1
STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS THE USE OF ONLINE
HOMEWORK TO INCREASE THEIR MOTIVATION
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
Oviera Maulia Gossti
112012130
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
6
INTRODUCTION
Motivation might be considered as one of the most important things that students need to have in the teaching and learning process. However, as people grow and live in this modern era, the easy access in gaining information and doing any activities in the education world has also become one of the most important
aspects in increasing students’ motivation to participate actively in the teaching
and learning process.
Nowadays, people started to use internet and do the educational activities such as giving and submitting homework online. Through online homework, students can use their time effectively since they only need to send their homework via internet which can be accessed every time and everywhere. With this kind of easiness, it is expected that students will have more motivation in the learning process. Dillard-Eggers, et.al (2008) found that most students believe that through online homework, they can spend their time to study more effectively and it makes them understand the materials easier. Besides the technology itself, the
use of homework can also give some benefits for students’ improvement in
learning. Brewster and Fager (2000) also hold the view that homework can be useful for students if it is used in an appropriate way. As cited in their study, Paulu (1998) also believed that homework can give a chance for students to review and practice the materials that they have learned before.
Even though it seems that online homework is quite useful for students,
7
motivation and the effect of its use in students’ achievement. Therefore, this study
aimed to answering this research question: “What are the students’ perceptions
toward the use of online homework to increase their learning motivation?” By
doing a further investigation, hopefully this study could provide some further
information about how to increase students’ learning motivation through online
homework and the other possible methods that can be used to increase students’
learning motivation.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Defining Motivation
In education, motivation has become one of the most important aspects in determining students’ performance in the teaching and learning process. As cited
in Brewster and Fager (2000), motivation is defined as students’ willingness,
need, desire and compulsion which influence their success and participation in learning (Bomia et al., 1997, p.1). From this definition, it could be seen that motivation has a very important role for students in gaining some achievements as the result of their learning process. A further definition was also delivered by Skinner and Belmont (1991) who stated that students who are motivated to participate in school activities are more initiative, enthusiastic, give more effort and concentration in learning, and capable to show positive attitude, optimism, and interest during the teaching and learning process (cited in Brewster and Fager,
2000).On the other hand, students’ who have less motivation are more passive,
8
challenges. Therefore, from several definitions above, it can be seen that motivation has such an important role for students who are willing to gain more achievement and more successful in the teaching and learning process.
Types of Motivation
Ryan and Deci (1985) in their Self-Determination Theory found that
student’s motivation could be divided into two categories, which are extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation (cited in Ryan and Deci, 2000). Below are the definitions of both categories:
a. Extrinsic motivation: When a person is extrinsically motivated, he or she
will simply do an activity in order to obtain some separable outcome. For example, if students want to study English because they want to have good grades, it means that they are extrinsically motivated.
b. Intrinsic motivation: A person can be categorized as intrinsically
motivated if he or she is moved to act for the fun or challenge that they face rather than because of the external pressures or rewards. For example, if students want to study because they want to find an answer toward something that they have not known before, it means that they are intrinsically motivated.
9
al (2000) suggested that when amotivated, a lack of opportunity between behaviors and results is encountered by individuals. Their behaviors are not intrinsically or extrinsically motivated.
Given the types of motivation and their definition above, it can be seen that extrinsic motivation has the more correlation with the use of technology such as online homework. In this case, the use of technology such as online homework can be categorized as an extrinsic motivation because it facilitates students with some advantages in the teaching and learning process that will be discussed further in the definition of online homework.
Online Homework as a Part of Blended Learning
As cited in Demirci (2010), homework is an activity that has something to do with motivation, materials understanding, and achievement (Keith & Benson, 1992; Keith, 1982; Paschal, Weinstein, & Walberg, 1984). Similarly, Doorn., et al (2010) also argued that homework is a medium to help students have a deeper understanding toward the materials since it gives students a chance to practice and apply the knowledge that they have learned. Along with this modern era, the use of technology is really common to support the teaching and learning process especially in the university level. In this case, homework is included as one of the activities in the teaching and learning process that can be supported by the use of
technology namely internet and it is called as “online homework”. Garrison and
10
that is improved online using network technologies (cited in Williams, A., 2012). From this definition, it can lead us to the idea that in doing online homework students do not need to print their homework out, instead they can submit their homework via online by using the internet access.
