Development of an online course using situated learning and ESA method to enhance English oral communication ability of university administrative staff

Abstract

Since English is the primary mode of communication at institutions of higher education that offer international programs, university administrative staff must be able to communicate in English with academic staff, international students, and partner universities. The purpose of this research is (1) to investigate the effectiveness of an online course that combines situated learning and ESA to improve oral communication skills and (2) to capture the perceptions of university administrative staff towards such a course. The participants were 20 university administrative staff, aged from 22 to 40 years old, 14 females and 6 males, at a public university in Thailand, selected by the convenience sampling method. The study employed one group pre-test and post-test design, using a pre-test, post-test and online journals from the participants to collect the data. The results indicated two major findings: 1) oral communication skills significantly improved after implementing the online course (p = 0.05), and 2) participants expressed mainly positive perceptions about the course. The study implies that an online course benefits university administrative staff.