EDU 6164 - RESEARCH PROJECT 1

Assignment 1: Project Plan

Using Web-Based Quizzes Motivates College Students to Learn English Vocabulary

Student’s Name:

Student’s Number:

E-mail:

Edith Cowan University

 Using Web-Based Quizzes Motivates College Students to Learn English Vocabulary

I noticed that my college students were more willing to learn English vocabulary
when I integrated it with web-based quizzes, which made me wonder whether the use of
this kind of information and communication technology (ICT) tools in English teaching
motivated college students to learn vocabulary, so I want to investigate whether and how
web-based quizzes enhance college students’ willingness to learn English vocabulary.

Introduction

While learning and entertainment tools on the web and mobile phones are growing
rapidly, it is essential that teachers should update on new teaching methodologies and
teaching tools to inspire their students. Combining ICT tools with student learning is also
an issue that attracts much attention within the recent decades because through the
literature review process, there are a significant number of articles and research related to
this field. Two of the most considered areas when it comes to combining websites and
learning English are the motivation and effectiveness it brings to learners. This project
topic is based on my own interest and the fact that the research results promise to develop
my teaching strategy to college students. I am more interested in researching whether the
combination encourages college students to study English, especially vocabulary learning.
The effect of an educational method takes a fairly long process with the help of pre-test and
post-test or experimental groups for comparison. Meanwhile, a study geared towards the
motivation of one type of educational tool will be able to be employed for other skills and
ensure that the cycle of exploration and implementation will be non-stop. After considering
the real conditions, the practical issue, the ethics declaration, and the scope of conducting
small-scale research, I believe it is feasible to conduct the project topic as stated.

Research Questions

In order to focus on the project topic and create a specific orientation in the research
process, I have come up with the three following research questions:
1. Does the integration between web-based quizzes and English vocabulary motivate
college students?

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 2. How do web-based quizzes gain interest from college students toward learning
vocabulary?
3. What are advantages and disadvantages of providing web-based quizzes to college
students in order to encourage them to learn English vocabulary?
The project aims to find out whether the use of web-based quizzes has a positive impact
on the motivation to learn English vocabulary of college students. If the result for the first
research question is affirmative, the paper will continue to analyze in what aspects or ways
that this ICT tool enhances students' willingness to learn new words. To apply what I find
in the study to my teaching and further develop the topic, I will also look at the advantages
and disadvantages of using web-based quizzes as well as the limitations of the research.
The key point of an action research is that after the process, the real action will be applied
to solve practical issue and this process continues to work for further implementation or
development. As a result, I expect that my findings will help develop a new strategy to
encourage my college students to learn English vocabulary. Moreover, the implementation
of ICT tool into English teaching and learning will be further studied in order to catch up
with the global imperative.

Scope, Limitations and Boundaries of The Project

I originally planned to implement the project on my current students; however, I find

that they may provide answers under a condition violating an ethical factor that "avoid any
harm to participants results from their involvement in the research" (Denscombe, 2014).
They have finished the second semester of the first year and will take the final test within
two weeks. Asking for some extra sessions for the project will also extend the course, which
will not be permitted by the stakeholders. Therefore, I will conduct the project with the
second-year students of the Faculty of Business Administration. Students are placed in
English classes through the pre-course test, so generally, participants will have similar
English proficiency and learning background. These students have never studied with me
and have never attended a lesson with web-based quizzes before. The project observes the
combination of learning English vocabulary and three popular tools to create web-based
quizzes that students can engage with using a smartphone or laptop, which are Quizziz,
Kahoot and Quizlet. These ICT tools will be provided to students as quizzes to check

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whether they have learned the words. They also work as a type of e-flashcards which
provides users with the ability of learning and reviewing the vocabulary.