When online homework is applied in the teaching and learning process, there will be two kinds of activities that could be done by the teacher and students which are in class activity and online activity. Therefore, the use of online homework can be included as a part of blended learning since it combines two different kinds of activities. In line with this statement, Graham (2006, 3) claimed that blended learning system is a combination of face-to-face instruction and computer-mediated instruction (cited in Badawi, M. F, 2009). As cited in Badawi, M. F (2009), Garrison & Vaughan (2008, 5) also defined blended learning as an attentive blend of face-to-face and online learning experiences. Finally, to sum up the definitions from these researchers, Badawi, M. F (2009) stated that:
“The current study suggests that blended learning is a flexible approach that
combines face-to-face learning activities with online learning practices that allow both teachers and learners exchange collective and individual feedback
synchronously and asynchronously.”
Increasing Motivation Using Online Homework
Since people nowadays prefer to use technology in almost every aspect of their life including the educational matters, many researchers have been trying to
investigate the relation between technologies and also student’s learning
11
students’ assessment nowadays can be done using computer based forms which facilitate students with easy access to receive their learning results. In this case,
online homework as a form of technology might influence the students’ learning
motivation since it facilitates students with that kind of easy access in learning that has been mentioned before. Thus, to find a further connection between online
homework and student’s learning motivation, here are some studies that have been
investigated.
One of the studies was done by Arora., et al (2013) who investigated about the use of online homework as a method to improve learning. In this study, it was found that there was a positive correlation between the time that is used by the students for completing their work and their performance in the final exam. A quasi-experimental study using an online homework system, Mastering Engineering was applied in this study. During the term, students were compared in two statics course. The first course was given a written homework, and the other one had to do and submit their homework online. Students were also given pre test and post test to measure their understanding toward the materials. As the result, in the end of the term, students who submitted their homework online showed a better improvement which can be seen from the score that they got.
12
process. As the result of this study, it was found that online homework could
increase the students’ performances and students also believe that online
homework is an effective method for their study. This statement is also supported by Carr, N.S (2013) who argued that educational research has often showed the advantages of effective homework. Therefore, it is quite convincing that online homework as one of the effective ways to access homework might also be beneficial for students. Cooper (1989) also claimed that homework is certainly
correlated with students’ achievement (cited in Emerson, T. & Mencken, K.,
2011). Therefore, if the homework itself is not effective for the students, it is possible that the students will get burdened by their homework which might cause a bad influence toward their result in learning.
THE STUDY
Context
The research was a qualitative study. It investigated the students’
perceptions toward the use of online homework in increasing their learning motivation. This study was conducted in Pronunciation classes, which used online homework as a part of the activity.
Participants
13
taken the Pronunciation class that were chosen as the participants for this study. The researcher asked the students to be involved in this study, and 10 students agreed voluntarily.
Instruments of data collection
In this study, the researcher collected the data using interview method. By
giving questions related to the students’ feeling and experience in using online
homework, it is expected that the researcher would get a clear description about
the use of online homework to increase learning motivation from students’ point
of view. Below are the questions that were used for the interview which was adapted from Guay et al (2000):
1. Do you think online homework is fun or interesting? Why or why not? 2. Do you think online homework is suitable with your need as a student?
Why or why not?
3. What is your reason for doing online homework? Is it because your teacher who asked you and you feel like you have no choice? Or are there any other reasons?
4. What are the things that you dislike from online homework?
Data collection procedure
14
using online homework as a medium for the teaching and learning process. After having the interview with all participants, the researcher decided which participants who have a probability to be interviewed for the second time and get some follow up questions. For the second interview, the participants were chosen based on their answers that seem to be able to provide more significant data which can lead the researcher to the topic. As stated by DiCicco-Bloom, B & Crabtree, B (2006), in-depth interviews can provide huge and in-depth information about
individuals’ experiences. Therefore it is possible that through interview the
researcher will get deeper information to know whether the use of online
homework is beneficial for increasing the students’ motivation or not based on the
students’ point of view.
