Building Student Interactions Outside the Classroom: Utilizing a Web-Based Application in a University Flipped Learning Course for EFL Learners

This research project developed a web-based application to facilitate out-of-class collaborative learning; the aim was to transform a student culture that facilitated very little independent study outside the classroom and classroom learning that treated students mainly as passive participants. Additionally, an innovative flipped learning course utilizing this web-based application was implemented in order to integrate online and in-class collaborative learning. We hypothesized that students’ online collaborative learning could be activated and sustained throughout the semester. Based on pre- and post-questionnaire results, it was apparent that the students actively participated in discussions outside class (Active Learning (AL): p < .10, AL externalization: p < .05). Furthermore, Spearman’s rank correlation analysis for the frequency of category appearances and the indicators for social and cognitive presences, which was guided by the Community of Inquiry framework with regard to out-of-class student interactions and the pre- and post-questionnaire gains revealed that the cognitive presence was strongly correlated with the pre- and post-questionnaire gains (p < .001). These results indicate that the web-based application developed in this study supported out-of-class student collaboration.