Methodologies

After reviewing the theory and other characteristics of action research, I realized that it
is a suitable strategy for my research issue. I also consulted the checklist of Denscombe
(Appendix A) and realized I could confidently perform an action research. Described as a
spiral between analysis of practice and implementation of changed practices (Kemmis et
al., 2014), action research demonstrates its advantages through the high applicability and
the ability to help researchers with their professional self-development.
I find that using surveys and interviews are two of the effective ways to answer my
research questions. A survey may help collect a bigger number of participants’ responses
while interviews are able to provide an insight look at the issue. Wisker (2001) commented
that using interviews may help the researchers receive information related to emotions,
experiences and privileges of the participants. To consider whether using web-based really
motivate college students to learn English vocabulary, I need a flexible tool and I believe
the interview will be helpful. By asking more detailed questions that depend on the
direction of the interview, I can explore specifically what advantages and disadvantages a
new way of vocabulary learning offers. Basing on these findings of the project, I can make
effective suggestions for my teaching as well as discuss with other lecturers in the college
on how to apply technology in teaching English.

Details of the Project Plan

My current project will go through several stages as shown in Figure 1 below. In each
phase, I will present significant milestones, and strategies for monitoring progress and
quality. By adapting the five steps of doing action research of Johnson (2008), I combine
the first and the second step to come up with the plan for my project with four steps as
follow. It is presented as a circle which shows that the process is expected to continues
working in the future.

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 Figure 1. Plan of Action Research
Phase 1: Project Plan and Literature Review
I am working for a foreign language department at a college in Vietnam, which makes it
quite convenient to go through any necessary requirements of the project. The school has
organized several training sessions on the use of information technology in teaching, and
lecturers are supported to study it further. After doing the literature review which helps
me investigate research papers studied by other authors related to the issues, I will have a
closer look at my own research. An approved ethics declaration (Appendix B) will be one of
the requirements before getting to others steps. At this point, I will have decided on how I
will proceed with the project and begin to get to know students in the class where I will
conduct lessons with web-based quizzes. My students will be well informed about the
research and those who are not willing to participate in the process will not be counted as
research participants during the lessons.
Phase 2: Lessons Observation and Consent Letter for Interview
I will request to teach a class in Faculty of Business Administration in the new semester
starting in August, 2020 so that I can conduct and observe the lessons with web-based
quizzes relating to vocabulary learning. Selecting source of vocabulary, designing web-
based quizzes, and using them inside the classroom are significant actions in this phase. I
will observe my students’ reactions while they are doing the quizzes, which somehow

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reveals their feelings about a new way of learning vocabulary. I will send informed consent
letters to students and expect to receive around ten participants for interviews in person.
Phase 3: Interviews and Data Processing
Face-to-face interviews with each student will be arranged within different time frames.
They will be notified that the interview will be recorded and their identities will be kept
confidential. Depending on the number of students agreeing to take part in the interview,
this stage will take two to three days. The next step is to transcribe the interviews and
while doing it, contacting students to clarify or ask for more information will help increase
the reliability of the project. Finding main codes and sub codes and other steps in
conducting a qualitative research play a vital part for any findings and conclusions of the
project.
Phase 4: Implementation and Reporting or Sharing
After dealing with all data and finding from phase 3, this stage focuses on how to
implement web-based quizzes to motivate college students to learn English vocabulary.
Writing project reports is considered the most important, while sharing findings and
reports may support my colleagues using web-based quizzes in their teaching. It also
ensures that the process of researching and applying the project continues to receive
support from stakeholders. An action plan which indicates what to do after considering the
positive result of the project is also presented at this stage.
A scheduled timeline shown in Figure 2 provides an overall look of the basic process of
my current action research.

