Investigating EFL Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes Toward Online Cooperative Learning

Abstract

Cooperative learning is one of the widely-used methods by educators that can also be adapted in an online setting. Assessing students' attitude towards cooperative learning is fundamental to achieve the success of learning and teaching activities. A number of studies have investigated cooperative learning in online classes. However, there are still limited studies examining students' attitude toward online cooperative learning in the EFL context and English Language Education (ELE) field. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate English Language Education students' attitudes towards online cooperative learning. This study employed a quantitative study in the form of a survey. One hundred and seventy two students at one of the universities at Yogyakarta participated in the study by completing an online cooperative learning application scale questionnaire (OCLAS) adopted from Korkmaz (2012). Seventeen questions were divided into two aspects (i.e., positive attitude and negative attitude). The data were analysed by using SPSS and Microsoft Excell. The overall results of this study indicated that English language Education Students tend to have positive attitude with the highest mean score (M=3.65). It can be seen from the highest result that students enjoyed experiencing online cooperative learning by using online cooperative learning applications. Students also showed disagreement on negative statements which implied positivity. However, in terms of negative aspects with mean score (M=2.52), students stated that they were psychologically tired in doing cooperative learning. This study, therefore, is hoped to contribute to a deeper understanding of online cooperative learning and help the lecturers to work and improve in conducting online cooperative learning.