Impact of Online vs. On-Campus Classes on Academic Performance of EFL Learners’ Speaking Skills

Abstract

Academic performance is an essential component of assessing the success of educational programs. During the coronavirus lockdown, educational institutions worldwide changed their methods of teaching to suit the new online mode of teaching. Consequently, many students, particularly EFL learners’ academic performance have been affected. This study reports the findings of online teaching’s impact on learners’ academic performance in the speaking course at the English Department, Najran University. This is mainly attempted through a comparison of students’ academic performance in online teaching mode in speaking courses during the Coronavirus lockdown with that of on-campus teaching mode before the Covid-19 lockdown. Data for the study were collected from the scores of the students in speaking skills, which included grades for the final exams. The data were collected from the participants (N = 80 students), 40 males + 40 females, who received instructions via both the on-campus and online teaching modes. The results of the study revealed that the variability in both modes of teaching was very distinct. Students’ grades in the on-campus mode of teaching did vary too much from grades in the online teaching mode. The scores of both modes of teaching similarly varied from A, B, C, D, and from failed, deprived, absentee, and withdrawn students. However, it has been found that the majority of the students performed better in the online teaching mode than on-campus.