Blended Course Research Articles

The Impacts of a Blended Entrepreneurship Course on Secondary Students' Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Entrepreneurial Intentions

This mixed-methods study examined the impacts of a blended entrepreneurial course on secondary students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and intentions, which were measured with pre- and post-surveys. The artifacts students created (elevator pitches and business canvas models) were collected. Survey results revealed no improvement in ESE, but significant improvements in two dimensions of intentions: professional attraction and entrepreneurial capacity. Artifact results showed that students could identify problems and generate solutions, but they could not project revenues. These findings suggest that blended courses can increase students’ professional attraction of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial capacity and enable them to identify problems and generate solutions.

Reimagining Online and Blended Provision of English for Academic Purposes: Practices and Reflections from a Distributed Network in East Africa

The online and blended delivery of courses through the use of technologies has attracted attention and research.The teaching and learning of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in multilingual contexts such as in Africa has also been given prominence in research, as well as the benefits of technology in EAP programmes. The pressing need for technology - supported educational practices has been evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic that affected most educational systems around the world. Although there is an increasing body of research on the integration of technology in education emerging from developing contexts, most proposed models still come from high-income countries.Therefore, there is a need for more critical and contextually relevant approaches to the integration of technology in education. Based on the authors’ narratives of their lived experiences as teachers of EAP in a university in East Africa, this article aims to describe and reflect on the practices related to design and delivery of online and blended courses to university students, including in a teacher education programme. It is hoped that this work will contribute to discussions on how to make online and blended teaching practices of EAP more contextually relevant and how exogenous resources can be adapted to the realities of students in multilingual developing contexts.The online and blended delivery of courses through the use of technologies has attracted attention and research. The teaching and learning of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in multilingual contexts such as in Africa has also been given prominence in research, as well as the benefits of technology in EAP programmes. The pressing need for technology-supported educational practices has been evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic that affected most educational systems around the world. Although there is an increasing body of research on the integration of technology in education emerging from developing contexts, most proposed models still come from high-income countries. Therefore, there is a need for more critical and contextually relevant approaches to the integration of technology in education. Based on the authors’ narratives of their lived experiences as teachers of EAP in a university in East Africa, this article aims to describe and reflect on the practices related to design and delivery of online and blended courses to university students, including in a teacher education programme. It is hoped that this work will contribute to discussions on how to make online and blended teaching practices of EAP more contextually relevant and how exogenous resources can be adapted to the realities of students in multilingual developing contexts.

Blended Learning Strategies for Sustainable English as a Second Language Education: A Systematic Review

Blended learning in English as a Second Language (ESL) has become a growing trend in sustaining education at higher learning institutions. The impact of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 on education has made the integration of technology vital in the teaching and learning dyad. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed even more emphasis on the incorporation of technology in ESL pedagogy. Nevertheless, the reviews on blended learning in ESL are inadequate despite its great significance in sustaining education. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) were adopted for reviewing current studies, and two core journal databases, namely Scopus and Web of Science, with two supporting databases (Science Direct and Mendeley) were utilized. A total of 32 articles were identified through a systematic search of “blended learning” OR “blended education” OR “blended courses” OR “integrated learning” AND “strategies” OR “techniques” OR “applications” OR “methods” AND “ESL” OR “English as a Second Language.” Four main themes emerged from this review, namely collaborative-based learning, learning management systems, social media applications, and technology-based learning. Finally, several recommendations were presented at the end of this research that should be the focus of future studies.

Professional Sports Trainers' Burnout in Fully Online and Blended Classes: Innovative Approaches in Physical Education and Sports Training