Data analysis procedure
After having the interview and completing the data, the researcher transcribed the result of the interview and tried to analyze and grouped the
students’ answers toward the questions. From the grouping, there were some findings that appeared which possibly become the final result of this study. The theory of learning motivation used is from Guay et al (2000). In their research about Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS), it was claimed that “Situational motivation” refers to the motivation individuals experience when they are
currently engaging in an activity”. This theory then will lead to three motivational
15
online homework. Hence, by using their theory, it might help the researcher in analyzing the data for the study.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
The interview data shows that the students were quite motivated with their online homework. The 3 aspects as the focus of this paper were observed significantly. 10 participants indicated that they were intrinsically and extrinsically motivated by the use of online homework to support the teaching and learning process. However, for some reasons some students also had different experiences in dealing with online homework. In some certain circumstances, some students felt amotivated in doing online homework and experienced negative outcome in their performances.
From the interview result, the researcher found that the amount of
evidences that shows students’ motivation in doing online homework were varied
which is described by the table below:
Kinds of motivation Evidences
Intrinsic motivation
16
4. It is efficient since students can do their homework anywhere and anytime. 5. It makes students easier to submit their
homework since they do not need to print it out and go to campus to submit it.
Amotivation
1. Students cannot manage their time well when the deadline for some online homework are close to each other. 2. It is difficult for students to handle when
the internet connection is bad.
3. Students need a quite high cost to access the online homework.
Therefore, to see the data analysis deeper, the following is a more detailed discussion about the use online homework in the teaching and learning process
17 Intrinsic Motivation
As one of aspects to measure students’ performance, intrinsic motivation has a quite important role in the teaching and learning process. As cited in Ryan & Deci (2000), Ryan & Stiller (1991) suggested that intrinsic motivation has become an important experience for educators and it is also a natural source of learning and achievement which can be consistently organized or sabotaged by parent and teacher practices. In term of educational matters, intrinsic motivation might
become one of measurements to see whether students’ are truly having a desire to
involve themselves in any activities given by the teacher or not. One example of the activities to support teaching and learning process is online homework which is now quite common to be applied by teacher in the university.
Based on the interview result, the researcher found that most students think that the use of online homework as a representation of nowadays technology is actually quite interesting for them. The idea that online homework is interesting was delivered by some students. One of them was stated by student A:
A : Menurut saya online homework itu sangat menarik ya. Karena kita bisa mengerjakan itu di luar kelas. Kemudian ini adalah hal yang cukup menarik buat saya karena belajar dari pengalaman waktu SMA kan saya sekolahnya di Papua dan tidak pernah belajar masalah PR yang dikerjakan secara online.
A : I think online homework is really interesting because we can do it outside the class. Then for me it is interesting since in my high school in Papua I never used online homework. So it is kind of a new thing for me. (Interview on March 11, 2016; my own translation)
18
B : Menurut saya sangat menarik dan menyenangka n, karena selama memanfaatkan teknologi yang ada di jaman sekarang, dosen berekspektasi lebih tinggi terhadap apa yang kita kerjakan.
B: I think it is really fun and interesting because we can use the technology which is provided nowadays and by using the technology the lecture will have a higher expectation towards our works. (Interview on March 11, 2016; my own translation)
From the two excerpts above, it could be seen that both students A and B delivered their opinion in different ways, however still they had the same thought that online homework was interesting. In the relation with motivation, an interest to a certain thing is in line with intrinsic motivation. When someone is interested in a particular thing, he or she will involve in it by their own willingness because he or she believes that something they interested in will make them satisfy. For Deci (1971), someone is intrinsically motivated when he or she wants to participate in a certain activity for the sake of their own pleasure and satisfaction (cited in Guay et al, 2000). From Deci’s statement, it shows that online homework
actually could influence students’ intrinsic motivation since most of them are
interested in it. Thus, after FLL students were intrinsically motivated by online homework, it is expected that they will also gain a bigger desire to have a better performance in the teaching and learning process.
Extrinsic Motivation
Another type of motivation that can affect students’ performance in the
19
an activity that is done to obtain some separable result. Thus it contrasts with intrinsic motivation which indicates that the reason for someone to do an activity is simply for the enjoyment of the activity itself.
