E-Journals Using Moodle Forums

This paper will report on the practice of journal writing utilizing Moodle forums in a pre-intermediate EFL writing class at the writer's university. In this class, the student journals in the forums are made public among the classmates, who are encouraged to respond to each other on the forums. The teacher offers comments on almost every entry, but when she invites the students to respond to each other in particular forums, she waits until the students have made most of their responses. A questionnaire was given to the students at the end of the first semester asking 1 what they thought was beneficial about journal writing, 2 what they thought was not so good about journal writing, and 3 any other comments. The students'reactions were mostly favourable: They enjoyed this form of communication because it offered them a variety of different viewpoints and ideas. On the other hand, the fact that the journals are public had both positive and negative aspects. The educational reasons for this journal writing, student reactions, and tips for teachers on how to make a success of this kind of journal writing will bediscussed.