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many educational institutions worldwide to establish emergency remote teaching systems. Although online teaching has long been applied in many other subjects, online sports training is still under-researched in developing countries like Vietnam. In Vietnam, sports trainers are innovatively making many efforts to teach sports online amidst such a once-in-many-generations event. Particularly, a gym center chain has been offering two special formats of online courses utilizing virtual reality (VR) and three-dimensional (3D) technologies, namely, fully online and blended courses. The first format comprises 50% asynchronous sessions using VR and 3D technologies to provide trainees with theoretical knowledge and 50% offline sessions for practical skills training. The second format also includes 50% asynchronous sessions using the same technologies; however, the training for practical skills is conducted via an e-conferencing platform (Zoom). Fortunately, the blended courses have attracted significant attention from many sports trainees. However, as sports trainers in Vietnam had minimal opportunities to teach online before this epidemic, it is likely that, while teaching these courses, they can encounter moments of burnout, which comprises three dimensions, such as exhaustion, cynicism, and low professional efficacy. Thus, we aim to investigate factors that affected each dimension of burnout among sports trainers, using the mixed-method approach with questionnaires and focus-group interviews within this study. This study suggests practical pedagogical implications for sports trainers and administrators to curb stress and burnout in online sports training courses in times of crisis.

Development and students' evaluation of a blended online and offline pedagogy for physical education theory curriculum in China during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The outbreak and continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the implementation of physical education theory (PET) curriculums among global colleges and universities. This study aimed to describe the design and students’ evaluation of a blended “Sports Multimedia Courseware Design” course among Chinese university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using information communication technologies, a 4-month blended course was developed, which consisted of 36 credits (18-credit online self-learning + 18-credit offline group-learning). A total of 1300 Chinese university students who majored in physical education, completed the blended course from Mar to Jun 2020, among which 238 (69.75% males; 21 ± 1.2 years) were randomly recruited to evaluate the course in terms of three aspects: (1) online self-learning, (2) offline group-learning, and (3) overall learning outcomes. A descriptive analysis was conducted using the IBM SPSS 27.0. Students’ overall positive evaluation supported a successful development and implementation of the blended course. Over 90% of students fulfilled the learning tasks and satisfied with the online learning resources. About 83% of students indicated high levels of autonomous motivation and engagement in online self-learning. Approximately 88% of students showed positive attitudes to the offline group-learning content, while the participation rate (60%) was relatively lower than of the online self-learning. Over 50% of the students indicated self-improvements in diverse aspects after attending the blended course. Blended online and offline pedagogy shows apparent promise in delivering the PET course among Chinese university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further application and comprehensive evaluation are warranted in the future.

Examining the effects of mixed and non‐digital gamification on students' learning performance, cognitive engagement and course satisfaction

AbstractGamification is typically implemented digitally. However, digital gamification is not always possible because of limited resources and logistical problems. It is thus necessary to explore low‐threshold gamification methods that can be easily adopted in classrooms. One such method is non‐digital gamification using physical game design elements. Currently, the literature provides a limited understanding of the design and effects of non‐digital gamification. It is also unclear whether mixed gamification (ie, a combination of digital and non‐digital gamification) is better than purely non‐digital gamification. We explored these topics using an explanatory sequential mixed‐methods design to compare the effectiveness of non‐digital gamification in a face‐to‐face course and mixed gamification in a blended course in terms of student learning achievement, cognitive engagement and course satisfaction. Two secondary grade classes were randomly assigned to the mixed (N = 52) or non‐digital (N = 52) gamification conditions. Contrary to our expectations, the quantitative results showed that the two approaches improved the students' learning achievement to the same extent. Although the students in the non‐digital gamification condition reported significantly higher‐course satisfaction than those in the mixed condition, the improvement in student cognitive engagement was significantly greater in the mixed gamification condition than in the non‐digital condition. Through focus group interviews, we analysed the students' learning experiences and synthesised the factors that influenced student cognitive engagement and course satisfaction. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Gamification is increasingly being used to increase student engagement and enhance learning. Gamification studies have mostly focused on digital modes, which often require gamified digital platforms or applications. Non‐digital gamification can be an effective method to foster learning, but the design and evaluation of non‐digital gamification is at an early stage. What this paper adds We designed non‐digital and mixed (ie, a combination of digital and non‐digital) gamification programmes and compared their effects using an explanatory sequential mixed‐methods design. Both gamification approaches led to a similar improvement in learning achievement. While non‐digital gamification fostered students' course satisfaction, mixed gamification was more effective in improving students' cognitive engagement. Implications for practice and/or policy Non‐digital gamification can be an effective low‐threshold solution for instructors. It is worth further improving the non‐digital gamification approach in school settings as it is cost‐effective and can be transferred between classrooms. The benefits of mixed gamification should not be ignored because of its affordances that improve students' cognitive engagement.

