Abstract:

Using Educational Social Networking Sites (ESNSs) in educational settings has been a very popular practice especially in the past decade. Yet, its impact on learning is still under discussion. With this purpose in mind, this experimental study aims to investigate university vocational school students’ homework performance in Edmodo, which is an ESNS, and to identify their views on online assignments. During the experimentation, five weekly assignments were given for the experimental group via Edmodo and for the control group as pen-and-paper homework. During the assignment process, semi-structured interviews were held with the participants in the experimental group about online assignments. The findings revealed that both groups usually had high rates of homework submission. Moreover, the participants of the control group had a better performance in homework grades. The study also revealed that students usually have positive views on online assignments. The study concluded with the suggestion that EFL teachers should give assignments as online in university vocational schools since they are more instructive, motivating and enjoyable to do for students, as well as, more practical in terms of submission, checking, and grading.

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