Improving the Students' English Skills through Online Activities in Moodle Platform

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31 332/lkw.v6i1.1846 This research was aimed to determine the effectiveness of online instructional material model for EFS courses developed through Moodle for Secretarial Academy (ASTRI) of Budi Luhur students when compared to the existing EFS instructional material. This qualitative research conducted in the second semester of 2007/2008 academic year. Meanwhile the data sources used in this study were respondents consisting of 48 ASTRI Budi Luhur students as well as documents consisting of observation guidelines and post test results. The students were divided into 2 classes, namely BA and BB classes. BA class is treated as an experimental class while BB class is treated as a control class. This experiment was carried out for 7 times fully online learning with synchronous learning method. In analyzing the data collected, the researchers used T-Test to find out the effectiveness of EFS instructional material through Moodle. Based on the results of the post test conducted, EFS instructional material through Moodle had been proven to be able to improve four english skills which include listening, reading, speaking and writing to the students of ASTRI Budi Luhur Jakarta.


Introduction
English was very important in the business and industrial world. Most companies (45.2%) required that their job applicants were proficient in English and could use them to communicate. In addition, there were several industries that required job applicants to master English language skills passively (7.8%), both verbally (23.5%) and in writing (23.5%) (Yuliah, Bakhti and Setyawan, 2016). There were five types of work groups that require applicants to master English, including; administrative and management work groups, sales and marketing, education, communication, and other types of occupations. In the field of administration and management, English were the language of international business, therefore, it was very important for a secretary to be able to communicate effectively in English (Eamjoy, 2015). Furthermore, in the field of administration and management, English is an international business language, therefore it is very important for a secretary to be able to communicate effectively in English (Eamjoy, 2015).
One of the jobs in administration was the secretary. In this case, English was very important for a secretary to complete various tasks and to communicate with colleagues, superiors and corporate clients. Nowadays, secretaries play a very important role in almost all large-scale multinational companies (Strevens, 1993). Based on this phenomenon, the Secretarial Academy (ASTRI) of Budi Luhur believed that English was one of the main skills that had to be mastered and learned by the students. In the applied curriculum, English courses had a large number of a total of 18 credits for 5 courses.
However, the facts said that the English skills of ASTRI Budi Luhur students needed to be further developed. Based on the TOEIC test score data conducted in 5 years, it showed that almost of ASTRI Budi Luhur students scored 300-500. And, only 25.6% of students scored more than 500. It showed that they could get basic proficiency certificate and were considered capable to work in an international company. With the condition of the student's English proficiency, it would directly affect the waiting time and the type of company and the scale of the company where they will work.
Based on the preliminary observations that the researchers had done, the low English proficiency of ASTRI Budi Luhur students was also influenced by the conditions of existing English instructional material in ASTRI Budi Luhur. Ideally, a good English instructional material would help the students to develop their four english skills. Instructional material referred to everything that was used by instructors or learners to facilitate learning (Tomlinson, 2011); Richards & Schmidt, 2010). Meanwhile, (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) defined instructional material as everything that functions primarily to supplement of teaching. Instructional material was the main component in language learning. Based on this opinion, instructional material could be interpreted as a main component and complementary components of a learning process. Porter & Brown, (1997) described instructional material as a systematic description of the techniques and exercises that will be used in classroom teaching. It had to be able to facilitate students and instructors. It could be in the form of linguistic, visual, auditory, or kinesthetic materials. Instructional material could be presented in printed form (textbooks, workbooks, photocopied leaflets, etc.), audio or video formats, CD-Roms, via the internet or through performance or displays.
Based on the problems faced and all the potential possessed by ASTRI Budi Luhur, the researchers developed a instructional material for EFS course through Moodle. It was fully online instructional material or e-learning instructional material where all meetings were delivered via online / e-learning. Genova (2019) stated that e-learning as a new environment in which both instructors and learners used it to interact with each other. Information technology could be used to support teaching and enhanced learning, for learning media, to collaborate and to make instructional material. In line with this opinion, Dabbagh and Ritland (2005) defined e-learning as an open and distributed learning environment that used pedagogical equipment, activated by internet and web-based technology, to facilitate learning to build knowledge through meaningful actions and interactions. Clark and Mayer (2012) stated that e-learning as teaching delivered through digital equipment such as computers or mobile devices intended to support learning.
Furthermore, Dabbagh and Ritland (2005) stated that e-learning learning consists of a series of interrelated components. The first component was infrastructure such as computers (service and client), internet network or intranet multimedia equipment and teleconference equipment. The second component was the e-learning system and application. This component was software that virtualizes the learning process. This software system was known as Learning Management System (LMS) such as Elisa, Moodle, Class Server and so on. The last component was e-learning content. This content could be in the form of text-based content, webbased content and multimedia-based content.
Online learning models had different types, those were synchronous learning and asynchronous learning. Synchronous Learning was a learning process carried out by lecturers and learners at the same time to enable direct interaction in the learning process either through the internet or intranet. Meanwhile, the asynchronous learning method did not depend on time, where all users (learners and lecturers) can access the system and communicate according to their own time. Furthermore, Noirid, Surachet;Srisa-ard, (2007) classifies the continuum of online learning in three models of online learning delivery namely; adjuct, mixed / blended and fully online. The adjunct model was used to support the face-to-face learning system in the classroom. The mixed/blended model placed e-learning into an inseparable part of classroom learning. Meanwhile, the fully online model was used for the entire learning process starting from the delivery of learning materials, learning interactions, and evaluation of learning (See Figure 1).

