Abstract
BackgroundTo improve the quality of education, many academic medical institutions are investing in the application of blended education to support new teaching and learning methods. To take necessary measures to implement the blended learning smoothly, and to achieve its goals, we aimed to identify its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) from its key users’ viewpoints.MethodsA qualitative study consisting of 24 interviews with lecturers and students and document analysis was conducted at Urmia University of Medical Sciences, in Iran, in 2018. The SWOT framework was used to analyze the data.ResultsThe most important strengths were the promotion of lecturer-student interactions, the focus on students’ learning needs and self-learning, and problem-solving skills. The supports of university executives, alignment with the national health education transformation plan, and access to the shared infrastructures of the national virtual medical science university were opportunities to facilitate its implementation. However, this endeavor had weaknesses such as bottlenecks in technical, organizational, and human resource infrastructures and lack of culture readiness. The threats envisioned for its maintenance were its dependency on the education transformation plan and the lack of an independent e-learning center for better planning and support services, lack of proper evaluation and supervision of virtual activities, and insufficiency of the privileges considered for users.ConclusionsOne of the important implications of this study is that different aspects surrounding blended learning might work as a double-edge sword from time to time, which requires a thorough overview. While retaining the strengths and enjoying the opportunities in such interventions, the weaknesses should be recognized and threats are faced and addressed. Therefore, if the SWOT items are considered mindfully, they can help to adopt the right implementation strategies to reap full benefits.
Highlights
To improve the quality of education, many academic medical institutions are investing in the application of blended education to support new teaching and learning methods
Our faculty members used a commercial learning management system (LMS) that was provided by the ministry of health and medical education to support the implementation of its education transformation and innovation plan
Content analysis to evaluate the blended education in our context from the lecturers and students’ viewpoints based on the SWOT framework revealed 30 initial codes in four major themes (Table 1) as followings
Summary
To improve the quality of education, many academic medical institutions are investing in the application of blended education to support new teaching and learning methods. Currently, one of the main approaches towards e-learning is the blended (hybrid) learning in which virtual education is combined with the traditional classroom-based education [6,7,8]., as an innovative component of blended education is one of the most effective methods of computer-assisted learning by providing interactive educational content and managing the ongoing learning processes [4] It enables the expansion of educational opportunities beyond class rooms, by providing better access to educational content while bypassing any time and space limitations [5, 9, 10]. Despite many positive features, students, teachers, and institutions face challenges while using blended education, which need to be addressed, mindfully [11]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