Exploring learner identity in the blended learning context: A case study of collaborative writing

While there has been much research on language learner identity in traditional face-to-face classrooms, less attention has been paid to learner identity construction and its influencing factors in the blended learning environment. To bridge this gap, this study adopted a case-study approach to investigate six Chinese university students' learner identities constructed in the online and offline sessions of a blended English for academic purposes (EAP) course focusing on collaborative writing. Data included class observations and recordings, history logs on the writing platform, and semi-structured interviews. Different types of learner identities were identified from participants' verbal characteristics in offline classroom discussions (i.e., Group Leader, Spokesperson, Summarizer, and Follower) and from their writing revisions on the online writing platform (i.e., Industrious Contributor, Prudent Reader, Procrastinator, and Cooperative Writer). Both individual and contextual factors were found to influence the construction of learner identity in the blended learning environment for collaborative writing. The study also found that some students maintained their learner identities across the two cohesive learning sessions of the blended course whereas others did not. These findings provide implications for course design, pedagogical practice, and materials development.

A blended English for Specific Purposes course with the focus on critical thinking skills development for computer science students

The paper deals with the pedagogical aspects of blended learning implementation in the educational process of undergraduates majoring in computer science. Certain peculiarities of blended learning for foreign language teaching have been presented. The design principles of a blended course for one term as well as the practice of its functioning have been discussed. The blended English for Specific Purposes course for computer science students with the focus on critical thinking skills formation and development has been introduced. One specific profession-related theme studying within the blend has been described. The experience of applying authentic demonstration videos in the English language as contents of tasks for critical thinking skills enhancing has been propounded. Practical aspects of carrying out a 30 multiple-choice question test for determining the undergraduates’ critical thinking skills level have been presented.

Recent Development in University Student Learning Research in Blended Course Designs: Combining Theory-Driven and Data-Driven Approaches.

OPINION article Front. Psychol., 17 May 2022Sec. Educational Psychology https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.905592

Assessment of the effectiveness of a course in major chemical incidents for front line health care providers: a pilot study from Saudi Arabia

BackgroundMass chemical exposure emergencies are infrequent but can cause injury, illness, or loss of life for large numbers of victims. These emergencies can stretch and challenge the available resources of healthcare systems within the community. Political unrest in the Middle East, including chemical terrorist attacks against civilians in Syria and increasing chemical industry accidents, have highlighted the lack of hospital preparedness for chemical incidents in the region. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a course designed to empower frontline healthcare providers involved in mass casualty incidents with the basic knowledge and essential operational skills for mass chemical exposure incidents in Saudi Arabia.MethodsA mixed-methods approach was used to develop a blended learning, simulation enhanced, competency-based course for major chemical incidents for front line healthcare providers. The course was designed by experts from different disciplines (disaster medicine, poisoning / toxicology, and Hazard Material Threat - HAZMAT team) in four stages. The course was piloted over five days at the Officers Club of the Ministry of Interior (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia). The 41 participants were from different government health discipline sectors in the country. Pre- and post-tests were used to assess learner knowledge while debriefing sessions after the decontamination triage session and simulation-enhanced exercises were used for team performance assessment.ResultsThe overall knowledge scores were significantly higher in the post-test (69.47%) than the pre-test (46.3%). All four knowledge domains also had significant differences between pre- and post-test results. There were no differences in the pre and post-test scores for healthcare providers from the different health disciplines. A one-year post-event survey demonstrated that participants were satisfied with their knowledge retention. Interestingly, 38.3% had the opportunity to put this knowledge into practice in relation to mass chemical exposure incidents.ConclusionDelivering a foundation level competency-based blended learning course with enhanced simulation training in major chemical incidents for front line healthcare providers may improve their knowledge and skills in response to such incidents. This in turn can improve the level of national preparedness and staff availability and make a crucial difference in reducing the health impacts among victims.

Should you become a leader in online collaborative learning? Impact of assigned leadership on learning behaviors, outcomes, and perceptions.

