Adoption Of Blended Learning Research Articles

Analysing a Gap between Students’ Expectations and Perceptions: The Case of Blended Learning

The adoption of blended learning at university levels is pervasive. This learning approach is deemed to be more effective compared to face-to-face or online learning. To prove the claim, this study aimed to investigate a gap that may be existed between students’ expectations and perceptions of blended learning implementation at the Science Department in a university in Surabaya, Indonesia. A questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were utilized to gather relevant information from 79 preservice science teachers who have experienced blended learning in science subjects. The gaps between expectations and perceptions were measured using Cohen’s effect size. Overall, the effect size of students’ expectations and perceptions of the blended learning implementation exceeded 0.5 and is categorized as large. The aspects with large effect size values included the number of interactions between students and teachers. These findings indicated that the implementations of blended learning in science subjects were not run well.Implications of this study are discussed.

Blended teaching and learning: Exploring the concept, barriers to implementation and designing of learning resources

With the advent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), several institutions worldwide have adopted the blended mode of teaching and learning. However, literature on this concept in South Africa and on the African continent is scarce. This scoping review explores the concept of blended approach to training and how to design resources for the blended teaching and learning approach. In addition, the review investigates barriers to the implementation of blended learning. The findings of this study demonstrate that the understanding of the concept of blended teaching and learning is not homogenous and is often left to individual academics to decide on the approach. The review identified several hurdles that need to be addressed for successful implementation of blended teaching and learning, however these are not specific to South African institutions. Available literature on studies done elsewhere and in South African, suggest that some of the identified barriers to adoption of blended teaching and learning are real, while others are perceived or imagined. Lastly, the authors observed that there are several approaches to designing learning resources for the blended mode of teaching and learning. The choice of approach is dependent on the intended purpose for which the specific design is adopted. There is a need for studies that specifically investigate blended learning in Universities in South Africa and on the continent to help identify barriers to adopting blended teaching and learning among institutions that are specific to the South African and African context. Institutions adopting the blended teaching and learning mode of delivery, need to be unambiguous in their philosophy of blending teaching and learning and not leave it to the implementing academics. Policymakers can use the information generated in this review to recommend minimum requirements for a blended delivery mode in public institutions of higher learning. Keywords: e-learning, distance education, web-based learning, face-to-face instructional mode

Antecedences of Continued Blended Learning Adoption Intentions: A Framework for Acceptance of Blended Distance Learning

Some organizations face significant shifts in their teaching settings and emerging teaching developments, and new technology-driven practices. Today’s students are raised in a technologically advanced environment, unlike their predecessors. Higher education institutions must find innovative ways to serve diverse instructional requirements, learning stages, methodologies, and preferences. Many students and educators were exposed to online education during the Covid-19 pandemic and started to adapt to new behavior for the new-normal blended learning. The authors suggest a model for assessing the effectiveness of blended learning programs in higher education institutions in this paper. The model was implemented and tested on Kuwait University students.

A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews on Blended Learning: Trends, Gaps and Future Directions.

Blended Learning (BL) is one of the most used methods in education to promote active learning and enhance students’ learning outcomes. Although BL has existed for over a decade, there are still several challenges associated with it. For instance, the teachers’ and students’ individual differences, such as their behaviors and attitudes, might impact their adoption of BL. These challenges are further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as schools and universities had to combine both online and offline courses to keep up with health regulations. This study conducts a systematic review of systematic reviews on BL, based on PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, to identify BL trends, gaps and future directions. The obtained findings highlight that BL was mostly investigated in higher education and targeted students in the first place. Additionally, most of the BL research is coming from developed countries, calling for cross-collaborations to facilitate BL adoption in developing countries in particular. Furthermore, a lack of ICT skills and infrastructure are the most encountered challenges by teachers, students and institutions. The findings of this study can create a roadmap to facilitate the adoption of BL. The findings of this study could facilitate the design and adoption of BL which is one of the possible solutions to face major health challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Online learning during COVID-19: Key challenges and suggestions to enhance effectiveness

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on every aspect of society. It has caused profound disruption to the education system as governments around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Face-to-face classes have been canceled and moved online, bringing about the rise of online learning that has allowed learners to continue their education. The sudden transition from face-to-face to online learning has, however, posed numerous challenges for students, teachers, administrators, and education leaders. Drawing on previously published sources, this article first attempts to explain different terms used to describe online learning. It then discusses key challenges posed by the widespread adoption of online learning during the pandemic, followed by a discussion of suggestions made by different researchers to enhance the effectiveness of online learning. The article concludes with a summary of key challenges and suggestions and brief recommendations for the broader adoption of online and blended learning in the post-COVID-19 world.

