Tareq Alkhasawneh
Students studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in higher education and pursuing any degree programme must undertake a lot of serious academic writing in English. Writing, on the other hand, is one of the most difficult skills to acquire, and it is inherently more difficult and stressful for EFL students. Writing online, such as on Facebook and Twitter has become a popular activity for the global population as technology has advanced. Despite its numerous advantages, such as more practise, exposure, and real-time audience, this writing craze has yet to win over many EFL teachers, who claim that online projects encourage pupils to be sloppy and irresponsible. As a result, EFL teachers continue to use traditional writing approaches in the classroom. This study draws on learning and motivation theories to claim that the amount of time spent writing, the presence of a real audience, and constructive feedback are all factors that can help students overcome writing anxiety, which is a major barrier in EFL courses. The research used a quasi-experimental methodology, with 80 individuals chosen at random from Alain University in UAE. With 40 participants in each group, they were separated into two equal groups: experimental and control. Edmodo was used in the study to expose participants to one of the online writing platforms. They were taught how to utilise Edmodo's tools before writing English essays and submitting them online. Quantitative tools such as pre- and post-writing tests, as well as survey questionnaires, were used to collect data. According to the findings of this study, English writings published online utilising Edmodo were of higher quality and length. Extrinsic motivation may also play a role in affecting pupils' writing activity, according to the findings. Another intriguing conclusion of the study is that writing online such as on Edmodo, considerably decreases EFL learners' anxiety and allows them to write more freely without the scrutiny of their instructors.