Supporting students improve their academic writing through online collaboration

Abstract

This study examines how students can be supported online with their writing while they are outside classroom. Coming from different backgrounds and media of study, many of the undergraduate students of BRAC University face difficulties while writing in English which results in poor grades at the end of the semester. In this research, 25 undergraduate students from six different departments were selected based on a diagnostic test taken in the beginning of the semester. They all were added on three online groups (Wiki, blog and FB) where they have practiced, in addition to the class works, more on basics of academic writing so that they get additional support to bridge up the existing learning gap with their other classmates. Results have shown that students using the online groups have gotten advantages out of the activities. They also have mentioned that they were benefitted by the comments by their peers, though, according to them, a teacher must be monitoring the whole system to optimize the outcome and increase students’ participation. This type of research can be replicated in many other institutions provided they have all required facilities in place. Through this study, English language teaching and learning takes a new form and hundreds of students learn English language with supports from their teacher and peers online.