 2: Students’ engagement and writing scores in cycle
1.
Cycle 1
Students’
Engagement
Writing
Scores
Average Scores
67.72
72.5
Passing 75%
71%
68%
The data showed that the students’ engagement
had increased to 71%, but have not reached the
minimum target of 75% yet. The students’ writing
scores were also improved, from 35% to 68%, with
the average scores increased from 54 to 72.5.
However, it also still did not reach the minimum
target of 75%. Based on these, the researchers
decided to continue to the second cycle.
Action phase of Cycle 2 was held in four meetings
based on the lesson plan made in the Cycle 2 planning
phase. The first meeting was to discuss the unity and
coherence. They did some practices by analyzing
Students’ Engagement, Writing Performance and Perception towards the Utilization of Edmodo in a Writing Course
383

some texts to evaluate their unity and coherence. In
the second meeting, the students revised their
paragraph to make it coherence and have a uniting
idea. In the third meeting, the students learned about
developing an essay. By the end of this meeting, they
were expected to be able to develop their outline into
a good essay. They submitted their essays in the
fourth meeting through Edmodo. During this cycle,
the students were also encouraged to share opinions
or just ask problems they encountered via Edmodo.
Their activities, both in class and online, were
recorded to see their engagement. The engagement
was assessed based on the observation (for at class
activities) and document analysis (for online
activities). This research only focused on behavioral
engagement, thus it only evaluated the students’
positive conduct, involvement in learning tasks, and
participation in school-related activities, online and
offline. The results of cycle 2 can be seen in Table 3.
Table 3: Students’ engagement and writing scores in cycle
2.
Cycle 2
Students’
Engagement
Writing
Scores
Average Score
78
79
Passing 75%
80%
84%
Results of cycle 2 showed that both the students'
engagement and total students who passed 75% have
reached the minimum target. The students'
engagement has increased from 71% to 80% and the
students' writings which passed 75% have improved
from 68% to 84%. These data were actually showing
the benefits of Edmodo application in a writing
course.
Furthermore, to know the students’ responses
towards the utilization of Edmodo in their writing
class, the researchers distributed a closed-ended
questionnaire which containing 21 questions. The
students might show their responses by crossing the
number, 1 to 5 which means disagree to strongly
agree, for each statement.
The questionnaire results showed that generally,
the students gave positive responses towards the
utilization of Edmodo. In other words, they said that
Edmodo is satisfying, helpful, increase student-
student and student-teacher interaction, increase their
knowledge, and enable them to learn effectively.
Although, there were still a few of students who felt
isolated (e.g. having bad internet access), got trouble
using the technology, and more anxious while
Edmodo was utilized.
3.2 Discussions
3.2.1 Edmodo Facility for Students’
Engagement
Based on the research results, it can be seen that
Edmodo has improved the students' engagements.
Engagement in this study is viewed as the active role
of students as the participant during the teaching and
learning process. Through Edmodo, which is
designed to increase the interaction activities among
students and between teacher and students, it is hoped
that emotional attachment will grow greater because
this attachment will lead to knowledge articulation
and community actions. Knowledge articulation and
community actions are actually the roots of
knowledge among the young generation. In their
study, Won, at al. (2015) found that youth
appropriated "Edmodo" to exhibit engagement and
articulate knowledge through reciting facts,
acknowledging learning, and documenting progress
with the guidance of instructors and facilitators. A
similar finding is also noted from the research of
Beltran-Cruz and Cruz (2013) which showed that
students had a better experience, better engagement,
and appreciated both the social learning experience
gave by the online social network. Results revealed
that students through student-student interaction and
student-teacher interaction enhance their own
experiences and improve their learning ability.
To improve the students’ engagements, teachers
can put students into small groups (Edmodo provides
platform for this) or individual projects that ask for
their personal views. Teachers can also create
opportunities for them to do experiments. In this
research, the students are encouraged to share what
they think and the problems they encountered during
their writing processes, both in face to face meetings
and in the platform provided via Edmodo. Their
engagement will clearly be seen from their posts in
Edmodo. Students who lazily give comments can be
noted as less engage.
3.2.2 Edmodo Improves Students’ Writing
Skills
After the second cycle, it can be seen that students’
writing skills are improved. It means that the
application of Edmodo for the writing courses gave
positive influence to the students’ development of
writing skills. This improvement could be seen from
the improvement of students’ writing scores which
included the organization of writing, idea or content,
vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics or punctuation.
Yet, the organization and idea got the highest
improvement.
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
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Edmodo was used not only as a place to hand in
the students' works but also as a media for online
discussion, which can be accessed anywhere at any
time. Both students and teachers can easily give
mutual comments and suggestions towards the
students’ writings. From those experiences, students
can learn more naturally through everyday informal
communication. Jones and Rice (2017) also found
that the use of Edmodo can improve the students’
writing skills.
3.2.3 Students’ Perception towards the Use
of Edmodo
From the questionnaires, it was noted that generally,
the students gave positive responses towards the
utilization of Edmodo. In other words, they said that
Edmodo is satisfying, helpful, increase student-
student and student-teacher interaction, increase their
knowledge, and enable them to learn effectively.
Although, there were still a few of students who felt
isolated (e.g. having bad internet access), got trouble
using the technology, and more anxious while
Edmodo was utilized. Similar results are also found
by Al-Said (2015), Al-Kathiri (2014) and Ekici
(2017) who saw pre-service primary teachers
generally had positive views about the use of Edmodo
in teacher education programmers. Most pre-service
primary teachers stated that Edmodo provides the
possibility of sharing knowledge, experiences, and
views.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study indicated that (1) Edmodo
facilitated the students’ engagement. It can be seen
from the active role of students as the participant
during the teaching and learning process, at class and
via Edmodo; (2) improved the students’ outcomes. It
can be seen from the improvement of students’
writing scores which are including the organization of
writing, idea, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics.
The organization and idea got the highest
improvement; (3) and students took advantage of this
application usage. To conclude, it can be said that
Edmodo can be used to create an online community
of practice in teacher education programmers.
However, despite those virtues, it cannot be
ignored that some participants stated that Edmodo has
some limitations; for instance, the fact that it requires
the user to have a good internet access.
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Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
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