Perception of Using "Padlet" as a Multimodal Text to Enhance the first Year Undergraduates' Academic Writing Skills

Abstract

The possibility of incorporating all the means of meaning-making into efficient learning techniques has been made clear by the use of technology-based multimodal texts. The teaching atmosphere of online academic writing classes can be changed using technology-based multimodal texts. Therefore, the present study is attempted to identify the perceptions of using "Padlet" as a multimodal text to enhance the learners' academic writing skills for the first-year undergraduates of the Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya. The study consisted of two research questions; a) what are the perceptions of the undergraduates on the usage of "Padlet" as a multimodal text to improve learners' academic writing? b) what are the learners of attitudes towards the "Padlet" as a collaborative interactive tool in the online class context? The sample was 100 first-year undergraduates from the Faculty of Science who follow the Academic Literacy II course in their second semester. The course was completely conducted online for thirteen weeks and all the writing tasks were carried out using "Padlet" as either individual or group writing tasks. The qualitative data were gathered using questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The analysis of the data indicated that the learners have positive attitudes towards "Padlet" as a multimodal text to improve learners' academic writing skills as they found it allows them to easily interact with their peers in the online learning context, to read and comment on others' writings and thereby do the necessary editing and so on. Furthermore, it indicated its usage could enhance collaborative writing tasks in the online learning context. The findings of the present study will inform teachers on the usefulness and efficiency of integrating "Padlet" to enhance not only academic writing skills but also writing skills in general in both online and physical teaching contexts as a way to raise students' motivation, interest and engagement in the subject matter.