ONLINE LEARNING ON ACADEMIC WRITING: IMPLEMENTING THE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING APPROACH

Abstract

This present study aims to elaborate on the use of the experiential learning approach that can facilitate students in fulfilling their academic writing assignments. Writing an academic paper requires not only knowledge of the substance, but also the skills to write. Most of the students have no idea of what to write and how to write the proper academic paper. The Academic Writing Course is one of the courses which is offered to students. This course offered an online tutorial program to help the students to master their academic writing skills. This present study involved 30 participants. Those were the students who took an instructional online course on Academic Writing offered by the Educational Faculty of the Universitas Terbuka. The online course was designed and developed by implementing the principles of experiential learning which was aimed to facilitate the participants to write a proper academic paper. At the end of the program, the participants must submit an example of the written assignment of an academic paper. In this study, the papers were assessed and graded based on the rubric of the standard for academic writing papers. The results of the study indicate that implementing the experiential approach in academic writing courses facilitates the students in achieving the competencies in writing the proper academic paper.