Student's Experience and Expectation of Using F-Learn

Abstract

The internet has a big impact in education. There are a lot of web applications that can be used in education setting. One of the most used application is Moodle, a free web application that educators can use to create online learning sites. SatyaWacana Christian University (SWCU) employs a Moodle software named F-learn (Flexible learning) since 2007. Since then, there was not any study seeking students‘ perception toward the use of F-learn in SWCU. This study attempts to find out student‘s experience and expectation toward the use of Flearn in English Language Teaching setting. Participants are taken from Faculty of Language and Literature SWCU. In-depth interview is chosen as the method for this paper because it is the best way to explore individual experience and expectation. Result shows that participants are experiencing limited activities of using F-learn, and only asynchronous system activities. Therefore, most of participants find that the use F-learn so far is not effective, due to narrow activities they have experienced, and also lack of teacher feedback, and poor quality internet connection. The later discussion points out that participants wish that online test, chat box/ direct message, and discussion forum can be used. They also expect that Dropbox system can be integrated to F-learn. This study also finds that participants suggest that in-class meeting cannot be replaced by distance learning, since clarity is more negotiable when direct interaction happens in classroom. Participants also expect that teachers still teach and explain unclear materials and give appropriate and meaningful feedback to support and facilitate students‘ learning process.