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Abstract This chapter provides a summary of the study. In addition, it offers a number of recommendations and suggestions for further research which the researcher has generated with regard to the current body of literature and the status of Online Threaded Discussion (OTD) program during the research. 5.1 Summary There is an urgent need to address students’ unsatisfactory performance in persuasive writing and critical thinking using a non-traditional approach (i.e. OTD). Therefore, this study was designed to determine the effectiveness of OTD in developing persuasive writing and critical thinking skills of MBA and DBA students at Faculty of Business – Ain Shams University. The addressed research questions were: 1- What are the required EFL persuasive writing skills for MBA and DBA students? 2- What are the required EFL critical thinking skills for MBA and DBA students? 3- What are the features of designing a program using Online Threaded Discussion, Fishbowl Discussion Strategy and Blended Learning to develop EFL persuasive writing and critical thinking skills for MBA and DBA students? 4- How far is this program effective in developing persuasive writing and critical thinking skills of MBA and DBA students? 107 The hypotheses which the present study attempted to verify were: 1- “There are statistically significant differences at 0.05 level between the mean scores of the three experimental groups in the postadministration of the persuasive writing test as a whole.” 2- “There are statistically significant differences at 0.05 level between the mean scores of the three experimental groups in the sub-skills of the persuasive writing test in the post-administration.” 3- “There are statistically significant differences at 0.05 level between the mean scores of the three experimental groups in the postadministration of the critical thinking test as a whole.” 4- “There are statistically significant differences at 0.05 level between the mean scores of the three experimental groups in the sub-skills of the critical thinking test in the post-administration.” 5- ”The program has an effect on participants’ satisfaction in the three experimental groups.” The participants of the current study were 30 MBA and DBA students. They were enrolled in El Sewedy Electric Group. They were already divided into three groups of equal number. They were assigned to three experimental groups. In order to verify the hypotheses of this study, a program based on discussion styles was designed by the researcher and was applied on the three experimental groups. It is expected that this study would have significance for the following categories: 1. Educational Institutions: It is expected that educational institutions would benefit from this study due to the free operational cost of the Moodle Application compared to other costly applications or educational platforms. 108 2. MBA and DBA Students: This category would benefit the most from the study by enhancing their Persuasive Writing and Critical Thinking through the implementation of Online Threaded Discussion which shifts education from being teachercentered to student-centered and where students’ learning becomes the focus of attention. The instruments used in order to carry out the experiment of this study were: 1- A pre-post test to measure the students’ writing skills. 2- A pre-post test to measure the students’ critical thinking skills. 5.2 Findings Several findings could be derived from the findings of this study. It was noted that MBA and DBA students’ persuasive writing skills were unsatisfactory. The main reasons for such weakness are due to the programs provided for them. They feel the real gap between what they study and the real practice. Thus, there should be integration between theory and practice. More emphasis should be dedicated to students’ experiences at work that can be fertilized material for learning process. This makes students feel that they contribute to their learning and makes them active participants. In short, it is recommended to consider the results of this study when dealing with persuasive writing skills and critical thinking skills for MBA and DBA students. In addition, the students under study did consider the use of an online discussion board to be a positive change in instruction and believed they gained a deeper understanding of the topic due to the online discussion board. Students worked collaboratively in order to conduct research prior to posting on the discussion board, therefore, it can be assumed that 109 students were more focused and motivated because they split the work load with their peers and had the opportunity to discuss the topics with their classmates prior to posting. Therefore, it is recommended that students work collaboratively to conduct research while reading about the topic to be discussed. This gives students the opportunity to have casual conversations about the topic prior to posting to the online forum. Likewise, students will most likely feel more comfortable with the topic and their own ideas after hearing feedback from a classmate, which will make them more confident when posting to the online discussion board. In the future, the researcher plans to use student responses to the online discussion to generate new questions and present new ideas in order to encourage more classroom conversation. In other words, in the future, the researcher will build on students’ comments from the discussion board to generate new, deeper questions to discuss together in class. The idea is that students will be more willing and interested in discussing the new questions in class because they already have a foundation of knowledge from the online discussion. However, they will be responding to new thoughts and ideas on the topic rather than simply repeating their posted comments. 