Moodle as e-learning system for esp class

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to examine the correlation of the knowledge gained by students in online and offline classes, consequently, the overall performance of e-learning, as well as the effectiveness of the certain language skills among the main four (listening, speaking, reading, writing) by virtue of students’ feedback and objective experimental results using statistical methods data processing. The paper demonstrates the results of the e-learning experimental research conducted during the academic year 2020/21, including the remote learning period due to the Covid19 pandemic situation in the spring semester, at the State Agrarian and Engineering University in Podilya, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine. Online study support for ESP was personally created as a four-credit course due to ECTS in the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) with the application of Big Blue Button. The research sample is represented by 100 students majoring in veterinary medicine and enrolled in the mandatory subject of English for Specific Purposes. The group of students was enrolled in the lessons based on their bachelor curriculum. The subjects, referred to as experimental and control groups, accordingly, both wrote the primary test, at the beginning of the course, and the final one at the end. For pre-test content, the online standard test for B1 level was applied. The post-test was created by the educators, who were involved in the experiment. Due to the results procession and test analysis, it is admitted that the students of the experimental group showed slightly worse results in listening comprehension section, while having the same indicators concerning writing skills, and they had essentially worse outcomes in speaking and reading comprehension if compared to their peers from the control group. Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon non-parametrical pair tests were selected to check the statistical hypotheses, due to the character of input data.