Abstract
The findings of a number of recent empirical studies on blended learning support this pedagogy claiming many advantages such as the facilitation of independent and collaborative learning experiences. This study compares the attitudes towards blended learning of undergraduate students in the UAE before and after a full course exposure to blended learning, comparing results to the attitudes of students in a traditional course. An experimental research design was chosen for this research study, specifically a two-group pretest-posttest research design. Results show that exposure to blended learning serves as a trigger for changing students’ attitudes towards blended learning in a positive manner and that lack of exposure does not change student’s attitudes.
Highlights
Blended learning methods of learning are increasingly used in education
This study revealed that, in comparison with traditional learning, blended learning has a number of advantages: students have better access to the learning materials and greater independence in study; it is convenient and time‐saving with e‐learning platform; students’ motivation is improved and involvement with the course is increased; students feel more in control of their learning and the learning is more efficient
Within the group of students in the blended learning class the three items contributing to outliers in scores were related to online learning, namely: 1. I can collaborate well with a virtual team doing assignments 2
Summary
Blended learning methods of learning are increasingly used in education. Blending traditional learning with e-learning promises to maximize the advantages of both forms of learning (Wu, Tennyson and Hsia, 2010). Definitions of blended learning have a common element which is the combining of traditional, face-to face, classroom teaching and e learning resulting in a multimodal approach to teaching and learning. Driscoll (2002) defines blended learning as the intermixing of instructional forms to achieve an educational goal, whereas Garrison and Kanuka (2004) explain that blended learning means integrating classroom teaching with online experiences. Self-paced learning, instant messaging, social networking, blogs and forums, applications, wikis, journals and webinars are examples of tools instructors can use to incorporate online opportunities in their blended learning classes. The definition of blended learning adopted in this study is the combination of traditional face-to-face classroom teaching and online learning incorporating all the above mentioned methods and more with traditional methods
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