The Implementation of Blended Learning in The Academic Writing Subject

The aims of this case study are (1) to describe the implementation of Blended Learning in teaching Academic Writing at the graduate students in the first semester and (2) to find out the students’ Academic Writing achievement when using blended learning. The main subject of this research is the first semester of graduate students in one of the university in Surakarta, Indonesia. The data were obtained from the observation during the research, interview with the students and the lecturer, questionnaire, and students’ writing production. The data were in the form of interview transcripts, field notes, and students’ manuscript. Based on the findings, it shows that: (1) Blended Learning which is applied in the first semester of Masters Degree Program class runs well. The practice of Blended Learning is implemented in three stages: initial stage, implementation stage, and final stage. The lecturer applies four learning methods in Blended Learning implementation which consists of face to face learning, massive open online course (MOOC), blogging, and writing literacy. In learning Academic Writing through Blended Learning, the students not only get a deep understanding of the material that is given in the classroom but also the students can get the support in getting free-flowing information by socializing with people. Besides those advantages, there are also some effects in blog activities: facilitates students’ critical thinking, provides examples for students for modeling and learning, affects students’ quality of writing, facilitates meaningful learning, and gives students a purpose of writing. Meanwhile, writing literacycan support students’ academic literacy.(2)The students’ achievement during the learning process by using Blended Learning was analyzed and observed by the researcher. The improvement of students’ writing in producing manuscript could be seen in all aspects of Academic Writing (suitability, content, vocabulary, written expression, and format/ logical organization). Blended Learning helps the students to improve their skill in writing a manuscript which isgrammatically correct, the content is relevant, current, and interesting, and the logical organization is well organized. By employing Blended Learning in Academic Writing teaching and learning process, the lecturer facilitates the learning so that the learning goal and objectives can be achieved effectively. The result of this research implies that lecturer needs to focus on providing more guidance and also the facilities need to improve so that the value of Blended Learning can improve. Keywords: blended learning, academic writing, in-class learning, online learnin