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An evaluation of the effectiveness of the online writing assessment system in ETAS
Author
Liu, Dongping
Supervisor
Zhang, Lawrence Jun
Abstract
With the advancement of the information technology, more and more English learners in China are appealing to the Internet for formal and less formal studies of this language. China Central Radio & TV University (CCRTVU), as a distance teaching & learning university, organizes 44 provincial RTVUs and expands teaching resources through its Website to millions of English learners across China. Dalian Radio and TV University (DLRTVU), the location of this empirical study, is one of the practitioners of the online learning format.
However, the online learning format is not without problems. One salient problem is the assessment of students. CCRTVU, for example, creates ETAS, the Electronic Teaching and Assessment System. But is this assessment battery reliable and valid? How useful is it in assessing the e-learning students? So far, there has been no tailored research into this area. This study attempts to contribute some evidence by evaluating the effectiveness of the online English writing assessment system in ETAS. 33 adult students participated in this study; they registered for the ETAS course of English Writing at DLRTVU from March 2007 to July 2007.
The study aims to answer the following three questions:
1. What is the evidence to show respectively and collectively the validity, reliability, authenticity, interactiveness, impact and practicality of the online writing teaching and assessment system?
2. To what extent does the online writing teaching and assessment system help to improve students' writing competence?
3. How effective is the online writing teaching and assessment system compared with traditional way of teaching writing?
The author adopted a triangulated approach in collecting and analyzing the data: theoretical examination of different question types, questionnaires for and informal interviews with the informants, and technical calculations and comparisons of the reported scores. This research gets the following conclusions:
Firstly, the ETAS writing test items have reasonable validity and reliability; the online course is an effective way for increasing students' involvement and their enthusiasm in learning and practicing writing as this learning format provides them with more room for collaboration and sharing. And the ETAS writing course is more authentic and with both good washback effect and high practicality. Secondly, by comparing the students' writing scores before and after the implementation of ETAS, significant differences have been found, which indicates that ETAS has contributed to the students' improvement of their writing competence. And thirdly, both statistical results and observations from the course instructors show that ETAS is a more effective and more favored way of teaching writing.
Thus, this dissertation suggests that although there are still technical problems with the e-learning format and doubts about its efficiency in the English language teaching field, online English courses have their undeniable advantages and have great potentiality in promoting ELT in China.
However, the online learning format is not without problems. One salient problem is the assessment of students. CCRTVU, for example, creates ETAS, the Electronic Teaching and Assessment System. But is this assessment battery reliable and valid? How useful is it in assessing the e-learning students? So far, there has been no tailored research into this area. This study attempts to contribute some evidence by evaluating the effectiveness of the online English writing assessment system in ETAS. 33 adult students participated in this study; they registered for the ETAS course of English Writing at DLRTVU from March 2007 to July 2007.
The study aims to answer the following three questions:
1. What is the evidence to show respectively and collectively the validity, reliability, authenticity, interactiveness, impact and practicality of the online writing teaching and assessment system?
2. To what extent does the online writing teaching and assessment system help to improve students' writing competence?
3. How effective is the online writing teaching and assessment system compared with traditional way of teaching writing?
The author adopted a triangulated approach in collecting and analyzing the data: theoretical examination of different question types, questionnaires for and informal interviews with the informants, and technical calculations and comparisons of the reported scores. This research gets the following conclusions:
Firstly, the ETAS writing test items have reasonable validity and reliability; the online course is an effective way for increasing students' involvement and their enthusiasm in learning and practicing writing as this learning format provides them with more room for collaboration and sharing. And the ETAS writing course is more authentic and with both good washback effect and high practicality. Secondly, by comparing the students' writing scores before and after the implementation of ETAS, significant differences have been found, which indicates that ETAS has contributed to the students' improvement of their writing competence. And thirdly, both statistical results and observations from the course instructors show that ETAS is a more effective and more favored way of teaching writing.
Thus, this dissertation suggests that although there are still technical problems with the e-learning format and doubts about its efficiency in the English language teaching field, online English courses have their undeniable advantages and have great potentiality in promoting ELT in China.
Date Issued
2008
Call Number
PE1128 Liu
Date Submitted
2008