Besides intrinsically motivated in doing online homework, there is a fact that some students actually also extrinsically motivated to do online homework. Some students stated that the reason why they are willing to do online homework is because they are afraid of the consequence that they will receive if they do not do the online homework. One of the statements which describe this idea was
According to student F’s statement, it is quite obvious that she was willing to do online homework because she believed that if the online homework is not done, it will result in her grade to be bad. Therefore, it explains that student F was extrinsically motivated since she did the online homework for the sake of good grade. In their research about The Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS), Guay et
20
Besides preventing them from negative consequences, some students also believe that online homework is quite helpful and effective to fulfill their need. One of participants who think the same way was student I who stated that:
I : Iya, saya rasa online homework sudah memenuhi kebutuhan mahasiswa. Karena sebagai seorang mahasiswa tentu kita akan mendapat banyak tuga s, apalagi ketika final week. Ketika deadline tugas jatuh bersamaan dan kadang hanya berbeda beberapa jam saja, dengan mengumpulkannya secara online tentu akan lebih memudahkan.
I: I think it already fulfilled the students’ need because as a student of course we will have many assignments, moreover in the final week. If the deadlines for many assignments are close to each other, it will be easier if we can submit the assignments online. (Interview on Mei 26, 2016; my own translation)
In line with student I’s explanation, Guay et al, 2000 suggested that a social
context that promotes a probability to fulfill people’s basic needs will belong to
self-determined types of motivation namely intrinsic motivation and identified regulation. In this case, Guay et al, 2000 also stated that when identified regulation occurs, the motivation of a person is still extrinsic. It means that people are actually extrinsically motivated when they are willing to do something which can satisfy their needs. Hence, the same thing was also happened with student I who was extrinsically motivated to do online homework since it could help her to fulfill her needs.
Amotivation
21
person is amotivated when his or her behavior is not extrinsically or intrinsically motivated.
After looking at the result of the interview, there is another fact that made online homework also amotivated for the students. Some of them believed that the use of online homework to support the teaching and learning process was quite burdening for them because of the deadline. Student F as one of the participants in this research stated:
F : Semakin kesini kayak merasa terbebani soalnya nggak hanya satu dosen yang istilahnya menggunakan online homework ini, tapi juga hamper semua dosen FBS pake online homework dan itu kadang berdekatan deadlinenya jadi mau nggak mau harus dikerjakan semua.
F: The thing that I dislike from online homework is that online homework is applied in most courses in FLL and it burdens me when the submission date for many courses are close. (Interview on April 7, 2016; my own translation)
From student F’s statement, the thing that made her amotivated in doing online homework is because of the close deadline between one course to the others. In
this situation, students could only follow the lecturer’s instruction since they had
22
problem with financial matters if they had to submit the homework online. One of the participants who agreed with this idea wasstudent J who stated that:
J : Sebenarnya, lebih baik kan nggak online homework. Maksudnya selain hemat paketan, anak kost, jadi harus bener-bener memanfaatkan.
J: Actually it is better for not using online homework. I mean I am a student who lives in a boarding house, so I have to be very economical in spending money including the use of internet quota. (Interview on April 7, 2016; my own translation)
Besides the financial matters, student J also gave another reason for her objection in doing online homework which is about the internet connection. In the interview student J explained that:
J : Pengaruhnya sih ada positif dan negatifnya. Kalau positifnya ya bisa management waktu juga karena kan dikit-dikit deadline. Trus kalau negatifnya kadang ya koneksi internetnya aja sih yang jadi masalah. Kadang pernah gitu udah selesai, mau submit terus failed gara -gara koneksinya nggak bagus, padahal udah mepet deadline. Akhirnya nilaiku dikurangin gara -gara telat submit.
J: There are positive and negative impacts of online homework. The positive is that it helps me to manage my time well since the submission deadline for some (Interview on April 7, 2016; my own translation)
23
late submission. This kind of negative experience might be one of the causes for students like J to be amotivated in doing online homework. As cited in Guay et al (2000), Deci & Ryan (1985) and also Vallerand (1997) claimed that intrinsic motivation is usually expected to have a close relation with positive results followed by identified regulation, while amotivation is commonly related with negative results followed by external regulation.
Based on this theory, it is quite obvious that negative result of students’ performance has a very close relation with amotivation. Thus, not only intrinsically and extrinsically motivated by the use of online homework in the teaching and learning process, students are sometimes also amotivated in doing online homework in some certain circumstances.
