Concluding Remarks Research Design

7 Sri Wantoro, 2014 Blended Learning; Incorporating Moodle Into Classroom Reading Comprehension Activities A Case Study At A Senior High School In Pangkalpinang Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu background of the study, the research questions, the purposes of the study, the definition of terms, significance of the study, scope of the study, organization of thesis, and concluding remarks. Chapter II explores conceptual frameworks that shape this study. The conceptual frameworks deal with the concept of reading comprehension, blended learning and moodle. Chapter III describes research methodology that covers description of research design, research site and participants, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures. Chapter IV focuses on describing research findings and analyzing data from observations, questionnaires, interviews, and document analysis to portray how moodle is developed for reading comprehension activities, how moodle shapes students’ learning environment for reading comprehension activities in blended learning context, and to describe what the strengths and weaknesses of utilizing moodle are for reading comprehension activities. Chapter V draws some conclusions of this study. This chapter also provides recommendations relating to the research findings in this study.

1.8 Concluding Remarks

This chapter has presented a general description of the introduction of the whole study, which includes the background of the study, the research questions, the purposes of the study, the definition of terms, significant of the study, scope of the study, and thesis organization. The next chapter discusses literature review of related theories to reading, blended learning, and moodle. 41 Sri Wantoro, 2014 Blended Learning; Incorporating Moodle Into Classroom Reading Comprehension Activities A Case Study At A Senior High School In Pangkalpinang Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY Chapter II has presented four main theoretical foundations, such as: theoretical of reading, theories of blended learning, theories of moodle, and the concept of attitude. This chapter describes methodology aspects of this study. The methodology covers research design, research site and participants, data collection procedures, and data analysis.

3.1 Research Design

This study employed a qualitative approach that is considered appropriate to “explore attitudes, behavior, and experiences” Dawson, 2007: 15. This is a case study research design because it “investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context ” Yin, 2003: 3. Furthermore, according to Emilia 2009: 191, this study also refers to case study because “it was carried out in a small scale and a single case ” and “it focused on one particular instance of educational experience or practice. ” The single case in this study refers to the implementation of moodle to support face-to-face classroom reading comprehension activities. Case study research design in this study, which seeks to present a complete description of a phenomenon within its context, refers to descriptive case study. “Descriptive case study designs attempt to present a complete description of a phenomenon within its context, ” Hancock Algozzine, 2006: 33. In other words, this study refers to descriptive case study, which seeks to describe how moodle is implemented to support face-to-face classroom reading comprehension activities where three moodle features forum, quiz, and grade are developed. Forum, in this study, is developed by facilitating students-students, students-teacher, and teacher-students online discussion. Next, quiz is developed by creating online self-marking multiple-choice mini tests and tests. Then, grade is developed by enabling course participants to view their reading comprehension performances by clicking grade toolbar in a course page as have been explained in chapter two and as will further be discussed in chapter four. 42 Sri Wantoro, 2014 Blended Learning; Incorporating Moodle Into Classroom Reading Comprehension Activities A Case Study At A Senior High School In Pangkalpinang Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu The processes of moodle features development are observed, analyzed, and interpreted to understand how the moodle features facilitate students-students, students-teacher, and teacher-students discussion, how moodle features shape students’ learning environment, and what the strengths and weaknesses of utilizing those moodle features are to support face-to-face classroom reading comprehension activities within its context. Moreover, classroom observations, interviews, questionnaires, document analyses are administered in this study. Classroom observations, interviews, questionnaires, and document analyses in this study are aimed to get deeper understanding of phenomenon of utilizing moodle in blended learning from participants’ point of view. As McNamara 1999 states that qualitative approach is to understand participants’ phenomenon from their point of views. The classroom observations, interviews, questionnaires, and document analysis are employed as multiple source of evidence to allow for in-depth study. As Emilia 2009:191 states, “case study research employed multiple sources of evidence –converging from the set of issues or multiple data collections and analytic procedures to allow for in-depth study. ”

3.2 Research Site and Participants