Integrating Padlet and Google Arts & Culture for Writing Development and Multidimensional Engagement among Undergraduate EFL Students in Online Writing

Developing writing proficiency and sustaining engagement remain challenges in online English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction. Although collaborative and visual–cultural technologies show promise, empirical evidence on their integrated use for EFL writing remains limited, particularly in Bangladeshi higher education. This convergent mixed-methods quasi-experimental study examined an integrated Padlet and Google Arts & Culture (GAC) intervention involving 79 undergraduate EFL students from two intact sections selected through convenience sampling at a public university in Bangladesh. Two intact groups completed pre- and post-writing tasks; the intervention group completed an additional engagement and technological usability questionnaire, reflections and interviews. Quantitative data were analysed using paired- and independent-samples t-tests and Cohen’s d, while qualitative data underwent reflexive thematic analysis. The intervention group demonstrated significantly greater gains than the control group across all six writing dimensions, with the largest effects in grammar (d = 0.88, p <.001) and vocabulary (d = 0.82, p <.001); the overall effect was d = 0.74 (p =.001). Students reported favourable cognitive, social, affective and behavioural engagement. As engagement was assessed only in the intervention group, these findings reflect perceived rather than comparative engagement. Qualitative findings highlighted active participation, idea generation, collaboration, feedback, and reduced isolation, alongside technical, digital literacy, and time management challenges. Padlet–GAC functioned as complementary affordances, linking visual–cultural exploration with sharing, feedback, revision and writing development. The study contributes context-sensitive evidence for purposeful technology use in online EFL writing instruction.