THE IMPACT OF BLENDED LEARNING APPROACH IN THE FIELD OF INITIAL TEACHER'S TRAINING

Abstract

According to Sloan Consortium blended learning systems refer to integrating online teaching tools into the specific activities of the traditional learning. The main purpose for these blended learning systems is that of bringing added value to the learning and teaching process by developing computer usage skills among the students. Such an example is that of the blended learning programmes, which represent those varied forms of delivering the training courses that are found on the continuum between the traditional face-to-face courses and the online courses. The University of Pitesti has implemented a European funded project whose final outcome was the development of an e-learning platform for the students of Faculty of Educational Sciences ; on the e-platform there has been implemented such a blended learning system. Several types of learning, such as asynchronous learning, have been provided on the platform, in order to offer students the possibility to create their process of learning at their own pace. In this respect, teachers can upload the educational resources that are necessary for the course, which will further be shared to the students automatically, so that they can access them in an easy and flexible manner. The purpose of the study is the analysis of the impact of the blended learning programme implementation on the e-learning platform for the students in the first year at the university, with respect to access to the features of the platform, to the teachers communicating by forums, to the access to digital courses, to taking self- evaluation tests, to uploading specific portfolios, to teachers for the online evaluating of these portfolios. The methodology used in this investigative approach is the questionnaire applied on a group of 200 students from the study program Pedagogy of primary and preschool education, University of Pitesti. The questionnaires were applied using an online platform. Findings and Results. The data gathered from the applied questionnaires have been elaborated and analyzed through statistics methods such as the descriptive and the inferential one and have confirmed the usefulness of implementing such a blended learning system.