The main objective of this research is to find out whether rate-buildup reading, skimming, and scanning strategies applied in hybrid learning method help students boost their reading speed and comprehension. This research employed quasi-experimental design. 15 students were involved into experimental group and 15 were enrolled into control group. Students of experimental group were treated through hybrid learning delivery mode in which web-based portal accessible on www.muhaiminabdullah.com was hosted as reading portal while students of control group were assigned only to paper-based reading activities in face-to-face method of contents delivery. Both students of experimental group and students of control group successfully boost their reading speed and comprehension. It is implied that reading speed and comprehension are possible to be enhanced both in web-based reading portal and in face to face. The dispersion of standard deviation on posttest that tends to be high suggests that further researchers conduct the experiment in a more well-controlled design towards experimental group.

The research aimed to discuss the need for a learning tool that was capable of presenting audio and visual aids to accommodate students in learning writing. It was urgently needed as a logical consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disallowed face-to-face learning to be conducted. The research was conducted at the Department of English Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Universitas Muhammadiyah Parepare, by utilizing a questionnaire to explore the characteristics of ideal writing material restricted to visual aids. The research was participated by the second and fourth-semester learners as the population and recruited the samples based on simple random sampling. Every individual in the population had an equal chance to be chosen as a sample. There were 30 undergraduate students who enrolled in basic writing and advanced writing courses who became the subject of the research. Based on the research findings, eight characteristics of good audio visuals are recommended by the students. Those characteristics include the visual and audio elements/items, creative and innovative content, language and expression, operations and mechanisms (various learning opportunities and preferences), and eye-catching form/shape/design, which deliver brief and clear learning material under several considerations. Furthermore, following the findings, it also indicates that the effectiveness of delivering audiovisual aids materials in the learning process depends on how clear the audiovisual item (i.e. the text and audio, how efficient the material and audiovisual durations provided, how interesting and well-organized the design to attract students’ learning intention, how good the visual quality and how the audiovisual) can be produced into a small size to minimize the use of internet data. The research concludes that audiovisual learning materials need to be selectively chosen and periodically and systematically evaluated to best facilitate students in dealing with writing.

This publication addresses the prototyping phase of a web-published academic English coursebook, which is exclusively designed and developed to assist the 6th semester primary school teacher education study program students at Universitas Negeri Makassar in learning academic English. Large-scale social restriction due to Covid-19 pandemic, which restricts any form of regular face-to-face meeting, and the fact that an English coursebook has not been developed yet at the locus of this study led the authors to set this as both an important and urgent goal to be reached through design-based research, which comprised (1) preliminary study; (2) prototyping; (3) assessment; and (4) systematic reflection. In prototyping the artefact, standard web programming languages including PHP, HTML, and CSS were synergized. The samples of this study were 5 classes consisting of 125 6th semester students majoring in primary school teacher education study program at Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia. Through iterative cycle of prototyping, the findings of this study provide an ideal design of a web-published academic English coursebook exclusively addressed to solve a contextual educational issue detected in the locus of this research, as mandated by literature on design-based research. Besides, this publication discusses ideas of web design and development that work for academic English learning purposes. In addition, this publication also deals with the effectiveness issue of the web-published academic English coursebook in assisting non-English major students in learning academic English through online distance learning delivery mode. This publication theoretically contributes to the domain of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) and instructional learning design.