Implementing Online Homework
24
prospective teachers more effectively than the face-to-face learning. With this kind of condition, it is expected that students will also have more motivation in learning since the teachers who applied blended learning in class have gained more pedagogical knowledge which might affect their teaching performance to be better. In addition, another study related to the effectiveness of blended learning was also cited in Badawi, M. F (2009). This study was conducted by Riffell & Sibley (2003) who found that in the hybrid course, student-instructor interaction was experienced more by the students than in a traditional course format. In addition, the online homework itself could also support the students’ time management skills and learning. Hence, there is a big probability that use of online homework as the representative of blended learning can motivate students extrinsically since it gives more benefits for their learning process.
25
Although these two researches were done in biology and chemistry course, we can see that the cases are actually similar with the interview result that has been presented in the previous part of this research where FLL students believe that online homework could help them improve their grades. Therefore, in its relation with motivation, once again the use of online homework is quite effective to motivate students extrinsically.
26
27
CONCLUSION
This study investigated the use of online homework to increase students’ learning motivation in Pronunciation class. Based on the interview results, most students believed that by doing online homework, it can motivate them intrinsically and extrinsically. However in some situation, online homework can also lead them to be amotivated for some reasons.
28
access the internet. Hence, these kind of conditions can lead students to be amotivated in doing online homework.
According to the finding, some strategies are proposed in order to overcome the problems that lead students to be unmotivated in learning. A similar application like m-learning system (MLS) is expected to provide a flexible internet access in any location so that it will solve the first problem faced by students. Then, to give a solution for high cost internet access, a facility like Wi-Fi provider could give students an internet services with lower cost so that more students will be able to access their online homework effectively.
For further studies, there are some aspects to concern. This study involved only 10 participants, and it was limited to one specific context. Accordingly, it would be helpful for future research to have more participants in a wider context so that the data collected will be more varied. Additionally, the researcher also suggest that the possible further research will have a deeper discussion about any other problems that might be faced in applying online homework and the best solution to overcome those problems so that the use of online homework in the
29
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
30 REFERENCES:
Arora, M., Rho, Y., & Masson, C. (2013). Longitudinal study of online statics homework as a method to improve learning. Journal of STEM education, 14(1), 36-44.
Badawi, M. F. (2009). Using Blended Learning for Enhancing EFL Prospective
Teachers’Pedagogical Knowledge and Performance. Learning & Language - The Spirit of the Age, 14-15, Cairo.
Brewster, C. &Fager, J. (2000). Increasing student engagement and motivation: from time-on-task to homework. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory 14(1), 1-25.
Carr, N.S. (2013). Increasing the effectiveness of homework for all learners in the inclusiveclassroom. School community journal, 23(1), 169-182.
Demirci, N. (2007). University students’ perceptions of web-based vs. Paper-based homework in a general physics course. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science &Technology Education, 3(1), 29-34.
Demirci, N. (2010). The effect of web-based homework on university students’ physics achievements. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 9(4), 156-161.
DiCicco-Bloom, B & Crabtree, B. (2006). Making sense of qualitative research.
Medical Education 40(1), 314-321.
Dillard-Eggers, J., Wooten, T., Childs, B., & Coker, J. (2008).Evidence on the effectiveness of on-line homework.College Teaching Methods & Styles Journal 4(5), 9-16.
Doorn, D., Janssen, S., & O’Brien, M. (2010). Student attitudes and approaches to
online homework. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 4(1), 1-20.
Emerson, T.& Mencken, K. (2011). Homework: to require or not? online graded homework and student achievement. Perspective on economic education research 7(1), 20-42.
Guay, F., Vallerand, R. J., & Blanchard, C. (2000). On the Assessment of Situational Intrinsicand Extrinsic Motivation: The Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS). Motivation and emotion, 24(3). 175-213.
Motiwalla, L. F. (2007). Mobile learning: A framework and evaluation.
31
Richards-Babb, M., Drelick, J., Henry, Z., & Robertson-Honecker, J. (2011). OnlineHomework, Help or Hindrance? What Students Think and How They Perform.Journal of College Science Teaching, 40(4). 81-93.
Ryan, R. M &Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: classic definitions andnew directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1). 54-67.