Figure 1: E-Learning Continum
As stated before that instructional material used in this research was developed through Moodle. Moodle is an abbreviation of Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment developed by Martin Dougiamas (Darmawan, 2014). Meanwhile Stanford, (2009)   Listening activities could be done through 7 activities with different objectives and several modules such as; forum, quiz, lesson or other with the help of some extra programs such as mediacenter, mindmap and so on. In connection with listening activities through Moodle, the results of a study conducted by Cedar (2013) showed that there was an increase in post test scores compared with pre test scores in listening classes using Moodle. Cordova & Dechsubha, (2018) found that through Moodle, listening skills in ESP classes at Vongchavalitkul University students had increased. In addition, the research also proved that technology, online and mobile applications combined with collaboration and learner independence played an important role in improving their listening skills.
Speaking had more activities through Moodle than reading and listening. It could be done through 9 activities with different objectives and several modules such as; chat, quiz, database or other activities with the help of some extra programs such as: NanoGong and Audacity. (See table 2). Unfortunately, Moodle did not yet provide a module that could be used to record audio to facilitate the student speaking activities for free. Speaking activities could be facilitated by using other tools such as NanoGong and Audacity. To facilitate speaking activities in the developed EFS instructional material, the researchers used the modules available in Moodle to upload speaking materials, but the evaluation activities were carried out using telephone and e-mail devices. The telephone was used to provide an evaluation of secretarial themes carried out with this tool. Considering that there were a lot of secretarial works done by telephone. For other activities, the students could record the results of their work using their mobile telephone devices and then sended them via e-mail to the lecturer.  (2013) showed that reading instructional material through Moodle that was developed could be used well and could improve the students' reading mastery. The students also gave a very positive attitude towards the product being developed. In addition, this research proved that the application of a website could improve students' reading competence in terms of content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics and could increase their motivation in using e-learning as an alternative medium for learning.  Robertson, (2008) stated that by applying Moodle into writing composition learning, lecturers got various benefits in the fields of organization, implementation, distribution, communication, and assessment. First, all instructional material and learning resources could be placed in one location and could be easily revised and restructured. Second, by utilizing all the menus contained in Moodle, the lecturer could quickly create interesting projects and assignments and motivate learners. Third, teachers could easily distribute instructional material. Fourth, Moodle managed all communication between instructors and learners individually or in groups. Finally, Moodle could save and display assessment notes from students. This research was conducted in the English for Secretary (EFS) course. EFS was one of the compulsory subjects that must be attended by ASTRI Budi Luhur students. This course was intended to equip students with English skills to complete secretarial task. As stated by Toselli and Milan (2006) that English for Secretary as learning English which was designed to meet the needs of secretaries who carry out administrative tasks in English both verbally and in writing. The Secretary was an assistant leader in starting and completing a job. The Secretary was expected to be able to help overcome busyness and solve difficulties, encourage the leadership, simplify the way the work was completed, and speed up the process of completing work so that the expected results can be achieved (Secretan, 1996).
EFS was specifically intended to provide knowledge about how to complete secretarial tasks. Nuraeni (2008) divided secretarial tasks into three types, namely, (1) routine tasks; (2) instructional task and (3) creative task. Routine tasks were general tasks that were done almost every day without waiting for instructions from the superiors in accordance with those that have been applied in the description of their duties. Instructional tasks carried out every day by the secretary, but these were based on instruction from the superiors. Creative tasks arised with the initiative of a secretary and were carried out so that the assistance given to the leadership could be useful and very helpful.
Several researches about the effectiveness of using Moodle in learning English had been conducted. One of them was conducted by (Wade, 2018). Based on the results of his research, it can be concluded that the combination of traditional learning and virtual classes by using Moodle in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in Cagliary (Italy) enabled the students to move flexibly and could acquire language skills as success in learning. Meanwhile, Gluchmanova, (2017) found that the students got more motivation when they learned English using Moodle. Furthermore, Moodle could create not only independent students but also independent workers. This was because all activities in Moodle-based instructional material require students to work independently. Cordova & Dechsubha, (2018) found that the students' post test results in listening learning using Moodle showed a significant improvement when compared to the average scores on the post test. In addition, the students also gave very positive feedback on learning by using Moodle.
In this research, the researchers aimed to find out the effectiveness of instructional material for EFS courses. Instructional material used are online instructional material that are delivered in full online learning. This instructional material was the main instructional material used in EFS courses. This instructional material was developed in the form of synchronous learning so that students can access lectures from where they were and they still be able to interact with lecturers and other students through the chat menus and forums that have been provided. With various menus provided by Moodle, lecturers could use it to upload material in the form of text, audio, video and images to make it easy for students to understand the material provided. This research was aimed to determine the effectiveness of online instructional material model for EFS courses developed through Moodle for ASTRI Budi Luhur students when compared to the existing EFS instructional material

