Factors underlying students’ attitudes towards multimodal collaborative writing

Abstract

While multimodal writing is widely recognized as an effective way to increase engagement and motivation, its benefit also depends on the students’ attitudes. This study investigated students’ attitudes to a multimodal collaborative writing project and the factors affecting students’ attitudes. A total of 52 students selected using convenience sampling responded to a student survey that collected data about the perceived helpfulness of multimodal writing, teacher feedback, grade, ease, familiarity, and team member participation. Individual interviews with 11 students were also conducted to ascertain students’ opinions about the challenges and benefits of the multimodal collaborative writing project. The results indicated that factors related to information and research literacy, conventional writing, enablers and barriers played a primordial role in shaping students’ attitudes. Interestingly, many students appreciated multimodal writing for the benefits it has on their information and research literacy skills rather than on traditional writing skills. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on multimodal collaborative writing. However, there are some limitations that should be addressed in future research.