The Adoption of Blended Learning in Non-Formal Education Using Extended Technology Acceptance Model

This study aims to determine the influencing factors for understanding the intention of the learners in Non-Formal Education to use Blended Learning. In addition, it aims to investigate the relationships of the factors in a theoretical model. This study was conducted due to the lack of research in the world that discusses the adoption of Blended Learning in Non-Formal Education in Developing Countries such as Indonesia. Blended Learning at Non-Formal Education in the Covid-19 era is needed because the education institution has a limited place to accommodate more learners. A questionnaire based on google form was used to collect data. A sample of 566 users of Blended Learning from Non-Formal Education Institutions in Indonesia were used. All variables from the theoretical model are measured using existing scales. Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to analyze the theoretical model. SPSS and Amos were used as the software tools. This research contributes to the theoretical understanding of Blended Learning adoption as well as practice and provide guidance for Non-Formal Education to successfully implementing Blended Learning in their institutions. From the thirteen initial hypotheses, there are nine significant hypotheses. Three hypotheses with the largest magnitude are SI -> PU, CE -> PEU, and PU -> BI. SI is the most influencing factor in the adoption of blended learning at non-formal education institutions.

Leveraging informal learning practices for broadening participation in university education: A Kenyan case study

Kenyan public universities primarily provide classroom-based courses. However, socioeconomic realities limit many rural-based learners from regularly attending classes. Interestingly, because of the willingness of Kenyans to further their education, informal education is picking up fast. Individuals are forming informal learning circles and have proactively found ways to use smartphones to access online educational resources. This paper explores ways to leverage the strengths of these informal learning practices to enhance participation in formal higher education for Kenyans. One way this can be achieved is through blended learning. With blended learning, students will experience the convenience of online learning without losing the social on-campus interactions they are accustomed to. Currently, the use of blended learning in Kenyan public universities is not at the desired level. Lack of conventional computing resources (laptops/desktop PCs) due to economical constraints is a contributing factor. Given their widespread adoption, we suggest smartphones could serve as a viable platform for blended learning in Kenya. To explore this idea, a survey was conducted with 114 students in Tom Mboya University College (TMUC), a rural-based public university in Kenya. The survey examined students’ attitudes towards using smartphones in education. Results indicate smartphones are already an integral part of the students’ informal education and the students have a strong desire to integrate smartphones into their formal education. We envisage that our research will contribute knowledge towards the adoption of blended learning in resource-constrained university environments.

Resistance to Blended Learning in Business and Public Administration Higher Education

Although resistance to technology is frequent in teaching, when it comes to resistance to Blended Learning (BL) in higher education, research is scarce and rare in literature, especially in the national. Currently, resistance to BL is a significant problem, although such technology has high rates of growth in several countries. The general objective of this research was to identify and analyze the main dimensions of resistance to BL in higher education in Business and Public Administration in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil, in São Paulo/Brazil, in Malaga/Spain and in the city of Porto/Portugal. After the bibliographic review of themes such as BL, Resistance to Technologies and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technologies (UTAUT), a theoretical structure tested explains the resistance to the BL method. Seven dimensions were used: Self-efficiency, IT Skills, Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Interactivity and Internal Communication, all directly influencing the Resistance construct. The results indicate that the proposed model had a good fit and that the Self-efficiency and IT Skills constructs had a negative influence on Resistance. The Expectancy dimension had a positive and extremely significant impact on the mitigation of resistance to BL adoption. The other dimensions do not form statistically significant, not conforming their influence on the mitigation of resistance to BL. In the comparison between the four universities researched, EAESP-FGV was the one that showed less resistance to BL adoption and Malaga/Spain was the one that showed more resistance to BL adoption.

Investigating the Institutional Blended Learning Adoption Framework in Higher Education

There are limited studies that concern the institutional policies and issues of blended learning adoption. By using a case study, this study explores blended learning implementation and three main issues of adoption. The issues are “institutional strategy, structure, and support that portrayed the stages of the blended learning adoption. The data indicated that the blended learning implementation of learning increases the involvement use of technology by the learner. But there is still no proportionality in the enforcement between F2F and online learning goals and activities. The data were obtained by observation, semi-structured interview, and documentation. Based on the result, the institution under investigation still in stage 1 (awareness/exploration stage) of the blended learning adoption stage. By doing the research on the three participants who adopt blended learning, it can be concluded that the institution has not met the requirements for implementing blended learning at higher stages because many aspects have not been fulfilled and need to be improved for future implementation. Therefore, the researchers expect that this research can be a reference regarding aspects that must be fulfilled for better implementation.