Method
This research was conducted at Secretarial Academi (ASTRI) of Budi Luhur located in Jl. Ciledug Raya, Petukangan Utara, South Jakarta. This research was aimed to improve the four English skills of ASTRI Budi Luhur Jakarta students by using online instructional material through Moodle for EFS courses. This was a quantitative research where most of the data in the form of student test scores. The method used in this research was experiment. Experiment was a practical way to learn something by changing conditions and observing their effects on other things. The aim is to determine the effect or cause and effect relationship by comparing the results of the experimental group that was given treatment with a control group that was not given treatment (Arifin, 2012).
Meanwhile the data sources used in this study were respondents consisting of 48 female ASTRI Budi Luhur students. Data collected by test method. The test was used twice, those were pre-test and post-test in large groups. Pretest was done before students took EFS learning through Moodle. While Postest was conducted after students got EFS learning with Moodle. The form of the questions from both tests was essay.
To find out the effectiveness of EFS instructional material through Moodle, it was done by t-test. To find out the homogeneity of the data in this study was carried out using the F-test. Meanwhile, to determine the normality of the data carried out on the experimental class and control class data using the Lilliefors test. In the posttest, both students from the experimental class and the control class are given the same English proficiency test.

Findings and Discussion
This section is the most important section of your article. The analysis or results of the research should be clear and concise. The results should summarize (scientific) findings rather than providing data in great detail. Please highlight differences between your results or findings and the previous publications by other researchers.

Findings
To find out the effectiveness of Moodle instructional material, the researchers conducted an experiment involving 48 students of ASTRI Budi Luhur Jakarta, which was divided into 2 classes, namely BA and BB classes. BA class is treated as an experimental class while BB class is treated as a control class. To obtain data, researchers conducted observations, interviews with lecturers and students and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). This experiment was carried out for 7 times fully online learning with synchronous learning method.
To find out the development of students' English after attending those fully online lectures, the researchers gave a post-test to all students covering four english skills. Both the experimental class and the control class consisted of 24 students. After that the researchers compared the results of the post test conducted in the control class. The following are the results of the effectiveness tests that have been carried out. Meanwhile, the hypothesis in this experiment is summarized as follows: H0: There is no difference in the average post-test results between the experimental class and the control class.
H1: There are differences in the average post-test results between the experimental class and the control class.

