Using 3 Online Course Management Systems in EFL Instruction

Nicenet, WebCT and Moodle were used to teach grammar to freshman students at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. The aims of the experiment were to find out whether the complexity of an online course design and multiplicity of tools used would affect its frequency of usage, to identify technological and linguistic barriers to students' participation and interaction in those online courses and to report students' perceptions of their online learning experience. The subjects were divided into 3 groups, each randomly assigned to a different online course. The subjects had no prior experience using online teaching. The same questions, discussion threads, grammar websites, daily grammar lesson, exercises and quizzes were posted in the three online courses. Daily observations of student reactions, questions and discussions as well as responses to post-treatment questionnaires showed that Nicenet was the most popular. The effective and ineffective use of Online Course Management Systems by freshman students in Saudi Arabia are discussed.

Prof. Reima Al-jarf
King Saud University
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf