Vocational Students’ Perceptions on the VBee Diary Writing Application: Features and Writing Activity

Abstract

The research used a qualitative research design to discover the vocational school students’ perspectives on the VBee diary writing application, especially regarding the features and writing activity and whether it could help them improve their writing skills. Purposive sampling was used to select research participants so they could be contacted if additional data were needed. The participants were 117 students who attended three vocational schools on Java Island, Indonesia. Data was also collected through questionnaires and interviews. The findings showed that the features of VBee diary writing, such as emoji and colour, and feedback features were engaging and easy to use, which allowed the students to practice an enjoyable writing activity in English. After that, through the use of the VBee diary writing application, the students thought that they became inventive, expressive, and assured in writing in English. Then, the VBee diary writing application enabled students to improve their writing skills and assisted them in completing teacher-assigned assignments. Furthermore, it was recommended that the VBee’s colour, emoji, and background should be enhanced to make it more engaging. Then, creating an Android version was also strongly recommended so language students as users could log in without first accessing the web and entering their username and password.