International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 12, No. 4, April 2022 346 doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2022.12.4.1625 Abstract—Digital technology has recently become increasingly essential in all aspects of life, including education. The outbreak of COVID-19, which has now been declared a pandemic, has intensified and amplified the use of digital technology. However, the impacts of digital technology integrated learning have not yet been thoroughly investigated. The objectives of this study are twofold: to assess the impacts of incorporating digital technology into English education with regard to Thai university students’ linguistic gain and to identify pain points in online learning. Initially, a pretest was developed and administered to first year university students majoring in humanities. Subsequently, the participants were exposed to ten sets of strategically selected grammatical online lessons representing ten grammatical points for 19 days, during which time they were free to explore and exploit the lessons. Then, toward the end of the exposure, a parallel posttest was administered, followed by a post online lesson exposure questionnaire and a semi-structured interview with randomly selected students. The data analysis revealed that, while the participants' linguistic abilities improved significantly, they appeared to have poor learning management. Therefore, although digital technology is valuable and beneficial, some learners need to be scaffolded before embarking on the digital technology integrated English education journey. Index Terms—Digital technology, English education, grammar, university, Thailand. I. INTRODUCTION Digital technology is known to refer to electronic tools, systems, devices, and resources that generate, store, or process data. Some of the familiar examples include social media, online games, multimedia, and mobile phones. In fact, digital technology has recently become increasingly essential in all aspects of life, including education. The outbreak of COVID-19, and now the pandemic, has intensified and amplified the use of digital technologies in education, resulting in pervasive digital learning. In fact, digital technology in English language education can vary greatly in terms of its characteristics and potential. For instance, some are tools that provide a collection of texts that learners can passively enjoy reading, whereas others provide language tasks and activities that allow for not only a more personalized but also interactive learning approach. The COVID-19 outbreak, and now pandemic, has exerted Manuscript received September 9, 2021; revised November 1, 2021. This study was financially supported by Silpakorn University through the Faculty of Arts. My heart-felt appreciation goes to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Associate Professor Warangkana Nibhatsukit, PhD, who entrusted me with the task of initiating and leading this research project. Budsaba Kanoksilapatham is with the Faculty of Management Science, Silpakorn University, Thailand (e-mail: kanoksib@hotmail.com). one of the most significant global impacts on education. With a focus on the Thai context, the outbreak in 2019 swept such a large area at such a rapid pace that Thai universities were prescribed to provide online learning and teaching in an overnight time. Without preparation for this drastic shift to switch to online learning and teaching, digital technology has become a valuable asset and resource that should be used in order not to sabotage learning and teaching activities. At this juncture, it is worth noting that in a variety of contexts, across education levels and language skills, and via a variety of platforms and devices, several academics have endorsed the positive impacts of incorporating digital technology in language education [1]-[5]. However, scant attention has been paid to the investigation of online learning’s impacts particularly on higher education in Thailand. To be more specific, it is unclear whether Thai students have benefited from online learning in English education. Furthermore, it is unknown whether Thai learners struggled with online lessons. Given the potential that the COVID-19 pandemic will be with us in the foreseeable future, the answers or insights relevant to these questions will contribute to the learners’ enhanced learning outcomes and more effective teachers’ pedagogy. II. METHODS A mixed methods research design was employed, which included both quantitative and qualitative elements. Therefore, this section is divided into a number of subsections, describing individual methodological aspects pertinent to the current study. A. Digital Technology Subcategorized With the focus on English education, digital technology is subcategorized in this study as online lessons which in turn refer to freely accessible and openly licensed materials and resources or commonly known as open educational resources (henceforth OER). Inherent advantages of OER online lessons are numerous, including readiness for use, a wide range of topics, language skills and levels, high volume, and free use. B. Research Questions Two research questions were addressed in this study: 1) what are the learning outcomes of Thai university students after being exposed to grammar online lessons, and 2) what are the students’ difficulties as far as online learning is concerned? C. Context and Participants A medium sized public university in central Thailand was Digital Technology in English Education: Linguistic Gain and Pain Points Budsaba Kanoksilapatham