How to improve students’ experience in blending learning? Evidence from the perceptions of students in a Postgraduate Master’s Degree

Beatriz Garcia-Ortega,Javier Galan-Cubillo

doi:10.4995/wpom.15677

Abstract

This paper examines the perceptions of a group of students of a Postgraduate Master’s Degree in Cosmetics Industry at the Universitat de València, delivered with a blended learning modality, in relation to their experience in face-to-face learning and differentiating between those with or without a previous background in a remote online learning environment, with the added purpose of identifying strategies to enhance that experience, while offering further evidence for scholars, educators and institutions in this field. To this end, a survey with open questions devised ad hoc leaning on our literature review was submitted to a group of 114 students of the Master’s Degree in the period 2017-2020. Students were enquired about the pros and cons of their blended learning experience in relation to the traditional face-to-face learning, and which modality they would choose next time if both were offered, only considering the achievement, experience and satisfaction, regardless of the price. 77 students of our initial sample participated in the questionnaire, 38 of them without previous experience in blended or distance learning. The results show a certain predilection for face-to-face learning, especially in the group of newbies in blended or distance learning. They highlight how they miss a closer interaction with their peers and professors and the difficulties to assimilate certain content, while appraising the flexibility, autonomy, and the self-pace of the blended learning modality. Correspondingly, students with experience in remote online education settings generally show a better predisposal and find fewer disadvantages in blended learning. This suggests that the factor of experience and adaptation to new tools and methods improves student perception and confidence and shapes their preferences, with a foreseeable growing acceptance of blended learning in the future. Finally, the outcome allows us to define a series of strategies to improve the achievement, experience, and satisfaction of students in this learning context.

Highlights

The blending learning modality, understood as a compromise solution between traditional face-to-face learning and purely remote online learning, is likely to combine the best of both modalities (Krause, 2007; Bonk & Graham, 2012)
Addressing our RQ1: ‘Which are the main advantages and disadvantages of their blended learning experience in contrast to their face-to-face learning experience underlined by university students in their last years?’ the most recurring advantages of blended learning over face-to-face learning pointed out by students are by far autonomy, self-paced and flexibility
After introducing the growing relevance of blended learning and the convenience of assessing students’ perceptions in different educational contexts, we extracted from the literature review the advantages, disadvantages and challenges of blended learning versus face-to-face learning, which served to devise our survey to collect such perceptions

Summary

Introduction

The blending learning modality, understood as a compromise solution between traditional face-to-face learning and purely remote online learning, is likely to combine the best of both modalities (Krause, 2007; Bonk & Graham, 2012). When assessing and comparing different teaching modalities, the casuistry can be diverse depending on many factors, such as the stage of learning and background of students and teachers, the subject, contents and learning objectives, the nature of lessons (theorical or practical), the weight of traditional vs online component, the technological means used, etc. This may explain why there is no consensus among scholars about which is the best modality in terms of student performance and satisfaction (Kemp, 2020)

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Results

Conclusion