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LangLit
An International Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal
Vol. 8 Issue 2 7 November, 2021
Website: www.langlit.org Contact No.: +91-9890290602
Indexed: ICI, Google Scholar, Research Gate, Academia.edu, IBI, IIFC, DRJI
ISSN 2349-5189 IMPACT FACTOR – 5.61
PERCEPTION OF STUDENTS ON LEARNING ENGLISH THROUGH
EDMODO
AVADHUTA PATEL
Research Scholar
Dept. of English
Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat
Gujarat, India
&
RAEESA USMANI
Research Scholar
Dept. of English
Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat
Gujarat, India
ABSTRACT
The transition of teaching and learning methods from face-to-face into the online learning world
has resulted in a significant rise in the use of varied digital learning tools. These instruments act
as additional resources for motivating an independent study while encouraging the practice of
incorporating innovative teaching strategies as a regular practice in the language teaching and
learning classrooms. One such more commonly educational application is called Edmodo. It is
considered a 'Facebook for education' that of ers teachers a simple way to create and run an
online classroom and make it possible for students to connect and work from anywhere according
to their convenience and feasibility. The objective of the study is to investigate the perception of
tertiary level students about the ef ectiveness of the application-Edmodo. A small research study
was carried out at Uka Tarsadia University, Gujarat, India, with 74 students of B.Pharm as
participants. The data were collected through a questionnaire that were analyzed on a 5 point
Likert scale, ranging from strongly agreed to strongly disagree. The finsings showed a positive
attitude and response from students towards the use of Edmodo in their language learning
process. However, it has also been observed and suggested in the responses that online learning
cannot replace conventional face-to-face learning, instead can facilitate the process of teaching
and learning. Keywords: Edmodo, Tertiary Level, Perception
1. Introduction
The use of technology in teaching foreign languages has been developing at a rapid
pace. It has also been helping the students to have new, meaningful and authentic learning
experiences that engage their efforts and behaviour by providing more fun and effective
language-learning atmosphere. The language teacher has sometimes been kept occupied with
a variety of tasks to an extent that hinders their active participation and presence in the
classroom. Many times, they may miss out on their regular classroom sessions. In such times, therefore, technology becomes a boon. The averted classroom sessions and the planned
content can easily be taught or discusses with the help of a wide-variety of online
applications available for free in the market today. The integration of technology in
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LangLit
An International Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal
Vol. 8 Issue 2 8 November, 2021
Website: www.langlit.org Contact No.: +91-9890290602
Indexed: ICI, Google Scholar, Research Gate, Academia.edu, IBI, IIFC, DRJI
ISSN 2349-5189 IMPACT FACTOR – 5.61
classroom assists students not only to acquire the knowledge and information of the foreign
language but it also increases the motivation and confidence of the students (Lacina, 2004;
Lin, 2009). Besides, the incorporation of the technology provides the prospect for the
students to work collaboratively with their peers and get easy, simple and direct access to the
knowledge that will supplement and enhance their language learning experience. There are certain educational web 2.0 tools available online for free, i.e. whiteboard, Story bird, Podcast, Vodcast, Google classroom, Wiki, Padlet and so on that can be used to
supplement the face to face class for the ESL students at the tertiary level. They are user- friendly, simple, and free applications. These applications also include several activities and
language-learning resources, that if used by the students and monitored by the teacher, they
may enhance the students’ language proficiency and independent learning skills. Through
these tools, both teachers and students can browse learning materials and access virtual
learning environments and resources for free from anywhere at any time with no place or
time constraint as has been the case with the traditional classrooms (Kodriyah, 2016). Edmodo is one of the web 2.0 tools and an educational, social networking site. Edmodo is owned, created and funded by Nicolas Borg and Jeff O’Hara in San Mateo, California, in 2008 (Kongchan, 2013). It is a free and secure educational learning network
that has been used to provide a uncomplicated tool for language teachers to create and
manage an online classroom community as well as enables students to connect and work with
their classmates' teachers anywhere and anytime (Balasubramanian, Jaykumar & Fukey, 2014). The Edmodo website has been in the continuous mode of development. Therefore, it
provides innovation and creativity in the process of teaching and learning a language
(Kongchan, 2012). There are an ample number of advantages of using Edmodo in the teaching and
learning process. Among them are:
1. It is free, secure and user friendly. 2. Both students and teachers can share documents and digital media online and further make
connections with those not just in the same classroom but with others from different schools, states, or cultures. 3. The teacher can easily create and take a quiz, assignment, and poll. 4. Students can upload assignment; receive grades, feedback and suggestion from the teachers
in real-time. 5. It does not only provide the facility to the students and teacher but also the parents. Parents can also examine the progress of their children with this tool. Research studies that have been carried out on Edmodo have already recognized its
potential. They have recorded many evidences that establishes the fact that Edmodo can
significantly facilitate the linguistic development of the learners, especially writing skills, build vocabulary and enhances the reading skills as well (Miftah,2018; Q Yusuf, YQ Yusuf, N Erdiana, AR Pratama,2018; Gay & Sofyan, 2017; Humairah, 2017; Purnawarman, S., Susilawati, & Sundayana. 2016, Evenddy & Harmer, 2016, Warawudhi, 2017).
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LangLit
An International Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal
Vol. 8 Issue 2 9 November, 2021
Website: www.langlit.org Contact No.: +91-9890290602
Indexed: ICI, Google Scholar, Research Gate, Academia.edu, IBI, IIFC, DRJI
ISSN 2349-5189 IMPACT FACTOR – 5.61
A research study carried out by Mokhtar, F. & Dzakiria, H. (2015) demonstrates the
potential of Edmodo as an interactive virtual learning platform for English language learning
and teaching practice. The outcome of this research suggests that the use of Edmodo as a
virtual classroom is a feasible idea for language learning and teaching process. Another
experimental study that was undertaken by Al Khatiri (2015) on the use of Edmodo observed
that that this application has significantly enhanced student’s motivation levels towards
learning the English language. In line with the above studies, a research carried out by
Cankaya, Serkan & Yunkul, Eyup (2017) reveals the university students’ positive attitude and
encouraging views about the use of Edmodo as application that also offers a co-operative
learning environment. The finding showed that the students had positive attitudes towards
online language learning process. Hence, in line with the above-mentioned studies, the
present small scale research study has been carried out analyze tertiary level students' perception towards using Edmodo in learning the English language in their language
classroom. 2. Research objective
The objectives behind this study are:
1. To study the perception of the students towards using Edmodo for learning English
language
2. To identify the effectiveness of Edmodo for teaching English language to the ESL students
3. Research Methodology
3.1 Population
Population in this study is consists of 74 students who study in B.Pharm. first year at a state
level private university near Surat, in Gujarat during the 2020-21 academic year. 3.2 Research procedure and Instrument
In this experiment, content related to reading skills, writing skills, listening skills and
speaking skills, i.e. video clips and study material in the form of PDF files was shared
through Edmodo application to the target students. The students were taught the syllabus of
English with the help of the above-mentioned study resources. Towards the end of the
completion of the teaching, they were assigned assignment writing tasks and a quiz was taken
up via the same platform. The data for the assessment were collected with the help of a questionnaire. The
questionnaire was employed to investigate the students’ perception on the use of Edmodo as a
helpful teaching and learning resource, which also offers and opportunity to incorporate
interesting activities for the students while offering them active support whenever they
require, in addition to assist them in evaluating the new online learning platform. The online
questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale was administered on the learners towards the end
of the taught course to analyse their experience of learning a language on the online platform.