Pre-test Result
Pre-test was intended to determine the initial ability of all students. The overall score can be seen in the following table. Based on the data obtained, the lowest score in the experimental class was 60, while the highest score was 87. The average score obtained was 74.25. Meanwhile in the control class, the lowest score was 60 while the highest score was 85. The average score of control class was 72.35 as shown in the table 6. Based on the pre-test conducted, the researchers could conclude that ASTRI Budi Luhur students had varied abilities in English. Meanwhile, the average English ability of students in the experimental class and the control class did not differ significantly.

Post-test Result
Based on the data obtained, the lowest score in the experimental class was 75, while the highest score was 94. The average score obtained was 83.46. Meanwhile in the control class, the lowest score was 65 while the highest score was 85. Meanwhile the average score was 73.71. The overall score can be seen in the table 7.

Normality Test
The next step, the researcher conducted a normality test from the post test score data of the control class and the experimental class that had been obtained. The normality test is carried out using the lilliefors test. Based on the normality test that has been done on experimental class data, Lcount = 0.1423 and Ltable = 0.176 at the significance level (α) = 0.05, for n = 24. So that the Lcount (0.1423) <Ltable (0.220), it can be concluded that the data is normally distributed. In the control class, Lcount = 0.1099 and Ltable = 0.176 at the significance level (α) = 0.05, for n = 24. Lcount (0.1099) <Ltable (0.176), it can be concluded that the data are normally distributed. Overall data on the normality test results can be seen in the table 8. Significance level 0,05 0,05

Homogeneity test
Homogeneity test is intended to test whether the data have the same variation or diversity of scores or the same statistics. Homogeneity is a requirement for data to be tested with inferential statistics. Homogeneity test in this study was conducted using the F-Test because both data are independent data. The statistical hypothesis in this homogeneity test is H0 = Homogeneous data H1 = Data is not homogeneous. While the testing criteria in this homogeneity test are H0 is accepted if Fcount <Ftable and H1 is accepted if Fcount> Ftable. Since Fcount = 1.25 and Ftable = 2.01, Fcount <Ftable. Thus it was concluded that the data is homogeneous. The entire data can be seen in the table 9.

Difference Test of Two Averages
In the next step, the researchers conducted a difference test of two averages that was aimed to test the null hypothesis that there were significant mean differences between the post test results of the experimental class and the control class. In this case, the researchers used t-test. The table 10 are the results of the t-test conducted. Control 24 Based on the table 10, the tcount = 4.03, while the ttable at α 0.05 and dk 46 = 1.68. Thus tcount> ttable, and this means that the H1 hypothesis stating that there are differences in the post test scores of students of ASTRI Budi Luhur can be accepted. The average difference indicates an increase in students' English skills after attending lectures with EFS instructional material in full online learning in experimental class.

Discussion
As stated before that this experiment was carried out for 7 times fully online learning with synchronous learning method. In EFS lectures through Moodle, all students had to log in on the web page https://elearning.budiluhur.ac.id/. Then, all students had to follow the entire learning cycle carried out in the chat room menu. In general, learning activities were divided into 3 phases: opening, main and closing activities. In the opening phase, the lecturer gave greetings, examined the student presence, asked the students to pray and discussed the goals and objectives of the meeting.

Figure 2: Opening phase
In the main activities, the lecturer checked the students' knowledge about the themes discussed. Then the lecturer asked the students to look for information about the themes discussed from the sources that they had, it could be a book, notes or websites. The next step was, the lecturer invited students to discuss about what they have learned then the lecturer gave an evaluation.