Forming digital shepherds of the Church: evaluating participation and satisfaction of blended learning course on communication theology

PurposeThe Catholic Church expects theological institutes, priests and seminarians to be well-informed, critical and creative users of information and communications technology. Currently, most theological institutes use the traditional face-to-face teaching method. An attempt to implement blended learning as an innovative teaching and learning modality for communication theology was made at the Saint Peter’s Pontifical Institute, Bangalore, India, using the lab-rotation model for one semester. This paper aimed to study the two important course outcomes: participation and satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachThe course was designed using the analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation (ADDIE) model, developed, implemented and evaluated for 21 first-year theology students. The combination of descriptive and quasi-experimental research used an online questionnaire containing statements on a five-point Likert scale. The study evaluated the potentials of blended learning as an innovative modality through student participation and satisfaction.FindingsThis research found that a high level of participation augmented satisfaction among the students during the implementation of the blended learning modality. The positive results revealed that future shepherds in the Catholic Church could effectively integrate information and communications technologies (ICTs) in their life and mission and serve digital citizens.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was conducted in St. Peter’s Pontifical Institute of Theology (SPPI) for an elective course, Communication Theology, taught once a week. Only two outcomes; participation and satisfaction were studied. The respondents were 21 first-year theology students of the SPPI, which could have limited the generalizability of the results. They were not allowed to use any gadgets. So this research had to adopt a lab-rotation model wherein the students followed part of their course in the computer room.Practical implicationsThis pilot experience in blended learning modality will help SPPI recognize the advantage of such an approach and possibly decide to adopt it as one modality in the institute. It may also serve as a model for other Catholic schools and this could trigger the wider adoption of blended learning among Catholic schools. Results of the study can demonstrate to the faculty how blended learning is designed and a sample module can easily guide them on how it may be implemented. Hence, this can equip them already with knowledge and skills about the new modality.Social implicationsThe positive learning experiences will help the professors to further discover and adopt new and existing learning technologies that can enhance the learning atmosphere for post-millennials. They can now innovate teaching and learning strategies to best address the learning needs in their classroom, given the pervasiveness of ICTs in the everyday lives. This study will also provide a new learning option for the students as they undergo a new student-centred learning exercise.Originality/valueThe pioneering effort of integrating ICTs in the form of blended learning in theology curriculum was executed in SPPI. The application of the blended learning approach to teaching communication theology is innovative in that educational technology is not only applied to theology courses but involves the promotion of technology use among future religious leaders. From a long-term perspective, this attempt can transform traditional face-to-face dominated teaching approaches.

Institutional factors for faculty members' implementation of blended learning in higher education

PurposeThe aim of this study is to develop a model grounded by the institutional theory to investigate blended learning (BL) implementation among faculty members in higher education and further validate the model.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative methodology was employed, and data were gathered through questionnaires among 188 e-learning directors, managers and coordinators at faculty/department in institutions, which implement BL.FindingsFindings reveal that BL implementation by faculty members is significantly influenced by coercive, normative and mimetic pressures. Findings from this study also identified institutional initiatives that influence BL implementation. Accordingly, findings from this study provide insights into the institutional theory perspective toward BL. The findings support higher education to plan and initiate BL policies.Research limitations/implicationsData were collected from faculty members in universities, colleges and polytechnics only. Besides, this research is one of the limited studies that explore BL deployment from the lens of faculty members.Practical implicationsThis research contributes to the existing literature on the institutional theory and BL by presenting significant initiatives as practical suggestions for educationalist and policymakers. Therefore, this study provides practical implications to better understand BL initiatives by providing insights into how institutions can improve faculty members' satisfaction levels, improving course management, enriching teaching quality and enhancing learning content.Social implicationsThe findings provided in this study can be employed to design practices, policies and a culture that support continuance use of BL systems among faculty members to achieve an effective institutional outcome.Originality/valueThis study contributes to existing BL adoption and develops a model to examine faculty member implementation of BL approach. This research has several suggestions for higher education in terms of practice to support adoption of BL. The developed model can also be employed by academics, administration and institutions to determine success initiatives for achieving an appropriate change in adopting BL in their institutions.