Figure 2. Timeline of the Project

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 Anticipation of the Project
One of the issues I need to keep in mind is not to draw grandiose conclusions from my
research. Small scale action research with a limited number of participants is often applied
to situations where research has been conducted. Therefore, the results of the project
should be described in association with my college. Another practical matter is that the
project may add a great load of extra work to do besides the normal schedule, which
requires me to stick to the timeline and try to complete every step within the time limit.
Moreover, some students may be familiar with traditional methods of learning English
vocabulary such as writing the words several times or using flashcards so it may take time
to explain how to work with web-based quizzes.
During my project, I will pay attention to research ethics such as permissions obtained,
confidentiality maintained, identities protected. These factors are mentioned by Winter
(1996) and explained as follow:
• Permission must be obtained before making observations or examining documents
produced for other purposes.
• The researcher must accept responsibility for maintaining confidentiality.
• The development of the work must remain visible and open to suggestions from
others.
• Description of others’ work and points of view must be negotiated with those
concerned before being published.
It is not familiar for me to get through ethical issues so guidance from an expert of
conducting small-scale research is vital. Further investigation on ethics will help me avoid
violations during project implementation.
An advantage I probably get while doing the research is that it is not necessary to
contact students’ parents or guardians because all of the participants are over 18 years old.
My colleagues are also willing to help with any information within the ethics. However, I
may not receive many feedbacks or suggestions from them since they will be busy with the
new semester.
Although a small-scale research is only conducted with a small group of participants, it
also promises to be applicable to similar educational environments such as colleges,
universities, high schools and even foreign language center.

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 First Draft of Sections of the Project
Writing draft of sections will give me an overview of what I will present in the research
paper. This also gives me a direction to consult books and research of previous authors as
well as conduct any steps within the project. After I review all factors related to the
research, the project will be presented according to the following structure.
Introduction
Literature Review
Methodologies
Setting
Participants
Data Collection Methods
Data Analysis
Limitations
Results and Findings
Discussion and Implications
Conclusions
Reference List
Appendices

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 Reference List
Denscombe, M. (2014). The good research guide for small-scale social research projects (5th
ed.). Open University Press.
Johnson, A. P. (2008). A short guide to action research (3rd ed.). Pearson Education.
Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R., & Nixon, R. (2014). The action research planner: Doing critical
participatory action research. Springer.
Winter, R. (1996) Some principles and procedures for the conduct of action research. In O.
Zuber-Skerritt (Ed.). New directions in action research. Falmer Press.
Wisker, G. (2001). The postgraduate research handbook. Palgrave.

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 Appendix A
Checklist for Action Research (Denscombe, 2014)

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 Appendix B
EDU6164 Ethics Declaration

Edith Cowan University

School of Education

EDU6164 Ethics Declaration

This form outlines the ethical consideration of my EDU 6164 Project and is a required Appendix
of the Project Plan Assignment

Student Name:

Student ECU:

Name of Project: Using Web-Based Quizzes Motivates College Students to Learn English Vocabulary

For my Project, I will collect data via:

______ Review of documents
______ Observation of workplace
______ Observation of colleagues
✓ Observation of students
______

✓ Discussion with colleagues – normal part of my normal work that relates to the Project
______
______ Discussion with colleagues – not part of normal work. Only related to my Project
______ Survey
✓ Other – In the space below***, explain the data collection – eg from Where? Who?
______
Why?
Interview. I will interview some 19 to 21-year-old students who volunteer to participate in the
project. These interviews take place in a classroom at my college and students’ identities will be
kept confidential.

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For all of the above except Review of Documents, further information is required.
Complete each of the following sections relevant to your Project:
(i) Indicate how you will inform your workplace, colleagues of your Project. For
example, you will ask via email, telephone, in person, by letter.
• In person
(ii) Provide the content of what you will say when asking for people to participate.
• Provide information about the project (content, time, place…)
• Tell the key steps they will do when participating in the project (spoken and
written plan)
• Ask participants for their consent to being observed
• Explain the way information is collected
• Present ethics declaration related to the participants
• Express that I appreciate their participance
(iii) Indicate the questions you will ask if your data collection is by interview (individual
or group) or survey.
1. How do you feel about the web-based quizzes?
2. Do you feel encouraged to learn English vocabulary with the quizzes?
3. In the future, do you like to join similar activities?
4. What are your suggestions for better your experience in doing quizzes related
to English vocabulary?
5. Comparing to prior way of learning vocabulary, what are the advantages?
6. Are there any disadvantages during the tasks? What are they?
(iv) Indicate how you have considered the key aspects of ethical research and how you
will guard against doing any harm during your data collection.
• Thorough consideration of ethical aspects
• Anticipating risks and practical problem related to ethic
• Careful preparation
• Discussing and asking for help from expert of research
*** If you selected ‘Other’ above, outline the data you will collect. Provide all details of how,
when, why and from whom.

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