Figure 3: Main Activity
The final phase is closing. In this phase, the lecturer examines student knowledge by giving additional questions and explanations. After that, the lecturer closed the lecture by saying greeting.
After knowing all the lecture activities, here are the materials discussed during the lecture online that have been conducted for EFS course in ASTRI Budi Luhur Jakarta. The first meeting on this experimental test was devoted to discussing the syllabus of EFS courses and lecture contracts for EFS courses. The syllabus has been uploaded to the Moodle e-learning website and could be easily downloaded by students. At this meeting the lecturer discusses the syllabus of each meeting in EFS lectures. In addition, the lecturer also discussed all the rules set forth in the EFS lecture contract. The lecturer also explained about the inquiry learning cycle that will be used in EFS learning. The second meeting discussed the theme of "First Day at Work". The material learned by students at this meeting was 3 pieces of listening material entitled: Meeting the H.R., Meeting the colleague, Meeting another colleague. Then students study reading material with the title "Workplace Do's and Don't". The next material was the speaking material with the title "Introduce yourself to your new colleague". While the final material was writing material, in this case, students were asked to make e-mails to introduce themselves to colleagues.
At the third meeting, students learned about "Working with Computer". The materials that had been learned by students at this meeting are: listening with the title "Online Trouble". After that students learned reading text with the title "How to Clean Shortcut virus without Antivirus". The next material was making a process paragraph. The fourth meeting discussed about "Telephoning: Taking and Leaving Messages". At this meeting, students learned listening material with the titles "Leaving Messages" and "Taking Messages". Furthermore, students were asked to make a "telephone log" to record incoming messages by telephone. And the last material was receiving incoming calls. The fifth meeting discussed the theme about "Office Duties and Equipment". In this theme, students learned about office equipment and a secretary's daily activities. The material contained in this theme was listening in the form of video text with the title "The Principal-Agent Problem". The next material was Reading text with the title "A Day in the Life of a Personal Assistant or Secretary". Meanwhile, the last material was writing. In this case students were asked to write their daily activities as a secretary.
At the sixth meeting, students learned about "Inquiry Letter and Reply". On this theme students learned how to make an inquiry letter with replies. The material contained in this meeting was Reading material with some examples of inquiry letters. The next material was writing. In this case students were asked to make an inquiry letter, sent each other to classmates, and then made a reply letter from the inquiry letter received. At the seventh meeting, the theme discussed was "Dealing with Number". The material discussed at this meeting was the listening material. Next is the graphic reading material.
The following is the student presence in EFS course ASTRI Budi Luhur Jakarta by using Moodle in fully online learning:

Figure 4: The Student's Presense
Based on the results of the post test conducted, the researcher can conclude that there is an increase in the English language skills of ASTRI Budi Luhur students in four english skills after attending online lectures using EFS instructional material through Moodle. This is in line with the findings of research conducted by Irawan & Surjono, (2018) which showed that students' Listening skills have improved after using Moodle. The effectiveness of the product on learning English in Listening competence is evidenced through the increase in learning outcomes that are known from the percentage of the results of the pretest and post-test evaluation that is equal to 17.19%.
In line with these findings, Castro, (2017) found that the use of attractive, organized and contextual virtual reading worksheets can be useful to improve students' reading comprehension through the adequate use of a set of reading strategies that encourage the development of their vocabulary. In addition, this study shows that Virtual Learning Environments, such as Moodle, provide significant opportunities for students to empower their language learning processes, which in this case, are aimed at reading comprehension.
Furthermore, Elhawwa, (2017) stated that the various features provided by Moodle are very useful for learning English. In addition, Moodle provides space for students and lecturers to interact with each other. In this case, Moodle is used as supplementary or supplementary instructional material after classroom learning. Feizabadi & Ahmadabad (2016), in their research found that students who study English through Moodle obtain significantly better results than conventional classes. Gunduz & Ozcan, (2017) conducted a perception test on the use of Moodle in learning English to 333 students and 12 lecturers. The results showed that students generally considered that Moodle was quite useful in learning English while the lecturer said that Moodle was contemporary and beneficial in the long term but at that time did not function optimally.
Meanwhile, Khabbaz & Najjar, (2015) stated the different findings that indicated that language learning through Moodle-based instructional material hindered the process of becoming an autonomous language learner, which was a prerequisite for language learning in remote contexts.

Conclusion
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that Moodle provided various features that are used to develop English instructional material for the secretary which includes 4 language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing). By using Moodle, the students and lecturer interactions could run well through the chat room module. In this module, the lecturer could provide an explanation and students could ask if they faced some difficulties. Furthermore, based on the results of the post test conducted, EFS instructional material through Moodle had been proven to be able to improve four english skills which include listening, reading, speaking and writing to the students of ASTRI Budi Luhur Jakarta. The result of this research implied that Moodle was an effective platform used in the development of English instructional material. The limitation of this research was that the developed instructional material are only implemented at Budi Luhur ASTRI because of the limited of time and cost required in this research. For this reason, the future research should be able to further explore the modules provided by the Moodle platform for the development of instructional material and English teaching learning process.