The effect of web-mediated, blended, and purely online learning on EFL learners' writing achievement in the Iranian context: A comparative study

In the era of web-based technology, the conventional instructions seem archaic and need to be replaced or improved with more novel technology-enhanced instructions (TEIs) that have been reported to enrich the instructional settings by providing further innovative teaching and learning opportunities. As a result, the present study aimed at not only examining but also comparing the effectiveness of web-mediated, blended, and purely online learning instructions on EFL learners' writing achievement in the Iranian context. Therefore, 49 homogenous participants were randomly assigned into the web-mediated leaning (WML) group that attended the workshop physically at predetermined times, the enriched virtual blended learning (EVBL) group that not only was provided with online sessions but also received compulsory in-person instructional sessions, and the purely online leaning (POL) group that merely received an online instruction. All learners delivered four argumentative essay writing pre-tests, performed the WebQuest tasks, engaged in pair/group works, completed all the sub-tasks, and finally wrote four essays as post-tests. The results of paired-samples t-tests revealed that EFL learners' achievement in writing skill as a whole and writing sub-skills improved significantly from pre-tests to post-tests in all the WML, EVBL, and POL groups. The mentioned finding was vindicated considering the peculiar characteristic of EFL learners and the distinctive nature of TEIs. In addition, the results of one-way between-groups ANOVA indicated that WML and EVBL groups outperformed the POL group in the overall writing achievement, which was explained in the light of technology-related dimension, the interaction dimension, and the conventional perspective of education dimension. The presented findings can provide insights for stakeholders to incorporate more TEIs in developing EFL contexts.