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Top1. Introduction
Blended learning methods of learning are increasingly used in education. Blending traditional learning with e-learning promises to maximize the advantages of both forms of learning (Wu, Tennyson and Hsia, 2010). Research confirms the efficiency of blended learning in learner engagement, learning experiences, and opportunities for students (Wilson & Randall, 2012), improvement in knowledge and self-awareness (Beyth-Marom, Chajut, Roccas, & Sagiv, 2003), achievement in learning outcomes, and developing skills for life-long learning (Lau, Lam, & Zhou, 2010).
Definitions of blended learning have a common element which is the combining of traditional, face-to face, classroom teaching and e learning resulting in a multimodal approach to teaching and learning. For example, Driscoll (2002) defines blended learning as the intermixing of instructional forms to achieve an educational goal, whereas Garrison and Kanuka (2004) explain that blended learning means integrating classroom teaching with online experiences. Singh (2003) views blended learning as the combination of different delivery media for meaningful and motivating learning. Live chats, self-paced learning, instant messaging, social networking, blogs and forums, applications, wikis, journals and webinars are examples of tools instructors can use to incorporate online opportunities in their blended learning classes. The definition of blended learning adopted in this study is the combination of traditional face-to-face classroom teaching and online learning incorporating all the above mentioned methods and more with traditional methods.
The purpose of this study is twofold as it aims to compare: the attitudes towards blended learning of undergraduate students in the UAE before and after a full course exposure to blended learning; the before and after attitudes towards blended learning of, undergraduate students who attended a full blended learning course and the attitudes of those who attended a traditional course. The rationale underlying this research study is that understanding students’ attitude towards different learning aspects is very important in the assessment of the students’ readiness for blended learning, which is a prerequisite for successful implementation of blended learning (Tang and Chaw, 2013).
A number of studies may be found in literature on the attitudes towards a blended delivery of learning however this study is different in that it does not take a cross-sectional approach like the majority of studies (Tang and Chaw, 2013; Liu, Hu, Zhan and Yan, 2014; Emelyanova and Voronina, 2017; Akbarov, Gonen and Aydongan, 2018) that measure attitudes towards blended learning once, either at the start or end of a blended learning course. The contribution of this study is that it uses an experimental methodology measuring both pre-course and after course attitudes. A control group is also utilized that is exposed to traditional teaching and learning which allows for comparison and control of the effect of being exposed to a course in blended learning form.