Effect of Online Learning on Struggling ESL College
Writers
Prof. Reima Sado Al‐Jarf
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2 groups of freshman students participated in the study. They were both
enrolled in their first writing course in ESL. Before instruction, both groups were pre‐
tested. They wrote a paragraph. Results of the mean comparisons of the pre‐test
scores showed significant differences between both groups in their writing ability. The
control group outperformed the experimental group. The experimental group made
too many errors and showed many writing problems. Both groups completed all the
exercises and writing assignments in the textbook assigned by the department. During
the class session, the instructor monitored students’ work and offered individual help
to students in both groups. She pointed out few errors only (those related to rules or
skills under study). She encouraged students to write and gave extra credit for good
paragraphs. In addition, the experimental group used a coursesite with Blackboard
Corporation that she developed. The control group did not use the internet at all. The
experimental group used the internet from home as it was inaccessible from campus.
She sometimes started a thread on the “discussion board” and listed sites in the
“external links” related to the writing skills and grammatical structures covered in the
course. The students posted their own threads and wrote short paragraphs. They
posted stories or poems that they read and liked to share with others. They located
information related to themes covered in the book from sites like “Yahoo movies” and
“webMD”. They word‐processed their paragraphs and checked their spelling. At the
end of the course, both groups were post‐tested. They wrote a long essay.
Comparisons of the post‐test mean scores showed significant differences between
both groups. The experimental group outperformed the control group. Th