Effect of small private online course (SPOC) on Students’ achievement in pre-university chemistry

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the effect of Small Private Online Course (SPOC) on the students’ achievement in chemistry subject at the pre-university level. For this purpose, three types of learning series were designed, which are Learning Series One, Learning Series Two, and Learning Series Three. Learning Series One and Learning Series Two comprised of face-to-face (F2F) learning and SPOC in a different order while Learning Series Three consists of F2F learning only. Two experimental groups and a control group involved 66 students who were studying chemistry subject at a pre-university college were randomly selected. They learned the chemical bonding topic of the subject for twelve weeks using the assigned learning series. After justifying the reliability and validity, the pre-test and post-tests for achievement have been used as research instruments for students’ assessment of achievement in the different groups. The study outcomes show that there is a significant difference among different learning series in the achievement test scores in favour of Learning Series One, which initially implemented SPOC followed by F2F learning. Based on the results obtained, the researcher recommended that SPOC has to be introduced and widely implemented in teaching Chemistry subject at the matriculation college as it produced a positive impact on the achievement of the students. More studies have to be carried out for other subjects in the future using SPOC for the teaching and learning process as the effectiveness of the online learning has been proved by the literature.