5.3 Limitations of the study 1- The period of applying the working OTD program was short. It was only three months. If it was longer than that, it would be better. 2- There were other topics that might enhance students’ experience but the researcher did not use. They are: Decision Making and Problem Solving, Entrepreneurial Business Strategy, Managing Conflicts, Intellectual Property. 110 3- The findings cannot be generalized due to the small number of the participants. 5.4 Recommendations In the light of the present study results, the following recommendations are made: Persuasive writing skills should be enhanced through the integration with critical thinking skills. Persuasive writing has the ability to develop many sorts of thinking, for instance, analytical, deductive and critical thinking. Using OTD which helps learners to translate their experiences into a form of a series of linked messages organized topically. All students have a voice in threaded discussion and no one can dominate the conversation. The present program can be adopted for teaching persuasive writing and critical thinking to students at university stage, for instance, Faculty of Pharmacy. It is recommended that technology should be used at the university stage parallel with face-to-face interaction. Future research could investigate the effect of cognitive style to student learning outcomes in both structured and authentic assessments. Additionally, effect of cognitive style on the number of posts, type of posts, and satisfaction in online courses could be studied. Another research needs to continue to assess student learning outcomes and student perceptions of learning outcomes. Both the actual learning outcomes and perceptions are critical to gaining a better understanding of the potential of online threaded discussion. 111 Investigating the effect of using online threaded discussion board in different ways could be explored. The discussion board could be designed in a variety ways to achieve specific learning outcomes. A content analysis or “discourse analysis” could be performed on the discussion posts themselves to investigate whether the design of the online threaded discussion board achieved the specific outcomes. The analysis could be structured to reflect different types of learning, or discussion board uses including social, technical, or content-oriented. Finding ways to increase sample sizes would be areas for future research studies. There is a need for another research to introduce three independent measurements that may assist in determining student interaction and participation: mean reply depth (MRD), mean post length (MPL), and peer posts accessed (PPA). These measurements, and how they are calculated, are described in greater detail in the paragraphs below. The MRD examines a component of student interaction, the MPL considers how much a student participates in writing, and the PPA looks at how much a student participates in reading. 5.5 Suggestions for Further Studies Further research needs to continue to assess student learning outcomes and student perceptions of these outcomes as they are critical to gaining a better understanding of the potential of online threaded discussion. Additional research should be done with a broader sample. This will allow for greater generalizability to more university students. Broader generalizability is critical because there is a need to adjust online learning experiences for university learners to make those experiences more suited to them. 112 Future studies should also include opportunities for qualitative data collection, as well as quantitative data collection. A mixed methods approach will provide opportunities for clarification and verification of findings through triangulation of the data. In order to make valid statements about achievement, the quantitative aspect of the study could focus on students’ test scores. The qualitative aspect of the study could offer opportunities for triangulation through interviews and content analysis. Suggestions and recommendations that may enhance participants’ discussion: The following are suggestions and recommendations that may enhance participants’ discussion. These suggestions are derived from the researcher’s experience after applying the Online Threaded Discussion program. They are as follows: 1- The techniques used by the teacher should emphasize the use of better hooks to launch the discussion. Generally, discussion starts with a question but sometimes prompts of that caliber require thoughtful preparation; they don’t usually pop into minds the moment they are needed. Thus, a quotation, a short scenario that requires content application, a hypothetical case or situation, a synopsis of a relevant current event are relevant techniques that a discussion can be started with. 2- Using listening as an integral part of instruction. Teachers’ talk is a primary source of information and language input for English learners. It not only conveys ideas about the topics being discussed but models how to use language, serving as the input or data which learners internalize and use to express their meanings. Moreover, listening comprehension activities gave participants the opportunity to construct an idea about the topic being discussed. 113 3- Respecting participants’ ideas even if they were somehow irrelevant. Teachers should not discourage participants while talking. 4- Using topics and discussions related to participants’ interest and up-todate. When choosing materials or themes to use, it is important that teachers find ones that are appropriate for learners based on their language proficiency and what is of interest to them. Using ideas that were relevant to participants’ study helped them to be interested in participating in the discussions. Besides, the researcher was eager to tackle the new topics with participants especially in case studies |