The effect of integrating MOOCs with flipped classroom on intermediate EFL learners’ complexity, accuracy, and fluency in writing

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of integrating the flipped classroom (FC) with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing, measured in complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). To this end, 60 university students with intermediate proficiency in English were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The former experienced the FC integrated with MOOCs; the latter underwent traditional face-to-face classes. All participants took two essay writing tests: one at the beginning of the study as the pretest and another at the end as the posttest. The results showed that integrating the FC with MOOCs had a significantly positive effect on the experimental group’s writing in terms of CAF and its subcomponents. However, there was no significant difference between the two study groups in terms of the type-token ratio in the complexity of the text and the number of dysfluencies in the fluency. The implications of the study are discussed. © The Author(s) 2026