The growing prevalence of collaborative learning spaces in higher education highlights the importance of student leadership for group learning. Thus, leadership assignment as a common practice in online collaborative learning merits special attention. To investigate the impact of assigned leadership and its key characteristics in promoting team learning in the online context, a semester-long quasi-experiment was conducted with 94 students in a graduate-level blended course. The results revealed significant differences between assigned leaders and group members in certain participating behaviors. However, the impact of assigned leadership on learning outcomes and perceptions was insubstantial. Additionally, student leaders' academic achievement was found to have little impact on group members' learning behaviors and learning outcomes, and mixed results were reported regarding the influence of leader behaviors on group performance. The research findings can inform the crucial decision of leader selection and extend our understanding of leadership in online collaborative learning.

Integrating MOOCs in an Undergraduate English Course: Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of Blended Learning

As blended learning pedagogy gains an increasing popularity in higher education, there is a need to continually report both students’ and instructors’ perceptions regarding blended learning in order to generate better learning outcomes. This paper examines how students and instructors perceived the incorporation of MOOCs in students’ blended learning experience and the challenges they encountered. A total of 122 second-year undergraduates enrolling in an English course were surveyed, and five students and three lecturers were interviewed. The finding shows that students had favorable attitudes toward this blended course, expressing a higher level of interaction, flexibility, a better understanding of the learning content, and a richer learning experience. The instructors confirmed the positive impacts of blended learning but also admitted blended teaching increased their time commitment to their jobs. The impediments met by students and instructors in the blended learning environment must be taken into consideration.

Online and Blended Learning Courses for Healthcare Professionals and Policymakers on Patients' Perspectives on Medicine: A Project Report.

In order for healthcare professionals to better engage with patients, they need to understand and integrate the perspectives of patients into their daily work. In this project, we developed two courses for healthcare professionals on patients’ perspectives on medicine. One course was an online course that introduced the patients’ perspectives on medicine and explained its importance for healthcare and health policy. The second course was a blended learning course, consisting of online modules and face-to-face webinars, which specified how to explore patients’ perspectives in qualitative interviews, and how to develop implementation plans. Patients participated in the development, execution, and evaluation of both courses. Overall, more than 2000 healthcare professionals enrolled in the first course and, in just over a year, 191 participants completed the online course; 57 healthcare professionals registered in the second blended learning course and six participants completed both components of the course. The relevance of knowledge gained was positively evaluated. Participants especially appreciated the participation of patients. Based on the feedback, the second blended learning course was adapted to run online and both courses continue to be freely available to all interested healthcare professionals on the Coursera platform.

Online Higher Education in Bangladesh during Covid-19: It is Challenges and Prospects

Online higher education in Bangladesh has not gained expected popularity and a switch to it has always been seen as a challenge despite its potentials here. So, our research investigates the challenges in implementing online higher education and prospects for this for Bangladeshi universities. To do this we have explored the background and evolution of e-learning and online learning in Bangladeshi higher education and the potentials that it might offer in this area. This is a study which may also be called a systematic review. This study reviews research publications on the topic that were published during the last ten years. The research publications include fourteen newspaper articles, twenty two journal articles, four doctoral theses, four reports, three conference proceedings and nine websites. The study finds out that there are a number of problems in implementing online higher education such as, negative perception of teachers, parents and students about the online education, digital divide in the country. On the other hand, online or at least the blended education can be a good alternative to face-to-face higher education of Bangladesh that faces a number of constraints such as, crisis of seats and reputed higher education institutes, session backlog, cost of higher education in universities as well as the conducive factors such as, digitalization, digital literacy, widespread use of mobile phone and the internet. This study recommends that blended courses and programs may be offered in higher education of Bangladesh considering the prospects it offers to our higher education providers .