Prospects and pitfalls associated with implementing blended learning in rural-based higher education institutions in Southern Africa

While blended learning is well entrenched in many developed countries as a solution towards enabling access to educational resources and managing student diversity, this may not be the same for rural based universities in developing countries. Yet, blended learning is ideal for the current terrain of the COVID-19 pandemic which requires learning modalities that promote social distancing to reduce the spread of the disease while ensuring that students have access to quality teaching and learning materials and to frequently stay engaged. For many rural based universities, successful blended learning implementation implies an exploration of possible ways to strengthen existing practices. This paper, using the document analysis method, sought to explore the prospects and pitfalls of implementing blended learning in rural- based universities in Southern Africa. The blended learning implementation framework by Graham, Woodfield and Harrison (2013) served as a guiding framework as it was specifically designed to determine success in blended learning adoption and implementation in education. This framework utilises the constructs of strategy, structure and support to differentiate the stages of adopting blended learning. These three stages are in a continuum and comprise awareness and exploration as stage 1, adoption or early implementation as stage 2 and mature implementation and growth as stage 3, with stages differing depending on the extent of formalisation of the institutional strategy, structure and support. Findings indicated prospects of blended learning entail providing opportunities for flexible learning, enabling access to a wide range of educational resources and limiting alienation associated with purely online education delivery. For many institutions, however, implementation of blended learning is still a mirage with the majority still at the first stage of Graham et al.’s (2013) blended learning adoption and implementation framework owing to technical resource constraints related to unstable or non-existent network coverage characteristic in rural locations, curricular deficit stemming from the blended learning model not aligning to context, thus lowering morale for wider implementation. This is exacerbated by weak goodwill and limited policy guidelines on a specific blended learning model. The study concludes that creating conducive conditions for blended learning in rural based universities necessitates a context friendly implementation model where institutional evaluation data inform strategies, support and pedagogical approaches and related resources that can be used locally. The study recommends governmental support for resourcing rural universities to acquire affordable and usable resources to offset challenges hindering blended learning. Rural institutions should also strive to strengthen support to students and staff to build confidence in the potential of blended learning.

Towards an Institutional Blended Learning Adoption Model for Higher Education Institutions

There has been considerable interest in Blended learning (BL) and how it is transforming teaching and learning in higher education institutions. Research in this area is focused on course level issues in relation to how students and faculty members interact and adopt blended learning, with very limited focus on institutional adoption. There is the need for more institutional adoption research to guide how higher education institutions shape policies as they transition from the traditional face to face delivery model to fully blended universities. This study adopts a grounded theory methodology to investigate institutional BL adoption initiatives. A public university in Ghana, which is in its early/adoption implementation stage, is selected as a case study and analysed using the constant comparative analytical technique. The university management took a decision in 2013 to transition from face to face delivery to a fully adopted blended learning approach. The university subsequently adopted a BL policy which, among other things, directed faculty members to teach courses via a mix of face to face and online using a Moodle Learning Management System (LMS). Findings from this study present the identified factors that influence and impact the adoption of BL program in institutions. Findings from this study suggest that institutional decision to adopt or reject BL is influenced by the level of the institutional desire to adopt blended learning and the level of the institution’s intention to adopt blended. The outcome of the findings is developed into an institutional adoption model to guide managers of institutions intending to transition to BL delivery model.

Factors affecting the adoption of blended learning strategy

The aim of this study is to explore factors affecting the adoption of blended learning strategy. Data was collected using a questionnaire consisting of 42 items, distributed to a random sample of 174 faculty members of Saudi Electronic University and Qassim University. IBM SPSS was used to conduct data analysis. Supporting research hypothesis indicates that student, institutional and learning variables had significant influences on the adoption of blended learning strategy. Considering the findings, it was concluded that the adoption of a blended learning strategy depends not only on the technological aspect of the learning process but also on people, i.e., students who are engaged in the process and motivated teachers who possess the required knowledge and skills. The most important implication of this research is that policy and decision makers in business educational schools are requested to consider factors that had a significant effect on the adoption of blended learning. In doing that, the research contributes to the blended learning knowledge via highlighting the key variables that encourage or hinder the adoption of blended learning strategy.

An integrative framework to investigate the impact of blended learning adoption in higher education: a theoretical perspective

The importance of Blended Learning (BL) in institutions is momentarily increasing at all educational levels and particularly for higher education. However, relatively little research addresses students, lecturers, and administrators' readiness towards BL adoption. Although, such study would support higher education to strategically assess current state and future direction of BL. Therefore, this study develops an integrative framework based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) framework, Hexagonal E-Learning Assessment Model (HELAM), and Khan octagonal framework to investigate the impact of BL towards measuring students, lecturers and administrator's readiness and further explore on the intensity of implementation of BL impact in higher education. Survey data was collected from 87 samples from 3 Malaysia public universities. Findings from this study provide understanding of BL initiatives, and offers insights to universities on improving teaching and learning effectiveness. Besides, our findings will be valuable to improve the impact of BL implementation.

