A NEEDS ANALYSIS STUDY FOR SMART ONLINE ACADEMIC WRITING MODULE

Presently, very few studies have been conducted on needs analysis study that are conducted on General English writing proficiency courses especially those which focus on the concept of supplementary online learning environment (Kaewpet, 2009; Noriah Ismail, Soo Kum Yoke and Normah Ismail 2015) as discussed in this paper. The study investigates ESL tertiary students’ writing needs and the elements that are needed for a proposed online academic writing module for ELC230 Writing course. The module will be known as SMART Online Writing Module (SOWM). The participants in the study were 60 Part Three Diploma students taking ELC230 course at Universiti Teknologi MARA Johor. The students were given a set of needs analysis questionnaires and were required to indicate their academic writing problems, needs and interest as well as the essential elements for SOWM. The result from the needs analysis survey showed that the students perceived that a special online writing module would be beneficial for them in order to enhance their ESL academic writing proficiency and interest.