Using ‘cybertasks’ to integrate technology and writing skills into 21st Century Higher-Education: an analysis of students’ perceptions

Abstract

In the field of English language teaching and learning, the influence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has promoted the digital adaptation of the resources employed in order to meet the standards of the ‘e-generation’ (Schmar-Dobler, 2003; Grabe & Grabe, 2007; González-Vera, 2016). This adaptation has proved beneficial for the student learning process in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) settings (Jurado-Navas, 2018). This study analyses the perceptions of a group of Spanish higher-education ESP Psychology students concerning different types of online resources (video, text, and a combination of video and text) to complete a ‘Cybertask’ (Girón-García, 2013) in which students are required to search information from the Internet to write about different types of psychotherapy. After Cybertask completion, students filled out a questionnaire in which they had to rate the degree of appropriateness, usefulness and engagement they perceived while using the online resources. The study reports on students’ perceptions according to these parameters, placing special emphasis on the low preference towards video resources, which could be interpreted as detrimental or beneficial for the completion of the Cybertask, and describes how factors like proficiency level and background knowledge may play a role in mediating students' perceptions.