An integrative framework to investigate the impact of blended learning adoption in higher education: a theoretical perspective

An integrative framework to investigate the impact of blended learning adoption in higher education: a theoretical perspective

Institutional Adoption of Blended Learning: Analysis of an Initiative in Action

This instrumental case study explored some preliminary impacts of a 7-year blended learning initiative (BLI) at a medium sized Canadian university on student learning. Building on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, two research questions directed the investigation: (1) What are the preliminary impacts of a BLI on student learning? (2) What are the actual lived experiences of students, professors, and administrators in a university-wide BLI? Preliminary impacts reveal that student retention appears to be greater in blended courses as opposed to traditional ones, and no significant differences were observed for student grades in the campus-wide roster of courses. Both students and instructors shared that an intentional synergy of in-class instructional practices and online activities added value to a course and had a positive impact on student learning. The viewpoints of the three key stakeholders were very different concerning themes such as motivating factors and mechanisms for support; these themes need to be taken into account and weighted carefully.

The Implementation of Blended Learning in English for Arts Education Program: A Case Study

This study aims at exploring the blended learning implementation in English for Arts Education Program and reporting lessons learned from the practice. Some theories regarding blended learning adoption and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) were utilized as the theoretical framework. As this case study was conducted in the ESP course in the Arts Education study program of a private university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, a qualitative case study research design was employed, resulting in an in- depth description of the overall implementation. The data were collected through in-class and online observations, a semi-structured interview, and a focus group discussion (FGD) conducted in two classes employing blended learning, 20 representative students recruited by purposive sampling technique, and the lecturer of the course. The results were analyzed descriptively using content analysis. Based on the analysis, some stages undergone by the lecturer were drawn as they are in line with blended learning adoption stages and framework. Thus, some lessons learned reveal concerns on flexibility and accessibility to technologies and learning sources, a balanced portion of collaborative and independent learning, Information Technology (IT) knowledge, and material clarification and immediate feedback that play significant roles to students’ skill improvement and effectiveness of a blended learning course. This study offers new insights for lecturers, institutions, and students planning to adopt this approach for the findings present consideration of elements required in developing a blended learning course.

Blended Learning Adoption and Implementation in Higher Education: A Theoretical and Systematic Review

Technological innovations such as blended learning (BL) are rapidly changing teaching and learning in higher education, where BL integrates face to face teaching with web based learning. Thus, as polices related to BL increases, it is required to explore the theoretical foundation of BL studies and how BL were adopted and implemented in relation to students, lecturers and administration. However, only fewer studies have focused on exploring the constructs and factors related to BL adoption by considering the students, lecturers and administration concurrently. Likewise, prior research neglects to explore what practices are involved for BL implementation. Accordingly, this study systematically reviews, synthesizes, and provides meta-analysis of 94 BL research articles published from 2004 to 2020 to present the theoretical foundation of BL adoption and implementation in higher education. The main findings of this study present the constructs and factors that influence students, lecturers and administration towards adopting BL in higher education. Moreover, findings suggest that the BL practices to be implemented comprises of face-to-face, activities, information, resources, assessment, and feedback for students and technology, pedagogy, content, and knowledge for lecturers. Besides, the review reveals that the ad hoc, technology acceptance model, information system success model, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, and lastly diffusion of innovations theories are the mostly employed theories employed by prior studies to explore BL adoption. Findings from this study has implications for student, lecturers and administrators by providing insights into the theoretical foundation of BL adoption and implementation in higher education.

ІЗ ДОСВІДУ ВПРОВАДЖЕННЯ ЗМІШАНОГО НАВЧАННЯ ПРИ ВИВЧЕННІ АНГЛІЙСЬКОЇ МОВИ ЗА ПРОФЕСІЙНИМ СПРЯМУВАННЯМ

The article deals with the issue of blended learning adoption into teaching the second (master’s degree) level in the field of expertize 281 ‘Public Administration’ seekers English for Specific Purposes.The foreign professional language new methodology introduction aims to solve the problem of qualitative compensation of learning content by the retrainees: the Civil Protection and Fire Safety professionals, air- communicators and firefighting radiotelephone operators as the result of a high level of classes missing caused by occupational necessity.