Exploring College Students' Deeper Learning Perceptions in the Blended Learning Environment

Abstract

With the rapid development of information communication technology (ICT) in teaching, deeper learning has become an essential competency for success in the 21st-century classroom. College students' deeper learning assessments can indicate the degree of technology-enhanced learning effectiveness and inform further instructional design optimization. However, comprehensive measures for assessing college students' deeper learning and the impact of background variables on deeper learning in the low-, medium-, and high-blend learning environments are scarcely mentioned in the literature. This paper proposes a deeper learning self-assessment scale (DLSS) comprising higher-order cognitive, interactive, and reflective learning dimensions, validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. This paper also examines deeper learning perceptions in three types of blended learning environments with various proportions of online and face-to-face learning and explores perception differences among the students of different genders, school years, and fields of study. Findings indicated positive deeper learning perceptions were higher in the medium-blend courses.