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1. INTRODUCTION

The information systems and Internet technology develop faster and faster, which not only makes a lot of progress in multi-media and the Internet industry, but also affects innovation in the educational learning style. Because of technology development, e-learning will develop a modern learning style. According to Fioriello (2012), "e-learning known as electronic learning is a method of education used for web-based distance education, where there is no face-to-face interaction”. In many developed and underdeveloped countries, e-learning is one of the important areas that these countries focus in order to adopt in their education system. HELLO, standing for Hanoi University English language learning online system, is a type of e-learning of Hanoi University supported by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam.

So far, there are several studies on the same field conducted by some researchers. For example, Norman (2016) concentrated on the benefits of e-learning or Kumar (2015) discovered the drawbacks when students join e-learning and found some solutions. In our research, the first-year students of English Department at Hanoi University are investigated. The purpose is to find out the advantages of studying HELLO, difficulties that most of the students might face while studying HELLO and give them some methods to overcome.

1. MATERIALS AND METHODS

Participants

The questionnaire was gathered from various classes at English Department of Hanoi University. To answer the survey questions, 50 first-year students at the age from 19 to 20 were chosen. Their participation was almost voluntary.

Materials and Procedures

In order to collect the data, a questionnaire (Appendix) was constructed, including eight questions in various forms such as multiple-choice and scale. The first question explores the time to study HELLO of 50 freshmen in English Department. The second question asks the place where they often study HELLO with four choices. The third question investigates the various media which were used to study HELLO. The next question was constructed to find out the students’ opinion about HELLO. Finally, there were three scale questions asking for evaluating the advantages of HELLO by participants, the frequency of the difficulties which they encounter while studying with HELLO. And the last question also figures out the levels of using different solutions which students often choose.

The survey was executed at four freshmen classes of English Department at Hanoi University in April, 2017. All of participants got the questionnaires in their classes. When they were given the hard version of the questionnaire, they had time to read and understand all the survey. The unclear parts are solved to assist participants in completing the questionnaire. Fifty handouts were collected after 20 minutes and all questions were answered.

III. LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature Review

E-learning is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to the traditional program. Albarrak (2011) defined e-learning as “the use of information and communication technologies or the Internet in educational activities”. From website of HELLO HANU, HELLO, standing for HANU English Language Learning Online system, is a type of e-learning owned by Hanoi University and supported by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam.

Because of technology development, e-learning will develop a particular learning style. In the 1990s, online courses were established by schools and universities in order to help people who can not join class can study and gain knowledge (E-learning: concepts, trends, applications, 2014). In China, about 100 million in 1367 billion people study e-learning, approximate eight percent of China’s population (Fayad, 2015).

Compared with the traditional classes, e-learning brings some outstanding advantages, such as availability, comfort, self-paced learning and low cost. Firstly, according to Jones (2007) students can study at anytime and anywhere they want because e-learning is available 24 hours per day. From E-learning: concepts, trends, applications (2014), students have their flexible time to complete their courses in their own time when it is suitable for them. Secondly, when using e-learning, they do not need to go to school or anywhere or prepare what to wear. They just only stay at their comfortable home or any comfortable places, sit on nice chair or coach (Norman, 2016). Moreover, another advantage of e-learning is self-pacing. E-learning allows students to choose the time they want to complete their targets according to Norman (2016), and gives them chance to “study at his or her own pace and speed whether slow or quick”. This benefit of e-learning makes them feel more satisfied than stressful (Abaidoo, 2014). Finally, they can save money when studying e-learning. As Abaidoo (2014) said, students do not spend money on public transport fees or paying for buildings. Besides, from an article of Norman (2016), students pay less money for online courses than the ones in traditional classes. Especially, there are plenty of free online courses on the Internet as MIT.

E-learning, in spite of the advantages that it has when adopted in education, also has some disadvantages. According to Kumar (2015), some students have difficulties in studying e-learning because of having poor background knowledge of technology. They do not know how to use basic programs as Microsoft Word, which is the reason why they can not send their homework to teachers. To deal with this problem, students can participate in online courses about technology (Kumar, 2015). In addition, despite being flexible in time and place, they are in trouble with time management. They have to spend much time on online courses. They should make daily plans in order not to worry about time when studying (Kumar, 2015). Furthermore, from research of Brown and Wanberg (2003), another drawback of e-learning is difficult to connect with students among online classes. They lack of interaction when working as a team.

In conclusion, e-learning has both benefits and drawbacks, however, most of the author have the tendency to write more about advantages than disadvantages. The research I surveyed freshmen in English Department at Hanu University. Besides above solutions, I also find some methods to help students study better as creating online groups to discuss, share knowledge or opinion with their friends. Additionally, the concept of e-learning is not popular over the world and totally unknown in some towns such as mountainous and rural areas.

1. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
2. Current situation

From the information collected, majority of students (56%) spend less than one hour on studying HELLO, while only three students (6%) study HELLO for more than three hours.

From the data of questionnaire, all of students study HELLO at home because they thought home is the best place to study. Besides, 11 students in 50 ( 22%) also study HELLO in library after school or during break-time. Moreover, all of them use computers to study HELLO because it is easier to control than other technologies. Furthermore, 32% said that they use mobile phones to complete HELLO due to the convenience of mobile.

1. Students’ attitude towards HELLO

Figure 1. Students’ satisfaction towards HELLO

As can be seen from Figure 1, when studying HELLO, each students has their own feeling to HELLO. Only six students (6%) answered that they are greatly satisfied with HELLO when studying. On the contrary, 15 students (30%) who are not satisfied with HELLO, while more than half of the students (32) said that they are comparatively satisfied.

1. Advantages of HELLO on students

Figure 2: Advantages of HELLO on students

Figure 2 illustrates the students’ attitude towards the advantages of e-learning. As can be seen, just 18 students (36%) think that no boundaries, no restriction is greatly advantageous. This finding has the same idea with Abaidoo and Arkorful (2014), they argued that students have chance to choose their time and place to study. More than half of the students (26) answered that it is comparatively advantageous to them and minority of students (6) said that it barely happened to them, so they chose not advantageous at all. Besides, 28 in 50 students (56%) chose comfort as great advantage when studying HELLO. The advantage is similar to the research of Norman (2016), he also argued that students do not have to go to school or prepare what to wear and just stay at home or nice places and sit on comfortable coach. Then, the approximate percentage of 36 of students share the opinion that when they study HELLO, self-pacing is the most benefit. Another research of Norman (2016) consolidted with the finding, he mentioned that students can choose their own pace and speed when studying and the time they want to complete their target. Finally, 23 students out of 50 (46%) agreed that fee of online courses is cheaper than the one of traditional classes.

1. Students’ problems in studying HELLO

Table 1: The frequency of problems students get when studying HELLO

Students’ frequency of facing different problems when studying HELLO is completely presented in Table 1. According to the data analyzed, 84 % of the students have difficulties in studying HELLO because of their lack of computer literacy. It is similar to the finding about the disadvantages when studying e-learning reported by Kumar (2015), he argued that some students have poor background knowledge of technology, so that they do not know how to use some basic programs such as Microsoft Word. The next disadvantage when studying HELLO is poor time management. Only four students in 50 (8%) have no trouble with time, while 66% of the students considered that they can not control time to study. Furthermore, 18% of students claimed that they often fail to find their self-motivation to complete their target when studying HELLO. In addition, 72% students have difficulty in connecting with their friends during studying. The finding has the same idea with Brown and Wanberg (2003), they claimed many students can not share their opinion or discussion about the information they do not understand with their friends.

1. Methods to study HELLO more effectively

Table 2: Students’ method to study HELLO more effectively

Table 2 shows the frequency of solutions which freshmen use to assist them in studying HELLO. In fact, 45 of 50 students (90%) want to upgrade computer skills to work with HELLO more effectively, only five students said that they never lack of knowledge with computer skills and they never use this solution. And all of them agreed that they should manage time to study with HELLO more effectively. Another study conducted by Kumar (2015) consolidated this finding, learners should manage time effectively by making a regular schedule plan and setting reminders for course and assignments. Besides, 48 students, equivalent 96% of the students find self-motivation to follow the new educational trends, it is similar to the research of Kumar (2015). Finally, creating an online group from the start also got a lot of interest of students. Ninety percent said that they often discuss on the internet about the difficulties when studying HELLO, in which 48% of the students (24) create an online group to discuss about the problems of HELLO which they get.

1. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, HELLO is the compulsory course for the first-year students of English Department in Hanoi University. This research paper showed that freshmen have suffered from a number of obstacles when studying HELLO. Here are the most common ones: having poor time management and having difficulties in connecting learners. Besides, studying HELLO also brings learners some advantages such as flexible time and places, self-paced learning and low cost. To overcome difficulties in studying HELLO and study more effectively, students themselves should make more effort to gain their knowledge or learn some methods we recommend such as upgrading computer skills, managing time, finding self-motivation and creating online groups.

Because this is a small size investigation, which involved only 50 students and due to the lack of experience of the researcher, the limitation is unavoidable. Despite the limitations, this finding can be useful for students to avoid difficulties whe studying HELLO. Our information and figure can be used in further studies. Furthermore, other researchers should conduct other survey to find out more solutions to overcome difficulties when studying HELLO.