Evaluation of Blended Learning Readiness Among Newly Admitted Learners at Distance Learning Institute (DLI) University of Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Blended learning is an alternative for providing quality education to learners at the tertiary level of education. As a result, the study aims to assess the blended learning readiness among newly admitted learners of 2017/2018 session of Distance Learning Institute (DLI), University of Lagos. Stratified random sampling was adopted to select 318 (155 male and 163 female) learners from the population. The instrument used for data collection was a 4-point Likert scale structured questionnaire titled Blended Learning Readiness Questionnaire (BLRQ) to elicit information from the learners. The instrument was adapted from St. Andrew’s College Online Learning Readiness Assessment. To ascertain the reliability of the instrument, a Cronbach Alpha value of 0.79 was obtained. 300 copies of properly filled questionnaire were used for the analysis. Mean score answered the research questions and the criterion mean was taken as 2.50. While the t-test was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 significance level. Analysis of research questions revealed that most of the newly admitted learners have self-direction towards their learning. Findings showed that learners possess good study habit and are ready for this mode of learning. The result from the hypothesis revealed a significant difference in the perception of students on the use of blended learning approach based on gender. Findings of this study will benefit the Management of Distance Learning Institute as well as learners; that are actually not ready for the blended or online mode of learning which could lead to frustrations and eventually to failures or high attrition rates.