Prediction of learning outcomes with a machine learning algorithm based on online learning behavior data in blended courses

Prediction of learning outcomes with a machine learning algorithm based on online learning behavior data in blended courses

Designing Personalised Blended Learning Courses for Engineering Students

Blended Learning is a well balanced fusion of face-to-face learning and online experiences. In this paper we discuss some design aspects concerning the optimal proportion between the two means of education applied to Engineering students. Our approach is taking into account the creative potential of engineering students and their type of thinking that have been previously investigated through the Brain Lateralization Information System (BLIS) [1]. In this paper we aim at identifying ways in which creative thinking and problem solving techniques can be implemented as personalized Blended Education Programs for students attending courses in the fields of Engineering. A blended course has an integrated online component and a concomitant face-to-face seat time, in order to reach student populations that cannot attend a fully face-to-face program. The advantages of face to face and the advantages of online activities have been put into balance and discussed. The purposes behind learning activities should be expressed by: community building, trust building, spontaneous reaction, clarification on one hand and reflection, analysis, exploration, creation on the other hand. In our efforts of designing a blended course we have considered the best suited modality for each specialty.

Designing Web-Based Learning Materials

Online courses are nowadays well established forms of learning and teaching all over the world. They are used as supporting courses of traditional classes, as complementary courses of blended courses or pure distance courses. In all cases they must be designed well to attract and motivate students. Therefore, this paper focuses on the analysis of web-based study materials and their impact on learning.

A Meta-Analysis on the Community of Inquiry Presences and Learning Outcomes in Online and Blended Learning Environments

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework describes three essential presences (i.e., teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence) and how these presences interact in providing an educational experience in online and blended learning environments. This meta-analysis examined 19 empirical studies on the CoI Presences (Teaching Presence, Social Presence, and Cognitive Presence) and their correlations with learning outcomes, including actual learning, perceived learning, and satisfaction. It was found that teaching presence and actual learning were moderately positively correlated, (r = .353). There was a weak correlation between cognitive presence and actual learning, (r = .250) and social presence and actual learning, (r = .199). For the correlation between the presences and perceived learning, cognitive presence and perceived learning was found to be strongly correlated, (r = .663), followed by the moderate correlation between social presence and perceived learning (r = .432), and teaching presence and perceived learning, (r = .392). With respect to satisfaction, the correlation between cognitive presence and satisfaction, (r = .586) and between teaching presence and satisfaction was strong, (r = .510), but the correlation between social presence and satisfaction was moderate, (r = .447). The findings have implications for designers and instructors who design and teach online and blended courses to include these presences.

OLDER WOMEN'S VIEWS ON THEIR PARTICIPATION IN A BLENDED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM USING FB ROOM PLATFORM

Several studies have found that elderly people have a difficulty in using social media platforms and smartphone apps due to a number of barriers that discourage them from engaging with technology. This study presents older women’s views regarding a two-month blended (synchronous and asynchronous) learning course on using apps and social media on smartphones in their daily life. The design of the educational course was based on older adult women’s needs. The findings of the qualitative research indicate that older people’s educational needs are better met when they participate in an asynchronous e-learning environment, where they are given the opportunity to proceed at their own pace. Moreover, the results suggest that designers and educators can incorporate video tutorials (narration and subtitles) in the learning programs as an effective educational mean and use Facebook as a learning platform so as to engage learners and facilitate communication between educators and learners.

Analysis of Engineering Technology Students’ Digital Footprints in Synchronous and Asynchronous Blended Courses

The advent of Covid-19 provided an enormous academic and logistical challenge to almost all academic institutions in the United States and around the world. As a precautionary measure surrounding the novel coronavirus and in line with recommendations from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at that time (spring 2020), most higher education institutions in the United States shut down campuses and completed the second half of the spring 2020 semester virtually. During the fall 2020 semester, when relatively more was known about the virus, some institutions started with face-to-face classes but had to switch to virtual learning after noticing a spread of the coronavirus on their campuses. Others adopted a blended approach that supplements face-to-face meetings with virtual learning synchronously or asynchronously. Whichever approach adopted in place of the traditional face-to-face meetings did not necessarily solve the challenge faced by Engineering Technology programs, which typically infuse hands-on learning in most of the courses in their curriculum. Due to the applied nature of engineering technology, it is important to ensure that students stay engaged with creative ways to learn by doing. And to ensure that the students do not miss critical course content in virtual and blended engineering technology courses, it is vital that the students maintain high interactions with online resources such as class video recordings. This paper reviews students’ patterns of interactions with course videos to assess its impact on the academic success of engineering technology students in some upper-level blended courses delivered during the spring and fall 2020 semesters.