The Status Quo of Hybrid Education at Moroccan Universities: The Case of Engineering Classes

Abstract

The pandemic has undoubtedly forced educational systems across the world to change face-to-face education practices forever. On the other hand, it has also forced online education system practices among Moroccan higher education institutions. With the spread of COVID-19 all over, the Moroccan education system circumstances did not allow face-to-face education, nor did it allow online education as a solution. As a matter of fact, hybrid learning remains the best-proposed alternative, as suggested in the literature. The present paper's main objectives were to investigate higher education English learners' attitudes towards hybrid education and examine the efficacy of hybrid education among higher education learners. After using a qualitative method, a questionnaire of 24 Likert Scale items delivered on Google Forum, and an interview of 18 learners, the findings suggested that Moroccan higher education learners showed that hybrid education does not support the majority of participants' learning process. However, hybrid learning was, to an extent, a successful experience for a number of other participants. The unsatisfying quality of the internet remains an issue to be sorted out in the future, and laziness in attending online morning classes was also evidence of why hybrid learning remained challenging. Learners favoured face-to-face classroom-based instructions over blended learning regardless of the advantages of the latter. A great portion of the population favoured face-to-face rather than online learning. The learners also got confused using the hybrid model. Last, it was evidence that the learners preferred the face-to-face model as their best model to use in many cases.